Adventures of Alexander the Seal

[the seal]

Anyway, he leaves with the car after new bolts from the shop up the road. An hour later he comes back, we put a new wheel on and fix the mud guard-damaged by the tire coming off. I inspect the huge trail the axel of the trailer carved into the asphalt.
Back on the road, we decide to stop at ulladula for a rock hop, some hours later we arrive, in one piece(we stopped once more to let the radiator cool down as the car found it hard to take the boat up the hills in wollongong). Murphy curses, he realises he forgot to take his float.
After all that happened getting the water was so bloody good!
I get in first and swim along shallow rocks, looking at the weed move I see something exclaiming to myself

Ulladula dive

“ABS!!” I see my first abalone from the surface as some weed sways with the small swell. I recalled what I was told about getting them and very soon have10 legal abs. I tell Murphy about it and he drops his gun and dives down to collect some while his gun gently sways with swell….pointing at his head from 1ft away. I sigh and swim of, the open ocean holds more safety, the more time in the water the more relief I have from the previous. The fish are generally larger but nothing special, I swim just to beginning of a long bombe and get distracted by about 3 pigs and 3 very, very dumb big goatees. Each time the current dragged me back, I see my first zebra fish but the luderick technique I tried didn’t work, just swam off. Noticed some large bream in the wash, a ling, silvers and lots of pigs. I finally decide to swim back as the sun starts to set. I swim by a lone rock poking out of the water, suddenly a school of big silvers starts circling the rock and me. I haven’t shot anything of “fun,” size so I decide to take a shot to teach the silvers a lesson.
“b@stards!” I shoot and miss so they stay around me laughing-
“they must pay,” I reload to double rubbers dive and look for a larger one, they are all about the same size so I shot one as it passes my gun, gut shot!
I pull it in and get it closer, the fish has a bit of power to it. I grab the fish and try stabbing it in the head as it struggles, my cheapo knife is too blunt!
The fish continues to struggle and I get a few cuts on my hands as I’m wearing no gloves. I then try string the live fish up and as I put the spike through it’s mouth the sea scum munching b@stard bites my finger! Ahhh!
I string it through the hole in its guts then pin it on the bottom of the ocean and violently stab the fish while it jerks around. Somewhat subdued (me and the fish) I swim back to the exit point, already dark I get out around 5:30pm. Murphy is angry and rude telling me I’m an idiot for taking so long as he got out 30min before and couldn’t see me, thinking I was dead. I can understand that, as waiting up at the car park it would be hard to see anything. He helps me carry my fish before dropping some on the sand for me to carry. I’m angry again, he’s rude at me for coming late and I didn’t say a word to him for all the sh*t I had to take on our way there. He shot a Mowie….
We continue to eden, fish in my tub, a few hours later we are nearing batemens bay and running out of fuel. We skid to a stop next to a petrol station
“are you sure we have enough fuel to make it to batemens?” I ask worried
“yeah we’ll make it.” He said confidently
Finally we arrive at batemens bay, stopping at subway.
“I’ll shout,” I say, then quickly get some close and my wallet before running into subway. Still semi undressed and wet from the recent dive I put on a shirt and shoes chatting to the sexy girls working there and placing an order. Just after putting my shirt on I hear Murphy yelling outside.
“come on help, the cars run out of petrol,” he yells while trying to push the car to the side of the road. I run outside bare foot and help then run back as I left my wallet with the girls. Away from Murphy I finish getting dressed and get the subway ready. Nervous I wonder if I will have to wake up to random underware again. I take the subway to Murphy and he tells me to go quietly take some petrol from the next petrol station up the road and gives me a smelly sports bottle to put it in. I ask
“why not just ask nicely?” to which he was puzzled.
I started walking up the hill to the station bottle in one hand, subway in the other while it rained gently. 20min and I was asking the guy “nicely,” if I could borrow a drum for petrol after explaining our sitch.
A $15 deposit, $5 petrol and another 20min I was back at the car. Murphy had managed to siphon out some fuel from the boat and pour it into the car through a subway straw, a couple teaspoons. With the borrowed funnel and drum we poured the fuel in, spilling a lot since the straw was stuck. Finally got the straw out and poured the rest of the fuel in. I go to the pub to wash my hands and face then I come out to see Murphy looking in a garbage bin.
“ow no, he’s thrown something important into the bin,” predictable, his car keys.
After tipping the nearly empty bin over and having some local spearo’s joke about us looking for food we find the keys and finally go, it’s impossible to stay clean!
We get to the station, I get back my money and give the drum back, off again.
Ok, on the road again, 8pm or so we’re on our way to Eden, nothing can stop us, except the thickest fog I have ever seen. Murphy’s falling asleep so we stop for 10min in the fog to rest. Huge moths are getting attracted to the car lights so I grab some and chuck them in the car to see him freak out as they flew into his face. We continue driving with occasional suicidal moths flying under the wheels, it takes 4 hours to reach eden. One note of this trip was the amazing clarity of the nights sky, it was so beautiful.
Arrived at our hotel at 12:30am Sunday morning.

