Sharene van Vuuren on her way home from placing 8th in the Rock n Surf Nationals down in the Cape…stopped off at Port Shepstone and went fishing on the Niteshift. At her old stomping grounds Umtentweni she caught this mean crocodile sized couta.
Author: Sean Lange
Anarchist random.
Tofo: high seas drama!
(above) George Venter throws his boat into a wild Tofo shorebreak…
Mid-afternoon Tofo market and word spreads fast. A hobie cat piloted by a few elderly gentlemen has capsized out front. A few hundred metres north of the point…and there it is…but we can make out one of the crew perched on an upside down hull, not looking too panicky.
But they are well and truly hitched up to the Tofo Express spring tide current going south…at about 3 or 4 knots. Very quickly they are gone around the corner…out of sight!
Alerting the usual crew…consensus pointed to Steve and Diversity Scuba…they are the closest and most geared up. But before any plans were hatched…the good ship Equinox came tearing along the sand…and the tractor driver ably assisted by his wife…threw the massive cat into the heady shorebreak. They had seen the incident from their house overlooking the bay.
Local volunteer rescuers tried in vane to turn the huge boat headlong to the shorey…for what felt like 10 whole minutes…as they were smashed sideways wave after wave. Eventually a break as huge wave pushed the cat right up the steepening bank…the current was dragging north as usual…when Lady Luck appeared…as the wave receeded it dragged the nose down and we headlong out to sea and gravity on our side. Afrente!
So thanks to all the helpers and volunteers, and especially George Venter who should be recommended for some kind of bravery prize. He brought home the unfortunate sailors…safely extracting them from an otherwise sea…but was unable to save their boat.
More to follow…
Jimmy Bonefish!
Jimmy Bonefish!
Anyone who has fished the point at Tofinho, in Inhambane, Mozaambique, will have been impressed by Jimmy Bonefish’s skills. Fishing with a rod and a handline, he consistently produces the best catches…sometimes hauling in two fish at once. I have seen Jimmy coming back from fishing at night with 2 queenfish, 2 kingfish and a huge couta!
Subsistence fishing rock n surf must be one of the biggest challenges available as far as career choices go. But Jimmy handles it with aplomb. Targeting big gamefish at night, off a 20ft high point made of razor sharp rock! On his own!
These huge bonefish weigh around 10kg’s are are readily encountered, and caught, in the surf zone, all around the Tofinho headland.
Other subsistence guys fish off the cliffs right into broken and foaming white water, where they pull out smaller bones by the bunch. Perfect live baits for kingfish and other mean backline predators. These guys only have handlines.
South Coast to Tofo
Setting out from Pumula at 4:30am, we made Swaziland in great time. The roads are good and the Sunday traffic was minimal.
Not too many journeys feature Giraffe families along the side of the road…
Passing through Pongola into Swaziland we encountered this adult and a bunch of smaller guys a little further into the bush. Monkeys and bird life kept us entertained driving through this piece of Zululand.
Swaziland featured more cops than wildlife. But again…the traffic was quiet and soon the Goba border post came into view. Mozambique!
The Frenzy checking out the biltong shop in Pongola…
We stopped for a layover at the awesome Casa Lisa, north of Maputo. Great all round experience.
And finally made Tofo. 15 hours of driving over two days, Barry Krause of Fairwinds did a sterling job and only got speed trapped once. 1000 mets fine. Got receipt. Evidence of the recent floodwaters was everywhere especially in the Xai Xai area, but on the whole the affected places have recovered completely and life is back to normal.
Tofo Point in the morning…
March weather is just around the corner but it’s still hot as hell here. This is certainly the quitest time of the year for Mozambique. Everyone just biding time until the next holiday/season.
The fishing is very good though. Loads of couta…a few big ones. The sea alive…all kinds of baitfish in the netter’s catches. The water is 26 to 28 degrees and blue blue blue. We normally have a little sailfish run at this time…let’s see!
(above) Netters rowing past Praia da Congiana this morning…
Saint’s Cyclone Surf
Photo Gallery by Poison Images (c) All rights reserved
5am This morning saw quite a crowd of dawn patrollers in the Saints carpark. Yesterday was on, and word spread fast. There is a groovy bank just wide of the take-off spot and most guys were chasing the wide set runners. Although the inside ones held the form and function.
The groms were out first, followed by the ballies…there were quite a few in-betweeners but true to form for the locals there – not one set wave went unridden. There were plenty for all.
Heather Clarke, Wayne Smith and Calvin Moore led the charge with some cracking rides but were soon overshadowed by some dude on a longboard who cruised his way through two awesome barrels on a 9 footer!
Louis Wolmarans gets quote of the day…after he got out the water (finally)…he exclaimed – “I never wanna die”! And as he left the carpark, was screaming out his car window – “Alive! Alive! Alive!”! Inspiring us for decades, Louis deserves his spot in any line-up on this coast. No wonder he has a wave named after him!
A very pleasant morning in one of the friendliest surfing carparks I know of. But then again – I don’t have ND plates!