Fishing Durban Reports

Fishing durban reports is now up and running it is updated on a daily basis. find out about fishing durban reports by ckicking this link www.fishingdurban.blogspot.com

New Fishing Site

Hi guys Thought i should let you all know i have started a new fishing site called www.fishingcorner.co.za which should be up and running in the next two months, it is going to be an interactive site where people can post stories and chat on forums and obviously post there pictures on the site. We are wanting to open a scientific section where people likeOrie can post your findings and insight about sustainable fishing practices. I think this will be a first and will hopefully influence and change fishing practices in South Africa. The other thing we will be incorporating in the site is fishing reports from all areas in South Africa. Go and register post some comments on our forum which is now up and running, if you have any pictures that you think would be good for our galleries you can e-mail them to me or post thim up yourself i will right an article on how to do this in the next few days

Have Fun

Shaun Reid

Sodwana Cuta Madness

I was invited to go on a trip with a good mate of mine Grant on a Sodwana trip about 4 months ago to which I agreed. It was my first trip to Sodwana believe it or not as I have always opted to dive more remote areas for my trips. As usual on any trip we started with a couple setbacks, having a dive buddy cancel on the day we were leaving (no names mentioned) was a pretty big setback. Anyways managed to get grants brother-in-law to join who is a fisherman (This worked out very well never having to top man!).

Day 1 (Friday)

We launched early in the morning loosing grants transducer for his fish finder what a bummer as this meant that we were limited to grant’s accurate GPS points and the less accurate ones we had to leave. We started at 7Mile Reef shooting small kingies for chum, grant picked up a __ in the process, I was continuing with my poor form and missing plenty shots on fish missing a Cuta Kaakaap and some Rosie’s. (Didn’t have time to get in the pool) I eventually started getting my aim in and managed a small Rosie. We moved on from 7 Mile and moved on to 9 Mile. This was unbelievable with plenty of fish and not forgetting the ever-present Potato Bass and Zambies. The water had 20m Vis and we could see the Cuta swimming on the bottom, the problem with the good Vis was that we battled to get in range to shoot them. I dived down on the first Cuta of 10 in the shoal and by the time I got to there level they had all already passed with them being to far off to offer a shot. This same scenario played itself out on a number of occasions. Finally I managed to put a spear in a Cuta only 7kg’s but I literally counted to 5 and a big Zambie was chasing my fish I shouted for grant and he started swimming over. When I put my head back in the water I saw a terrifying turn of events. The Cuta turned and swam strait at me with the Zambie following strait behind, in my mind I was saying turn turn TURNNN!!!! I moved ever so slightly to see the Cuta just miss and the Zambie missed me by about 20mm splashing the surface Shew! I still managed to land the Cuta some how, cant remember that well it was a bit of a blur after that incident. Things went dead after that and we headed back stopping at Hot Spot to no avail. Martin the fisherman landed a Cuta of 19kg’s.

Day 2 (Saturday)

