• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Re: Of Great White sharks, Yellowtail Kingfish Massacre and a hopeless Spearo!!

Hello people. Miles is just a Superhero to me, I been following him for a While.

What i dont understand about the Shark spearo interaction is Why you people dont just use a Shark shield? The device doesnt work or what? Why the shark shield is not that popular yet? If it really works, it should be an indispensable part of the basic equipment, as te B.C. for the scuba diver dont you think?

Could anybody give an answer on this please, it will be very appreciated..
 
Re: Of Great White sharks, Yellowtail Kingfish Massacre and a hopeless Spearo!!

I might be able to answer the Shark shield question.
I have worn one for the past six months and so far have had no problems with it apart from getting the odd jolt when the leash hits you.
The one i use is a freedom 4 it straps onto your calf and has about a 6 foot stainless electRo/lead like a bull whip.
I wear it when spearing and as fare as i know it works.
On a couple dives my mates have had sharks come up to them on the bottom but never up to me.
We are going north soon where there are lots of Tax Men who are not afraid to give you a nudge to get your fish or just steel them of the spear shaft, so it will be a good test to see how good it is.

I think they work well at keeping sharks away but if a shark sees you as food and wants to seriously have a nibble then i wouldnt be trusting it.
They are also good to piss your mates of with nothing like giving them a good jolt on the head every now and then.

Crusty
 
Last edited:
Re: Of Great White sharks, Yellowtail Kingfish Massacre and a hopeless Spearo!!

Hiya

Thanks Seaman!! Unfortunately, i'm just your average South African spearo. Nothing special!!

Shark Shields. Well, i own one and have used it a couple of times. Apart from the odd jolt, and forgeting to switch the unit off when you get into the boat(WILL only happen ONCE, that i can assure you of!!!) you quickly get accustomed to diving with the SS. The short 4 hour battery life was more than ample for me. My buddies that use the SS has only good things to say about them. HOWEVER, the biggest downfall, FOR ME, was that the SS installed a sense of invulnerability. I would start doing stupid things, like diving in 3m viz. in KNOWN great white area's. As a good friend puts in, "we all did stupid things in out bulletproof days!!"

I stopped using my ss because it simply became a hassle and it would make me dive in conditions that weren't condusive to my well being!! That said, i have heard of a local diver being pushed by a VERY large GW, whilst he had his SS on.

SS themselves tell you that its not 100% safe. Any product that allows more spearo's into the sport, by making them overcome their fear of sharks is welcome. The sense of safety you get when you wear a SS is worth the price of the unit!!

We've simply adopted the policy that is the water is dirty, we don't dive, especially in known Great White area's. If the water is clean, then you stand a very good chance of seeing the shark and thus taking steps to protect yourself.

Bottom line is, you're MORE likely to hurt yourself in a car accident on the way to the dive site, than be hurt by ANY marine animal!! So stop worying about sharks, ENJOY your diving!!!

Regards
miles

ps. for the record, i'm probably more scared than you when it comes to large sharks!!!
 
Re: Of Great White sharks, Yellowtail Kingfish Massacre and a hopeless Spearo!!

Thank you mates both of you, i really appreciate your opinion and expertise. I hope some day we could hunt toghether somewhere, i will go to the deep blue feeling safe with you in the water, anywhere!!!

P.S. If you are serious on a bluewater trip to Bja, I mean El bajo and la Reina. You allready have a home, nice and warm (sea)food and a trip set. So just let me know ...
 
Re: Of Great White sharks, Yellowtail Kingfish Massacre and a hopeless Spearo!!

Its me again, and Crusty let us know about your next dive in the north, take care!!!
 
Miles in Moz!!!!!!!

Hiya

Just came back from a 6 day diving trip to Mozambique. Unfortunately my new digital camera didn't arrive in time, so no underwater pic's!!! :waterwork :waterwork

August is generally a bad time for Mozambique, in terms of pelagics, but my wife INSISTED on going. She hasn't been to Moz. yet and badly wanted to go........so who am i to argue?:D

Trip started with a 1800km drive, done in 18hours. From there, a further 400km's which took 8 hours, due to the sandy track that requires a 4x4. We stayed in tents about 20m away from the beach, in a camp in the Elephant reserve in Mozambique. Place is called Ponta Milibangalala. Really remote, with the closest shop being over 2 hours drive away.

