5 March 2009

Dived on Sunday 1st March in the club competition. Conditions looked good but as it panned out, the situation was still a little mucky and you had to move around to find suitable conditions. We started at the wave recorder and the Coffs FAD. The conditions at the wave recorder were poor but the FAD was quite spectacular, unfortunately there were very few fish around. Met up with some other divers at the FAD who were going to call it a day because the water was so putrid. We persevered and actually went back to where these divers had just come from. The conditions were still mucky and I still had no fish.

We moved inshore about 500m from the Lighthouse and the situation improved quite dramatically. Viz was better and there were many more fish around. In the end I got an Amberjack, Samsonfish, Rainbow Runner and a Fusilier. That closes my account for Rainbow Runners and Fusiliers. Michael whacked me again. He weighed Samsonfish, Yellowtail, Amberjack, Rainbow Runner and a nice Mangrove Jack. The Jack came from a school of 4 good fish found in really shallow water. I almost lost my Amberjack to a Whaler that gave me a really hard time.

Since the weekend, I have had reports of some good fish seen at the Big Island. During a dive, several large Wahoo attacked a school of smallish Yellowfin Tuna. The Yellowfin were in a school with some very big Mack Tuna. Some time into the dive, 2 small Black Marlin were also encountered. Yesterday John took some divers back to the Big Island and they got some smallish Spanish, again the Yellowfin and Mack Tuna were around. On one of the shallower reefs, Mantas were found and following them a school of big Cobia. A Cobia of 22.5kg was landed from the school, the diver in question spearing it 3 times before managing to subdue it.

This weekend is the March club competition coinciding with the club annual trip. We are going about 2 hours N to Wooli. All things point to a good weekend of diving. So lots of Sushi and fresh fish for supper this weekend.