Great White Shark jumps into boat..(A great way to kick off Shark Week!)

 Imagine the flabbergasted look upon Dorien Schroder's face when an estimated 9ft, one-thousand pound Great White Shark leaped into her research vessel early Wednesday morning, near Seal Island in South Africa. Schroder watched the Great White leap over a research intern, and into her vessel while her and her team were chumming sharks up close to the boat for a study they were doing on shark populations in the area.

  Dorien Schroder, team leader, described to the Cape Times what happened next: "Next thing I know I hear a splash, and see a white shark breach out of the water from [the] side of the boat hovering, literally, over the crew member who was chumming on the port side."

 The shark was kept alive for almost an hour with the use of a raw water hose, while a crane was dispatched to the location to help raise the shark off the vessel and release it back into the water, where it will now continue to terrorize the local seal population.

Huffington Post

The Demons of Durban- Part IV

The End of Days

   A shark struggles against the side of the jetty, as countless anglers hold onto ropes that have grapple gaffs attached to the other end digging deeper and deeper into the unlucky specimens flesh as it gives one last violent struggle to try to save its own life.......But the struggle has exhausted the fish, and its day has finally come. The anglers would normally try to drag the shark up onto the jetty, but in some cases, they would allow the shark to suffocate and die, until it was wore out enough to drag it around to the beach side. Once a fish had been brought up onto the jetty or beach, they would enlist the help of as many willing anglers and bystanders possible to help get the shark to their home made weigh station on the jetty adjacent to the railroad tracks. The weigh station was constructed of three metal beams in a pyramid like structure, with a scale attached to the centerpoint to accurately weigh the fish.

Unknown man weighing a small white shark on the clubs homemade scale

 The peak of the fishing season lasted only for a few months each year, but by the 1970's the whale population had declined greatly, therefore the act of whaling was outlawed in the early 70's, ending the era of a style of fishing that we may never see again in our lifetimes. These men and their accomplishments have been lost throughout the burrow of time, which is incredible to even consider due largely inpart to the fact of not only the size of the specimens they were capturing from the jetty, but also the gear these anglers used, and their innovative styles to help them pursuit some of the biggest fish ever caught from a shoreline in history. We have enjoyed being able to bring this multi-part expose to the public to read, and we hope with what we have just done here, that the legendary achievements of these fisherman will live on through many others now as well, and they may not be forgotten once again.

Wyn Moxley with a 1490lb White Shark taken from the jetty

R. Harrison with a 1660lb white shark, the largest ever taken from shore

The Demons of Durban- Part II

 

A humpback whale at the Durban Slipway Circa 1909

"The Gear"

     The anglers would load up their newly acquired whale meat and head southward on the railway that lead to the end of Durban's south jetty, with hopes of taming these beasts that constantly patrolled the harbor. But the tackle and techniques these anglers choose to use were somewhat primitive, even for the day and age they were stalking these sharks. The tackle which was most commonly used to try to tame these giants from the rock laden jetty typically consisted of a wooden Scarborough reel, with rods constructed from locally grown bamboo. These outfits usually held anywhere from 600-800 meters of Flax line, which was then proceeded by a 30 meter length of wire or cable trace, that normally would have a dog chain link somewhere along the leader that was closer to the bait and homemade sinker. To deploy these baits off the jetty and into the shipping channel, one angler would typically hold the rod, while another angler would strip anywhere from 20-40 meters of line off the spool of the Scarborough reel, and lie it flat on the surface of the jetty. At that point, the second man would then take a strap of leather or a belt, and place it through the dog chain link that was on the cable trace leader. After the belt had been secured onto the chain, the second angler would then begin to propel the bait in a helicopter like motion about six or seven times, or until enough momentum had been built up, and then relinquish his grip from the belt, enabling the fifteen to twenty pounds of bait and sinker to sail across the horizon and into the shipping channel. The anglers were also resourceful by using little home made wooden boats, with an oar that is similar to that of todays kayak paddle, to deploy baits out into the shipping lanes, as seen in the video below, which is the only known video to exist of this group of anglers.

'WARE SHARKS!

Peter Botha with a 793lb Great White Shark

     But where did these men put their rods while they were waiting for hell to erupt on the jetty? Well through a labor intensive task, these men carved numerous holes into the slabs of rock that formed the jetty with just hammers and chisels. Each man had their own hole to place the small butt end of their rod in while they awaited the bite that could have made them immortal. Another problem that needed to be addressed , was how to prevent line from coming off of their Scarborough style reels while they waited, for these wooden reels did not have any drag system or anti-reverse. The men were very creative and resourceful in this effort, using a wadded up piece of newspaper placed between the reel and the rod to prevent line from escaping off the reel while in the waiting position.

Angler fighting a shark; Note the Carved holes and the newspaper preventing reel from free spooling.

 Up to this point, the anglers had it all figured out, from how to get the bait, to how to deploy their lines. But alas, the toughest part was still ahead of them, and far from over ever before it began, for the epic battles of the South Jetty of Durban were about to commence, and separate the men from the boys..........

Anglers from the club proudly displaying their 33 Bull and Dusky catch from a mere 5 hours of fishing

The Demons of Durban- Part I