hi
After getting my engine fixed we decided to head out to the same reef the following sunday. Saturday night we were invited to a party so my mate and I didnt get home till about 2 am and he was Sick as a dog and spewing out my car window all the way home :hmm
After 3 hours sleep the alarm went off, we stumbled outa bed had some breakie got the boat ready and headed for the beach a full 100m away
Launched at 7am and got going, the wind was only blowing 10knots and the sun was out Around half way out driving through the shipping channel we noticed the water was BLUE as in REAL BLUE so i decided to stop the boat grab a mask and stick my head over the side to have a look, it was fantastic just starring down into the crystal water makes me feel like im seeing shapes on the bottom but really the water is too deep.
We kept going eventually arriving at the reef we motored around for a while looking for a bommie (We dont have a gps on the this small boat so we just search and hope) We find a nice looking bommie with bait "wooshing" on it so over the pic goes and start gearing up.
My mate steve is still half pissed and had one final spew over the side whilst I turned the other way and had a good laugh :t
Surface temp was 25C with a thermocline a few metres down of 23C I swam to the edge of the bommie with a mild current coming across it. Reaching the edge I noticed A nice coral trout (Most common nice eating fish) sitting on the edge underneath some staghorn coral, I dove down and nailed him with not such a good shot with my 110 after a few anger bursts into the coral I fought him out and took him back to the surface threw him in the boat which caused quite a commotion. My mate Steve was now quite keen to get going so he quickly got ready and jumped in with his Rabitech Carbon 120, as we swam towards the edge of the bommie he noticed some squid swimming on the bottom so I watched him dive down and miss one I kept going.
After stringing a few more trout I was swimming around the side of the bommie when I made a dive and at about 40ft I noticed a nice sized prized "Black spot tuskfish" He soon saw me but I levelled out and started slowly approaching him, he seemd a bit confused milling around not knowing if he should come closer or not, a few more metres and I lined up and released 140cm of stainless into his side he took of tearing my mono through the coral he put a quite a good fight for a reef fish I eventually pulled him to the surface with a couple of Black tips following him up. He weighed in at a respectable 13lbs he was the grandad of the local gang.
I was watching my mate swimming around he appeared to be as confused as the tuskfish not knowing what was going on, he got a few fish later on.
The mackeral were very quite but we moved out to a deeper bommie later on this one surface at about 40-50ft then dropped off a fair bit deeper on the sides here I just waited and waited for mackeral finally a nice one came across the top approx 50lbs I dove and levelled off at about 30ft he was very wary I just hung there tapping my gun and strumming the bands but couldnt get it within range of the 110. I dove around for a while longer but nothing showed.
We headed back home with a good feed of trout and had a barbie for dinner, the Black spot tuskie battered is a superb eating fish which I rate second best in our local species, the taste is kinda halfway between a Cray and a Trout.
Next time we will head offshore In the bigger boat and hopefully remove some of the local Jobfish population.
cheers
After getting my engine fixed we decided to head out to the same reef the following sunday. Saturday night we were invited to a party so my mate and I didnt get home till about 2 am and he was Sick as a dog and spewing out my car window all the way home :hmm
After 3 hours sleep the alarm went off, we stumbled outa bed had some breakie got the boat ready and headed for the beach a full 100m away
Launched at 7am and got going, the wind was only blowing 10knots and the sun was out
Around half way out driving through the shipping channel we noticed the water was BLUE as in REAL BLUE so i decided to stop the boat grab a mask and stick my head over the side to have a look, it was fantastic just starring down into the crystal water makes me feel like im seeing shapes on the bottom but really the water is too deep.We kept going eventually arriving at the reef we motored around for a while looking for a bommie (We dont have a gps on the this small boat so we just search and hope) We find a nice looking bommie with bait "wooshing" on it so over the pic goes and start gearing up.
My mate steve is still half pissed and had one final spew over the side whilst I turned the other way and had a good laugh :t
Surface temp was 25C with a thermocline a few metres down of 23C I swam to the edge of the bommie with a mild current coming across it. Reaching the edge I noticed A nice coral trout (Most common nice eating fish) sitting on the edge underneath some staghorn coral, I dove down and nailed him with not such a good shot with my 110 after a few anger bursts into the coral I fought him out and took him back to the surface threw him in the boat which caused quite a commotion. My mate Steve was now quite keen to get going so he quickly got ready and jumped in with his Rabitech Carbon 120, as we swam towards the edge of the bommie he noticed some squid swimming on the bottom so I watched him dive down and miss one I kept going.
After stringing a few more trout I was swimming around the side of the bommie when I made a dive and at about 40ft I noticed a nice sized prized "Black spot tuskfish" He soon saw me but I levelled out and started slowly approaching him, he seemd a bit confused milling around not knowing if he should come closer or not, a few more metres and I lined up and released 140cm of stainless into his side he took of tearing my mono through the coral he put a quite a good fight for a reef fish I eventually pulled him to the surface with a couple of Black tips following him up. He weighed in at a respectable 13lbs he was the grandad of the local gang.
I was watching my mate swimming around he appeared to be as confused as the tuskfish not knowing what was going on, he got a few fish later on.
The mackeral were very quite but we moved out to a deeper bommie later on this one surface at about 40-50ft then dropped off a fair bit deeper on the sides here I just waited and waited for mackeral finally a nice one came across the top approx 50lbs I dove and levelled off at about 30ft he was very wary I just hung there tapping my gun and strumming the bands but couldnt get it within range of the 110. I dove around for a while longer but nothing showed.
We headed back home with a good feed of trout and had a barbie for dinner, the Black spot tuskie battered is a superb eating fish which I rate second best in our local species, the taste is kinda halfway between a Cray and a Trout.
Next time we will head offshore In the bigger boat and hopefully remove some of the local Jobfish population.
cheers