 

[the seal]

some pics
-our stich
the problem
the grease monkey
doesn't make a good holiday!

 

[the seal]

you can see the damage....done to the road!
For once i hated the sunrise, just the feeling of being bitter and cold was there.

hmmm this forum seems to have crashed hope it's not my fault:t

 

[the seal]

Everyone had gone to bed, luckily my friend answered the phone and gave us directions as Murphy had forgotten his way around the area, though he was there before. We parked our little danger toys on the side of the street, Murphy put a torch on his head like a gremlin and we got out gear out and took it inside. I wanted to clean the fish then and there but he thought I was crazy and told me to do it in the morning. I sighed knowing that wouldn’t happen.
Someone had left their car lights on and Murphy went into each room in our cabin shining the torch on his head into everyone while they yelled
“F-off!,” the guy was sleeping in the cabin next door…
He decides it’s a bad idea and we get into our sleeping bags, the night is bloody cold, I hardly get any sleep, once again. I wake in the morning, more like get up from a semi wake state. Munch on some food and have a shot of some alcohol to get me going again.

The comp starts at 8am we have about an hour, I get dressed and ready, everyone says hi ect we chat and I go out to sort my gear out I look at the fish we left in my tub and ewww, something ate the top of one of the goatee’s during the night, yuck!
The other fish are untouched but dam it looks bad, why do I listen to Murphy?
Ok time to head to the boat ramp right, where is the boat ramp eh Murphy?
I get direction and order Murphy around until we get there.
Unfortunately some stupidity had indeed rubbed off on me and I had forgotten to go take $40 (to enter the comp) out to of the ATM at the petrol station but all was good, I was given a loan from a friend. In the rush I had also forgotten to get some wet suit shorts of one of the guys to put on top my wettie so I was like a very big underwater vibrater. Brrr!

Funny enough, a good and impressively keen spearo called sea bass who I had met and given some contact details, 2 weeks prior had decided to come down to Eden. He was so keen he’d get into Murphy’s boat to see what it’s like during for the comp(never been in a boat, hope it didn't make an impression). Darn that’s keen, we had more room left but others would rather rock hop that risk going with us! I wish I didn’t risk going with us also!
Anyway, in the cold we suited up for the comp, before signing on, registering the boat ect. went to talk to some other spearo’s, one from our club pulled me over and told me to look after the other two guys in the boat.
“Don’t let that boat go past the heads incase you have to swim back and make sure Murphy stays out of trouble!” easy for him to say.
We get onto the start line around 8:14
AND WE’RE OFF!