Day1
Horrible viz!!!!! 18degrees water AND 3m viz!!!!! Did some inshore diving, 5-6m depth, but with very little fish action. The howling wind didn't improve the situation either. My wife managed to lose her one fin and i couldn't find it in the dirty water with a current running.

Day2
Wife started her Open Water 1 scuba course. She had middle ear problems before the trip and batte to equalize. Aborted the dive after too much ear ache. Things were starting to look grim........

Day3
8-15m viz and 21degrees water. Wife's ears are fine now and she does a 45minute dive up to 21m deep. She's ECSTATIC with the amount of fish life she saw!!! The reefs are filled with reef fish, making it an AWESOME place to scuba dive.

Day4
Even cleaner water, 21degrees water and 30m+ viz!!!! The group dived a 30m deep pinnacle, whilst my wife and i speared on the same pinnacle. It's about 20-30m deep, rising out of 60m of water!!! Only saw ONE small 'cuda and the wife saw a small hammerhead that was keen on out flasher. After the 30m dive, the group went to a shallower reef, were every-one dived, after the hour needed to outgas. Once again, stunning corals, loads of fish, a sea turtle and a HUGE potato bass of about 40kg's that followed the scuba divers around.

Day 5
Last diving day. 30m+viz again and 21 degrees water. Finally i start seeing some pelagics. A school of Kingfish(Yellowfin Trevally's) and some Pick-handle barracuda (sea-pike) came to say hello to my flasher. My wife did her two scuba dives and then worked the flasher for me. We had two turtles take an interest in the flasher, as well as a big Potato Bass of about 40-50kg's that swam with us for probably more than 20minutes before losing interest.

Highlights of the trip was lifting my head out of the water to see a flock of pink flamingoes flying overhead. Later a fish eagle was hunting in the same area as me!!! We found 3 scorpions hiding away in the fire-wood and happily released them in a safe place.

One of the best experiences was when i saw 8 Potato Bass (Grouper type fish) of between 10-60kg's on one dive. They would follow me around the reef, much like puppy dogs!!! Diving in that clear water with loads of reef fish and HUGE Potato bass and not shooting anything, yet having one of the best dives of my life, was AWESOME!!!

My wife has already started making plans for the next trip which will be in summer, when gamefish like Dorado (mahi-mahi), wahoo, 'cuda, jobfish, sailfish and marlin are plentiful.

Regards
miles

ps. Potato Bass is a protected specie in South Africa. In some locations they are even worse than sharks, when it comes to stealing your speared fish!! Fortunately for these bold fish, the spearfishing fraternatity requested to make them a protected specie.
 

Attachments

  • moz1.JPG
    moz1.JPG
    45.1 KB · Views: 201
  • moz2.JPG
    moz2.JPG
    34.8 KB · Views: 207
  • moz3.JPG
    moz3.JPG
    79.5 KB · Views: 242
  • moz4.JPG
    moz4.JPG
    88.8 KB · Views: 240
  • moz5.JPG
    moz5.JPG
    81.7 KB · Views: 237
  • Like
Reactions: Alison
Thanks for the nice report Miles. I miss home a lot and reading reports like yours is great. I have now taken the leap and bought a business back in Durban which I hope will pay for me to return home with my family after some years absence some time in the future. Shot bru!

P.S Is that a BMW 3 series in the pic with the wetsuits? How'd that get over the sand! rofl
 
Hiya

Great stuff!!!!!

Moz. is a couple of hours drive from Durb's!! And Cape Town is a short flight!!!

Not a 3 series BMW but a Ford 4.0ltr V6 Double Cab 4x4. The other vehicles were a Mazda 2.5ltr Turbo Diesel 4x4 double cab and a OLD Ford F250 Double-cab 4x4!!

