I have struggled with my spearfishing this year purely as a result of the horrid conditions. However, there has been a sudden spark which has rekindled my enthusiasm. I have been on leave for a week, hoping to get some good water and do some diving. The conditions remained poor but a gap in the weather did shine through on the 3 December. Michael, Justin and I headed out to see if we could find anything. We launched at 17:45 considering NSW has daylight saving, that is an hour earlier than it looks and headed off to see what we could find. The sea was not as clean as it had appeared, it was also quite cold. There was a current coming from the NE. We travelled to several different spots looking for a sign of any fish activity. After dropping in on 3 different areas and not finding anything, we decided to head back.
Justin wanted a quick look in the cave at NW Island and I was not too excited. There seemed to be nothing going on. Michael and Justin quickly swam over to the cave and Michael showed Justin a couple of Jewfish lying in a gutter. Justin was looking elsewhere and the sound of his Riffe discharging alerted Michael to his attempt. He turned and saw a Samsonfish struggling on the spear. I arrived to see Justin subduing his Samson and heard Michael saying that he had seen Jew. I swam to the gutter leading into the cave and saw a massive amount of Bulls-eyes hanging inside of the gutter and obviously disturbed. 2 large jew then swam out of the gutter. Michael was saying there were more fish in the cave and I ducked into the gutter, swimming into the lower opening of the cave.
The opening from the gutter resembles a crack leading into the main structure then up towards some sand and a smaller opening. I lay inside the cave behind a fairly large rock and looked intently at the light on the other side. I saw the silhouette of the jew as it moved from the right to the left. It was obviously looking into the dark and was not aware of my presence. I lined up my speargun where I imagined the fish would appear. Its eye appeared and I fired instinctively. It rolled onto its side incapacitated.
The light on the other side beckoned and I swam out into the twilight of the early evening, stopping to pull the fish free. I knew it was big but the dark of the cave can be deceptive. Michael's eyes and excitement told me what I already expected. This was a big fish. Puffing and struggling to drag the fish to the boat then haul it aboard and pose for photos. I was bushed. Its tail stuck out of the esky. The relief of having been able to land it successfully was overwhelming. We weighed it at one of the club's scales and it weighed 31.7kg. Probably a new 'Best-of-the-Best' and a significant milestone in my diving, one that will forever remain in a memory.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
26 November 2009
A little more than a month has elapsed since I last posted anything on this blog. That is not for lack of wanting to post something but because there has been little or nothing to talk about. The weather settled for a time, then flooded again (5th flood event this year) turned the ocean to crap. Looked like we were going to see some improved conditions and wham, massive northerlies bring in the cold winter water. Viz went from looking reasonable at 8-15m to a little better than 1m and the sea temperature dropped about 5 degrees too.
There are a few die-hards who can find their secret little cray holes blindfolded, YIPPY KAI YAY! They have taken some crays, also some abalone about. From a fish point of view, there is lots of promise with the first cobia and mackerel of the season having been landed. Kingfish still abound and there is a healthy mix of numbers and some real size fish. In the moments when conditions have allowed, samsonfish are at the recognized pinnacles too. I have heard of a really good jew being taken but the diver in question has kept it under wraps? There are lots of snapper and bluebar parrot but conditions just do not allow you to hang around waiting for them to come to you. The current just pushes you off. Justin did get a good 7kg parrot recently.
Probably time to look at getting my fitness in order because when conditions allow, I am going to be making a pig of myself. Anyone who believes spearfishing is easy, is fooling themselves!
There are a few die-hards who can find their secret little cray holes blindfolded, YIPPY KAI YAY! They have taken some crays, also some abalone about. From a fish point of view, there is lots of promise with the first cobia and mackerel of the season having been landed. Kingfish still abound and there is a healthy mix of numbers and some real size fish. In the moments when conditions have allowed, samsonfish are at the recognized pinnacles too. I have heard of a really good jew being taken but the diver in question has kept it under wraps? There are lots of snapper and bluebar parrot but conditions just do not allow you to hang around waiting for them to come to you. The current just pushes you off. Justin did get a good 7kg parrot recently.
