BLUE SPEARO

MAGAZINE

Shooting a
Dassen Monster

History lesson
from the Founder
VOLUME 1

Price: F@k#l

Contents
History lesson from the founder
Dress like a Blue Spearo
A Broken record, or three
Edward Hayman Charity Challenge 2015
Nationals 2016
Shooting a Dassen Monster
Know your prey
Recipe
Know your prey
Launching sites
Basics, my Bru!
Blast from the past

1
4
5
6
12
14
18
19
20
22
24
25

Cover Photo:
The photo that was used for the cover was taken by the editor at Robben Island in 2014.

Editorial comment
Firstly Welcome! to the first issue of the Blue Spearo

JC le Roux

Magazine. This magazine will act as a newsletter from the Blue

Spearos Club, but in an exciting e-magazine format. We will try
to get one out every quarter of the year. The magazine will
include articles about comps that where hosted, recipes and
other general news in the spearfishing world that we think
youll find interesting.
This quarter was kicked off by the AGM that was held at the
CBSC at Millers point. Usually this happens in conjunction with
the All Species but due to the weather that didnt want to play
along, it was decided to have the two events on two separate
dates. The Blue Pot was also unveiled at the AGM which was
greatly attended. A couple of weeks later we had the All
Species Shoot Out, also at CBCS with again great attendance
and wonderful prizes from all of the sponsors.
Next was the Edward Hayman Charity Challenge which was a
great success. Then there were records broken, gear tried out
and a lot more.
So please ladies and gentleman, sit back, relax and enjoy
Volume 1 of the Blue Spearo Magazine.

History lesson from the Founder

I

Faiz Fuzzy Abrahams

can probably say it started with me sharing diving

knowledge in an informal way. What normally happens

is that any newbie will come to you and ask if you
can help him in the sport of spearfishing? Normally it
goes like this - You give the newbie a spare mask,
wetsuit, weight belt and .. Then before you give him
a quick break down of what to do One of two things
happens

Either the newbie is going to persevere with a leaking mask ,weight belt too heavy , water
entering the suite (too big or to small) and do not forget unable to equalize OR he will just give
up because .. It just not for him. This is where I decided to put my experience to paper and
organize it into a course where you can teach the basics to the newbie properly before he even
sees the ocean.
So, my Spearo Blue courses started in 2004 but it was free The problem was that it was
starting to take up too much of my personal time. So I decided to charge a fee, at the time I
thought it would stem the flow of guys wanting to learn this amazing sport. It did not. This was
where I had to draw the line and only did training during the week.
The next problem I was confronted with, was that I always had this huge amount of diving
buddies, which in a way started hampering me with landing fish. You can imagine whenever I go
shore diving at my secret spot (not so secret spots) with 5 to 10 divers every time; it is difficult to
land fish with all the commotions -LOL!!! Incidentally a lot of these then newbies are still very
good friends of mine. What to do next I spoke to a couple of seasoned diving buddies to help
share the load and it was amazing the willingness of these old hands to jump on board.
Four years later, in 2008, I had quite a few diving buddies I came up with the idea that we can
create a club Blue Spearos(I just swapped name of my course) but the aim was that it should
be different from all the other clubs (by this I mean any other sporting code clubs too). The very
first rule of the club and this is a really big one for me - there should be no joining fees!! At the
time I tried not having lots of money in the club, unless it was going to be used. The competition
entries fees would and was used again purely on more prizes or buying food for the guys etc. In
other words, money should be spent again on the members. The other reason for no joining fees
was, we had no purpose for it as there were no overheads, be it paying for electricity or rent etc.
Lastly, no person should ever be turned away if he/she wanted to join Blue Spearos and did not
have any joining fee if we ever had to have a fee.
I created a mailing list and this was the place where the official joining happened. So, in order to
join you just need to send a mail and say I would like to be a Blue Spearo. Why the mail box?
It was a central place where you could join, it was a place where you could send new or up to
date spearfishing tech info that you would like to share and it was also the place where you may
share visibility and water reports. This was also the place where I encouraged the Spearos to
share the past weekend dive reports. All info will then be sent to everybody (blind copied) Why
blind copied it was put in place, if for some reason, somebody did not like what was said and
wants to make a comment, and he/she first had to send the comment to central mailbox.
1