Eden Dive

Not.
The flags waved and all the boats with their 2*150hp engines zoom off while our engine releases copious amounts of smoke and Murphy swears to himself. I’m quiet and melancholy, Seabass is rather enthusiastic…. still and Murphy works on the engine.
“Who cares!” he says and we go 2min after everyone else, leaving a smoke screen behind us. I’m thinking if I’m gonna have to rescue everyone by towing the boat back when the engine cuts out, thankfully it never did.
We get to the first spot, Murphy asks me to tie the anchor off as he didn’t know how. I get in and vis is 3m or so, I try and dive but one of my ears refuses to equalize so I veer off the shallows, as soon as I get there it starts to work normally again, typical!
It was hard to dive with a 1.1m gun as the fish appear really close to me and are scared when I move my gun. I still managed some fish such as my first banded mowie, first blue throat wrasse and I think a purple wrasse? Also got a red and blue mowie, missed some nice fish but found it hard to dive being really cold with my 5mm top and 2mm long johns, hey I’m a skinny b@stard. Murphy and Sea bass also got some fish, Sea Bass got a nice blue and purple wrasse. We dived a few spots, Murphy’s boat reportedly drifted and he chased it, but that’s what happens when you’ve got a cr@ppy little anchor. Murphy managed to fix the engine between dives before we went back. In one piece, yes!
We signed off and took the fish to be weighed. Some good fish we’re taken like boarfish, nayanggi and big blue mowies. Ahab had a nice catch and so did some others but due to conditions only a max of 18-19 species was taken. While in some Sydney comps 20+ species are taken at least usually by one diver anyway. We spent a long time cleaning the fish, I cleaned some for myself and gave the big silver away thankfully. Also taking some whole fish for friends, Murphy the greed bastard snapped up all the leather jackets he could get a hold of and wanted me to clean them when I was done with my fish! grrr
“Murphy that’s it your not taking any more fish!” I told him in the hope he’d stop accepting fish from other divers.


I grab my tub of fillets and fish and run off to the boat, then go and help Murphy take his tub, we put the fish into his large eski and inside the boat. We go get some ice and arrive back at the cabin. Everyone is nearly ready to head of to the award presentation, we muck around with our gear and manage to get ready. Finally I get to have a firkin shower! My first shower since Thursday, darn it felt good!
I dry off and try find some clean clothes, nothing stays clean for long when you hang around a monkey wrench. I go help Murphy with some stuff outside, while trippe tells me to put a shirts on. Anyway the problem what ever it was I’ve lost track now was solved and he went to get ready. Everyone had left when he was ready and we went to separate the from the trailer..
“nuts man where did I leave my trailer wheel, nuts where did I leave my car keys,” it had become a part of life to have him looking for his keys, I lost track of how many times he’d say
“nuts, where are my keys!” I would sometimes take them off him so he wouldn’t loose them, dam it! I found the wheel, right where he had just looked, we undid the trailer and the front end lifted up and the boats propeller carved a chunk out of the grass at the back!!
The presentation night came and went, we couldn’t find the rest of our crew until later, I was in a lousy mood the entire time. I think Ahab came 8th, scuba won rock hoppers and gunther someone came first?
We went back early, missing out on a fight to the death between deano and wade, ok it was just a scuffle. We got back and with the help of roso broke into the lodge, Murphy screwed around for sometime before letting us in but all was good. We all went to sleep later on after watching some films and teasing Murphy about his misfortune if that’s what you call it. The next day we got up and left around 9am back up the coast, we decided to once again stop at ulladula as conditions there were so much better than in eden. We stopped at a scuba/spear shop in ulladula where he bought a 12inch 3 barb pranger/ slip tip before and asked me for what everth time if he should return it, I refused to answer. Got to the car park there without any “incident/s” and got ready.. Once again I hear swear words coming from Murphy-
“aw FK I found my float!” lol (he used someone else’s float during the comp)

Ulladula dive
Vis=20m

After helping Murphy get his gear down I set forth into the ocean full steam!!
I first swam of in one direction out and then turned to the bombie, the current was pushing me back but I battled it and didn’t get distracted by to many fish. Finally I reached the end or there abouts of it. The bombie at ulladula in front of the lighthouse is like a long tooth pick facing the ocean rising up and down as its wall faces the ocean. It was blocked of a bit where i was and the swell was big sometimes breaking over the 1.5m deep wall of the bombie there. I relaxed and went for it, diving down I grabbed onto some weed when the waves came over me and went forward when they pulled me in, after 30m and 1min 15sec I got out into the open ocean on the other side of the bombie. Wow!
I had been wondering where all the fish went and here they were! I pulled my float away from danger and looked around while I drifted back along the face of the bomby which dropped down to 15m instantly. Though the size of the fish was not so great the fish life was amazing. Like the b drummers where between 1-2kg and silver 4-7kg like Sydney BUT I had like 20 black drummer, 10 silver schooling around me. Bream around 700g bellow and 1kg bastard trumper, medium salmon, lots of bait fish, goat fish and a 300g amberjack constantly swimming within poking range of my gun. I drifted and just looked around enjoying the life only taking one bream before heading back, late again but it was worth it. Murphy was not happy but I didn’t care, he spent his time getting abs.