Probably time to look at getting my fitness in order because when conditions allow, I am going to be making a pig of myself. Anyone who believes spearfishing is easy, is fooling themselves!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
22 October 2009
It has been utterly dismal. The sea has been atrocious and the weather just seems to stack the odds against getting back into the ocean ever again. There has been so little diving since the Classic was held, I think I can honestly count the number of dive days on one hand. Great days? Maybe 1 this year! My patience is being sorely tested and I don't know how long I will remain sane at this rate. I really need to start diving again or accept that diving in mud will be my lot in life.
17 October:
I apologise to those readers following the spearfishing column. Unfortunately I have to put in some time at work and with the sudden increase in ticks; I have been kept very busy saving pets’ lives and the column suffered as a result. Things have quietened down just a little to allow me writing this article. The past few weeks have been dismal on the spearfishing front. The last club competition was rescheduled because of poor conditions then cancelled because conditions stayed bad. I don’t know of any divers who have taken fish recently.
At the recent club meeting, we were reflecting on the number of really good days we have seen this season and unanimously agreed that we have only seen one great day. The fisho’s seem to be cracking it with some good catches of pearlies, jew and snapper coming in over the grapevine. The good news is that divers out wide have seen some big dolphinfish and the clear water is lying just off the shelf.
The death of Jacob Lollback, a fit competent spearo came as a shock to all spearos. It has heightened awareness of the danger associated with this sport. In an effort to promote safe diving, the club will be running some safety programs in the near future. These promise to be extremely informative and useful. At this stage Mike Wells the diver who swam through the cave at Fish Rock is touted as presenting this course. There will be some training sessions scheduled to take place in the pool at Woolgoolga. John Featherstone is on top of this initiative and there should be some information made available shortly. We are also looking at holding a freediving course presented by the world-renowned freediver, Erez Beatus. Members are encouraged to forward their email addresses to the committee to be included on our mailings with regard to these important events.
Underwater hockey is doing well on Monday evenings 6pm-7pm at the Memorial Pool. This is great training for spearfishing and anyone is welcome to come along to see what all the fuss is about. Scuba divers would benefit greatly from the training as your dive times will improve significantly.
The next club meeting will be at the Woolgoolga RSL on Wednesday 21 October at 7:30pm with the next club competition scheduled for Sunday 25 October.
24 October:
The freedive course has been scheduled for the first weekend in December, unfortunately all the places were filled within an hour of the details being finalised. As a result of the high level of interest, I am sure we will be able to present another course early in the new year. John Featherstone has arranged a session at the Woolgoolga pool for any interested spearos who want to test their guns at submerged targets. It also gives you the ability of making sure your gun is still in adequate working order after all the time it has been neglected this season. Wednesday 11 November is the scheduled date for this pool session and there will be some Riffe spearguns available to test too. Rob Mutton is busy with the safety course and the dates will be forwarded as soon as they become available.
Unfortunately there is little to report on the spearfishing front. Some fish have been landed for the plate but there have been no particularly noteworthy catches made. Very few crayfish have been seen, let alone landed. The odd painted crayfish have been collected and, interestingly enough, some purple crayfish, which are unusal visitors to our area. The weather conditions this Spring have been exceptionally poor and we are all keen for some good conditions. Divers who have been rock-hopping, when conditions allow, also report few jewfish around. Anyone who still believes that spearfishing is an easy sport is massively ill-informed.
Patience is a virtue and at this stage the best advice I can offer is to look after your fitness, in the hope that we get some better conditions in the future. Research is being conducted on wahoo and an appeal has been made for spearos or fishos to send wahoo frames to the researcher. Last season 100 frames were used in the study and the hopes are for 300 specimens to be examined this season. Anyone wishing to make a frame available should contact Mitchell.Zischke@csiro.au.