Good luck on the new business venture!!

Regards
miles
 
Yep, I used to work for MTN on the network side and used to travel right up to Sodwana, Kosi etc.
I told my fellow Durbanite Mike Grobbelaar about your posts. He saw your pics and said he bumped into you in a campsite (I think he said in the Transkei) roughly about 8 years ago. They were surfing and he said you were clubbing the fishies then too! Nothing changed now then! rofl
 
miles said:
Hiya Murat

...I'm no rocket scientist, but in my opinion, a 7 or 8mm spear propelled by 2x16mm or even 2x18mm's just isn't good enough...

Point taken re. requirements for range shots. Newbie questions:

Has, anybody ever tried asymmetric band combinations? For example, a 1x20mm primary band plus, say, a 1x16mm secondary? Reason: The 1x20mm could potentially be used alone when speed loading is important.

Does anybody use 2x20mm? Do any euro-style rail guns take more than 2 bands?

By the way Miles -- what do you do with all that fish?! Does it go to fish shops/restaurants ... or do you eat tuna steaks for every meal?! ;)
 
Last edited:
Hiya

I've been pretty quite spearing wise over the past couple of weeks, due to TWO main reasons, firstly, tuna season has come to an end and secondly, most of my time was taken up by my new boat!!

After all the stress, i doubt whether i'll ever have a boat built again!!!! Easier and less stressfull to buy a second hand boat and customise it to your needs. My boat was supposed to be completed 3 months after i paid the deposit, but lo and behold, 6 months have past and its only NOW starting to resemble a boat :waterwork :waterwork :waterwork

Enough complaining from me!! Here are the spec's: 29' (8.8m) Butt-cat, with a small walk around cabin with 2x140hp Suzuki counter-rotating four strokes. Should do about 40knots top speed and plane with one motor with 8 crew. Not a very pretty boat, but immensely sea worthy. Its what most of our commercial fisherman on our east coast use.

Hopefully the boat will be on the water by next week, just in time for the start of the new tuna season!!:D:D:D

Regards
miles

some pictures of the work in progress...........
 

Attachments

  • butt cat motors.JPG
    butt cat motors.JPG
    79.9 KB · Views: 227
  • butt cat front 4.JPG
    butt cat front 4.JPG
    58 KB · Views: 191
  • butt cat front 3.JPG
    butt cat front 3.JPG
    47.6 KB · Views: 201
  • butt cat front 2.JPG
    butt cat front 2.JPG
    64.4 KB · Views: 200
  • butt cat front 1.JPG
    butt cat front 1.JPG
    67.9 KB · Views: 193
  • Like
Reactions: Alison
Check out the size of the fish box!!!!:D:D:D
 

Attachments

  • butt cat fish box.JPG
    butt cat fish box.JPG
    43 KB · Views: 219
  • butt cat radar arch.JPG
    butt cat radar arch.JPG
    87.8 KB · Views: 211
...looks pretty sweet to me! ..baie lekker! Strangely enough I saw a pure yellow one come past me here in the UK going towards Swanage. Similar hull and walk round cabin with the widely spaced big HP outboards. He was a single commercial fisherman too with matching yellow mac long johns and boots....I think the guy liked yellow!:wave Best wishes for her launch.

P.S What's her name going to be?
 
Man Miles, look at that battle wagon! That's a promising fish coffin alright. Ahh, the frustration of having a boat built...part of the fun right especially while its being built during the season.
What's the beam on her? How about displacement, just curious what she'll weigh all said and done with motors. A little heavy for trailering maybe?

Not knowing much about the boat, I think you made a great choice with the motors, I know three people who have them and have had nothing but good things to say about the Suzuki 4 strokes after years of running them hard. Scott Tugeon is one,I think he has the same motors. A friend who I dive with quite regularly on the other hand has Honda 4 stroke twin 225's on his 33' Donzi, and man are they finicky and have a mind of their own.

Serious boat, looks like a dry one for sure...

