8 April 2010

I have been very busy helping to put together the Classic and take a trip up to far Northern Queensland to go spearfishing with my brother, who was visiting from South Africa. I have been putting in some time diving but with the Classic now over, I can settle down to just enjoying my spearfishing again. The trip to the Barrier Reef was described in an article I did for www://spearfishingsa.co.za/news/barrier-reef-by-mark-kallman.htm. I will be preparing stories on the Classic for Spearfishing Downunder Magazine and International Freediving and Spearfishing News.

19 February 2010

2010 Australian Bluewater Freediving Classic takes place on the 27-28 March 2010.

I have had a rough time recently. When I have spare time the water is terrible and when the water clears I am working. Sucks! But a good southerly has been blowing and we have warm water against the coast. Cobia have been taken as have some Spanish. The good news is the number of snapper around. I have seen a few but they are difficult. Probably time to start targeting them specifically. When you concentrate on a particularly difficult species, it is amazing how well you do with the others as an added bonus.

My little brother is coming over to Australia and we are heading north on the trip of a lifetime. John featherstone of Spearfishing Downunder Magazine has invited us up to the Coral Sea on an expeditionary/exploratory spearfishing safari. I am relieved that we will have a variety of dive conditions for my brother and hope to add a number of personal bests to my tally.

Samsonfish, blue-bar parrotfish, pearl perch and kingfish are around, you just have to find some viz. The viz is patchy but a question of moving 500m to 1 kilometre may mean the difference between 2m or 20m. The ocean is quite remarkable. Finally it sounds as though some wahoo are making an appearance but I have not heard of any big ones. Perhaps when the viz settles things should improve.

31 January 2010

I was invited down with some friends to investigate reef south of Coffs Harbour. We were heading off on the premise that the few co-ords we had would put us onto some fish and that we might be able to get better conditions. We launched off the beach at Nambucca and headed out into water with several small pinnacles in about 22m of water. It was quite warm and clean compared to some of the recent water we have endured. Within a short while, Michael and Glen had taken Samsonfish. We were diving about 50m away from them and never saw anything. When things turned quiet we moved to some reef that looked as if it might hold mackerel, again, lots of diving but no fish. Conditions varied a fair amount as one spot would have warm clean water top to bottom and another just warm surface water or dirty clean water. It was impossible to predict what you might find from one spot to the other. There was a very slight southerly current when we arrived at the point at Nambucca just off the beach. Water went to 22m at the southern edge but was a comfortable 18m at the pinnacles. The viz was not too bad and I hung my flashers down to act as a target for any pelagics. On my first dive I saw a large fish move into the gloom. There was a lot of bait in very big schools and they were hanging close to one another. They did not appeared unduly harassed but a few tail cracks confirmed that large fish were busy in the area. I continued into the current to the southern edge and continued diving and watching my body language. Pretty soon I saw 2 large shapes come into view and at first thought it might be a small dolphin. On closer examination I picked up on the 2 Sambos and selected the larger of the 2, making a good holding shot in the shoulder. The other fish hung around its buddy and I called Kris over to see if he could get another fish. By the time he arrived, the other fish had left and I used his gun to get myself another securing shot. The fish weighed 16.9kg and fought really hard.

In the meantime the other boat of divers had also managed some more Samsons as well as a couple of Spanish. The gentle current from the south really turned it on. We joked afterwards that had we started at this spot first thing in the morning, we may well have ended up overloading our boats with fish. Everyone seemed to have had a great day but more importantly, had seen fish larger than the ones we had taken.

23 January 2010

Up before sparrow's fart this morning for a quick run out to look for Spanish. Left Arrawarra well before sunrise and headed north towards Chopper. Found an area inside of Chopper and went over with intent. Started doing my first few downs and noticed several large red morwong. As I headed back to the surface a fish with an unusual shape caught my attention and I turned back thinking it may be a small jack. My shot was from a long way away but I quickly identified the fish as a pearl perch. Fortunately Michael was nearby to secure the fish when it slipped off my spear for no apparent reason. Go figure. Continued looking for bait and working the flasher. Michael saw a mackerel in the distance as did Luke. I decided to lie on the bottom for a while hoping to arouse a curious mackerel's attention. Did nothing but when I looked up it was like a mini grove of bamboo with all the crayfish feelers. I quickly grabbed one making sure not to disturb the rest. The crayfish was gigantic and I thought to load this 'painted' into the boat then grab another. Michael laughed as I hit the surface: green and way oversize, so back it went. He dived to look at the other crays, probably another 20 and they were all way too big. I just hope that no-one else decides to make off with these breeding stock and screw things up for the rest of us. We got a serious burley trail going but only a load of bait arrived. Work was starting to loom and we made an early departure. The water is warm about 23 and clearing, murky 12m. Looking good for tomorrow. Mackerel are being landed south of us so with some luck we should manage some tomorrow.