We head back home, it’s around 4pm or so, stop once more to let the radiator cool down at wollongong. Thankfully the tow bar with our magic spider web of chains survived the ordeal. It’s around 7pm when we get to Murphy’s place and I help him out, he does something with his boat engine again and it releases a massive smoke cloud engulfing the boat, ute, a tree and me, lucky I can hold my breath. ( =
I finally call a friend up to give me a lift back as Murphy doesn’t want to give me a lift home, I guess in some respects he was doing me a favor. Anyway I get home and give out some fish, clean my gear, myself and my clothes then drop dead in bed, a very tired animal. Looking back I can only describe the events as great ups and downs, in between a great diving experience I had a terrible time-the rest of the time, all because of an
Imbecile!
The Seal, alive and kicking!

 

[the seal]

Dive 22/7/05
Top class dive in XXX.
Vis 12m
Swell 1m

It was early in the morning when my alarm woke me up at 7:05am I turned it off and lay there semi wake. I disputed the pro’s and con’s of getting out of bed and going for a dive. The cons were I would have to get out of bed, I probably wouldn’t get any crays and it would be a hassle getting there. The pro's were- I would become a better diver from more time in the water, it would toughen me up, it’s better than being a lazy bum and sleeping in. Looking back I missed out on a lot of the pro's.
After 15min of discussion I was sighked up and sprung out of bed, ate my weight bix and put my wet suit on in the shower before grabbing my gear and heading off to catch the bus. Looking very different to say the least I got out of the bus and went to the entry point, finally I climbed in the water and had that rush of cold water going into my wet suit I told myself I was insane before continuing. I wondered if this would be another farce of a Cray hunt like others. I did a few dives continued and did another and another, I stay at the bottom looking round when
“hola!” there are two feelers poking out from a little cave 30cm in front of my face. I smile and surface getting a look at the cray. It doesn’t really notice me but takes a few steps back while I stare the decent sized cray out. I go down and thrust my hand at the crays body, it retreats and I struggle with the thingyroach before wrenching it out. I smile and continue on, I have my first ever self caught cray. I look around for a while and notice 3 octapus, there must be crays here!
Still unsucesseful I noticed a 15cm abalone, left alone, then a little latter,
“yes, sweet,” I find a very good snorkel and ok mask stuck in between two rocks, that in the bag I continue. I’m swimming just a minute after finding the mask and snorkel I look at one rock and notice feelers
“holy muma there’s like 14 feelers!” I look closesly at the rock and see a congrigation of about 6-7 lobsters but when I get closer I see they are just baby’s around 4cm carpace length, still there are 2 big crays I try and get at under the rock but am unsuccessful. I continue on and look to my right I’m like
“YES, YES!” I was like having an orgasm a big cray to my right.
“gotcha!”
“No you don’t!” the cray slips out and swims closer to shore, I chase it and grab it when it lands on a rock, I grab it as a wave crashes over me while seeing another big cray to my left while waves hit me. I struggle to get it in my bag while it goes nuts and try get the other cray to return one of my smaller ones, that one manages to escape. I decide to swim to the somehwere else.., as I swim along something moves from under me, I am not sure what it is, then it moves again.
“OW MY GOD! IT”S HUDGE!” a very big dusky flat head spooks from under me, it’s close to a meter long and looks big enough to eat a small grouper or one of the luderic swimming by in one go. I didn’t have my gun so I just followed it round and enjoyed it’s bueaty, but what a beast!
I arrived at the other spot and look around when I just nuts myself.
I see two crays muking about close to a legde when I swim over there and start touching my nipple from the exitement.
“Holy mother f*cker of god!!!” there are crays on top of crays, fellers every where, this is their secret layer! Most are legal and there are 3 lobster between 1-1.2kg all under the ledge. I tried grabbing the biggest but only got the fellers. There where around 10 crays there, i decided i had 2 legal crays so i raced back as it was 10:30am and i was going shopping at 11am, though i got back pretty late my dad wasn't too pissed since he likes the idea of being bribbed with crays.
so not a bad day, got crays, saw alot-like 20 crays, saw a flatty and got myself a very good snorkel.