The mail would then be vetted against personal attacks or bad language. If everything was ok, it
would be forward to the rest. This was also the place where official messages were sent from.
We also tried to have a once a month get together just to discuss happenings of the past
month. It was at this time, my garage was named The Grot. I took it upon myself to at least
dive once a month with some newbies In the good old days, these were quite lekker
outings Emphasis was not put on who landed the biggest fish, but getting the guys to know
each other and it was like the once a month get together at the The Grot - meeting for a
social dive and training at the pool was the perfect place for networking and meeting new diving
buddies. If I remember correctly, we had our first compie in September 2009 (Hottie compie and
I think about 40 Blue Spearos entered). Because of the huge success of this compie, I thought
lets do a crayfish compie Why a crayfish compie??? My thinking went like this Every Spearo
gets excited when it is opening of cray season. A lot of Spearos dive Rooi-els for crays opening of
season. The perfect place to get together was Steenbrass river mouth parking. Speaking to the
then owner of Drummonds Arms was a breeze. He gave us free reign to use his place as the guys
were anyway buying from him. It was at this point that I decided to get some help and get a
committee formed. This is also why we are established in 2009, with mind you, no constitution.
The Big Bugs was a massive success and over the years, it just kept growing.
So how did we come to have a constitution (at that point I did not care much for a constitution)?
Because of the success of the Big Bugs, we could not work the money from a cashbox any more.
We needed a Blue Spearo Bank account But, in order to open an account we needed a
constitution for the Bank Manager. So, somebody did the old copy and paste exercise changed
a few words here and there and added our names. And, Blue Spearos had a bank account.
As many of you came to know me over the years, I was never a person for all the formalities or
tons of rules I have also proved that if you put the sport first instead of all these formal rules,
sportsman will play along if you give them a chance without all the rules. My motto has always
been - if somebody in the crowd has a new idea, listen to them and at the same time give that
person the opportunity to run with it.
My rules were very simple:
1. Nobody will ever have to pay joining fee. We never had any use for the money as
competition entries satisfied our needs. In the beginning, someone told me that people do
not care much for something, if they do not pay for it . The Blue Spearo brotherhood has
proven him wrong. I use the word brotherhood, because true friendship should not and does
not cost a cent.
2. You need to send an e-mail saying you want to become a Blue Spearo.(We have changed this
to a more formal application form)
3. You must try to enter as much of our social competition as possible. Always try to have
majority of competitions as shore-dives. Why? Everybody have access to shore dives
(especially newbies), but not everybody always has access to a boat. Over the years, I have
seen that shore dive competition is most likely (where the newbie) is going to link up with a
boat owner. It also does not make sense for somebody to join a club and wait for months
before somebody offers him a sight on a boat where one of a boat owners crew could not
make it. So, the trick is to create a platform where everybody meet everybody (imagine the
networking possibilities) Also, my argument has always been against the guys that say if
you want the guy to get better he needs to boat dive I agree with this, but the newbie firstly
needs to know people to give him the opportunity. Surely you are getting me

4. Adhere to MCM rules.

5. We should always have a pool training facility available.
6. We must always try to go spear with a newbie at least once a month or even just having a
good old chat will also help.
7. Avoid unnecessary funds in our account.We must try and spend monies on our members at
all time (for spearfishing) be it in the form of paying for a venue, paying for food and paying
for prizes etc.
8. Always try to send a past weekends dive report, even if you shot nothing (I am sometimes
guilty of not doing this).
9. Nobody shall ever openly criticize a fellow Spearo.
10. The Committee was not formed to be some kind of head of Blue Spearos with lots of
power. These guys/gals are purely there to serve the greater Blue Spearo community. They
are normally guys that spend lots of their own time and sometimes, money. These guys do
all the hard work, which includes the endless list of organizing competition, getting sponsors,
keeping a firm hand on monies, sorting training and blaa blaa.. Therefore, you should not
think that this is a glamorous title to have. We should always support the Committee in
every way possible.
Guys, I have purposefully omitted names of people I met on my journey, as to not offend anyone
if I for some reason forget to mention them.

