I recently had the pleasure of meeting Darryl and Charne Hiscock, who came up from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to celebrate their Honeymoon that couldn't happen last year due to work commitments. Shows you the skill of the man who, not only got the girl, but introduced his beautiful wife to spearfishing, and got her to come spearfishing on this special time...
The thing about this lifestyle which always astounds me, is that it doesn't matter where you come from, or what you do- fishermen and spearos will always bond with stories of our adventures. We love to talk about our experiences, and share stories of memorable times spent in and on the water. For once he was doing most of the talking- not me.
Darryl is an experienced spearo, who has been spearfishing since young. He was part of the Eastern Province team that won the South African national spearfishing championships in 2012. This at the age of 38. It just goes to show that it's a lifestyle that goes along with clean living and being in shape. People shouldn't even start saying about what a kill sport this is, because they have no clue what is involved with shooting big fish. The dedication, time spent, energy- not to mention money that goes into getting good fish these days is only understood by someone who has been with these spearos for days and days, only to get one chance, and sometimes not only that.
Maybe it was El Nino? Maybe it was King Neptune, but the weather gods didn't shine favourably on us. We had a continuous North Easter blow for 2 weeks. Not only is this unusual, but unheard of. It made the water green and reduced vis to 5-8 meters. We only had a week to fish, and we really didn't get any chances. November is usually one of our best months, so it was really disappointing to be dealt this hand.
Conditions were really tough, and it just shows the calibre of the guy to still get a 20kg cuta, and lost a bigger one because the barb didn't open properly after a good shot. In the excitement, we lost a good flasher that simply disappeared. Open Ocean sure is a big place to find a marker buoy.
We spent some time around shallower reefs, which allowed Charne to get a nice Rubber lip of around 4 kgs. She dived, saw the fish, and subsequently spined it!
One of the first times she went down on the main reef, she popped up and said- "there's a shark down there, to which Darryl subsequently said- it's a Zambie (Zambezi or bull shark) don't worry about it! The jury is still deliberating on whether she believed him, but she is a good sport and it's great to see women getting involved the way she is- well done Charne!; you have my respect! Keep up trying and you will get better all the time.
Better luck next time- we keep at it... I'm fortunate to meet the people I do, and hope for many more days out there. See you on, or in the water sometime. Let's go fishing!