Right so it was up early on Saturday (23rd October 2011) morning, long before the Sun. Fetch all the boys and head off to Nhlabane for a surf fishing session... It's about a 45 minute drive from where I live. The first stretch is an excellent tar road and then it's into the bush, along the coast and then down the dunes to the beach... Nothing wrong with perfecting our 'Hunter-Gatherer Skills'... lol.





The nice thing about Nhlabane is that it's not too far to walk to get to the beach. The vehicles also stay in sight...

Here's the 'crew' and the youngster is my nephew Dario, a real toughie.





Just in time to watch the sunrise. There was a slight NW wind blowing and the sea was a little warmer than we expected...





Nothing beats a great sunrise...








Not a soul in sight...





Shane is on...











... Still on...





The reward... A beautiful SA Giant Guitarfish... It has become common practice among fisherman to release these fish unharmed, despite their fine eating quality.


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And no sooner had Shane landed his 'sandie' and it was Darios turn... Fish on!!!


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It was definitely Shanes day for catching... A descent SA Great Hammerhead...


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What a day... The sea was excellent but as the morning progressed the wind got worse, eventually re-defining the term 'getting sandblasted... lol.


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It's been forever since the mouth was open...


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Backs are off, arms are off, bait is finished... Time to head home...


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I live in a beautiful country... It's just a pity that you have to watch your back in a big way...


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It was good to know that with all the fish we caught this day we would easily have been able to feed our families for a few days... lol.

Here's a few pics from last Saturdays session... I was invited to join a buddy of mine to take part in a fishing competition @ The South Breakwater Pier... When the Harbour of Richards Bay was constructed in 1969, the natural mouth was converted and using these locally made concrete 'Dolossa' they were able to force the sea back....

The morning started out great. There was a slight breeze to start off with but as is expected in this part of the world the wind started 'pumping' in check with the incoming tide. By 11:00pm it was 'howling...






























Of course of all the piers to fish in Richards Bay, this one is by far the most dangerous. The Dolossa here are the biggest and highly unforgiving...





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... Maybe a small 'livie', some fresh bait...


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The day wasn't completely fruitless... Both my nephew and I were able to land a shark @... 6.5kg Grey's!!!


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Dario had a great time. It was tough on the 'bricks' but a wonderful day fishing...


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I was hunting 'Stumpies' (Natal Stumpnose) with a passion, but to no avail...


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Generally just a excellent day @ the water...



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South Africa is such a beautiful country. I would love to return. I have been nowhere else on earth where you can experience so many different type terrain/geography in one country. Rain forest, coastal areas, desert, high veld, low veld. Great wine, great people, great food. I am craving a good braai now.

AWESOME <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> pics of a great time!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Thank you very much for sharing the great pictures! We do live in a wonderful country and on a continent with great adventure, it has it problems, but [censored] it creeps into ones soul!

We are going back on Sunday for another session. This time although we are taking everyone, the girls, the kiddies, the dogs, the works... We are also going to turn some meat, I'll braai a piece of 'Boerrie' just for you L-H... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

YUP! I have to agree L-H, I've been to France, Turkey, Spain, Greece, Italy, England, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Dubai, and Iraq and so far nothing comes close to Africa...

Hey dude, long time no hear. MAN are those nice pics, thank you so very much for posting them up. And the fish you call Guitarfish, here I think we call Sturgeon. At least that's what they look a lot like.

Anyway glad you had a nice outing and hope everything goes well for you when you take out the whole family.

Hiya S-H, the Guitar fish is a specie of shark, sort of a mix between a ray/sand shark and a normal shark...

Yeah when you called it a Sandie I figured it was something like that. But Do a search for Sturgeon and You will see that they look somewhat alike.

I've only had shark one time and thought it was pretty good. I could handle being in a place like that where you got all kinds of game animals, land and water available to you.

Other than that how are you and your family doing, well I hope.

It's really, really good to be home S-H... The time away just made me realise how important it is to cherish and appreciate family and friends. We often get so caught up in our day to day nonsense that we are inclined to loose focus of what really matters. Of course the system that's in place likes to tempt us with all sorts of goodies making us feel inadequate or wanting/needing more but in most cases we usally have everything we need... Every now and again we just need to be reminded of that fact... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Huh, interesting. Still looks like a sturgeon though! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Sure, rub it in. Next you are going to tell me there will be poike as well. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well seeing you said that... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I've just received an excellent recipe for a Biltong Potjie... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

looks like you had a great day

After last Saturday we decided to give Nhlabane another go on Sunday seeing we weren’t successful in bringing anything home for a braai... We'd planned everything and invited a few extra folks but based on the weather of late in Richards Bay and the reports for the weekend the cancellations came in thick and fast. Nevertheless I woke up at 3:00am on Sunday morning, checked the weather and decided to wait a while as the wind was howling... At 5:00am I checked again, it was slightly overcast but most importantly the wind had died down so I decided to get all the boys out of bed and 'hit the road'... By 6:00am we were moving...





It's hard to believe that 20 odd years ago there was nothing but sand dunes here...







Right, let the games begin...





And it wasn't long and Shane (the luckiest fisherman ever) delivered... A 90cm, approximately 8kg Garrick. The most amazing part of all is that this Garrick must have been extremely hungry or blind because it was caught on sardine... lol.





There were already a few guys at Nhlabane by the time we arrived; with a fierce side wash it forced everyone to seriously increase their weights on their sinkers... lol. By 12:00pm the sea flattened, the wash eased, the wind settled and it turned out to be a superb days fishing...



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At least it wasn't too long and my rod started scream...

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That such a little thing could give me such a hard time was amazing. It felt like I had hooked the oceans plug... lol.

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And of course the day would not have been complete without Ry getting something as well...

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On my 'Big Stick' I'd clipped a Mackerel head which was out for most part of the day, my reel ran properly and after trying to get whatever picked me up to move a little my line parted... Not to mention how my wife almost wet herself when I smashed into the beach and ended up flat on my back... lol.

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Here's my apprentice/sidekick, had him casting a popper until his arms were sore...

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It was an excellent day at the water, I'm glad we took the chance with the weather... At least it worked out in our favour...

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And now for the best part... The eating!!!

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What an excellent way to end a brilliant day...

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Great job !