Spearfish Cape Town, South Africa
Weekend again!!!! Decided to go to Dassen Island again. Had no weather reports as all they guys that went spearing on wednesday (public holiday), didn't do too well. 5:30 in the morning and the rain is pouring down!!!!! Ah well, not like we're afraid of getting wet
Got to my buddies house at about 6 and just as i stopped, the boats trailer wheel fell out..........bearing had colapsed........arghhhhhhhh..........i just replaced it a month ago. Bugger, out comes the tools and spare bearings. A hour later we're back on the road.
We get to the harbour and is greeted by a flat sea and clean water. The rain has stopped and the sun is beginning to shine. Looks like its going to be a good day. Launched and started to run to the island. 5mnutes later we're in dirty, muddy brown/red water...........arggggghhhhhhhh...........0m viz!!!!! Water temp 13.5degrees. Saw a small school of dolphins, but they were very skittish and didn't want to play
Ran past the island looking for clean water. Came across hordes of birds and penguins working on baitfish. Got my GF to throw out a spinning rod whilst we kitted up. the spinner just hit the water when the yellowtail hit the lure!!!! Now that she had the fish hooked, all she does is hold the fish, which in turn holds the school there. With all the scrambling on board i simply jumped in, no weightbelt, no wetsuit top, no gloves..........only wetsuit bottom, socks fins and mask and snorkel. As i hit the water a 6kg fish appears out of the murk. Let my 115cm Rabitech do its job!!!!! Great start to the day. Got back in the boat and kitted properly up. Alas, that was the only yellowtail action we saw!!!! Schools were very skittish in the dirty water.
Ended up catching some snoek for the pan. These pelagic fish, which is family of the barracuda, is only found in SA, well Cape Town area. They average 2-7kg's. Very, very tasty. Nobody spears them, as they have a nasty habit of simply attacking you!! Considering that their teeth is coated with a anti-coagulant substance, if you do get bitten, you bleed profusely
A tip here is to cut the eyeball of the fish open and apply the fluid the seeps from the eye to the wound. Lessens the bleeding fairly quickly. Some of the bigger fish had roe in them..........a great delicacy!!!! Caught about 20 fish on spinning rods and handline, then proceeded to shoot some "hottie" (type of bream that lives in the kelp) for the smoker. Shot a couple in the shallows where we found 2-3m viz. Best was a 1.8kg fish. Swam into a small cow shark in the dirty water and almost mistook it for a yellowtail. (harmless shark, with a impressive set on dentures though!!!)
All in all, a great day, with some lovely fresh barbequed fish and fried fish roe as well as smoked fish (well actually, last weeks smoked fish!!!) for supper
Can't wait for next week-end!!!!!
Regards
miles