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The 1000 Pound Club:

The 1000 pound club consisted of an elite band of shark anglers who fished from Durban's North and South piers. The target of the fisherman were the large sharks that followed the whale carcasses as they were being towed to the whaling station. The fishermen's tackle consisted of locally grown bamboo rods and large wooden Scarborough reels. The fisherman did not make use of a fighting chair or harness to battling the sharks, which on average weighed 350kg.The bait consisted of 2 to 3 kg chunks of whale meat cut from carcasses. The fisherman made use of boats, or a casting technique simelar to fly-fishing, to get the bait out to the sharks. Once the shark had been hooked, the fisherman faced the problem of being unable to raise the sharks onto the pier, due to the size and weight of the animale. The shark was landed by bringing it along side the pier. The angler would then clamber down to the rocks to the shark and place a noose around the neck, which enabled the shark to be pulled to the beach.

A trophy was handed to the angler who landed the largest shark. Between 1947 and 1975, thirteen great whites were landed over 454kg's (1000lb), the heaviest weighing 754kg's.

Above:Picture of the largest Great White caught from terra firma on rod and line without any aids except for a rod bucket around the waist and a hand pad. The shark was hooked from the South Pier at 3.05pm and landed on the beach at the base of the pier at 9.00pm