Amazed Kowie anglers hook "Satan's child"

SATAN’S CHILD: The massive Cape Conger eel caught in the Kowie River recently Picture: MARK BURGESS
SATAN’S CHILD: The massive Cape Conger eel caught in the Kowie River recently Picture: MARK BURGESS
Two Port Alfred fishermen and a boy of eight almost bit off more than they could chew when they hooked a monster eel that looked like “Satan’s child”.

The 1.8m Cape Conger eel with razor-sharp teeth was hooked while the anglers were throwing a late- night line in the Kowie River.

Pick n Pay managers Mark Burgess and Bradley Heath choked on their beers when they first spotted the monster in the beams of their headlight torches as it broke through the surface of the dark water on Heath’s line.

“It looked like something out of a horror movie – it was a wicked thing with big, sharp teeth,” Burgess said yesterday. “We got the fright of our lives when we saw the thing going ape, snapping its teeth together … we just looked at each other and called it Satan’s Child.”

Heath, Burgess and his son Joshua, 8, were so amazed by the catch they put the eel aside on the small boat harbour wharf while they tried google it on their cellphones.

“It had been out the water for about an hour and we thought it was dead so I touched it mid-body with a knife and it immediately snapped around and bit.

“It grabbed the knife, shook hard and would not let go – if it was my finger, it would have taken it off.”

The spooked group then decided to chop the eel in half just behind the side fins so Heath could preserve the jaws for his pub – and it was still snapping away when they touched it 30 minutes later.

“It still wanted to bite us. I have never seen anything like this before – and never want to see it again.”

Although Burgess has been fishing the Kowie since he was a child, he has never seen or caught a Conger eel before.

“I have shown the pictures to angling friends and it has caused quite a stir because not many people have seen or caught a Conger eel.

“I even have people coming into my work to ask to see the pictures.”

Rhodes University Ichthyology and fisheries science professor Peter Britz said yesterday the Conger eel (Conger wilsoni) was a marine fish found in estuaries, rocky pools and gullies between Mozambique and the Cape in water up to 5m deep. The maximum recorded length of one caught locally was 1.5m, up to now. — davidm@dispatch.co.za

subscribe

Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.