The history of SCITECH
HOW IT ALL BEGAN - By Inventor & patent holder Karl Bezuidenhout
As a young boy, I grew up with fond memories of my extended and large family travelling every year to a small Kwa Zulu Natal coastal town of Margate during the annual Shad or Elf as they are known in South Africa, or Bluefish or Tailor in other parts of the world, where absolute fishing mayhem was taking place off the Margate pier.
I always remember as a young boy, a few ‘heavyweight anglers’ positioned at the ends of the pier, sliding live baits down their lines, & hooking into the most incredible fish, & this of course caught my attention with dreams of one hooking into one of those massive Garrick reaching up to 30KG or Cob (Mulloway) & many other dream fish, but the ‘science’ behind this strategic angling really caught my attention, & it just made sense to have a bait that was actively attracting fish rather than just lying motionless at the bottom of the ocean waiting for a fish to stumble past it, needless to say, I was hooked!
I always remember as a young boy, a few ‘heavyweight anglers’ positioned at the ends of the pier, sliding live baits down their lines, & hooking into the most incredible fish, & this of course caught my attention with dreams of one hooking into one of those massive Garrick reaching up to 30KG or Cob (Mulloway) & many other dream fish, but the ‘science’ behind this strategic angling really caught my attention, & it just made sense to have a bait that was actively attracting fish rather than just lying motionless at the bottom of the ocean waiting for a fish to stumble past it, needless to say, I was hooked!
Through the rest of my fishing adventures, I always tried my best to fish ‘live bait’ but this is easier said than done, because you first need to catch the live bait, & keep them alive & strong enough to be ready for the trauma of being slid down a live bait rig when you are ready to fish This was always a challenge, but when I got it right, it paid incredible dividends & has always been my preferred way of angling because of this.
On one particular fishing trip with a friend who is well-known as one of (if not the) best professional angling tour guides, Spyker Kruger. We had our lines in & everything was perfect for fishing & we knew the fish were in the vicinity, but because we were fishing with dead baits consisting of pilchard fillets, we had to wait patiently for the fish to come across the bait, but I knew that there were many fish in very close proximity & only wished that I had a means to draw them to my bait, & I began to imagine how awesome it would be if I could ‘animate’ my dead bait, to simulate a live bait & attract those fish that were simply passing by, & so the beginnings of SCITECH VIBRASENSE was birthed!
My late father Mr Jack Bezuidenhout & myself with a nice Kob (Mulloway).
I understood from my past experience that fish used complex sensory organs throughout their body SUCH AS the lateral line to pick up minute vibrations in the water from prey species when hunting & locate their prey that was out of sight, & that’s why the struggling live bait was so successful in drawing fish because of these vibrations, & so I thought that if I could get my dead bait, to vibrate like a cell phone, then that would be first class!
Being passionate about & angling & specifically this project, I wanted to develop something that was a masterpiece in fishing tools, something of the highest quality, functionality, effectivity, longevity & something that I could use myself for my own fishing pleasure, although making money out of it would be great, but that was, and is secondary, because I would be quite happy keeping it to myself as long as it works, really works! Then I would be happy, but with all honestly it works so unbelievably & incredibly great, that without using when fishing, it I find angling pointless.
I employed a team of some of South Africa’s best professionals in electronic & industrial engineering, & began the painstaking journey to develop this incredible dream making it a reality. After many years of prototype development & consistent research, testing & after many, many failures, I finally found what seemed to be the perfect candidate for the SCITECH VIBRASENSE & headed off once more back to the Namibian fishing waters, to fish with Spyker Kruger once again where it all began & field test ‘another protype’ & very hopeful for a breakthrough, & this time taking with my father who was also a keen fisherman & very competitive but extremely fortunate or lucky, whatever you want to call it, because no matter how much I tried he always beat me, but this time, I had a special surprise for him, an Ace up my sleeve so to speak.
Spyker as usual took us to where the fish were, & he and my father baited up & cast their lines in & were already playing the ‘waiting game’ as they hoped a nice Cob will stumble across their lifeless baits in the water, but I took a bit longer than them preparing my rig complete with my VIBRASENSE protype, because I used beaten ‘chokka’ or calamari (squid) fillets to cover the VIBRASENSE which formed part of my hook & main bait.
After giving Spyker & my father a head start of at least 15 minutes, I proceeded to cast my line right in the middle of both of theirs who were approximately 20 meters apart, placing my bait within approximately 10 meters of each of theirs. As my line hit the water & settled at the bottom of the ocean floor, I immediately reeled in the slack & started to place my fishing rod into the rod holder, but as I was doing this, a Cob hit my bait like a steam train & my rod went flat & I was on! This was all within about 40 seconds in the water.
