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.