inviting all cape town and other african spearos

[akrikel]

hi all, i notice this subforum has not been in use. i would like to invite all relevant spearo's to participate! particularly the bra'se from cape town. lets keep in contact re wots happening in water hunting-wise. for me, winter's not been too productive in and around cape town, but got a few good 1's in when the wind allowed. i took a trip to quinn point about 2 weeks ago, but the water was too dirty.. nice and warm though, so should be good for steenbras and galjoen when the wind slows down enough.

[miles]

Hiya Akrikel

I've been quite busy with my new boat, so my spearing has suffered for the past couple of weeks. From my friends, i hear that the diving has been quite good on the West Coast. Quite a few 'tail at Robben Island in 17degrees water. Mostly around the Whale Rock area.

Further down, at Dassen Island, there were quite a few days were the full quota of 10 'tail per man was taken. 16-17 degrees water with 15-20m+ viz!!!! PLENTY of snoek too!!! But you know the usual story with Dassen, plenty fish here today and NOTHING tommorow!!

All rather small fish, sort of 3-5kg class with the odd 8kg fish being taken.

Falsebay's been quite. Or should i rather say, most of the guys i know simply don't spear there anymore. Not worth risking yourself for a couple of small 'tail.

Struisbaai has also been very quite. Pretty normal for this time of the year. Should start producing in the next month or two.

On the Tuna front, its still a bit early, as the season "officially" starts in October. How-ever, some Yellowfins have been taken. I know of one commercial boat landing two 50-60kg class fish, whilst a heard via the grapevine that a 92kg fish was also landed. (can't confirm it though..)

That pretty much sums it up. Nothing spectacular, but give it another week or two and things should really liven up!!!

Regards
miles

[bluecape]

I am heading off to Knysna / Plett / Wilderness for 5 days on Sunday, hopefully will get in a few good days.
Will let you guys know whats happening, if you need info on the water conditions, give me a call on 082 798 1100.

Cheers,

Jeff

[akrikel]

eita,
sorry 4 da lack of posts. way too busy with Uni stuff here in Oz. I will only get back to SA in late November, so hope I dont miss out too much on the change of season diving.. i'm glad you guys have shown interest in firing up this post. as said be4 i did a few dives at dassen before i left but not a tail in site! even the terns where content just to float on the surface. October/November is usually a good time to hit the Bellows as the tail are all dik on sardines and quite approachable. also, the commercials dont have much luck, so they dont get in our way! bluecape, let us know if u get/see any cracker action. is there not supposed to b some cracker open comp happening soon? apparently the geelbek are starting to come on the bite in the gansbaai area, so hopefully, we'll get them at diaz beach in a month or so. miles, wot u up to on your boat? is it a 40nm limit for tunny grounds? how is your trailer coming on? if u need some advice lemme no. i got a few good tips on trailer runner, etc. Happy hunting....

[miles]

Hiya

Well, tuna season has started. The fish are around, but not yet in great numbers. Water is still a bit cold at 16degrees in the deep.

Loads of yellowtail at the point for the past week. Even saw a school of what looks like slender tunny about a mile outside Bellows. Sort of same area i shot a 20kg YF a while back.

Regards
miles

[akrikel]

nice... pity i'm still stuck in singapore! has the wind subsided? i'll probably be back in town by mid-november; should be lekke warm by then!

[Marwan]

hi guys, what's the weather like in SA. i guess it would be close to egypt being on a mirror opposite side of the equator, but probably the seasons are reversed, is your summer from december to April or june to october? how is the security situation in cape town? is it overrated and blown up by the media as usual I hear its a beautiful city and definitely somwhere i would love to visit, no hints intended guys, honest

[akrikel]

hey marwan, no need to hint, you're invited anyway! actually, the weather is nutin like egypt. we have summer in dec-feb, autum, winter in jun-aug and spring. the weather is hot and dry in summer and cold and wet in winter. temp range from 10-35 deg. the weather is dominated by the sea with us getting our weather systems from the antarctic. ie changing all da time! not so many good diving days, but all the better when we can get in!! our sea in cape town is basically temperate and influenced by the cold benguella and warm agulhas currents. most of the fish are endemic to our coast. the security situation in cape town IS blown out of proportion by the world media, but it is also worse that other places too. basically, if anyone intends visiting, they would not have a problem. millions of tourist visit cape town every year, and now the buggers dont want to leave... ie property prices skyrocket! lol. all in all, its a real nice place... i've traveled quite a bit and cant bring my self to leave....