Cheers Fuzzy

Dress like a
Blue Spearo
Fishermans Cap
- R100

Reaper shirt
Ladies shirt (V-neck) also
available
- R150

Blue/Camo normal cap

- R75

How to order:
1. Decide what items you want and what .Caps are one size fits all and can adjust at the
back. Bank details: Blue Spearos ; Acc no: 62436488408; Fnb ; Branch code: 202 50;
Current/cheque
2. Send an e mail with the item you want and your size to:
bluespearo.clothing@gmail.com; Reference: CLOTHING-YOUR NAME; With Proof of
payment 3. Be patient, the clothing will be made in batches
4

A couple of records were broken this quarter.

Firstly George du Plessis went up to natal for a fun weekend with buddies. While he was there,
he decided to make the best of it and to shoot, not only one, but two club records on one day.
He shot the king and queen of the mackerel family with the king weighing 5.9 kg and the queen
at 8kg. Lekker George!

The third record was claimed by Nico Brand. He decided to not venture very far and shot this
beautiful Roman of 2.65kg right of his back door here in False Bay. The Roman also gave up a
good wrestle with Nico winning at the end

So the Edward Hayman Charity Challenge has been held today at Dassen Island...
Conditions were challenging with skittish schools of yellowtail, 11 degree water and very few
weighers swimming around...

Most know why we held the Edward Hayman Dassen challenge last year and we decided to
continue with it in honour to an ambassador of out sport, and last year it was the first interclub
in 9yrs if my memory serves me correctly.
We ended up with 68 registered spearfisherman and an additional 10 spearos that paid their
entry fee even though they knew they were unable to attend!
Divers like Tommy Botha and Marc White made arrangements to attend but due to unforeseen
work they were unable to attend.
Firstly I would like to thank all the spearfisherman that came to compete in the competition
"social" and endure the chilly "weskus" water. Without you this wouldn't have been possible.

Secondly but definitely very importantly I would like to thank the sponsorship from the likes of
Freedivers and Rabitech. Thanks to James Laurence as well, I know there is more guys that
sponsored various items so please list them below.
Thank you also goes out to all the club's that took part and their financial contribution to this
great cause.
So thanks to the Bellville Underwater Club, Blue Spearos club, False bay underwater club,
Huguenote spearfishing club and the Maties spearfishing club.
We got Marc to ask Samantha Hayman what charity we should donate the funds we would raise
too, and she came back with the NSRI as Edward contributed to them.

So after all was said and done we raised R19 000 for the NRSI that will go to purchasing medical
equipment for NSRI Yzerfontein.
Congratulations to Warren from the Bellville Underwater club taking 1st place and taking the
Edward Hayman charity trophy.
From my side, I would like to thank all involved in the organising of this comp as I had work
commitments, well done you all did well and should feel proud.
Oh... thanks to the ladies that competed today, I can recall at least 2...
Cheers D. (Derek Dunning)

And from Fuzzy :

Thank You!!! Thank You!!!
...and Thank you Louis Hattingh(Rabitech-sponsor), Freedivers(Bruce Sandmann-sponsor), James
Laurence(sponsor), Michael van Dijk(Amazing trophy), Nicolas Smith(Donation), Fuzzy's
Team(Ryno Odendaal and Jaune Muller-donation), Charl Marais(Maties-donation), Dawie Jansen
van Noordwyk(Hugenote), Charlie Myburgh(Hugenote), Francois Addo Botha(Hugenote), Warren
Petersen(Bellvile-donation), Robin Cochius(Faslebay-donation), Robert Moreland(donation), 2
Dogs and a Fish(Robin Saunders), Fanie Nel(donation), Blue Spearos(donation), Tony ElvinJensen(Great powerfull words about the legendary Edward Hayman).
Thank you Dr.Cleeve Robertson(CEO of NSRI) for taking time out to receive donation. Thank you
to my fellow committee members(JC Le Roux, Ramon Odendal, Mario Fredericks, Keelan Rix,
Derek Marshall Dunning, Evan Evster Harker, George Du Plessis).Thank you to all spearo's taking
part and those who still donated a entry fee even if their could not be present. Well done my
fellow spearo brothers amazing support !!! and last ..we have a New Edward Hayman Charity
Challenge Champion....Warren Petersen...Well done bro....Cheers Faiz Abrahams ...(if I missed
out on somebody, My apologies it was not intentional )
We even made it to the NSRIs website: http://www.nsri.org.za/2015/09/edward-haymancharity-challenge-raises-r19-000-for-nsri/