You can imagine how expectant we were to get in the water after day one’s action we chose to head strait to 9 Mile when we got there the current was running out to sea which was not a good thing we battled on our first drift to stay just off the reef we were just thinking about trying somewhere else when the current changed to N – S the first shoal of Cuta came through and played the same games as day one. We went back to the beginning of our drift only to see that things had come alive. As I jumped in the water I directly underneath me was a shoal of big Pick Handles to my left a shoal of 50+ 5 to 6Kg big eye kingies 4 big Potatoes and 2 Zambies! It was an amazing site both grant and I opted not to shoot a fish as we could both see the chaos that would follow. I think a wise decision, we moved away from the pinnacle back onto the sand drift. I swam to the bottom and noticed a Kaakaap staring me down so I decided to show him who is boss I shot and spined him, at that point a shoal of ten +10Kg Cuta came past me I just stared all of them literally kissing me they were so close as the Cuta moved off I noticed that a Potato had griped my fish, to late it was gone with my spear fortunately I managed to retrieve my spear. I dived down again and a Cuta ended up in my hands, Grant followed with one shortly with no problems. We both hopped on the boat and started another drift as I hit the water I breathed u and dived down I lifted my head and saw that I was chasing a Cuta without even knowing it anyways sot him but in 20 sec a brindle had griped my fish lost it strait away. The next 10 min was one of those moments you remember forever. Grant went down and shot a Cuta as Grant was loading his fish Martin was into a Cuta on his rod I then noticed a good sized Cuta staring at our flashers I dived down and is I swam at it he started swimming away I then swam away and the Cuta turned and swam strait past me, point blank, I still managed a poor shot next thing I knew I was riding my buoy I shouted for grant who placed a perfect second for me he left 2 Cuta in the process (what a mate). I didn’t quite know how big the fish was until I tailed it, couldn’t get my hand round the tail! During this commotion Grant jumped on the boat to gaff Martins Cuta whilst I was left in the water with a very alive Cuta and no knife. I watched grant gaff the Cuta it had other ideas though pulling the gaff out grants hand and snapping the line I then handed my Cuta to martin who through it back at me and told me to kill it. I did so and noticed the gaffed Cuta swimming slowly off when I told martin he grabbed my Cuta with big eyes and threw me a real gun and told me to get his fish. I swam down to the injured Cuta and shot – I missed! About one min later I saw it again and placed a solid shot saving the gaff in the process. Both grant and I managed to bag another Cuta for the day.

Day 3 (Sunday)

Was full of fish again as we hit the water there was a huge Cuta was underneath us both Grant and I had our guns full of line so watched as it swam away. Things were fast and furious both grant and I got a Cuta on our first drift. We decided that we were going to leave the Cuta alone and try bag some other species so we jumped in the boat an went to Black Rock things were very slow. We did a couple drifts with no action at the end I managed to bag a nice Snoek. We decided to call it a day and go home and on the way do one more drift on 9mile. When I got in the water I dived down I had wanted a big Pick Handle for a long time as I had never landed one, not for lack of not shooting them. On my return up I saw 2 Cuta to my left, 5 Big Pick handles strait in front of me and the shoal of Kingies to my Right I went strait for the Pick Handle. I chose the biggest one which was a Bus, biggest I have ever seen and planted it with a good shot. It flew off at an incredible speed. I then saw the unfortunate a huge Potato Zapped the fish and took it into a cave (I have no idea how!) I struggled with it for a while but eventually lost the fish. I managed to land a Kaakaap before we called it a day.

I cannot describe how many fish we saw it was like swimming in UShaka Marine World’s tank. Lots of fish were missed due to bad shooting and Potatoes. It was honestly the best three days spearing I have ever had

Till next Time

Shaun Reid

Cape Vidal Extravaganza

Plagued with misfortune and bad luck could have been a motto for our trip. It all started late Wednesday night, we were due to leave at 3am on Thursday to get a quick dive in before the NE started blowing hard. Then the dreaded message came through from Wayne Please call urgent! I just knew something had happened. Wayne had clipped a rock under his car and it had stopped working, this meant that we had to wait for Wayne to see the mechanic in the morning before we could leave.

Day 1

It turned out that the vehicle has a safety mechanism, when the vehicle is jolted a safety switch turns off the fuel line. Anyways Wayne arrived in Durban at about 12pm to pick Grant and I up. We finally arrived at Vidal at about 3pm to find that the 2 ski fishermen who were part of our party had gone out and one of them caught a Snoek. We had previously decided that we were going to have fishermen vs. spearo comp just for fun. This meant that they were in the lead but we had hi expectations. The NE was pumping as predicted so we ended up setting up camp and spending the rest of the afternoon doing some light tackle fishing to no avail. The wind stopped at about 10pm and the butterflies started.

