The angling community is still reeling from the strange disappearance of Jacques Schamrel, 39, last week, who was angling overnight with a friend on a boat on the Sundays River.
There seems to be no clarity around the events of that night, only that he was the only one awake on the boat at the time of his disappearance and is presumed to have gone overboard.
This brings back memories of a near disastrous experience I myself had some years ago, while out on a boat with my two cousins.
I had just bought a brand new rod and reel, and was trying this new rig out for the first time. It being rather an expensive choice I was like a mother hen over her chicks.
During the course of the evening, a few grunter were on the boat; however, my cousin Ken had a fish on the line and I moved my rod to allow him more space to play his fish.
In the dark, I failed to locate the rod holder and as a result my new acquisition went overboard. It was a cold night and we were well-padded for the conditions.
In any event, seeing my rig disappearing into the water, and leaving the glow in the water made by the boat’s light, I leapt into the water to rescue my new acquisition that had yet to catch twice.
So there I was, in the water and with rod in hand by now, but swimming against the fast-flowing tide.My thickly-padded sub-zero jacket soon decreased my buoyancy and I was looking at big trouble. Being a reasonable swimmer, I was not in a panic but would rather have been in the boat than swimming in the dark against a tide that was not going to return to low for the next three hours.
By the time the anchor was up and the boat turned to follow, I would have disappeared into the darkness and out of sight – with possible tragic consequences.
The swift thinking of my younger cousin probably saved me – he reached out to me with a long rod that I was able to reach and hold onto.
I was working hard against the tide and battling to keep my head above the water at this stage.
Should I have been alone on deck I most probably would have suffered the inevitable. Onto a more pleasant topic, on the angling side, the fish remain active and catches are reasonable.
However, the cold has kept some people off the water as the reports of catches have been slow this past week. Sundays River has produced some fine fish with a good kob of 51kg caught by the unknown anglers shown in today’s picture.
It is indeed a catch of note, though we do see more of these fish at this time of year.
This weekend’s weather will see a westerly of about 20km prevailing throughout the weekend.
The barometer will gradually climb during this period. Low tide is at 6.22am tomorrow and we have just passed the three-quarter moon phase, suggesting there should be no great caution for rip currents and dangerous surf conditions.
However, the safety first attitude is always best.