Than k you Gustav Hoffmann for the photos. They look amazing.

Edward Hayman Charity Challenge 2015

Photos: Gustav Hoffmann

Edward Hayman Charity Challenge 2015

Photos: Gustav Hoffmann

Edward Hayman Charity Challenge 2015

10

Photos: Gustav Hoffmann

11
Edward Hayman Charity Challenge 2015

Photos: Gustav Hoffmann

Nationals 2016
A message from Warren Petersen on behalf of WPUFA
NATIONALS April 2016 STILBAAI!!!
REGISTRATION NOW!
The big one has arrived! Nationals will at last be in our backyard & will be hosted by Boland.
Date has not been set yet, but will be in April next year. Guys & gals, this is the opportunity
we've all been waiting for! We truly hope that WP will have a number of teams entered next
year. Given our home advantage, there is no reason why we won't walk away with the honours.
We also have a number of guys & newbies wanting to enter for the incredible experience. We've
had a few ladies entering our local club competitions how about a ladies team?!
I sincerely hope we will involve a great group of mates in trials leading up to the event next year.
For those who don't know ... we will schedule a few dates, hopefully about 8 or so of which,
given weather conditions permitting, hopefully at least 4 or 5 trials will be held/be possible. Of
these, only your 3 best scores will count towards your final team placement. All divers begin &
compete on equal playing fields & are treated equal. No merits from last year, only your trial
scores count.
Attached (next page), please fill out the membership application form subs R250. Each trial
entered & taken part in cost R50. All funds are ploughed back into sponsoring our divers going to
nationals, so you will be investing in yourself.
A requirement for taking part in Nationals is that you be a paid up member with SAUFF. SAUFF
organises nationals & fights for the rights of divers on many fronts using our meagre funding.
Memberships cost R100/ year & run from July 1st to June 30th. Please first pay your subs &
provide your SAUFF affiliation number on our WPUFA membership registration form attached.
WATCH THIS SPACE for the first trial date so don't delay!