Day 2 (Doff Day)

Wayne Grant and I woke up at 3am and got the Boat sorted and headed for the beach, we were the first ones there!
Launch one: We launched said our traditional “see you on the point” and headed for Leven, the conditions were perfect, smooth water and serious smiles on our faces. We had just past Oscars and disaster struck. The engine sounded like it was cavetating in a big way; we thought for a moment that we lost the prop. We tried our best to try and fix the engine out there but we had never encountered a problem like this. So we turned back and started putting home. When we got back we hit the beach without incident as we were traveling slower than the waves and thought that we might flip in the surf zone. Wayne sheepishly admitted that he had left the bung out and the boat was carrying about 400kg of water! Well done to Wayne for that. Brainy as we were feeling we were all convinced that the 400kg’s of water was the reason for the cavitation.
Launch 2: We decided to launch again as the extra weight must have been the problem, so we launch again. As we launch the boat a wave knocks the kill switch rope off the boat, lost. So back to the trailer and beach for another try.
Launch 3: We made another kill switch rope and launched the boat again. This time we found out that the extra weight on the boat was not the problem so back to the beach and trailer again. You could see the agony on our faces as we winched the boat back onto the trailer and headed for the compressed air. I had managed to deflate grants tire so well that it was almost on the rim. The hut was closed so we could not put in any more air, we were stranded again. We thought it would be a good time to take off the prop and have a look at it. Walla we found the problem, the rubber inside the prop had worn and the prop was slipping. So off I ran to the camp site to get the spare props when I got there I met up with Paddy and crew only to find that they had taken forever to arrive. They gave me a lift back to our boat where we changed the prop and headed for the sea.

Launch 4: It was now 8:30am once we finally launched and solved the problem. This time Grant and I took liberties in teasing Wayne by shouting out our check list.
Are all the bungs in
Is the kill switch rope attached
Yes it was fun and we finally headed for the open blue. We were on our way to Leven Point but decided to stop off at shallow Oscars on the way. I was first up for Bucky Boy and as Wayne and Grant jumped in the water I saw a bill of either a Saily or Marlin cutting the water as it hunted flying fish. I shouted for Wayne and Grant but they were just too far off. The water was not as clean as we were hoping but it was still drivable. We managed to bag 5 good Snoek in-between 5 and 7kg’s. We then decided to go to Leven so we took the long drive and got in the water. I must say the water was a lot better than Oscars but not much happening. We had passed Paddies boat on the way only to find out that they had not shot any fish yet. We went further north and after much weighting we bagged 3 small king fish for chum the next day. At this stage we decided to call it a day and head back when we passed Paddies boat we learned that they had shot 6 Snoek since we saw them last Darren was beaming as he had shot three of them. It was at this point that I hopped onto Paddies boat to lessen the weight on Wayne’s as we were seriously putting back. So off I sped with Paddy and crew, I must say I was heart sore to leave the Dawn Treader team but I knew it was only for an hour or 2. Anyways after swimming with a couple whale sharks and doing some deep drifts we hit the beach. About 2 min later I saw Wayne and grant arriving with big smiles on there faces, I knew something had happened on the way back. They had managed to catch 2 Cuta on line whilst they were putting back our boat had done well! 5 Snoek, 3 King Fish and 2 Cuta. Darren and I jumped in at the point about an hour later to try and get a nice king fish or something. I managed to bag a 4kg Brassy Kingfish and watched as a +30kg Kingfish swam past me, unfortunately I had my gun facing in the opposite direction and as I pulled it across the fish swam off. Both Darren and I saw lots of 5 – 15kg Kingfish but were battling in the wash to get any good shots. We beached with just a 4Kg king fish. Later that night we prepared our Boats again and got ready for the next morning. Sav arrived with Evan and Bobby they were both as keen as can be! The next morning Team “Dawn Treader” woke to me shouting its getting light its getting light at about 2:30am after I received a couple giggles and chirps we went back to sleep and woke up an hour later.

