Catch and cook, diving in the Western Cape.

Diving Rooiels, Western Cape

Yesterday was the second last day of January's crayfish season, so obviously we had to make the best of it. It was an awesome day to be in Rooiels, the the sun was shining, there was no wind, barely any swell and the sea was as clean as it gets.

Quite eager to get into the water we all got into our wetsuits as quick as we could and hurried down to the water. I had a friend with me who is new to the sport, so I had to teach him how to catch crayfish and how to spearfish. I purposefully took him to Rooiels because it is one of the best bays to learn how to dive. What makes it a great place to learn is the fact that the bay is quite protected from strong currents and it is relatively shallow.

We finally got into the water and started making our way out towards my favorite hunting grounds. It is approximately 200m from the shore along the kelp line, it is approximately 8m deep where we usually dive with a pinnacle coming up to 3m from the surface. The perfect place to teach a new diver, because of the pinnacle the new diver can start at a shallow depth and work his way down to the bottom.

On my second dive, as I swam down alongside the pinnacle to the bottom, I saw what would soon be my lunch. My first and only catch for the day was a nice size John Brown (as called in South Africa). The rest of the day my friend shot three smallish fish and we gathered our daily allowance of crayfish.

Here we are after the dive:

So off home I went to prepare my lunch. First of all I had to gut the fish, this was done at the sea, then I cleaned it off and removed the skin:

After filleting the fish it went straight to the pan, I only added a little salt, garlic and garlic and herb spices:

Ten minutes later I had it cooked to perfection:

It is definitely one of my favorite pastimes, and one of the most sustainable ways to put food on the table.