Spearfishing Ponta – November 2007

Karl's 21kg Cuta speared off Doodles at Ponta Ponta do Oura

Greetings!

Well to try and put in words the experiences of this year’s trip will be very difficult!  An amazing two weeks in one of the world’s most magnificent places.  In the blur of the first week with twelve of us getting fleeced from border to beach to bar, dodging Mike Tyson’s and demanding Peri-Peri chicken, to the quietness of only two of us left at the magnificent Motal do Mar, we did manage to fit in some diving!

Conditions ranged from howling SW with lots of rain to gusting 30 knot NE’s, south north currents, and then back to the north south that brings on the fish!  In the lulls and sometimes not, we found ourselves getting fish on every launch.  There where some firsts on the trip and more than once we had a few new chaps cleaning Spumbu’s hatch!  Azran was not that happy to do any cleaning!  But well done boet on your first fish!  All but one day you managed to dive!  And thanks for your help on the beach!

Stu managed to get the prize for the beginner of the trip with two species, snoek and cuda! Both on Doodles!  Again the law had to be asked to arbitrate to ensure the tradition of the cleaning of the hatch!  Well done Stu some good diving there!

Tweeds on the same day shaming the diving team on his ski with a good +7 kg cuda off the point! Remember Munga it’s your Bulls there next year so I would not be showing off that much!!! Well done!

The HMS Dirty Harry [or more fondly know as the Dirty Sanchez] did very well and had some good diving before Spumbu arrived.  I am sure there report is to follow soon!

Most of the diving in the first week was concentrated on Doodles and T-Ledge’s, with one recci further north to Playground, but we where all caught in a west and made like Grolly after a bought at Frenchies and disappeared off the water!  That was the end of part one of the trip and we had to say sad goodbyes to the rest of the crew, leaving Karl and I to our own devices!  Eeeeesah!

At the first opportunity, we headed south of the point to a spot called Mushroom.  Not diving for novices as things that side are supa-sized and the prevalence of the tax man can be seen on some of the photo’s that follow!  Karl did well landing two and a half fish, thanks to me getting the head of a Kakaap back from a very friendly Macko!  It was not only the sharks but some large bass that got fed down south!  Karl with a good Snoek of 10 and a pick handle of 10, the Kakaap’s head was over 6kg’s.  I would not recommend novices diving down south!

We launched again that day on the high tide in the evening and were planning on getting to Atlantis, but some complications saw us only launching at 3:30.  Doodles the only place close enough for us to spend any time in the water and on the first dive Karl and I both got nice snoek [+8kg’s].

Doodles produced fish, mostly snoek, on just about every drift even with no current. I normally expect to see large numbers of shoal cuda on this reef.  There were very few cuda this trip with only three coming out.  The lack of cuda made for a different kind of diving as Kakaap became the species most targeted.  Anyway back to the late afternoon drift on Doodles.  Things went very quiet for a long time and we decided to head further down the reef to give the northern point a break.  Not long afterwards I heard Karl’s [aka uMsunu’s] gun go off!  Shouting, and seeing his line moving very quickly along the bottom, I eventually caught up to him over the sand.  Swimming up to him I noticed that his mask was full of water and leaking because of the “Cheshire Cat” like grin on his mug.  On the bottom was a good size cuda that I put a bad second shot into which resulted in both of us being towed around for a while!  Well done Karl on your PB cuda of 21kg’s, very nice fish!

This saw the end of part two of the trip as we had to head back into SA due to some unforeseen eventualities!

Two days later, after a lot of driving we found ourselves back at the Motal and gunning to launch on the low tide!  The conditions were stunning, flat deep blue windless conditions and the fishing boats coming back with a number of species!