Sweet as day the Seal.
ps anyone that knows this spot shhhhh!

2 days later-was swimming along and thinking if friday was just my lucky day then after 20min i see 2 feelers behind a rock, whala. go and swoop down on the rock and grab the thing with both hands, ended up pulling out 2 in one go.

Know the Law!

Dive around december 2003

Back in the day when I was still too young to buy alcohol, I had just gotten a hand spear and my friend and I had arranged to go for a swim at north coogee. I called him up in the morning, 11am
“hey Steve you wake yet, still up for a swim?” Steve was a big guy, 7ft tall around 110kg, a heavy smoker and worked for the navy as a deckhand. Also had blue eyes and women always liked him.
“I’m awake now, come over in 30min,” I had also just woken up and got my little snorkeling fins, boardies and mask ready. After grabbing my hand spear and a spare mask and snorkel I walked over to his place about 15min away. He got up had a ciggy and we left down clovelly road to the dive shop down the road. There we got a hand spear and chatted to the “bubble heads,” one of the comments that I remember really well was the manager saying,
“there should be lots of fish out today,” it was kinda strange so I asked
“why do you say that?” intrigued
“it rained last night so the fish should be out feeding.” It made sense but I didn’t think he would be right. From there we walked to north coogee and trying not to be really sus we set our hand spears up and quickly walked through the pool to the entry point. It was a beautiful summers day, 30C, water was 22C, swell around 0.5m and not a cloud in the sky. The entry point was a clearing of rock at the end of the pool, I slowly made my way to the ledge through the white wash. Steve followed but then was intimidated, I also felt unsure of getting in from there, as it was my first time but overcame my fears
“it’s now or never!” and jumped in heading to the safety of deeper water. As soon as the bubbles cleared I realized my situation
“Steve, steve! Get the fk in there are fish everywhere!” I yelled to him, still messing about on the rocks. A pretty big school of mullet where circling me from 1m away! The luderic and bream seamed to have let their guard down completely, the vis was around 5m and looking back there probably would have been kingies around the mullet.
I loaded the hand spear and fired! Yes! I hit a mullet right in the middle and knocked it out. I held it out of the water to show steve and others my prize. He still hadn’t gotten in so I took the mullet of the spear and tried to reload my hand spear and get another! I tried loading while holding the other mullet in my hand as it struggled. Finaly I gave up, deciding to take it to shore then go get more. I yell to steve to get his arse in, a wave hits me from behind and my fin gets stuck in the rocks, I swim backwards but it comes off and I cant find it! ahhh!
I decide to get out and in from the beach only 30m away, swimming like a man possessed I get out where I’m confronted by these 2 fat middle eastern blokes they come up to me and ask if they could take my pic!! So after that I start walking back to the pool when this hot blondy comes up to me and I think she’s also going to complement me.
“How could you hurt that fish, don’t you think fish have feelings too?” I was really set back like WTF? All my 16yr old mind could think of doing was miming the mullets mouth
“ow, no I want to be eaten, you must eat me! I don’t mind being shot!” she was like
“your so smth smth,” anyway I get back to Steve at the pool, looking disappointed, the chick kinda follows me and I talk to Steve about why he didn’t get in?
he explains a wave scraped him along the rocks and he lost my snorkel, darn. So I tell him the sitch about the fish when this hippy women looking in her 70s, skinny, gray hair and her skin wrinkled and shriveled came over.
“hey you idiot’s I’m calling the police you can’t spear hear, your in trouble you should go,” she came over and started to be realy rude, a real shrew and only thing she didn’t do was become violent. I got taken back, I checked the internet nsw fisheries a month ago and it said I could spear this area. Still the Russian way of though is that others know better but we still argued and argued. Steve interrupted her and said
“dude the revolution is over!” she got even more mad and after 10min the life guards came over and seemed really confused if you could spear there or not. They had a pamphlet but didn’t know much about the law with spearing. Still they where pretty cool about it, turns out they also go spearfishing and asked us if we could go so the “public wouldn’t get upset,” –not to make a scene. Steve agreed so I just followed him, while we walked away we watched mullet jump out of the water from the distance. ( feedin or being chased?) the mullet was yum, but after that day I made sure I wouldn’t have to walk away from “fish jumping out of the water!” I checked all the laws on nsw fisheries. Never met anyone like that again but anyone asking I told them with confidence “I know better!”

