A humpback whale at the Durban Slipway Circa 1909
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.
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