We got the marks for Atlantis from Ryan [thanks again] and did the first drift of the trip over this deep reef!  Beeeg Zambos that Troy had warned us about and some other friendly SARS employees were the first to greet us!  In +40m viz, the tax men appear not that big at first, but out there they are big!  I managed a 9kg Wahoo, which was behaving like a cuda, swimming in mid water and turned as I swam to his blind side, most interesting!  May have something to do with Burns’s new flasher, must say he should go into producing them commercially!  They are easy to dive with, and deliver fish!  Thanks Sean.

The next day found us up early with motivation!  Headed to Tecco Ledge!  Howling NE and bumpy sea!  Our top man, hating life on the surface! Beeeg swell and few dive boats launched.  First drift and first down, I was looking at a small turtle, the smallest I have ever seen in the water.  Turning around and there he was, bang, one 7kg cuda struggling with three huge bass below him, all coming off the bottom at my cuda!  So I played him far too hard but still got a hand on him as my spear fell out.  He still had vuma in him and got away from me, only to swim in front of Karl, mistake!  In the hatch!  Still cannot decide who’s fish it is!

Another kakaap got drilled on the next down of 7kg’s.  Four more drifts and it was like a ghost town, nothing, high tide, north south current, nothing. We did try and head deeper, but the conditions got us back to the shore for the rest of the day. Not too worried as we headed north to Malangane. They have cold 2m there as well!

The last days dive had us deep in the blue on a secret ledge that we were able to discover, there is so much reef in the deep that we spent a lot of time sounding and marking the drop off’s. Getting in, dropping the flasher, loading the gun and dropping down to distribute some chum when a Wahoo tried to beat me to the flasher, acting like a cuda, again.

So he got stoned and started to sink.  Karl put in a second shot because I did not see the spear go through him.  In the hatch and back in the water!  Kakaap each, for Karl and I on the next drift, both over 8kg’s.  On the next down and a very nice kingfish on the bottom in about 30m of water.  He was chased by some zambos but we got him into the hatch.

We decided to head to Pinnacles to do a few drifts, this area is well know for its population of sharks and we where not disappointed.  We saw six different species and over thirty individuals!  Very clean water, over 50m viz, like diving in air!  Which is worrying for two reasons; one, because you do not realise how deep you are, and two, how big the sharks are!  We made the mistake of dropping flashers, and although the sharks where not showing any of the aggressive body language that I have seen before, they where very inquisitive, swimming along the surface and high in the water.

I did manage to land a nice size bludger a few days before between the sharks.  Not the best tasting fish I suppose!  Any way back to the last dive!

So back along the way to home we decided to do a last drift of our new secret spot in about 33m of water in the hope of getting another Wahoo.  Drifting in the chum line not wanting to miss any Wahoo swimming over us we were not going to the bottom.  I am not known for my patience and had to go and see what was going on below.  Dropping down onto the outer ledge I went through a shoal of small yellow kingies and saw one at the bottom that looked the same size.  As I dropped to the left of the fish I saw the pecks flare and decided to go in for a closer inspection.  Now I have shot four of these fish before, and been either mocked by them or taxed, so I took my time with the shot placement.  The spear landed just behind the head, a good shot, stunned the fish.  BUT, the ever present tax man cruised in as the front half of the fish was still moving sending out the dinner gong signal.  I managed to get a hand on the fish and only then did I realise that I had a good specimen.  I struggled to swim the fish backwards to the surface and had to let go in about 15m of water as my air tanks were flashing empty.  I remember feeling distraught at letting go of the fish and gunning for the surface, thinking that the fish would escape me again by being taxed.  I shouted to Karl to put in a second shot as I swam to my buoy to get the rope, but on turning around the Iggi was floating to the surface behind me! It’s the first time that I have seen that!
So 71 kg’s of fish in a morning’s diving and with a pb Wahoo of 25, and a Iggi 20 among them topped off a fantastic annual trip to Ponto.

Thanks to the top man of the trip who handled some challenging conditions and made diving a pleasure, and safe.  If any of you are thinking of heading up there and need a top man who can be trusted let me know and I will put you in contact with Daniel.  Good man that.