12

13

Shooting a

Dassen Monster
Following are the words of Evan Harker with the tale of his monster Dassen tail he shot that
weighed in at 11.48 kg.
A true Nemesis in my books - The illusive Cape Yellowtail(Seriola lalandi), after seeing so much
videos on how guys make it look so easy to spearfish these illusive fish, i had a great desire
growing in me to try and hunt one myself to brake the sort after Yellowtail Virginity.
Growing as a spearo in the Blue Spearo Club I have heard many stories about Yellowtail and have
had many make it pretty well known its not always as easy as it looks in a You Tube video clip,
stories followed coming from many spearos that I have met, about Struisbaai, Skipskop
Yellowtail, scary stories i might add, but my heart and drive was still flaming full steam to land
one of those powerful Pelagics.
As months past I had plenty of invitations from different oaks/friends to go but always had
something come up or I couldnt afford to go, also Ive heard its not always an " On" when you
go out for tail, takes a bit of riding around and looking for activity. So my first trip out to Dassen
with some good friends, was a pretty bad luck/ Murphy's Law experience, had a bit of boat
trouble, then got out just to find the water nice and flat, BUT looking like a dark river around the
island, back out, off to Robben Island to see if we get lucky there, but to no avail, never even saw
a tail in my life under water at this stage. After putting my sorrows in a couple of beers with
mates, I said to myself better luck next time old Ev. At this point in time I would sit at home with
my 1.1m Gun in my hand imagining me pointing it at a tail and nailing my nemesis, YouTube after
YouTube video.
As time flew by I focussed my energy so-long on some good Roman hunting and enjoy the winter
pleasure of klapping some Gallies, also some of my favourites to hunt. Eventually in time I had
my second shot at my nemesis and off we go to Dassen for another go, this time Im more
amped and positive, Im gonna nail my first Tail today! Friday afternoon, as the guys called it the
late session, on the water 13:00hours and swell a pretty decent 2.7 - 2.9m swell, but i felt
confident with the boat I was on, as it has a nack for living up to its name " TITAN URANUS " I did
exactly that and hanged on tight. Only boat out on the water and my hopes is high, Day before
the Edward Hayman challenge too, good scouting and good prep for the compie feeling good.
What a lesson I learned that day, lots of pressure and lots of hard swimming some places. Never
thought I would get the sort after yellowtail fever, seeing them for the very first time on a dive
was the most amazing thing to see, all these tail with bright yellow tails and white noses and
silver bodies all over, the fever knocked my wind out, froze and didnt know what to shoot, after
quickly gathering myself I took a shot, but didnt go through the fish, made a lil wobble and
swam off, coming back up to the surface all I heard was "duik!" "duik!" by this time I had no
spear in my gun and trying to reload, my wishbone pops out of the rubber, back to boat for
another gun, after all that all things just went south and I just told the guys its not my time yet,
Ill eventually get it.
14

Saturday at the Edward Hayman Challenge I knew it would be even more of a battle getting my
first yellowtail, knowing that there is lots of boats in the water and lots of spearo's hunting tail,
so never the less I tried - to no avail. Finally on the public holiday, 24 of Sept., I was invited on
TITAN URANUS once more to Dassen Island for another yellowtail Hunt, after all the bad luck
trying to land my Nemesis, for the very first time I had a mind set of not building up high hopes,
but just going to go enjoy the dive and day out with mates, not knowing what awaits me out in
the blue. After scouting briefly past Kalkoonde and Huisbaai we moved to Pike rock side, doing
drops, some shallow some pretty deep, fish was still pretty quiet and birds were scattered, just
off Pike, birds were going crazy big birds also diving with small, some fishing boats also in the
mix throwing spoons, Myself and Derek Dunning had a go at the craze but fish was just to
skittish and we could see them but too far away to take a shot, no luck.
As the morning passed and still diving over and over to no avail, we moved to just behind Pike
rock, flasher hanging down Derek as Buggy at the time, myself, Mick and James Van Zyl were in
the water diving around the flasher hoping for some tail around it, having 2 divers on the flasher
I decided to move away from them a little. Probably like 20m from where the flasher was, I went
down and 7m down I saw something above my head and paused to look up, just to find this
shoal of yellowtail cruising past me, they started moving away from me turning the other way. I
told myself its now or never, pointed my gun and took the shot, not knowing yet I shot a bus
after the shot, just before I hit surface I get pulled back down, at this stage I thought a seal
grabbed it and took off dragging me down. Eventually I hit surface to catch my breath and shout
to the guys to dive on my line, James goes down and there wasnt any other fish around mine,
James's face said it all when he came back up, still I didnt realise what I have shot, adding to
that, it wasnt a good shot, spear didnt even go all the way through, that made me realise that
fish was meant to be mine. Finally I managed to bring the fish up and grabbed it by the throat
after it spun me around on the surface for a bit, BUS!!..My first Ever tail and its a Big Boy,
swimming to get the fish on the boat as quick as possible, Derek also surprised at the fish I just
threw on deck, still not realising how big it was I jump on and sat next to it and all that could
come out was a loud scream WHOOOO HOOOOO, GOT HIM I GOT HIM!!!! WHOOOOO
HOOOOO!!!!! A feeling only a spearo or any angler can describe, getting that Big first fish and
the Biggest fish for the day, what a Bonus and what a good start to my Yellowtail journey, a Day
Ill always remember and a day that Highlighted my spearfishing career with a bang!
Couldnt have asked for a better start

16

Know your prey

- George du Plessis
Cape Knifejaw (Oplegnathus conwayi)
Also know as Parrot, Cuckoo bass, Kraaibekgaljoen. Not to be mistaken for his cousin the
Natal Knifejaw (Oplegnathus robinsoni)
Identification
A dark, oblong fish with teeth that are fused to form a parrot like beak. Small scales cover the
whole body. Juveniles are bright yellow with vertical black bands across the head and in front
of the tail. Adults are dark with sometimes whitish belly and underside.