The next club competition is scheduled for this Sunday 15 October, from Arrawarra. Please contact Flange on Saturday evening to confirm participation in the event. If you are not keen to compete, you are welcome to come along for a social dive as there are usually spaces available on the boats for additional divers.
17 October:
I apologise to those readers following the spearfishing column. Unfortunately I have to put in some time at work and with the sudden increase in ticks; I have been kept very busy saving pets’ lives and the column suffered as a result. Things have quietened down just a little to allow me writing this article. The past few weeks have been dismal on the spearfishing front. The last club competition was rescheduled because of poor conditions then cancelled because conditions stayed bad. I don’t know of any divers who have taken fish recently.
At the recent club meeting, we were reflecting on the number of really good days we have seen this season and unanimously agreed that we have only seen one great day. The fisho’s seem to be cracking it with some good catches of pearlies, jew and snapper coming in over the grapevine. The good news is that divers out wide have seen some big dolphinfish and the clear water is lying just off the shelf.
The death of Jacob Lollback, a fit competent spearo came as a shock to all spearos. It has heightened awareness of the danger associated with this sport. In an effort to promote safe diving, the club will be running some safety programs in the near future. These promise to be extremely informative and useful. At this stage Mike Wells the diver who swam through the cave at Fish Rock is touted as presenting this course. There will be some training sessions scheduled to take place in the pool at Woolgoolga. John Featherstone is on top of this initiative and there should be some information made available shortly. We are also looking at holding a freediving course presented by the world-renowned freediver, Erez Beatus. Members are encouraged to forward their email addresses to the committee to be included on our mailings with regard to these important events.
Underwater hockey is doing well on Monday evenings 6pm-7pm at the Memorial Pool. This is great training for spearfishing and anyone is welcome to come along to see what all the fuss is about. Scuba divers would benefit greatly from the training as your dive times will improve significantly.
The next club meeting will be at the Woolgoolga RSL on Wednesday 21 October at 7:30pm with the next club competition scheduled for Sunday 25 October.
24 October:
The freedive course has been scheduled for the first weekend in December, unfortunately all the places were filled within an hour of the details being finalised. As a result of the high level of interest, I am sure we will be able to present another course early in the new year. John Featherstone has arranged a session at the Woolgoolga pool for any interested spearos who want to test their guns at submerged targets. It also gives you the ability of making sure your gun is still in adequate working order after all the time it has been neglected this season. Wednesday 11 November is the scheduled date for this pool session and there will be some Riffe spearguns available to test too. Rob Mutton is busy with the safety course and the dates will be forwarded as soon as they become available.
Unfortunately there is little to report on the spearfishing front. Some fish have been landed for the plate but there have been no particularly noteworthy catches made. Very few crayfish have been seen, let alone landed. The odd painted crayfish have been collected and, interestingly enough, some purple crayfish, which are unusal visitors to our area. The weather conditions this Spring have been exceptionally poor and we are all keen for some good conditions. Divers who have been rock-hopping, when conditions allow, also report few jewfish around. Anyone who still believes that spearfishing is an easy sport is massively ill-informed.
Patience is a virtue and at this stage the best advice I can offer is to look after your fitness, in the hope that we get some better conditions in the future. Research is being conducted on wahoo and an appeal has been made for spearos or fishos to send wahoo frames to the researcher. Last season 100 frames were used in the study and the hopes are for 300 specimens to be examined this season. Anyone wishing to make a frame available should contact Mitchell.Zischke@csiro.au.
The next club competition is scheduled for this Sunday 15 October, from Arrawarra. Please contact Flange on Saturday evening to confirm participation in the event. If you are not keen to compete, you are welcome to come along for a social dive as there are usually spaces available on the boats for additional divers.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
3 September 2009
The weather improved very nicely over the weekend. Started off diving on Saturday morning. Conditions weren't too spectacular. We were diving over the low tide period and in spite of really applying ourselves to the task at hand, we came away with nothing for our troubles. From my point of view, a day diving is never a complete loss. You always learn about new points and detail about approaching areas you may have ignored before. Sometimes you think that you know an area until some-one tells you exactly how to approach the area and you discover a new hotspot. We did our best to find kingfish, jewfish and crays but were unsuccessful. We all managed to get a snapper while bait fishing, so the morning was not wasted.
