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 REGULATIONS

S.A. IMPORT PERMIT

ACTIVITY OPERATORS

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.