I woud like to share a kind of "check list" made about spearfishing trip ups and DOWNS... items that could mainly wrecked your spearfishing stay or not! Spearos do not have obviously any control on most of them...
So I have been recently staying for one week in Hout Bay/ South Africa: not my first steps in spearing Cape Town area or freediving the magnificent SA coast.
A check list of some concerns if you plan a faraway trip, in particular... but there are probably much more items and your experienced feedback is welcome!
-Wil you get sick or injured just before leaving: no!
-Will you get perso/ pro problem making the trip canceled? no!
-Will you get all your stuff after the flight? NO!:( and I had to wait three days and an half before they delivered my diving and gun bags from USA, wrecking 1/2 of my stay
-Will the capitain/ crew be fit: yes!
-Will the boat be ok during all your stay: Yes! but one of the 250hp motor broke down at the time we were getting back earlier during the last day because of an unexpected storm. I guess we have all amazing boat problem to share wich wrecked your trip?
-Will mother nature be friendly with you? certainly Not! as usually there... 20% may be, . You may observe in this area "the four seasons in the same day". We had to cancel several times boating because of he main concern: the swell. Despite a light wind, the offshore swell can increase up to 12/ 15ft in a couple of hours, making diving from the boat unsafety and impossible to organize. Currents are pretty strong there because we had to boat on a fishy point where the warm-water Aghulas current meets the cold water Benguela current and turns back on itself, a point that fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point. So water temp inshore was about 9 C and 19 C off shore on the surface but dramatically dropping beyond 15feet depth . I have been staying there 7 days and I finally could only make 2 and1/2 days boating with fair sea conditions.
Will the fish be present/ active during your stay? April is one of the high tuna fishing moment there but pretty much less fishy than the years before at the same time
I could only spot a couple of about 30kg yfin tuna and few medium size longfin tuna: a little restless/ deep and scattered school : Empty!
We have been trying every day to hunt close to a longliner boat at about 40/ 50 miles off the coast. Action during deep sea fishing ("heck)" may attract tuna from the depth close to the surface... but it did'nt work as well as chuming. In this context it tysed much more seals and sharks++: mako and blue everywhere patrolling.
You have better leaving aside a possible GW encounter is in this contex or you should stay sticked on the deck...;)