Many requests were received over the years for the signposting of angling spots along the coast.  And although an angling map with distances and more recently a map with GPS coordinates are available from the Tourist Office, the need were always there for the exact location as the angling spots are most certainly the most popular attraction along our coast.

After lengthy negotiations with Roads Authority The Henties Bay Tourism Association eventually got permission to signpost some of the more popular angling spots along the coast.  With the help of the 4x4 Off-Road Academy and members of the Tourism Association the following 12 angling spots were signposted on 13 and 14 December 2007:

Die Walle, Trappies, Popeye, Sarah se Gat, Mile 68, Canopy, Predikantsgat, Bakleigat, Rondebos, Richtersfeld, Blare, Winston Wreck

This is an attempt to indicate some of the more popular angling spots to visiting fisherman as an attraction, but more importantly to keep them from off-road driving on the highly sensitive desert areas where the Damara Tern, a rare sea swallow endemic to our coast, has its breeding grounds.

SHARK ANGLING

Rock &Surf Angling

Angling map

ANGLING PERMITS

ANGLING REGULATIONS

S.A. IMPORT PERMIT

ACTIVITY OPERATORS

KEEP OUR BEACHES CLEAN!

Many questions are asked about the origin of the names of angling spots along the coast. Some of these names were recorded in the early 1990’s by Ockie van Scalkwyk en Basjan van Niekerk with the help of local anglers, but new names were added with time. Although most of the spots have interesting names, not many of them have a story behind it. More often than not a spot was called after an angler who had a particular good catch on a specific day. In other cases a good spot was named after an object that served as a beacon.

Of these Sarah se Gat is probably the most famous. Sarah De Jager, a born South African who lived with her husband in Windhoek since 1955, regularly came to Henties Bay for holidays where she qualified herself as a master angler.

She was known for her ability to locate good angling holes in the sea by just looking at the water. On a good day in 1958 she spotted such a hole where they caught a huge amount of fish and marked the place with a whalebone against the dune.

Sarah se Gat became so famous that well-known songwriter, Jan de Wet, composed a song called Sarah de Jaer”, which was recorded by Carike Keuzenkamp in 1981.

Winston refers to the place where the Winston shipwreck is lying on the beach.

Rondeklip is marked by a single round boulder on the beach that is only visible at low tide. 

Kastele refers to a pile of round boulders.   

Blare can be recognized by the presence of seaweed in the water just south of the actual spot.

Ou Wrak  refers to a place where an old steel shipwreck is still visible in the ocean.  Nothing is known of this wreck. 

Bakleigat.  As if our coastline is not long enough anglers tend to crowd a spot where there are plenty of fish, which invariably lead to entangled lines and anglers losing their fish and tempers.  Needless to say that this is the perfect arena for a good fight.  Bakleigat was named when a group of “Valies”, obviously a bit overeager and greedy, knocked each other about with gaffs and fists over entangled lines. 

Predikantsgat.  Ds. Killian, a minister from Gobabis, told that a “tannie” was very cross with him because he cast across her line. When he told her that he was a “predikant” she said:  “Predikant se gat – hier *#&+ ek jou vanmore!”   

Kruiswater (not on the map) is situated 13.4 km from the Uis Road just north of Sarah se Gat and is called this because the water forms a cross by flowing in opposite directions.