Sunday was not pegged as a dive day as conditions had been quite marginal on Saturday. By midday the picture was changing. I got a call from Justin to get me in the mood for diving and Kurt was coming along too. We headed straight to the lighthouse and started off being quite disappointed with the conditions. When we arrived at the N end of the light, the sea had improved tremendously. Mozambique water, 25-30m viz with a temperature around 21C. I hopped in to find a school of Australian Salmon circling the boat. Thinking they were tailor, I knocked one over, as my wife loves tailor. Salmon have a reputation for being very ordinary and I chose to burley it up. For me this proved to be the ticket as I quickly picked up 4 reasonable kingfish. The pushing tide seemed to be pushing in better water all the time. I saw schools of bluebar parrotfish and a big school of jewfish all safely inside the sanctuary. Justin and Kurt lay on the bottom watching a school of Mangrove Jacks at their cave, these also safe in the sanctuary. On the edge of the reef toward the NE in about 22m of water, I followed a bluebar for a long time. The fish seemed flighty and the presence of 3 large Grey Nurse Sharks probably added to his shyness. A large shape resembling a small whaler approached and only when it got close to me did I realise it was a massive kingfish. This fish proved to be too smart for me too. As did a nice Amberjack a little later.
As the sun was dropping we stopped at a shelf to see if we could dupe some Mangove Jacks. The surge was a little intense to get too close to the hotspot but Justin found and speared a 17kg kingfish. A really big strong fish. One can only imagine how hard the really big ones fight! I am just happy to have some fresh kingfish to smoke over the weekend.
On Wednesday we decided to try our luck with the snapper again. True to form I ended up catching a little red rockcod on nearly every cast. These are small scorpion-fish like critters and look quite nasty. Michael got a reasonable snapper. We stopped at the wash to do a little diving as the water seemed to be improving. Michael quickly subdued a 15kg Samsonfish, but paid for his catch with a badly bent spear. We moved to the S side of NW and Luke found another Jewfish, this time 19kg, slightly smaller than his previous 22kg fish. My diving was shot. In my haste to pack, I did not load my mask & snorkel in, which really put a damper on my diving.
This weekend I hope to explore one or two of the new spots I have been shown and perhaps get some diving in off my sea-kayak.
Sunday was not pegged as a dive day as conditions had been quite marginal on Saturday. By midday the picture was changing. I got a call from Justin to get me in the mood for diving and Kurt was coming along too. We headed straight to the lighthouse and started off being quite disappointed with the conditions. When we arrived at the N end of the light, the sea had improved tremendously. Mozambique water, 25-30m viz with a temperature around 21C. I hopped in to find a school of Australian Salmon circling the boat. Thinking they were tailor, I knocked one over, as my wife loves tailor. Salmon have a reputation for being very ordinary and I chose to burley it up. For me this proved to be the ticket as I quickly picked up 4 reasonable kingfish. The pushing tide seemed to be pushing in better water all the time. I saw schools of bluebar parrotfish and a big school of jewfish all safely inside the sanctuary. Justin and Kurt lay on the bottom watching a school of Mangrove Jacks at their cave, these also safe in the sanctuary. On the edge of the reef toward the NE in about 22m of water, I followed a bluebar for a long time. The fish seemed flighty and the presence of 3 large Grey Nurse Sharks probably added to his shyness. A large shape resembling a small whaler approached and only when it got close to me did I realise it was a massive kingfish. This fish proved to be too smart for me too. As did a nice Amberjack a little later.
As the sun was dropping we stopped at a shelf to see if we could dupe some Mangove Jacks. The surge was a little intense to get too close to the hotspot but Justin found and speared a 17kg kingfish. A really big strong fish. One can only imagine how hard the really big ones fight! I am just happy to have some fresh kingfish to smoke over the weekend.
