Hi There,

My name is Michael Hutchinson and I am from Durban, South Africa. I stumbled on your website doing a search for fishfinders for my fishing ski (what you call kayak). Kwa-zulu Natal is the province I live in, and we have a warm tropical coastline. Our waters are rich, and teaming with gamefish, and offshore fishing in our part of the world is a popular sport.

We have traditionally always fished off big boats that we launch through the surf, and harbours up and down the coast. A few years back, guys would fish off racing paddle-skis, trolling lures for various game-fish. After successful catches we started to modify these skis, because the racing skis were very unstable and had no hatches. As the years have passed our skis have evolved to a more comfortable, stable and a system where everything is inside hatches (we need our gear to be inside the ski because of the surf conditions we launch through, as our coastline is generally battered by rough seas. Our skis are glass fibre, and not plastics like yours, although the plastics are now available.

There are a handful of us that are very active in the sport and enjoy some very rewarding catches. We target King mackerel mainly, with trolled baits (we call them cuda), yellowfin tuna on trolled lures, Dolphin fish and Queen Mackerel. We encounter the odd Sailfish, and I was fortunate enough to land a 70kg black Marlin off the ski, an incredible experience.