some links

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries

http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/marine_protected_areas/aquatic_reserves/ ar_bronte_coogee.htm

http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/recreational/saltwater_fishing

http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/marine_protected_areas/aquatic_reserves

http://www.mpa.nsw.gov.au/

 

[the seal]

ulladula weekend comp
21-22n/8/05
vis 13m
water 13c
swell 0.5m


looking back it is rather insane of us to go south during winter when the water is cold and go spearing in even more frikin cold water, but that's life i guess.
well it turned out to be a non-eventful weekend of diving, with snapper, the aim of the trip not turning up.

I did learn something though, diving with a hang over is something i will avoid in future and in general i think i'll stay sober.
there where about a dozen people staying over at dave's place in dolphin point and we all got along well. Saturday some dived the reef, while catfish, David and myself slept in until snoop came over after launching his boat, ducking under the extremely low bridge and navigating the lagoon mouth which is supposedly unnavigable we went out to 2 bombie's out in the ocean. saw lots of life but nothing "special."
others didn't get anything special. next day we had a club comp. when we all got back to the dave's house, everyone asked
"where's scuba?"
when we asked the guy who dived with him why scuba didn't get out with him, he explained he got out early.
Trippe "how's he getting back?"
spearo "i have no idea"
everyone "rofl"
30min later an unhappy scuba, with somewhat dried out fish was found and ended up having the last laugh when he weighed in allot more fish than anyone else, scored 2x as much as the nearest person the bastard, too bad he was disqualified for coming late.

only one snapper was weighed in, around a kilo, Dave shot a hudge king wrasse around 1.6kg, scuba had some good fish but still seems agitated, recon that diet is getting to him.

i think i'll be going into hibernation
The Seal


4/12/05
The Thieving sea hawks—

Funny thin happened today, diving down I shot a Tarwhine through the tail but the smart ass swam up and flopper didn’t engage. Continued spearing for 20min before going to the boat, where we chatted for a minute or two until A Lewis noticed a fish floating in the water 20m from the boat, I had a look and in amazement it was my tarwhine!
How sweet is that! I didn’t loose it after all or need to string it ect. Then another of the crew members looks and says
“check out that massive bird!” I look in aw, it had a wingspan of 1.3m or so, twice that of any crow or thingyatoo. “Albatross,” I think to myself, reminding myself how privileged I am to be a spearo and get to see things like that. As it fly’s closer you can see it’s beautiful white and brown camo. Then I realise it’s not an Albatross but a hawk, sea hawk probably! Darn wish I had the camera I thought as it glided down closer to our boat.
“It must be after a fish!” I thought, this will be cool, then I realise it’s path is directly going for my Tarwhine! Dirty B@stard!
I don’t know what to feel, it’s a cool experience but at the SOB swoops down and takes my fish and heads for the cliffs! LoL! Being a comp every fish counts!
Then again if the sea hawks feel that they need to steal fish to score an extra 50points so be it!
North shore is behind this!
The Seal


21/1/06
wen't swiming around eastern suburbs.
9-13m vis, 1m swell NNE direction, 23C water but colder in some parts. saw some kingfish, school of snapper and large trev's.
was kool how in some parts the cold water was forced up and you had that opaq effect in the water. lot's of sponges around 20m and deeper, along with blue mowies.

