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A better day

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

ivan

looking for deeper water
Jan 26, 2002
1,503
48
0
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 :D

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
 
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Reactions: donmoore
50 lbs Mackerel..................:p :p Must get one that size one of these days....:eek:

I plan to shoot some video tomorrow to hopefully document my friend landing a doggie, if they ever appear tomorrow. I hope they do when I am holding a camera. I plan to do 5 dives of which 2 will be video, I sure hope I choose 2 of the proper time.
Later if I can get space on some free storage site I will pass on the link. How long does it take for you to download 4MB ? My connection needs at least 1hr if it doesn't hang....:confused: .
 
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Reactions: donmoore
hi

I dont know how long it takes to download 4mb but my computer is damn slow :(

cheers
 
Hi.

Sounds like a gran day.. The fall hit us here very hard a couple of weeks ago and it has been raining a lot and it has been quite cold. I envy you australians..

It shoulnt be a problem if your computer is slow, but if your connection sucks.. thats a real problem. 4 megs with my home connection is about 3 minutes.

Tuomo
 
hi

Err its still winter here for 2 days then yippeee it starts warming up, 30C water please :)

cheers
 
Your winters are likely to be more warm than our summers... our water temp never rises much abowe 20C. And the sea freezes over during the winter.

Tuomo
 
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hi

He He this winter the lowest it got here was 23C. I wouldnt be comfortable with anything much colder than that.

cheers
 
Water temperature doesnt matter that much. It just means you have wear a bit thicker suit. Problem is short and not very warm summers, extremely bad visibility and sea with not much life in it.. :(
Well someday i'll move to place with a bit better diving possiblilies.

Tuomo
 
Originally posted by Iyadiver
50 lbs Mackerel..................:p :p Must get one that size one of these days....:eek:

I plan to shoot some video tomorrow to hopefully document my friend landing a doggie, if they ever appear tomorrow. I hope they do when I am holding a camera. I plan to do 5 dives of which 2 will be video, I sure hope I choose 2 of the proper time.
Later if I can get space on some free storage site I will pass on the link. How long does it take for you to download 4MB ? My connection needs at least 1hr if it doesn't hang....:confused: .

With best conditions, downloading 4mb needs 15 minute here.:(
 
Hey Ivan nice to hear good news from you;) . May be next time u use longer guns for macks.
 
Good job Ivan. I am glad you didn’t let your sick mate slow you down. Hope my day tomorrow is as good.
don
 
Iya,

Happy to donate server space to you!

What kind of camera? I just got a 3-ccd Sony TRV900 with underwater housing ;)
 
hi

Thanks guys.

Murat I have a much longer gun but 90% of the time I choose not to use it, Accuracy issues.

cheers
 
Hi Fuzz,

Got some decent footage on the video. Let me find a friend with a capture card first, then I will bother you for some server time...:D

Many of the shots are wide angle, thus everything look small and the water viz was hazy and dark. What kind of picture quality (MB) do I need to make, if say I want the video to run 5 minutes with a size of 1/3 screen of a 17" computer screen in decent picture quality ?

I was using a Sony TRV900 with Amphibico housing, courtesy of a friend. Even this camera with superior low light was having a hard time focusing the Doggie in the deep and dark water.

I managed to do 4 dives with video and only the last dive I took my gun.

First dive I have a footage of a friend in the shallow pinnacle landed a small +-6kg doggie with my MT3.

Second dive -----NO FISH. Shallow pinnacle

Third dive, deep pinnacle. NO FISH shot but I managed to video a big 200+ lbs grouper. I don't know what species but definitely not Goliath/Jewfish.

Fourth Dive, deep pinnacle. The best dive of the trip, one belly shot of a +-15kg doggie, lost the fish........:head. At least with the video I know what went wrong. See my post at hunting equipment :

"Riffe Ice Pick, Low Shots, here is why.."

Many Doggie on the video but picture was very dark, the real big one is even hard to spot on 29" TV. There you will see the white dots of the Doggie tail which is the only part visible when viewed from above and in poor water. Another very low and far away shots. Many of the pictures were shakky, I was too excited and it was so difficult to view the Doggies from the side LCD screen or the viewfinder in such low light

Overall it was fun for me and at least I landed a small +-12kg on the 5th dive. A nice stoned shot, but the video was on the boat. My two other friends do not want to waste the hunt by carrying a video.

IYA
 
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hi

Iya top stuff mate, your hunting is way hotter than here these days, last time I saw a Doggie was :hmm

cheers
 
Hey ivan,

Why your 150 gun is not accurate?? Of course 75 cm gun is more accurate than 130 but it has to be relatively accurate, isn' it? May be there is a problem somewhere.
 
hi

Murat I believe it has a lot to do with how strong the bands are for the size of the shaft. They are 2 very strong 16mms (I will buy loger rubbers soon) with a 7mm shaft which I think is over powering it causing inaccuracy.

cheers
 
I heard from some people using double 16mm with 6.5mm spear and get more accurate shots than 7mm. Standart Totem tahiti is rigged like this.
 
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