On Wednesday we decided to try our luck with the snapper again. True to form I ended up catching a little red rockcod on nearly every cast. These are small scorpion-fish like critters and look quite nasty. Michael got a reasonable snapper. We stopped at the wash to do a little diving as the water seemed to be improving. Michael quickly subdued a 15kg Samsonfish, but paid for his catch with a badly bent spear. We moved to the S side of NW and Luke found another Jewfish, this time 19kg, slightly smaller than his previous 22kg fish. My diving was shot. In my haste to pack, I did not load my mask & snorkel in, which really put a damper on my diving.
This weekend I hope to explore one or two of the new spots I have been shown and perhaps get some diving in off my sea-kayak.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
27 August 2009
Took a rock-hop yesterday at Look-at-me-now Headland. Swam in along the N end looking for crays. Lots of good structure but the huge numbers of small crays were nowhere to be found. Found 3 smallies under a rock with a small Wobby and a tiny Abalone. Water was weird, very patchy. Areas almost milky with really poor viz and then patches with murky 9m viz. Unfortunately it looks like the weekend might be a blow-out if the weather prediction is anything to go by. However, I often find that just before a dramatic weather change you could get lucky. A friend of mine went in around The Lighthouse and there were lots of kingfish. I think he may have used the word THOUSANDS. I certainly hope they are around on the weekend. There are several areas which afford a safe anchorage and make for pleasant diving even if there is serious chop/surge.
I read an article regarding an acquaintance of mine who was badly shook up by a White off Perth. The shark sounds like it may well have been over 6m long. Gyula does not spook easily and when I last spoke to him, he recounted as many as 4 previous encounters, so it is not as if he is unfamiliar with the beasts. Seems the shark pursued an active interest in him and the boat for quite some time. Easy to joke about it after the fact but at the time it would be extremely frightening.
I read an article regarding an acquaintance of mine who was badly shook up by a White off Perth. The shark sounds like it may well have been over 6m long. Gyula does not spook easily and when I last spoke to him, he recounted as many as 4 previous encounters, so it is not as if he is unfamiliar with the beasts. Seems the shark pursued an active interest in him and the boat for quite some time. Easy to joke about it after the fact but at the time it would be extremely frightening.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
24 August 2009
Last weekend turned out to be a goodie. Took a quick trip out to Northwest Island and bumped into a small school of large jewies. The first I hammered but it got off after 2 additional shots being made. Then Luke got one of 22kg with some assistance and finally I found another which after being shot, bolted over the reef. I got hold of it and brought it to the surface. As I slid my hand forward to hold onto the fish it struggled, throwing the spear and disappearing into the gloom. Then to add insult to injury, I found a bunch of large Blue Groper and as I lay there watching them I switched off. Only after the parrotfish had been alerted to my presence did I cotton on to it being there amongst the groper. It beat a hasty retreat safely away from the sleeping spearo. It had easily been in range and I had been lulled by all the groper. I would dearly like to explore the cave that the jewfish were in but unfortunately no torches allowed when spearfishing in NSW. I hope the petitioning, to have this silly law revoked, is successful. It is really frustrating to dive in a cave without a reel-gun too. A long piece of line trailing behind irritates me as it gets in the way and makes it difficult to work inside of a confined space.
Dived this weekend in the club's comp but could have spent the time doing other more productive things if the results are anything to go by. Everyone seemed to have a hard time of it. Pete took 2 reasonable kingfish but did not weigh them. Flange got a nice kingie and ended up weighing that and a bream. Fish of the comp was his kingfish which is probably a reflection of how difficult the diving was. Kurt and co. got a painted crayfish and several abalone, so their day was not a complete waste of time. Ben, one of our new members, took a painted home to try, in spite of everyone saying that it was not worth eating. Best I saw, was a school of Kingfish at Northwest but they stayed out of range and 2 Bonito which came in from behind me at Dougherty's after a LONG bottom-time. Unfortunately as I moved the fish ducked and I went home without sushi.
