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.