Cape Town South Africa

[romek]

The 5mile bank and around it definitely still has a good few stumps. Will hopefully be able confirm this Sunday coming!

RE: Tuna rig - if you have/can spare the cash the Tommy Botha rig is the bomb! Also reasonably priced. I shudder to think was size fish would be required to take down the boggie!

 

[chris the vis]

Shot for the advice Miles
I was actually thinking of getting a 1.3m gun as it is still versatile and can be used to shoot other species like you mentioned.
About this boogie board thing, maybe its time to make some type of ultimate float out of my old surf + boogie boards so that not even a small orca would be able to sink it..hahaha

 

[miles]

Hiya

Struisbaai still does have quite a bit of red stumps. Simply a matter of finding them!! The usual spots, like the Pioneer, Wafra and Septer have pretty much been wiped out. You might get lucky and get the odd stump on these wrecks, but on the whole, they're more of a yellowtail spot.

For Red Stumps, rather go towards the river mouth side of Struisbaai, or if the water is clean enough, the area in front and slightly pass Aghulas lighthouse. The "mond" area at struis varies from 4-20m deep and holds stumps well over 6kg's. Simply dive a couple of spots until you find a hot spot. I've been to a SECRET reef, very, very, very close to the harbour that holds a HUGE school of red stumps. Possibly over 100 fish in that one school!!!

Regards
miles

 

[romek]

Didn’t find any secret spots this weekend launched at Arniston Sunday morning 7am with gr8 weather and headed towards Saxon reef after an easy launch. Saxon offered a flat sea with 6m vis - this dropped down to 3 on the south of the reef start.

We moved deeper and with better vis got the usual suspects, save for yellow tail. We bagged a nice +/-5kg yellow belly& a +/-4kg bank steenbras. There were 2 shoal encounters with Bonito and loads of raggies (at one stage we counted 8 in a gully about 12m deep in a 6m x 2 m area – got some decent video of this links to which I will try post sometime.

We returned after a good hunt and gr8 day only to get our boat mashed for ten minutes against the trailer at the slip in waves that looked like couldn’t move a jellyfish – in medium swell conditions I would hate to see what could happen.

The red tide was still in force in Gbay area Sunday evening – it looks like it extends to allot of the bay from the east side. I think that Struisbaai may have produced the yellow tail we missed at Arniston this Sunday would like to know how anyone did that side. If anyone could give me coordinates to the Arniston, Dundrenan and any spot in Arniston I would greatly appreciate it the ones I got are out one by +/- 384km (We drove around for a while heading south saying how the distance was not changing b4 we realized the distance was in km not m . And so we learn.

 

[deep thinker]

Unfortunately our comp for the weekend got called off, so unsure if we should make the long drive to struis we opted to go to Dassen and see if we could with luck find any tail. We found one school of about 40 fish but they disappeared as quickly as they came out, so we went for a few hotties each. Vis was about 4m on the bottom with not much more than 2 on top in most places. All in all a fun day at sea with a good catch of hotties. We also encountered a pod of about 10 dolphins and a sunfish so relaxed not even the boat could scare it into deeper water.
Just a interesting fact, thats why most boats in Arniston has wheels that connects to the back of the boat, they just run out of the water straight onto the ground

 

[bluecape]

Hi Romek and gang

If you guys ever run into raggies in the Struiss area, please keep an eye open for sattelite tags on any of them, will be easy to spot. There are a few tagged raggies out there, former aquarium sharks, who may swim over to you if they see you, as they used to be fed by divers...so, please no powerheads!

 

[romek]

Hey bluecape, will keep an eye out for the tags + let other gents I dive with know, never used a powerhead before + do not have the heart to unless threatened.

Not sure if will get close enough to read the tag numbers maybe get a picture though.

 

[hunlee]

hey all capeys!
have started a thread about the upcoming competition and
some courses here in CT, check it out ok- under general freediving.
would love to meet you all and dive the comp together!

hanli

 

[covert]

anybody going diving on sunday?

 

[M@trox]

Hey South-African-Guys !

Is sb here from PortElisabeth ?
Probably i could stay there for 4month to study at the NMMU but I can dedinitely not live next to the sea (at home i have about 800km to salt-water)and not diving !
So, whats up, where do you live and how are the conditions to freedive/spearfish there ?

Best regards,
Joe

 

[covert]

hey bluecape,, have you completed that course?

 

[romek]

Went out for crayfish 2day hangklip side(marsbaai) - it looked good 4 spearing with clear water 2wards the point on the right.

Going there 2morrow 2 give it a bash. Galjoen season is open and my fathers loves them.

If the swell is not too big it will be good.

Stand, GB and most of the bay that I could see from from these area's right up to Pringle is red tide ridden, the launch site at Mars was riddled with blood worms, prawns and small fish washed up dead and dying.

I didnt quite understand all of Joe's post. Not too familar with spots PE side but a good resource for spots from Cape Town righ up used to exist on A South African Spearfishing website for local and overseas divers..

As you head north from Cape Town on the east side it gets warmer and from the shore (in my opinon) better for spearing. There must be some great spots around PE for both spearfishing and freediving-a study location not to be sniffed at I say.

 

[M@trox]

so i see you do NOT come from PE or dive there, and also don`t know sb coming from there ?

 

[chris the vis]

Ahoy Joe
I'm from PE and a student at the nmmu, but hopefully I'll finish soon.
Anyway, diving here can be variable, but I must say the last week I've had some of the best diving I've ever had with warm water, 10m+ viz, lotsa fish, one or two seaturtles and dolphins. So if you do come here your divekit is a must have as you never know what surprises await. Damn I even saw my first whaleshark and manta rays here last year after always dreaming of going to some exotic location to swim with these beautiful beasts.
Oh and yes eat your heart out romek already bagged a fat galjoen for the new season, but saw an even bigger monster of a gallie which I could have shot, but didn't cause I thought the bag limit was only one...Curses!!Oh well next time I see it it'll be even bigger, also bagged a kingfish of sorts still trying to get the right ID
cheers and happy diving!

 

[romek]

Will do chris seems like it wont with speared fish for a while though as false bay is still pretty messed with the red tide with a meter vis max in most places, some patches seem clearer but these are few and far between.

The weathers looking for the weekend so hopefully it will clear by then.

Did you get the ID for the kingfish you shot?

I ventured out to Hangklip this weekend where I got some reports of nice sized cracker shot two days previously.

I still don't know what sb is ?

 

[hunlee]

sb- somebody, maybe?

 

[chris the vis]

Hi Romek
the closest I've come is a yellow tailed kingfish? Haven’t searched properly yet and gave the fish to some hungry friends without counting the fin rays for ID-stupid me!
I guess Hanlee's right sb= somebody?

 

[deep thinker]

Anybody care to hook up for a shorie this Saturday? Was thinking of possibly hitting the Smutswinkel area or even Stormsrivier mouth to hangklip region in search for the elusive in season gallie. Depending on weather (wind) and red tide (viz) conditions of coarse Maybe we can even grab a few crays seein that the season will be ending soon.

 

[covert]

Anybody care to hook up for a shorie this Saturday? Was thinking of possibly hitting the Smutswinkel area or even Stormsrivier mouth to hangklip region in search for the elusive in season gallie. Depending on weather (wind) and red tide (viz) conditions of coarse Maybe we can even grab a few crays seein that the season will be ending soon.

yip yip ill see if i can get a weekend pass, keep me updated.

 

[deep thinker]

Will do mate