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 Amberjack 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