Day 3

We got in the water early and headed for deep Oscar as all of our crew needed to get back home later that day. Grant, Jas and Wayne needed to get back for church the next morning and I needed to get to my brothers bachelors party later that day. All I can say about this dive was perfect water but absolutely no fish at all. I managed to see one Snoek and duffed the shot. We tried everything to no avail just nothing but clean water. We chummed an entire Cray bag and didn’t even see a shark. Apparently Craig Harper and Mike Cook had also got in the water and experienced the same thing absolutely no fish. We hit the beach early cleaned up and headed home. Sav and Paddy launched later that day and went all the way t Leven only to be met with dirty water 4m to be exact. They had an uneventful dive and headed back to camp discouraged.

Day 4

I made the long trip back up to Vidal in the morning to get another day in hoping for the big one. When I got to the gate I learned that the guys were still asleep so I told Sav to wake them up and get ready. I at this stage had two red bulls down my throat and was buzzing and ready to dive I arrived at camp where at this point the guys had all got up and were ready. We drove to the beach where we met Craig and mike who were gearing up to go to Leven. I was so keen to hit Leven but the bad reports were worrying. Craig and Mike went anyways. We dived shallow Oscars again Sav and I managed to bag a Snoek each. That was pretty much it for the day Later on Paddy managed to shoot a Snoek and I another small kingfish. We hit the beach and headed home.

Some of the fish that I heard the other spearos got almost killed me! Craig and Mike and friend managed to get 21fish 2 Cuta and 19 Snoek at Leven that morning. There was another group of spearos who went up to Leven on the second day when we had all the boat problems. They managed to bag 10 Cuta, a couple Snoek and a prodigal of +20kg. They also saw some Wahoo but did not manage to bag any. All in all things seem to be heating up at Vidal and a day trip could be a good option and produce some good fish.

Ps. the spearos killed the fisherman in our comp and team Dawn Treader boated the most fish in one day. Bobby got the biggest fish of the trip with a 8.1kg Snoek, he walked away with a free trip.

Till Next Time

Shaun

First Daga Salmon

An early morning dive at a spot I had been eying out for a long time was on the cards as Sav asked me if I was keen to dive. We headed up and got into 40m Vis, what a dream for KZN which is odd to have such clean water. We saw some serious shad on the point biggest I have ever seen bud shad season was closed. The dive was pretty action less until I heard the screams of Sav; I swam up to him as fast as I could only to see a whole shoal of Dagga Salmon underneath him. I dived down only to see another spearo bombing the shoal; fortunately he scared the entire shoal on to me. I was going to shoot strait into the shoal when wisdom hit me “pick out a fish.” I did just that and managed to shoot one of the smaller fish in the shoal which was a bummer but not at the time. I landed the fish only to hear that Sav lost a 30+kg fish. A real sore heart followed as Sav swam around somewhat depressed. I must say it was one of those days you remember for a long time the fish weighed in at 15.9 kg’s

Club Record Brusher

Yay finally got another Brusher which I could weigh on my New Digital Scale. Good to only learn a lesson once! The last couple of weeks have seen some terrible water, brown and muck. But as usual I found myself in the murky 1m water looking for fish, desperate I know. But the funny thing is that I saw more brusher in the dirty water than I have ever. Since the last brusher I have seen at least 10 more in the dirty water, but I must say it is a lot more difficult to shoot them in dirty water as you only have about 1second before they are gone again. The Garrik have seemed to slow down must be the extreme cold water?

Yesterday 16/10/2006 my luck seemed to change somewhat, I decided to dive in the morning, with Darren pulling soft early hours of the morning (He did have a bad ear infection, probably all the dirty water I tricked him into diving), I still went. I got into the water still expecting the usual 18deg water 1-2m Vis but was surprised by 22deg 10m + Vis on the bluff. I could feel a smile through my snorkel! (Darren you mad man) I swam around expectant off Garrik or brusher but it wasn’t to be, I did however see 3 brusher, but now in the clean water they were seeing me from far off and changing path. I hit the beach empty handed but enjoyed the great conditions.

When I got to work I got hold of Sav to tell him about the clean water, so we decided to go for a shore dive at Umdloti later that afternoon. The conditions remained good for the rest of the day so at 3:15pm we were off. We probably got in the water at 4pm still to see the Vis was good. As we hit the backline I had a shot at a 2-3kg Grunter but missed in the wash. Sav had swum further out approaching some reef. I had just finished loading my gun in the white water. He was on the bottom when he saw two brusher, he chased and they darted off my way offering no shot for him (thanks Sav nothing like team work). I only noticed them as the first of the two swam past me, it was the bigger of the two, I managed to get a spear into the smaller one, not to sure on the shot Sav put in a good second.

I secured the fish put it on my stringer and carried on along the reef thinking, 5min in the water and already a brusher, we are going to kill it today. As we swam further Sav managed to chase three pompano in my direction they were about 10 – 12kgs but this time I managed to miss the shot. I must say First dive with Sav and he has turned out to be quite a good flasher (Ha Ha). Sav saw another Brusher later in the dive but didn’t manage to get a spear into it. There were also plenty grunter around but they were not the target.

When we hit the beach we weighed the fish on my new scale 8.22kgs a new club record, I was stoked to say the least. We took some good photos and headed back home the funny thing being that this fish was smaller than the broken scale brusher.

Till Next Time I Hope

Shaun

First Brusher Landed

After some seriously bad conditions Darren and I noticed a spot of clean water off the bluff which we decided we were going to pursue. We hit the beach at 5am and I started gearing up as fast as possible (This is a normal practice) looking to get in at first light. Darren at this point still only getting his gear out the car said, “I will see you out there I am doing the granny thing this morning.” So off I went planning my attack all the way to the waters edge and jumped in. When I got to the back line I looked to see where Darren was, still gearing up! I also noticed the Vis was not as good as we thought but still drivable. At this a pesky little Garrik swam up to me it hounded me so much that I decided to shoot it and maybe get a chance with the lucky draw. So the Garrik ended up on my stringer and I started swimming north. Whilst swimming to the bottom I could hear the Brusher on the reef big snapping noises as they break muscles. At this point I noticed Darren on the beach, I lifted my excuse for a Garrik out of the water to show him so that he would hurry but in his mind he was thinking, “Why is Shaun shooting Galleon.” Anyways I started swimming south again to meet up with Darren. On my way I looked over the reef and noticed a nice Brusher looking away from me I quickly dived down and swam in its direction. The brusher noticed me at this stage and started lazily swimming off I took a long top shot and hit my target. The fish went crazy for about 2min then gave up. Whilst the fish was fighting I saw my shot, not the best in the world so I was screaming for Darren. Darren was welcomed on the back line with a scream for a second, being the Good Samaritan he is he placed a solid second. I got the fish on my stringer this time and started the guessing the weight game both Darren and I said 8kg’s in the water. Whilst catching my breath I saw another Garrik in the murk I was unsure of the size so I took a long pot shot only to realize it was about the same size as the first. Darren and I saw that the Vis was only getting worse and the waves bigger so we decided to head in. we were met on the beach by a welcome home party who had just got back from another party, Fun! One of the guys kept asking me to cock my gun so he could soot his friend in the leg as he was not scared. Anyways these two okes jumped out there car with a digital scale and weighed my brusher 4,88kg’s I looked with great disbelief as I know it weighed more. Anyways I accepted it and thought maybe I was just over exaggerating the size. Evertime I picked up the fish it defiantly felt heavier, my arms were even getting sore from holding it for the photos which is not usually the case for a 5kg fish. Anyways I have subsequently measured the fish because I take pictures of all the different species I shoot on my sink, it measured 74cm and according to ORI the fish should have weighed in the 11kg Range. The moral of the story is make sure u use a scale that you know works. Till next time

Shaun