was looking at ling in a cave when something moved and there was a wobbie 20cm away from head(big wobbie). A big blue groper was near by, so i tried bereyling urchins close to the cave but i think it knew what i was up to. A smaller female went in and shot straight out.
scavenged some shiny lures from the rocks and tried to convince a cuttle to eat it from my hand, it just looked at me funny.
Nothing 2 exciting, good to get wet!
Alex

 

[the seal]

a friend told me an awsome story i'd like to share,
he was diving at lurline i believe when a sunfish swam up to him, so he dropped his gun and latched onto it like a remora and let it take him 4 a ride.
then later a whale and calf came up to him, he tried to swim up to it but the whale "blew" him back as he was swimming from behind and as it stroked it's tail the wake or exhaust? sent him backwards in the water.

seal


been diving at a spot where i think i saw an elegant wrasse or something and had an intresting thing happen.
i got in on a windy day and started to set up my gear but a plastic bottle i had got loose and was getting blown away real fast i begain persuit but a dive bag also got loose and was sinking. i decided i'd look for it later and get my float/bottle. after 10min of persuit and 200m or so i got it and swam back but couldn't find my dive bag (culepra cup bag). saddened anyway i continued on with the dive then went home.

went over there again and had a look for the bag but no.
last saturday i went in again with the camera and saw a small cuttle fish so decided it would be a good specimen to shoot. i dived down as it struck up its idea of an intimidating pose as i took pictures. wen't back up and watched it try and camo up to catch some fish that where barating it, think it could use a spear gun. then it slowly swam off so i followed it to where it stopped infront of a crack. i dived down but it had it's back turned to me, i waited but no shot oportunity presented itself. then i figured it's looking at something, another cuttle perhaps? i look into the narrow crack and there's my dive bag!!! hmm now maybe it could show me where all the other gear i've lost is?

The seal

hey check this out!
[ame="http://www.spearboard.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24968"]Pending World Record Blue Marlin - Spearboard Spearfishing Community[/ame]

waters bloody cold think the NE winds 2 blame?
Vis is good about 15m.
Went in to take some pics of a swim through and thought a dead body was there, turned out to be a 20kilo wobby sleeping there. Got a guy to duck dive next to it, after he asked me if "there arn't any wobbies there?"
"haven't noticed any"
wobby was fast asleep and he didn't notice it though he was 1m away from it. good camo. thought i'd drag it out to show to his friend but thought twice.
This was in gordons bay
Alex

 

[the seal]

okay! that's all my adventures i'm aware of i've writen down!!! should leave some people here with very tired sore eyes! mwhaha
I'll write some more down as the come along....
Catch ya!
Alex the seal

 

[marginatus]

Great stories (but i confess i didn't read it all).
your fingers most be sored... or at list some pain in the back or arms

Fernando

 

[the seal]

dave shot a jew in 60ft, i got a small snapper

 

[the seal]

Kingfish encounter
25/2/06
I found myself under a hail of bullets, planes falling out of the sky and the cavalry attacking the flank. Limbs where flying everywhere, it was a bloody scene from ww1!. I quickly retreated down the north slope and found myself at south Maroubra, making it out of Maroubra rifle range…just(also used for horse riding and model plane flying.) I slowly walked down the hill sending catfish a sms that if he didn’t pick the phone up I’ll report him to immigration. Anyway I looked at the ocean, not good, ugly swell and chop. I only had a top and some small fins to go for a snorkel/ free dive and was hoping catfish could bring his gun along as well as himself(not realy). No reply, I put on my limited gear and got in, ducking and diving through the surf. The rip pushed me out quickly but I was only greeted by 3-4m vis. I decided I’d kill some urchins and see if any snapper would come in. so I continued out looking for better vis as no way am I berlying up anything in this crap, especially with no gun. So I start swimming out and out, not far maybe 100m from the breakers as I have small flippers on. Vis gradually improves to 5-8m but I’m too busy to notice while ducking and diving numerous blue bottles. I’m in 4m of water, vis is about 5m here and I’m thinking of getting some urchins here, when. When from the corner of my vision I see two massive shapes glide in, sharks? But no. 2 really big kingfish come in to check me out, mucles flexing, tails as thick as my wrist. At least 15kg but I’ve never seen them this big, they would have trashed catfishes spear for sure though. Only 100m from the breakers these big fellas must have come in for a tour or smth. Well I swim out some more. Happy for the encounter, after a mini tsunami breaks nearby I shake my head and head back, managing to get nailed by some blue bottles around my legs.
Still, shows there are good fish out there, no that far away!
Seal