Biology
This species is endemic to South African waters and are found on inshore reefs , often in
territorial pairs. They are rarely caught by line fishers but are frequently seen by divers and
shot by spearos.
They are omnivorous and feed on seaweed, sponges and redbait. The Cape knife jaw is
endemic to the area of coastline between False Bay and KwaZulu-Natal in shallow water and
rocky reefs. The Cape knifejaw is a slow growing species of fish.
Hunting
The Cape knifejaw is a recreational species only. It is a very inquisitive species of fish and this
makes it an easy target for spearfishers. They are very curious and will come in to have a look.
They are as stated, easy to shoot. Mid body shot usually seals the deal. They are not that
strong fighters so you will find them easy to land.
Minimum size and bag limit
Minimum size for this specie is 0cm with a daily bag limit of 5
Info is supplied by the book, Two Oceans a guide to the marine life of Southern Africa by GM BRANCH, CL
GRIFFITHS, ML BRANCH and LE BECKLEY.

Mature Cape Knifejaw

(Photo: www.fin.org.za)

18

Beer batter
Ingredients
1 cup flour
teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
teaspoon pepper
teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 beer
Directions
Mix all the ingredients together in a
deep bowl and let it sit for 30 min.

Recipe

Cut the fish into portion size and salt

to taste. Dust the fish with flour. Dip
in batter and fry in oil till golden brown.
White fish works the best (geelbek,
kabeljou, silver fish, hake, steenbras
etc.)

19

Know your prey

- George du Plessis
Red Roman, Rooi Roman (Chrysoblephus laticeps)
Identification
Red roman is part of the sea bream family (Sparidae) and is endemic to South Africa.
A robust scarlet-red fish with a prominent white saddle on its back, a white bar on the gill
cover and a blue line between the eyes. Conspicuous canines and several rows of molars in
both the upper and lower jaws.
Biology
A benthic predator that occurs on rocky reefs down to a 100m. This is a slow growing fish
species. This fish undergoes sex reversal from female to male at 30cm.(Bet a lot of you guys
did not know that) . They spawn in the summer months and juveniles frequent shallower
reefs. They are sought after by ski boat fisherman, commercial line boats and spearfisherman.
Hunting
This fish is one of the prized catches in our waters. Nice fish to hunt and can be difficult to
shoot at times. They are found around our peninsula and all the way up to eastern cape
waters. Normally when hunting these fish you need some structure. Reef. We find them in and
around overhangs and caves as well as in cracks. Normally we see them two at a time. They
are curious fish so spend some time on the bottom and be relaxed. Slow movement when
lining up. Study them and you will see that the bugger normally has a cave of sorts nearby to
which it can swim to and hide if it feels threatened. Sometimes a torch can help you look in
dark caves but do not shine the full beam of light on the fish, Rather let the beam run through
your fingers(Cup the front of the torch with your hand. Try it , maybe it works well towards
your success.) Most of the time you will shoot these fish in the open without a torch, so keep
your cool and spend time on the bottom so that they get use to you and come in closer to
inspect. Remember slowly line up (no jerking about). A shot behind the gills or mid body
usually seals the deal. They can tear out if shot too high on the body or if shot in the soft belly.
Eating
Everyone will tell you that these fish are seriously good eating. It is a red fish so my advice
would be to get those guts out as soon as possible because it will start to become and smell
funky. Prepare and eat this, like all fish as fresh as possible. Cut open the stomach and take
the guts out, vlek it open like a book with a bit of lemon juice, salt and pepper and gooi it on
the braai(Even a lemon butter with garlic can maybe tickle your fancy.(Don't kill it with
garlic!!!) This fish has some bones(Grate, so eet versigtig...anders gaan jy verstik)
Basic info
Many spawning stocks have been severely depleted as a result of excessive fishing. Because of
slow growing it is very vulnerable. However, there is evidence of stock recovery of this species
within marine protected areas along our coast.

