Spearfishing in South Africa

[dj-bridges]

Going to be in SA this christmas for a month, and will be moving around between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Never having dived SA, it would be great to hook up with some locals and get shown the ropes. I have been spearfishing for a good few years now and am happy hunting down to 35m ish (in a 3mm suit). Failing that, if anyone has any advice on the best equipment to bring - particularly what size guns to take (have RA railguns - 75, 95 and 150) that would be great.

I know this is well in advice, but it has long been a dream of mine to spearfish in SA and want to be as well prepared as possible (Scotland really doesn't cut it for spearfishing).

Thanks in advance
Dan
Scotland

[samak]

hi dan i am from wellington, south africa . i have a collegue who is working with me here in saudi arabia ,who is a member of one of the 2 best clubs in capetown .i will ask him the relevant info and get back to you .the water is pretty cold so you will need a 7mm suit .what type of spearfishing did you have in mind ( shore or boat ?)
cheers greg

[Amphibious]

Shoot Miles or SASpearo a pm, sure those lads can help you out.

[bluecape]

Hi Dan

Between Capetown and Port Elizabeth is all awesome grounds for hunting. There are so many spots, and so much variety, both for reef and gamefish, you are welcome to mail me and I can give you more specific details, or PM Miles, as Amphibious suggested.
My PVT mail is crosswindvideo@webmail.co.za. I live in Capetown, and do a lot of my hunting towards Port Elizabeth on the Garden route, mainly reef dives for Musclecracker, Garrick etc, so if you are looking for some shore entry dives in beautiful locations to stalk big Cracker, I would be happy to show you a few spots. If you are looking for some serious Sh*$ and Big fish in Blue water, Miles is your man !!

Jeff.

[Amphibious]

oh yeah... and Bluecape


(hard to keep track of you SA boys :P )

[island_sands]

Originally Posted by Amphibious

(hard to keep track of you SA boys :P )

???

[Amphibious]

hard to forget you Miss Sara, but you're not in SA are you

[miles]

hiya

But i bet she's here in spirit!!!

Don't know how i missed this post!! Must be getting old.....

dj-bridges, when-evr you're ready, just drop me an email and we'll make a plan to get you into some fish!! Just bring along a 5mm wetsuit and a 110 and your 150cm guns. If you don't have a 110, i've got a couple extra which you could use. Bottom line: JUST GET HERE!!!!!!

Regards
miles

[dj-bridges]

Thanks for all the replies guys - good to make contact with you. I can prob only bring one wetsuit with me (will be buying a new one - any camo patterns that are particularly good?) so wonder what would be the best - 5mm, 3mm or mixture of the above e.g. 5mm top, 3mm bottoms. On the same kind of thread - how deep do you need to dive to get good fish - in Greece all the best fish were between 25m and 40m, but obviously the thinner the suit the deeper I can go (anything much past 25m here with a 5mm gets a bit too negative). I was also wondering what kind of terminal gear I need e.g. floats etc or maybe I will just get that once I get to SA - then I can get the gear that works best for the local conditions.

Miles - Will definitely take you up on the offer of the 110 as my closest gun ia a 95- thanks for that. Is it likely that we will be able to get some blue water hunting done in December/January?

Bluecape - what guns are best for shore-based fishing? I will bring my 150 , but is the 95 too small? Musselcracker sound awesome.

Sorry for all the questions guys, hope I am not bugging you, but I am getting excited just thinkin about SA!!

Laters
Dan

[miles]

Hiya

5mm top and bottom will be fine for all round use. 3mm is a bit too thin, but is workable if you can tolerate cold water!! Water temp. varies between 14-18 degrees mostly, with 18-22 degrees in the tuna grounds. I dive with a "old" omer 5mm mimetic in the warmer 20degree+ water, whilst my normal 5mm Rabitech Predator wetsuit in 9-18 degrees water.

Water depth, well, we're extremely lazy divers here!!!! Yellowtail is our main pelagic specie in the Cape and you seldom hunt deeper than 10-15m for them. How-ever its a very different TYPE of diving, running up to schools of fish smashing bait on the surface, making very quick repetative dives, very little time for proper breath-ups, PLENTY of BIG 'tail (4-10kg's generally!!)....all is a very short space of time, makes for VERY exciting diving.

On the reefs, we seldom work deeper than 20meters. Depending on the area, you mostly hunt in 10-15m of water. For musslecracker, you're working in VERY shallow area's, where the white water is. That's where the waves break over reefs and pinnacles. Often less than 2m deep, requiring the dangerous method of overweighting yourself so that you can stay down. That type of hunting gets the adrenaline pumping as you're normally diving in big surf, with big fish that you WILL see, but not neccaserily shoot!!! Most 'cracker hunters have seen 'cracker in the 18kg+ class, but few have taken them!! Losing fins and masks as big waves wipe you out happens more often than you'd think

Other reef fish are much easier, with fish like red stumpnose, red roman, belman, galgoen, etc being in the 1-5kg class are much easier shooting on the 10-15m reefs.

Gun wise, a 150 is very long for our area. We seldom have the viz. to utlise the range of a 150. Our general all round gun is a 110-120cm gun. This being a good length for accuracy vs. range vs. manouverablity. Almost all of my inshore hunting is done with my 115cm Rabitech Apex. Your 95cm gun will work well if you're hunting in caves and crevices or hunting the kelp beds. It MIGHT work if there is plenty of yellowtail around. I have taken 'tail on my 90cm gun, but thats on rare days when there are plenty of fish and they're not spooky. Like i said before, don't worry too much about it, i'll loan you a 115-120cm gun for your stay here. Other gear, simply 11ltr RA type float or even smaller plus a 20m and a 40m float line is all you need. The shorter floatline works well for yellowtail where the long floatline tends to tangle too much with the other spearo's lines or the boats props.

For tuna how-ever, a complete different set-up is needed. Once again, just get here and you can use my gear. If you want to, your 150 will work for tuna, but a mid-handle simple tracks sooooo much easier. Besides, its a pain to travel with a 150cm gun plus spears!!!

Hope that answers some of your questions!!

Regards
miles