Mark
 
Hiya

Well, my new boat is FINALLY on the water!!! Drove her late Saturady afternoon from the harbour at the boat builders to my mooring which was 20nm away. Launched very late, about 18:00, with a horrible choppy sea and a GALE force wind (easy 30knts NW'er!!) She ran very well in that rough stuff, with us taking three waves over the nose of the boat. Got to the harbour in one peice. The trip which is usually 45min's long took us over 2 hours in that sea.

Took her out for a test run yesterday, Wednesday 28 September 2005. With conflicting reports on the tuna grounds, i deicided to go have a look for myself. Left the harbour at about 7:00, after fueling up and baiting up. Ran the 11nm to the point with-out any hassles. From there on, it was another 35nm into the sea. Fairly large swell, with a bit of chop, remanants of the prevouis days wind. The boat ran quite nicely in that swell.

Out on the tuna grounds, we battled to find the long line fishing boats. Only trawlers were in the area we were operating in. After quite some time, we managed to find the long line hake fishing vessels.

We started trolling behind the long line boats, looking to find the fish before we get in. Water was a dirty colour, maybe 10m viz at best:(:(

A bit about my tackle. I was trolling 8 rods. 7 of them were Tiagra 50W's with 130lb line on whilst i had ONE rod with a Shimano TLD25 with 30lb line on it. Murphys Law, we get a strike on the 30lb tackle rod and reel!!! This light tackle is fine for fish up to 100lb's (50kg's) but anything larger, and you're in for a looooooong fight. I gave the rod to my buddy, who started fighting the fish. He is fairly in-experienced when it comes to tuna fishing and after an hour, he finally begs me to take the rod. With almost no line left and a VERY strong fish, i start fighting. With-in 20minutes i've got the fish close enough for us to see it.........or maybe IT wanted to see us............BIG FISH!!!!! That was the last time i say him for the next hour and a half that followed!!!!

After a total of close onto 3 hours, my buddy FINALLY put the gaff into the fish!!!! Lesson learnt: LEAVE THE LIGHT TACKLE AT HOME!!!!

Sadly, that was the only fish for the day. We saw two other fish, but they were reluctant to take bait.

What a great way to have my new boats MAIDEN voyage.

Regards
miles

ps. oh, i almost forgot, the fish weighed in at 84kg's!!!:D:D Surely a sign of good things to come!!!:D:D:D:D
 
  • Like
Reactions: crusty
Hiya

Trip report time again!!!

Saturday 01st October 2005. My boat was supposed to go back to the dealer for some work, but he suggested that we put some more hours on the motors so that he could do the 20hr service at the same time. Like i needed any more encouragement to go diving!!!

Left home at 2:30am. Fueled the boat, got the tackle and dive kit ready. Tommy was supposed to meet us at 5:00am. Unfortunately he had car trouble and we only left at 7:00. The weather reports looked good and the commercial fisherman did quite well the day before, so off we went.

Problem 1 : its was a fishing league competition, so there were at least 35 other recreational boats plus another 10 or so commercial boats all vying for position behind a long line hake vessel. Since the wind had started to blow a bit, it made diving very difficult. I battled to keep the boat close to Tommy and with all the other boats around, with that choppy sea, makes for very dangerous diving.

Bad viz. and cold water put paid to any further diving. We then heard on the radio that a 25knt NW'er (THE WORSE WIND!!!!) was blowing about 6-8miles from our possition. With very few fish caught, we decided that discretion was the better part of valour. So we ran for home. Most boats took a huge hiding in that sea, with us taking a few waves over the nose of our boat.

Finally tally, two hookups, no fish. :waterwork :waterwork

Oh well, at least i put some hours on my motors!!

Regards
miles
 

Attachments

  • baot passing us 1.jpg
    baot passing us 1.jpg
    25.6 KB · Views: 214
  • boat dive platform.JPG
    boat dive platform.JPG
    61.2 KB · Views: 225
  • boat front view.JPG
    boat front view.JPG
    72.5 KB · Views: 224
  • boat inside.JPG
    boat inside.JPG
    61.8 KB · Views: 232
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT