Well finally we had a full weekend spearing on the kzn north coast with good conditions and got lucky with some solid fish. Saturday afternoon saw some very clean and warmer surface water push in, and along with it some monster wahoo. I had 2 attemps at them but misjudged the size of the fish in the clean water, only to see my spear falling short. Marcus Potgieter managed to get close enough to one and got a shot in, only penetrating half way through with his 1.2m carbon freedivers gun. After being towed out to sea, he managed to subdue this fine 29.5kg hoo on a shore dive!
Sunday we headed out to one of my faverouit winter spots for big cuda. Conditions had worsend slightly due to the arrival of a cold front. Viz was +- 8-10m with a light s-n current and water 21 deg, not ideal cuda conditions. Things started off a little slow with only the odd natal snoek coming through. I was breathing up on the surface when I noticed a bait ball beneath me scatter, usually a tell-tail sign a predator is approching. I slowly sank down and waited in the direction the fish had scattered from, and true as nuts a large cuda glided in on my right. I managed to get a shot in but didnt see my spear penetrate through. The fish sped off out to sea, peeling line off my reel. I had to clip onto my belt reel, and not long after my gun was pulled from my hand with the line screeming off my belt reel. It wasnt long after and all 50m of the line was off and i was being towed out to sea in fear that the pressure would tear the spear out! Luckily the fish began to tire and I began pulling him in. My mate John eventually caught up with me and put in a solid kill shot. It was a short fat 20.7kg winter cuda! I had to now reel in the 100m of dynema that the fish had pulled. We were no 200m out to sea from where I had reefed my buoy up and was a long swim back. We dived for a few more hours and bagged a few more snoek and I got another cuda of 11.6kg until the conditions worsened with the arrival of the front.
So it was an action packed weekend, and was awesome to see some quality fish again!
Sunday we headed out to one of my faverouit winter spots for big cuda. Conditions had worsend slightly due to the arrival of a cold front. Viz was +- 8-10m with a light s-n current and water 21 deg, not ideal cuda conditions. Things started off a little slow with only the odd natal snoek coming through. I was breathing up on the surface when I noticed a bait ball beneath me scatter, usually a tell-tail sign a predator is approching. I slowly sank down and waited in the direction the fish had scattered from, and true as nuts a large cuda glided in on my right. I managed to get a shot in but didnt see my spear penetrate through. The fish sped off out to sea, peeling line off my reel. I had to clip onto my belt reel, and not long after my gun was pulled from my hand with the line screeming off my belt reel. It wasnt long after and all 50m of the line was off and i was being towed out to sea in fear that the pressure would tear the spear out! Luckily the fish began to tire and I began pulling him in. My mate John eventually caught up with me and put in a solid kill shot. It was a short fat 20.7kg winter cuda! I had to now reel in the 100m of dynema that the fish had pulled. We were no 200m out to sea from where I had reefed my buoy up and was a long swim back. We dived for a few more hours and bagged a few more snoek and I got another cuda of 11.6kg until the conditions worsened with the arrival of the front.
So it was an action packed weekend, and was awesome to see some quality fish again!
