Angolan angles

As a release from his teaching duties in southwest Africa, New Zealander Isaac Russell likes to fish or dive in the coastal South Atlantic.

Anglers can relate their experiences from almost anywhere in the world, but few have enjoyed the fishing experiences of Isaac Russell.

He played rugby for the Timaru Boys' High School First XV before playing at fullback for the Otago Colts and later South Canterbury. He played rugby in France and Scotland before returning for two club seasons in Nelson.

He graduated as a teacher and took a position at Nelson's Birchwood School. During his three years in Nelson he met Michelle, now his wife. A fellow schoolteacher, she joined Isaac on some international travel that saw them teaching in the concrete jungle that is Dubai.

An offer to teach at an international school in Angola attracted them, and they recently completed three years teaching in Luanda. The school hosts about 600 students through to year 13.

"In my classes of 24 year- five students (9 to 10-year- olds), I have perhaps 20 different nationalities. Overall, the school probably hosts 50 to 60 different nationalities," he says.

Michelle has been teaching year six and seven students at the same school.

"We live in a fenced compound in a very new high- rise building that features all modern facilities," says Isaac.

"Readers will clearly understand that despite my oral understanding of the Portuguese language and my natural interest to interact with the local people, my real release is to enjoy fishing or diving off the Angolan coast."

His interest in the great outdoors began with fishing trips to Lake Tekapo and hunting trips in the central South Island.

"In Luanda with three teachers from the school, we make every effort to go fishing two, three, or perhaps five times a week. Two of my fishing buddies are from Ireland and one is from New Zealand."

Water temperature plays a large part in determining where Isaac goes fishing. "A change of half a degree in water temperature can see a significant change in the fish species present and we sometimes find the ocean is suddenly devoid of fish after we cross into another temperature zone. The Atlantic Ocean is almost always calm along the Angolan coast. Inshore waters are usually quite discoloured - mainly from surface run-off along the coast and the heavily polluted Kwanza River that runs through Angola.

"We regularly go out 25 to 30 nautical miles in our low- sided 7.5-metre centre-console boat powered by a V6 outboard. There's VHF communications on board. We often target blue marlin, sailfish, and mahi-mahi, and generally tow plastic lures behind the boat. We also enjoy dives on the many shipwrecks we encounter," says Isaac.

"While coastal reefs are relatively rare, shipwrecks provide the foul ground around which many of the fish species can be seen. We regularly see hundreds of dolphins and lots of pilot, humpback, and sperm whales. Is not at all unusual to find turtles laying their eggs on a beach.

"There are two fishing clubs in the area. We belong to Clube Navel de Luanda. A one-off membership fee of around US$300 and an annual club's fee of about US$1000, plus a US$500 boat licence might appear to make this an expensive sport, but we split it four ways."

Isaac says the relatively short distance to the launch ramp can be complicated by the traffic patterns and takes anything from one hour to three hours to negotiate.

"That's why we have a local guy fuel the boat and make sure it is ready to launch immediately we arrive at the ramp. Petrol is cheap at US49 cents per litre but outboard oil costs US$20 per litre. Usually it costs us around US$300 to fill the tank.

"My largest catch from the boat is a mahi-mahi of 23kg but I prefer diving and have taken a 53kg groper. Offshore the water can offer as much as 18 to 20 metres visibility, and by careful observation we often find large numbers of big fish congregating around something as useless as a floating plastic bag. As many as 18 to 20 dorado could be behind such rubbish. We don't take more than we can eat, but it would be a rare day that we couldn't get a boat full of fish if we wanted to."

Some of the best spear fishing in Angola involves perhaps 10 hours of serious 4x4 trekking on dirt roads. "There are no fisheries regulations regarding size or quota and local people sell their catch to restaurants," he says.

Will Isaac and Michelle return to live in New Zealand?

"Very definitely," says Isaac. "We plan to start our family in New Zealand, and seeing my main sporting interest is hunting, I can't wait to get into the Southern Alps in search of tahr and other game animals."

But before that Isaac plans some spectacular hunting time across the border, in Namibia.

- © Fairfax NZ News