20

The species is on the SASSI orange list.(Currently under revision)

Please keep within the limits!!!
Bag Limit: 2 fish per person per day.
The minimum size limit is 30cm for recreational and commercial fishers.(Try to hunt bigger fish
of this species)
Just another tip. Normally they will face you when looking from out their caves. Let them turn
first, before you judge the size. The small ones have m@#rse heads.
Info is supplied by the book, Two Oceans a guide to the marine life of Southern Africa by GM BRANCH, CL
GRIFFITHS, ML BRANCH and LE BECKLEY.

Photo: Andrew Taylor

Photo: www.diveschoolcapetown.co.za

Photo: www.wildcard.co.za

21

Yzerfontein Harbour
If you are a spearo in the Western Cape,
you will sometime in your life use this
harbour. Reason being that it is the closest
harbour to the famous Dassen Island ,
where big schools of yellowtail congregate
in the winter months. If you will be able to
shoot or catch these buggers is a whole
other story.
This harbour is used by commercial
fisherman quite frequently, so mutual
respect and quickness is in the order of
the day.

Yzerfontein harbour with Meeurots at the back

(Photo: www.heksie.co.za)

The gate is manned by Frankie (we all know

Frankie). Some even has his phone number
to get reports for the day. It will cost you
R95 to use the facilities. Theres decent
toilets at the harbour as well for the early
morning hurk.
Like any other harbour , its a breeze to
launch here in calm conditions, but get it
wrong and it can get hairy.
If its the first time you are heading out to
Dassen, take the co-ordinates of Meeurots
(its the big rock just outside the harbour).
The fog can roll in in a matter of minutes
and I mean thick. Your best bet when
coming into the harbour is to stay relatively
close to the right side of Meeurots, youll
be fine then.
Aerial view of the two slipways
(Image: Google Maps)

Westerly wind makes the sea very bumpy

in this area so precaution needs to be
taken by skippers if the weather turns foul
out of the west.
22

With calm conditions, both slip ways can be used with both launch and recovery. This harbour
can have a ugly surge on the slips, and I mean meters. The safest will be when there is surge is
to use slip A.
The section between the break water wall and Meeurots is called the Bek and its a very
famous piece of water. The reason being is that the water starts to break here when it is
strong. A swell prediction of 3m plus, co-injunction with spring low and the chance of
breaking waves is good. So be on the lookout and be aware of what the weather and tides are
forecasted to do.

If it so happens that the swell picked up while you are at the island and on your return you see
white water in the Bek, go more towards Meeurots side, wait a bit and have a look at how the
swell is running and make a calculated risk. Once you are past the break water, you are home
safe.
Now Yzerfontein has goat an NSRI station (Station 34) on the harbour. Ive seen these guys out
on stormy days and I tell you, if theres one team that will get you back home safe, it is these
guys.
NSRI Emergency Number: 082 498 7330
Station Commander: Rudi Rogers

The other big advantage of using this harbour is that just outside of the town, there is boat
cleaning bays. There is also facilities where you can clean your fish and youll even find a local
that will fillet your fish for a small fee. All you need to bring is a hose pipe with a screw on
connection to fit the facilities' taps.
And just up the road is a restaurant thats got nice cold beers

Boat cleaning facilities

(Image: Google Maps)

23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lqSGZDG7hY

24

Blast from the past

JC le Roux
Something interesting I found on www.spearfishing.co.za

25

Want to become part of the

fastest growing club in the
country? Just fill in the form on
the next page and mail it to us.
Only requirement is that you
will be bringing some gees.
No ts & cs, no yearly cost, nada!

26

27