22 January 2010

There are reports of Spanish (Couta) around the reefs near Arrawarra and as a result we decided to invetsigate some of the shallower pinnacles and bumps near Woolgoolga. Took a quick trip out to the pole off Look-at-me-now Headland. A number of mackerel have been seen with a few being taken but no-one is getting them consistantly. The fishermen are managing to take a considerable number though.

Kris, James and I launched off Emerald beach and within 5 minutes were on the reef. Dropped in and swam around until I found the bait. Water temperature in the top 8m was 23 at least but below that was only about 19. Lots of slimies, yakkas and bulls-eyes about but they seemed very content, swimming in well distributed schools. There was little indication of the harassment you see when the bait is tightly packed with their little eyes bulging in fear as mackerel savage them.

We tried everything short of going and buying a few mackerel fillets. Worked the flasher with intent and several bonnies that stumbled into our path were quickly turned into burley. Nothing. The viz was not spectacular and as the sun approached the horizon, the dark of the water started becoming far more intimidating. By 8pm we elected to head back to the beach with nothing to show for our efforts.

This weekend looks as if it will be quite a good weekend but it will be sensible to look for mackerel on the northern reefs.

19 January 2010

This is my first post for the new year. This weekend provided several opportunities to go diving. Our first dive trip was a bit of an adventure. On Friday we towed a boat up to Broom's Head and launched off the beach. My wife kindly took the trailer back to Arrawarra for our return later that day. We had decided to make an entire day of spearfishing and explore lots of reef that sees little diving pressure. Unfortunately conditions precluded much of the area we would have targeted and poor sea conditions limited our scope. We did see dorado at the Wooli FAD but they were very nervous and I only managed to drop one on an early dive. The continental shelf was as dirty as it was inshore and the current there was neary 6km/h. I took a reasonable tarwhine for my trouble at one of the shallow reefs. We dropped into Woolgoolga for lunch then headed out again to look at the shallow reef in the area. There was absolutely nothing worth mentioning.

On Saturday I convinced my son Reece to join me for a dive around Korora and he seemed to have enjoyed the experience. We found lots of Wobbegongs, no crayfish but we did find several abalone which made it a worthwhile trip.

On Monday I went out with a friend and we were very keen on finding some Spanish. Conditions were not what you would expect to see them in however. It was cooler then it had been in quite a while and there was lots of particulate matter and comb-jellies in the water. We started at Pig then moved along to Park Beach Bommie and finally to Split before deciding we were wasting our time in the deeper water. I had a small yellowtail and Kelvin a yellow-spot sweetlips. Kelvin is an absolute task-horse and was game to continue diving in spite of poor conditions. We decided to move into the shallows and see if our luck improved. What a great call. At the first shallow area we explored we found lots of large scattered rocks with many sand gulleys and depressions between. It was not long before I bumped into the first jewfish of the day. I found them on 2 more occasions but if you are not on the bottom stalking them before you see them, forget it. Kelvin did pick up a crayfish though. The next area had little in the way of gutters and we found no jewfish but another cray was added to the bag. The next jump was in the area I had dived with Reece, so several more abalone were added to the bag. I had some description of a potential gutter in the area and swam in at one end with Vinnie at the other. In the confusion that followed he lost a jewfish and landed another as about 80 fish charged passed him! We then moved to an area that is very pretty to dive and holds a number of crays. I scoured the area, and eventually picked up a large cray before we moved again. This time we cornered the jewfish in an arena type area where they milled around under the white water allowing us to take 3 fish out of the school. I was able to knock over a tailor in the confusion too. The haul for the day was not massive considering the size of the fish but we had fun and came away with some newly gleaned knowledge and a pile of delicious seafood.

7 December 2009

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.