These are some of my recent articles which have appeared in the local Advocate in the fishing pages:
8 August
While the weather remains calm, the sea has not really cleared sufficiently to make spearfishing a worthwhile proposition. That is unless you manage to find one of the small pockets of clear water that seem to make their appearance every now and again. Perhaps after 2 years of marginal diving conditions we may be in for a run of better conditions. The temperature remains around the 20 C mark and if you look at one of the many sea surface temperature maps, you will have noticed the tell-tale finger of warm water moving down from the north which heralds the start of the new diving season. The weekend holds some promise with Kingfish around the lighthouse and the wash being at a sure bet. Having said that, a rock-hop will provide a good feed of bream or luderick, they may not have all the glamour of the big pelagics but they do taste good.
On an interesting note, there are still many people who do not realize that spearfishing is a sport performed on a single breath-hold and then diving down to find, stalk and subdue the intended quarry. Contrary to popular belief, no scuba gear is employed. This is a remarkable feat when one considers that some spearos have the capability of diving to 30m. That is the equivalent of diving the depth of a 10 storey building. Recently a South African diver broke the world-record for spearing a fish at depth. Trevor Hutton went down to 60m where he speared a fish before returning to the surface. Total dive time almost 3 minutes, a monumental feat indeed.
The club meeting will take place on Wednesday 19 August and all members are strongly encouraged to attend, as some extremely important decisions need to be made. I will endeavour to inform as many people as possible with the details closer to the time. Next weekend should provide reasonable conditions and members are further reminded to come along to the club competition on Sunday 23 August. The improving conditions should at least get some fresh fish on the dinner plate. The Memorial Pool will be opening in September and the Underwater Hockey players are invited to get back into training, more details toward the end of the month.
22 August
Some-one once said to me of fishing: “If you don’t have a line in the water, I’ll guarantee in you won’t catch anything.” There is no lack of effort on the part of some of our club members who make the brave effort to swim out off the headlands in pursuit of crayfish and jewies. The viz has been cloudy and I heard a report of one diver getting a look-over by a Great Fright (white pointer) off one of the headlands near Woolgoolga. Everyone I speak to repeats the mantra: “we need a southerly blow to clean the sea.” While we all hold our breath and hope for the best there are still fish to be had.
Saturday last weekend we took a quick trip out off Arrawarra and found a small school of large Jewfish in a cave. The first fish targeted took 3 shots to slow. The fish returned to the cave and appears to have been wolfed by a large Wobby. The next fish was almost lost at the cave mouth but with a quick back-up shot made, the fish was successfully captured. It weighed an astonishing 22kg, a notable specimen indeed. When fish are in an easily targeted position, the onus is on the diver to remain conservative and control the urge to take too many fish. It is a question of limiting your kill, not killing your limit. Club members are reminded of the club competition on Sunday.
Dived this weekend in the club's comp but could have spent the time doing other more productive things if the results are anything to go by. Everyone seemed to have a hard time of it. Pete took 2 reasonable kingfish but did not weigh them. Flange got a nice kingie and ended up weighing that and a bream. Fish of the comp was his kingfish which is probably a reflection of how difficult the diving was. Kurt and co. got a painted crayfish and several abalone, so their day was not a complete waste of time. Ben, one of our new members, took a painted home to try, in spite of everyone saying that it was not worth eating. Best I saw, was a school of Kingfish at Northwest but they stayed out of range and 2 Bonito which came in from behind me at Dougherty's after a LONG bottom-time. Unfortunately as I moved the fish ducked and I went home without sushi.
These are some of my recent articles which have appeared in the local Advocate in the fishing pages:
8 August
While the weather remains calm, the sea has not really cleared sufficiently to make spearfishing a worthwhile proposition. That is unless you manage to find one of the small pockets of clear water that seem to make their appearance every now and again. Perhaps after 2 years of marginal diving conditions we may be in for a run of better conditions. The temperature remains around the 20 C mark and if you look at one of the many sea surface temperature maps, you will have noticed the tell-tale finger of warm water moving down from the north which heralds the start of the new diving season. The weekend holds some promise with Kingfish around the lighthouse and the wash being at a sure bet. Having said that, a rock-hop will provide a good feed of bream or luderick, they may not have all the glamour of the big pelagics but they do taste good.
