12 September 2010

Big Pro-Fishing protest in Coffs Harbour today to highlight commercial, recreational and spearfishing opposition to unscientific expasion of marine sanctuary areas. We decided to get a dive in before the rally. Michael and I launched from Arrawarra and went looking for some of the monster crays we have been finding. It is a well recognised trapping area and we encountered several traps in the area with a lot of them having only 1 cray inside. We dived for a long time investigating all the nooks and crannies and only found 3 crays. Not nearly as productive as it has been. We dived co-operatively, one up, one down and carefully searched the area and in spite of this the crays were thin.

Very little current and the viz was not too flash. Moved to a spot on Chopper to look for pearl perch. Found lots of bait: bulls-eyes with sawtail in tow. Found the yellow-spotted sweet-lips which is always a good indication of the presence of pearlies. I found 1 reasonable pearly which was quickly knocked over. Thought I saw a snapper and followed from the surface but it was gone when I dived. Headed back early to go to the rally.

1 September 2010

First day of Spring and I get to go diving, can it get any better? I was hanging around at home when Chris called and asked me to go for a dive off Look-at-me-now Headland. Conditions seemed good with a little more swell and wash which should suit the jewfish. Truth be told, I wanted to see where Chris dives because he always comes away with some good crays and fish. True to form he found a heap of crays, same principle as elswhere, dive down, swim around looking for cracks then collect crays. There are a large number of undersized crays in this area and I hope all divers are respecting the rules. We had a large quantity of burley and were hoping to attract a snapper. It was just not meant to be. Had lots of bait around with tarwhine scavenging on the bottom and eventually even a moray eel and some rays but not a single snapper. The gutters in this area are spectacular and it is fascinating to swim over shallow rocks only to find a deep pebble lined bowl right next to the rocks. This place should hold good numbers of jewfish when conditions are favourable.

We should start to see the water warming again. After the floods we seemed to have an unusually high level of silt around but the storms since then appear to have cleared it away. The water is cool but not cold and the viz is not bad either. I am looking forward to a good season especially considering the massive quantity of bait around.

27 August 2010

We are getting reasonable conditions far more frequently. Managed to get the afternoon off and looked for some dive buddies but everyone was working or retired injured. Decided to take a gentle jaunt off Look-at-me-now. Easy swim from the beach along the headland. Massive school of whiting in the shallows then bumped 1 which would easily have gone 1kg, could not believe how big it was. I was looking for snapper and continued out to sea along the edge of the reef. Lots of stingrays, all about the size of a side-plate, very cute. Also one large shovel-nose and a smaller one a little deeper. Started examining the rock gutters and since the swell was negligible, I was able to get up against the rocks and find all the holes. Perfect deep bowls with large stony bottoms and no jewfish anywhere. On the southern corner, found some good bream and followed them around for a short while before a 5kg snapper came along. I tried my best to keep my distance and remain disinterested but these fish are not stupid. It stayed in the area for over an hour but never came close enough to allow a shot. Was tempted to pick up some crays but with 3 at home already, would just have been greedy. Besides they stay freshest in the sea and they seem to always be available. There is a large amount of good jewfish country and I am looking forward to checking it out again. Maybe next time I will check at the Emerald Headland if I get these great conditions again.

25 August 2010

Winter has seen a dramatic improvement in conditions. Viz may be poor but there are some good fish about and then there are crays. We have been very fortunate to uncover some excellent cray ground but it just has not been productive until now. Slippers and painted crays have no size limits but greens do and where we normally struggle to find size crays, this year it is finding crayfish that are small enough to take. Not that we are having a hard time finding crays, recently we uncovered several nests and managed to get some legal crays but it did take some work to find the smaller ones.

Fish are a little more difficult. Winter is not a good time traditionally but jewfish are about in good numbers, kingfish are too. If the viz improved, the deeper pinnacles would produce some Samsonfish which are always welcome. One does bump into things along the way too. Some gold-spot wrasse, blue-bar parrots and more snapper than usual. Pearl perch are quite thick if you know where to go. This is often a question of current with certain areas producing in northerlies and others in southerlies. I am looking forward to a good Spring because there is a stack of bait all over the reefs. It is a good mix of bait too. The whales are in close and I think this does indicate a change in currents. The rough water probably washed away much of the silt that spilled down from the Clarence and accounted for the early crappy conditions.

25 July 2010

Headed out with Justin, Kurt and Aussie on 'Flying Fish' to look for tuna and marlin yesterday. Unfortunately, the conditions that had brought the striped marlin on during the previous week had changed a little and the warm EAC had moved further offshore. 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.' We left Coffs Harbour before sun-up and headed out to the shelf on autopilot. At the shelf, new co-ordinates were set for fish traps at 'hole in the wall' and we put out our teaser spread to try for an elusive billfish. We had 4 hookless kona-heads chugging behind the boat from the 3rd wave back to the 5th. The ocean was a cool 22 degrees and we set about kitting up. Each diver would get a 1/2 hour on and during that time any fish raised would be his responsibility. Kurt took first watch, then it was my turn, Aussie next and finally Justin. It was on Justin's watch that he and Aussie spotted something behind the back teaser. They weren't too sure but their excitement was contagious. Kurt and I looked back to see the bill and dorsal fin of a smallish billfish behind the port teaser. I could see the fish's colours all lit up under the lure. Justin was about to go over when the fish just disappeared. What an anti-climax. Hindsight is perfect sight and some-one should have gone over at the point the fish was seen. Probably a good idea to have the skipper clued up too because you don't want a marlin boat running over you with its props turning either.

We found the traps and took to burleying which brought interest from some good dolphinfish. We gave them a while to settle around the boat and soon Aussie and Justin had fish on board. The school then seemed to become quite elusive. At the second fish trap, we did not wait for the burley to have any effect and the dolphinfish were wary from the start, not offering much of a chance at a shot at all. This was a great trip but long and probably not something I would engage in regularly unless the chance of success was greater.

17 July 2010

Michael, Justin and I went in search of crayfish and snapper. There was a stiff southerly creating an unpleasant swell with a significant chop. We headed north of North Rock and jumped in on the sheltered side. Current was flowing north. We looked around for crayfish as well as heading into the gutters in search of jewfish but we could find none. There are some really good gutters and caves in this area. In retrospect we were on the wrong side with the current coming from the south. We set about getting a good burley trail going but nothing came in on it. Better to have headed into the teeth of the wind and sounded around for bait and then got the trail going. I get approximately 3 pieces of burley from one pilchard and count to 10 before dropping a piece of burley. That way I get a steady burley going and 2 packets of pilchards gets about an hour of burley (120 pilchards).

Reports indicate a large number of striped marlin offshore attacking schools of pilchards in the warmer water. We are trying to put together an offshore trip this weekend to chase marlin and tuna. I sincerely hope we are able to get this sorted out.

12 July 2010

There has been little if any spearfishing to be had off Coffs Harbour recently. Die-hards are looking for jewfish(kob) against the headlands or chasing snapper on the shallow kelp covered bommies. The water is cold and uninviting. A more pressing problem is the Solitary Islands Marine Park review which needs your submission. Please go to www.savesol.com and complete the submission. This should not take longer than 10 minutes. The submission is detailed with the inclusion of maps and motivation. All you need to do is add 3 comments and send it.