Iain wins at the Durban Underwater Club Comp

Here with the report from the Durban Underwater Club (DUC) Comp.

. Well the conditions looked far better from the vantage point on top of Christmas bay. Launched and tried to run a few of the shore entry guys over, but there bottom time is very good. Dived Uglies and pulled flasher, Sean got of a shot at a nice cuda or cuda on the first down but unfortunately missed, The water was not clean and at times was less than 3m with the temp on the bottom being cool in the 2mm suit, I recon below 20C slight north south currant. Lots of bait on the bottom, and too many reef fish.

Moved onto Aloes and again was into dirty water it was a case of the further north, and the worse vis got. Decided to make the bumpy run to Tiff’s, Vis was much improved with patches of 6m. We where able to see the flasher most of the time. Again schools of bait every where, lots of bottoms but no game fish of any description.

We had been diving for 3.5 hours and I was cold and hungry. I decided to leave Sean in the water with the 4 other divers that had shore dived out to us and had a quick bite to eat and a chat to Mr. Burns who was top manning for us, a very big thank you to him, and to Doc Uys for the loan of his small duck.

I was ready to call it, after not seeing any gamies [and only shooting two slinger in desperation] to head back and sleep.

Sean was having none of it and a short debate followed with the Burns’s insisting that we pay 3rd reef a visit, being Sean’s most productive spot. Again the vis was down to 3 m and cool. We found a hot spot, crowded with bait and again some doff bottoms. I was lying on the floor doing my best impersonation of reef when I saw an eye to my right in mid water. School boy error, rushed and saw the snoek make a sharp turn away to the left. Relaxing I drifted back to the bottom and just on the edge of vis he turned to see what I was doing. Lined up and shot as he was disappearing from view. I was happy when the gun moved off following him and I played him very gently as I had no idea where I had shot him. I summoned Burns in my best Yugoslavian sailor’s dialect. Got the snoek into the fish bag, reloaded and was back trying to catch my breath before Sean could get to the bottom for a second dive,[just in case there where any more snoek on the hot spot] rushed down as he emerged from the depths, when I got to the bottom I realized that I was not as full of air as I had hoped lay still for a few more seconds when a very unfortunate fish appeared over the same spot that the snoek had, and thinking it was the world record snoek, wasted no time in letting fly the spear. You can only imagine the disappointment, on landing a bronze! Hahahaha. Must have been the lack of o2!

I was too tired to push a second dive after the maintenance of cleaning boat and dive kit. Headed to bed for a few hours, before the weigh in a DUC at three. Shane got a very nice daga of 12 kg’s but [as very kind sponsor ] disqualified himself from getting any prizes, good man! So with a 8.5kg snoek I got biggest Gamefish of the day. Must say I didn’t think I was in the running. Just go’s to show you never know.

Thanks to Durban Underwater Club - DUC for a great comp http://www.duc.co.za/spearing.htm,

and to Shane Breedt http://www.freedivers.co.za/ from Freedivers for the sponsorship.