Started last week watching a patch of good weather, predicted approx 3 days ahead, on Buoyweather. Each day the good weather seemed to move ahead another day. NE blowing and mucking up the sea but by Friday the reasonable weather seemed to be stable. Saturday 27 September seemed to be a good day. Then on Friday the NE slacked off with a light S following and the ocean settled down nicely. We decided to head out early on Saturday before the morning consulting.
One of the problems with leaving early in the morning is that you don't see what is going on with the sea. You tend to work on what you saw yesterday and what the grapevine is broadcasting. On Friday the scuba guys had 20+ viz around the lighthouse at South Solitary. Our expectations were high because of the reports of Dorado at the wave buoy outside the harbour.
First stop saw us at the wave recording buoy. Kris elected to be the boat bitch because he overslept! I slipped over the side after seeing schools of small fish under the boat. The viz was not great, 8m at best. Depth under the buoy was in the vicinity of 60m. I drifted toward the buoy and dived. In a short space of time I noticed a large school of small fish heading my way. Initially thought they were Rainbow Runners but it turned out to be a Yellowtail Creche. Hundreds of these baby Kingfish milled around me. Minimum size is 65cm, so I just hung in the water hoping that I would see a reasonable one to grace the sushi menu for Saturday evening. Nothing. The water was really cold and the decision was made to move to the FAD.
For the Spearos in SA, the law in Australia is that your fishing permit money can only be used to benefit recreational fishers. So funds are provided for the placement of legal FADs for the use of recreational fishers only. Amazing what you can do when you don't have corrupt officials pilfering the funds.
Got to the area where the buoy is normally placed and it has not been returned since it was removed for maintenance! The water had that ugly black appearance too. Saw a commercial in the vicinity servicing his fish traps. These traps are set for extended periods of time and are marked with large surface buoys. Good spot for attracting open ocean pelagics. On inspection, we found that the traps had been freshly set, too soon to have pulled any fish.
By this time it was getting late and by that I mean normal people were waking up. We turned to port and opened the throttle. Within 3/4 of an hour the boat was pulled from the water and I was heading home for a quick shower before starting work. Another opportunity gone awry.
Sunday I was still smarting from Saturday's disappointment and elected to give the spearing a miss. This week I am watching proceedings for Wednesday and the weekend closely with the hope of getting into more settled conditions. In the meantime, still training 3x/week in the pool for U/W hockey. I firmly believe that by the time we get the really good conditions that I have seen here previously I will be super trained for the diving. I have heard that daylight saving is starting early this year. I think that after the first weekend in October our clocks are set forward by an hour. That means when I get back from work in the evening, there will still be enough light to go for a dive. How cool is that.
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