[Marwan]

hey akrikel,
thanks man, i might take you up on that once, sound like a large weather variety, i guess its expected at the cape, being a contact point for 2 oceans and i guess the currents are from everwhere, which supports why you have many fish
i was sure the media blows verything out of proportions

[akrikel]

yes, also lots of wind and mountain makes more upwelling..so, in 1 day you can have clear cold flat diving or warm low viz diving within 2 or 3 km's of each other. also choice of kelp, rocky reef or open water! enough table fish but not many trophy fish unless you heading into the tuna grounds..but you'll have to chat to miles about that! just outside of cape town is very happy hunting grounds with lotsa BIG fish about. also, cool water makes for great eating fish!

[Jacques]

Hey Alikrik

I see you dive Quin Pt. That is where I started diving when I was 11 for perlemoen(abelone). Be carefull of the big channels running through the kelp. Great Whites swim along them looking for seals. I also shot my first white steenbras there when I was about 16- but it was small.

Quin Pt is also good for Red Stumpnose. We got these fish a couple of years ago about 200m in front of the seal rock. A bit brave and stupid as we had come across a half eaten seal carcass near there. But the water was warm, 7-10m viz and I saw several stump of 6kg. Tony got the biggest one of over 5kg. My one was 4.1kg. Sorry for the grainy picture. My underwater camera is not very good above water when the light is poor.

Dive safe
Jacques

[Jacques]

Here is a close up of the biggest Red Stump and Red Roman.

[akrikel]

hey jacques, nice stump! seal rock is a good place as u well know. the biskop cracker also run in front of the island in the channels when the spring tide is up. this is also the area where i shot my first cracker at age 14 years, at buffelsjag point. also a good area, but a bit choppy. those kelp channels at quinn are quite freaky, but the steenbras and kob like it too! its just a pity all the perlie are being slaughtered there....

[squinty]

Guy's - reassure me here. As a total newcomer to SA what is the likelihood of getting 'munched' spearing from the shore ?

Sharks make me fill my pants and i'm not ashamed to say so !
Squint

[miles]

Hiya Squinty!!!

Welcome to Cape Town!!!!

Don't worry, sharks scare me too!!! Any spearo who says he's not afraid of sharks is a LIAR or extremely stupid!!!

False Bay is infested with GWS and diving in certain area's, you run a great risk of meeting one of them. The GWS of Struisbaai are far more placid, as opposed to False Bays GWS that simply want to chomp you!!

Shore diving in False Bay isn't generally advisable. The fish are small (less than 2kg's), unless you're hunting yellowtail at the Point, in which case you're looking at fish in the 4-10kg class (if you're lucky!!), but that entails you swimming at times more than a kilometer from shore!! Definitely NOT recommended.

Diving on the West Coast is FAR safer. Colder water too!!! Unfortunatly, once again, only small fish (under 2kg's).

For any decent spearfishing in the Cape Town area, a boat is a MUST. Before i speared off boats, we used to make weekly trips to places like Arniston, Quion Point (stay IN THE KELP!!!), Betty's BAy/Kleinmond area, etc. Here shore diving is easier, with bigger fish available and less a chance of bumping into a large GWS.

Bottom line is: sharks are everywhere, except maybe in bath-tubs!! ALWAYS dive with a buddy. Never dive in dirty water. Never dive close to seal islands/colonies. Never use a body stringer. Maybe think of getting a shark shield. (selling mine at the moment!!)

Hope that helps!!

Regards
miles