I employed a team of some of South Africa’s best professionals in electronic & industrial engineering, & began the painstaking journey to develop this incredible dream making it a reality. After many years of prototype development & consistent research, testing & after many, many failures, I finally found what seemed to be the perfect candidate for the SCITECH VIBRASENSE & headed off once more back to the Namibian fishing waters, to fish with Spyker Kruger once again where it all began & field test ‘another protype’ & very hopeful for a breakthrough, & this time taking with my father who was also a keen fisherman & very competitive but extremely fortunate or lucky, whatever you want to call it, because no matter how much I tried he always beat me, but this time, I had a special surprise for him, an Ace up my sleeve so to speak.
Spyker as usual took us to where the fish were, & he and my father baited up & cast their lines in & were already playing the ‘waiting game’ as they hoped a nice Cob will stumble across their lifeless baits in the water, but I took a bit longer than them preparing my rig complete with my VIBRASENSE protype, because I used beaten ‘chokka’ or calamari (squid) fillets to cover the VIBRASENSE which formed part of my hook & main bait.
After giving Spyker & my father a head start of at least 15 minutes, I proceeded to cast my line right in the middle of both of theirs who were approximately 20 meters apart, placing my bait within approximately 10 meters of each of theirs. As my line hit the water & settled at the bottom of the ocean floor, I immediately reeled in the slack & started to place my fishing rod into the rod holder, but as I was doing this, a Cob hit my bait like a steam train & my rod went flat & I was on! This was all within about 40 seconds in the water.
I pulled in a nice size Kob & was elated. Thoughts were flooding my mind, ‘Did the SCITECH VIBRASENSE really work!?’ I used the same bait because there was still some chokka left on & went to the same spot, cast my line in right in the middle of Spyker and my father’s lines & this time, as the bait hit the water & I was tightening my slack line, within 20 seconds……boom! Another steam train Kob hit it & hit it hard! I was on again! My adrenalin was pumping so bad, but not so much because of the fish that was on, but because I knew that there was a very strong potential that this was the SCITECH VIBRASENSE working its magic. Trying to remain calm, shaking like a leaf, my father glaring at me & raising his eyebrow because he was feeling the competition heating up, I took off my fish & proceeded to the water’s edge & guess what?……..ON AGAIN!
Now this time there was no doubt that SCITECH VIBRASENSE was working & Spyker who had tested the different prototypes with me many times over the years, was high fiving me saying, “Boet! SCITECH works, it really works man!” WOW what fond memories. I proceeded to catch 5 fish in quick succession & although SCITECH attracted so many fish, it even managed to attract my father who came looking over my shoulder to see what it was that had tipped the scales so dramatically in my favour & wanting what I had. Throughout that angling session, neither Spyker nor my father caught a single fish, only SCITECH VIBRASENSE DID!
Once this rough prototype milestone in effectiveness was finally reached, the journey began to develop a product that could be not only effective but functional & practical that could be released to the public. There were many design hurdles to overcome & although the idea seemed quite simple in concept, the design & development was significantly more complex & exponentially more costly than anticipated. It has taken 12 years of painstaking sacrifice, research, finance, design, development, failure, re-engineering and more failure until finally I was 100% confident in the SCITECH VIBRASENSE angling instrument. Scitech was released it to the public in 2022 for everyone’s angling pleasure & success. I know that you will enjoy just as much as I do,
Tight lines & God bless, Karl Bezuidenhout.
Now this time there was no doubt that SCITECH VIBRASENSE was working & Spyker who had tested the different prototypes with me many times over the years, was high fiving me saying, “Boet! SCITECH works, it really works man!” WOW what fond memories. I proceeded to catch 5 fish in quick succession & although SCITECH attracted so many fish, it even managed to attract my father who came looking over my shoulder to see what it was that had tipped the scales so dramatically in my favour & wanting what I had. Throughout that angling session, neither Spyker nor my father caught a single fish, only SCITECH VIBRASENSE DID!
Once this rough prototype milestone in effectiveness was finally reached, the journey began to develop a product that could be not only effective but functional & practical that could be released to the public. There were many design hurdles to overcome & although the idea seemed quite simple in concept, the design & development was significantly more complex & exponentially more costly than anticipated. It has taken 12 years of painstaking sacrifice, research, finance, design, development, failure, re-engineering and more failure until finally I was 100% confident in the SCITECH VIBRASENSE angling instrument. Scitech was released it to the public in 2022 for everyone’s angling pleasure & success. I know that you will enjoy just as much as I do,
Tight lines & God bless, Karl Bezuidenhout.