On an interesting note, there are still many people who do not realize that spearfishing is a sport performed on a single breath-hold and then diving down to find, stalk and subdue the intended quarry. Contrary to popular belief, no scuba gear is employed. This is a remarkable feat when one considers that some spearos have the capability of diving to 30m. That is the equivalent of diving the depth of a 10 storey building. Recently a South African diver broke the world-record for spearing a fish at depth. Trevor Hutton went down to 60m where he speared a fish before returning to the surface. Total dive time almost 3 minutes, a monumental feat indeed.
The club meeting will take place on Wednesday 19 August and all members are strongly encouraged to attend, as some extremely important decisions need to be made. I will endeavour to inform as many people as possible with the details closer to the time. Next weekend should provide reasonable conditions and members are further reminded to come along to the club competition on Sunday 23 August. The improving conditions should at least get some fresh fish on the dinner plate. The Memorial Pool will be opening in September and the Underwater Hockey players are invited to get back into training, more details toward the end of the month.
22 August
Some-one once said to me of fishing: “If you don’t have a line in the water, I’ll guarantee in you won’t catch anything.” There is no lack of effort on the part of some of our club members who make the brave effort to swim out off the headlands in pursuit of crayfish and jewies. The viz has been cloudy and I heard a report of one diver getting a look-over by a Great Fright (white pointer) off one of the headlands near Woolgoolga. Everyone I speak to repeats the mantra: “we need a southerly blow to clean the sea.” While we all hold our breath and hope for the best there are still fish to be had.
Saturday last weekend we took a quick trip out off Arrawarra and found a small school of large Jewfish in a cave. The first fish targeted took 3 shots to slow. The fish returned to the cave and appears to have been wolfed by a large Wobby. The next fish was almost lost at the cave mouth but with a quick back-up shot made, the fish was successfully captured. It weighed an astonishing 22kg, a notable specimen indeed. When fish are in an easily targeted position, the onus is on the diver to remain conservative and control the urge to take too many fish. It is a question of limiting your kill, not killing your limit. Club members are reminded of the club competition on Sunday.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
13 August 2009
Conditions seem to be improving but then when I get a day to dive, weather turns nasty. Last Wednesday I took my sea-kayak out for its first diving duty. Paddled to the NE side of Little Muttonbird Island and anchored up. Swam in to check the gutters for Jewfish and Crays. There were lots of fish around but mostly Bream, Blackfish, Luderick and Tailor. The water appeared clean when looking from the beach but once in, it had a milky/murky character. Just the water you expect to be hassled by a shark in. I have had so many jonnies snapping at my ankles that I now dive with a SharkShield.
My wife is pretty desperate for some fresh fish and with all the pan-sized fish around the rocks, I took a nice Bream which went down very well in beer-batter on Wednesday evening. Have been trying for Jews and Crays but nothing yet. Reports get to me of lots of small Crays and schools of Jewies but I must be diving in all the wrong places.
While weather conditions have settled, the tongue of warm water coming from N is staying away and the discoloured milky water seems to have become a permanent feature for the time being. Water temperatures hover around 20 C. With any luck, we will get some reasonably clean water to dive in soon, here's hoping.
My wife is pretty desperate for some fresh fish and with all the pan-sized fish around the rocks, I took a nice Bream which went down very well in beer-batter on Wednesday evening. Have been trying for Jews and Crays but nothing yet. Reports get to me of lots of small Crays and schools of Jewies but I must be diving in all the wrong places.
While weather conditions have settled, the tongue of warm water coming from N is staying away and the discoloured milky water seems to have become a permanent feature for the time being. Water temperatures hover around 20 C. With any luck, we will get some reasonably clean water to dive in soon, here's hoping.
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