OLD BOY'S ANGLING CLUB was officially founded in 1961 but had been loosely formed many years before. Though an "open" club, most of it's core members are ex-pupils of one of Durban's oldest established schools, namely Durban High School for Boys. The Club is a competitive one and considers itself as one of the senior clubs within the Union ( the latter presently consisting of 43 clubs, which in turn represent some 1200 member anglers) and prides itself on it's junior development efforts through Club ranks.

The membership of the Club is relatively small ( but representative within Natal club terms) having some 30 members. Over the years, the Club has had a number of it's members achieving their Senior and Junior Provincial Caps, with one Junior angler, Simon Peacock, having the honour of receiving his Springbok colours and also captaining the National side.

Briefly, the Club fishes according to the N.C.A.U. rules which means a team of 8 anglers plus reserves, to fish a continuous 6-hour period between 20h00 on a Friday to midnight on the Sunday. The angling takes place between two fixed points on the Natal shoreline, not more than 10 nautical miles apart - both, time and location, being at the Club's discretion.

The Natal coastline faces the Indian Ocean which gives us water temperatures up to 26 degrees C in summer and down to a low of approximately 19 degrees C in the winter months. This, plus the extreme diversity of the 700 km coastline, gives the competitive angler a vast choice as to location and fish species to target.

OLD BOY'S ANGLING CLUB by preference would, typically, in the summer months (January to April) fish the flat, sandy beaches of Zululand, using 4x4 beach vehicles in search of Skate/Ray species and Sand sharks(Giant Guitar fish). During summer months these fish come to bask or breed in shallow tidal waters before returning to deeper levels or northwards along the East African coastline. Individuals are commonly landed over many hours of battle, weighing 100 kg's or more. In these circumstances, OLD BOY'S ANGLING CLUB recorded it's heaviest weight ever in a competition round in 1992, of 1,807 kg's over a six hour/8 man period. Other than flatfish, sharks are a predominant competition specie off the Natal shores. In 1995, a Junior member landed a Ragged Tooth Shark of 158,0 kg's.

The ethic of OLD BOY'S ANGLING CLUB is simply an amateur one; to promote and foster what we believe is a healthy outdoor recreational sport - all our inedible fish, wherever possible, are returned alive to the water. Most of the members participate in the Oceanographic Research Institute's "Tag and Release" programme.

John Andow