Dive on 28/2/06
No Protest”

I was at the protest for fishing rights and stuff, that done back home and doing some stuff I had I decided to go for a swim with most of my gear at shark point at around 4pm.
After gearing up and being interrogated by the life guard who didn’t believe I was only free diving I slid into Clovelly bay. There I fixed my float up and went out through the breakers to the ocean. Vis was bad from the start but I decided not to let it get in the way and was somewhat optimistic it would be better further out. I did some warm up dives while I made my way to shark point. I started diving there, just free diving, which I don’t mind but much prefer a gun in my right hand. Some king fish around 90cm long or 5kg swam by but this was in the reserve part anyway. I was soon attacked by blue bottles, though fully suited they got me on my forehead, bastards. I went a bit further out to the edge of the reef. I explored a bit and swam a bit further out and was suddenly stopped in my tracks. Dogging and weaving the blue bottle I was looking ahead of me and had my hand out for protection when a fine string of blue materialised in front of me, doted with lovely blue beads. I stopped and looked to see where the blue bottle was to find it lodged onto a large 1kg bream with 4 others holding on. I’m not sure if they killed it or the fish died by other means but didn’t want to hand around and end up like it so I continued on. Doing some slightly deeper dives the vis was maybe 10m at best further out. There is was relaxing at the surface when I saw something moving, it was white, shit it’s the nose a great white? I wondered, I’m a dead man. But no just a plastic bag floating around. Swam a bit more out and dived there, a lot more sponge growth than anywhere else I’ve seen. Relaxing at the surface, I held my breath, I just saw something big move down bellow me. I looked carefully and dived at the shark to try see what it was, not a great white since no white spot on its nose and had a dark black dorsal fin and back. On second inspection I noted it’s dorsal fin was small and had a very small second dorsal fin, a big tail and dark back with maybe a dark stripe on it. It swam in to look at me from out of visibility up from the bottom. Turned and swam away. I saw enough, rounder then a oil barrel and about 3m long it was bigger than scuba pete and if it had an appetite to match I didn’t want to stay and find out. Enough is enough, worrying about blue bottles, sambas and sharks is so much for this pampered seal. Without protest I turned for land and swam steadily to shore with my tail in between my legs and looking behind me every so often until I made it back to Clovelly bay.

Seal.

 

[the seal]

really not sure what shark species
anyway

Hard core diving in jervis bay

I was hoping to go for a dive before uni started when a message from Keith came in, perfect timing. He was heading to do some work at his place in jervis bay/ Currarong. He was leaving in 4hrs or so with his van and favourite toy, a kayak and speargun. I was soon ready and around 4pm he came and we left. I took some printed maps of the reserves and other things. We discussed diving and so forth along the way while stuck in traffic. Keith a quite the adventurer himself, having travelled around Australia for seven years. As irony would have it as we are travelling along there he gets a phone call, it turns out someone want’s the rent the place at the last minute, darn it. This is quite a change of plans but Keith had a tent and mattress in the garage at the house in Currarong. Ok so we still don’t know what to plan now but we decide to dive the shipwreck TSS Merimbula a short distance from his place as the people are coming on Friday.

Dive at Currarong
Vis 20m
Temp 22C
Low fishyness
Swell 1m

We arrive around 9pm and unload the van and eat up. I scrounge together a make shift flasher before going to bed around 12am. 6am the alarm sounds, I groan and set it for 6 30 since it’s still dark. At around 7am I get up, Keith is awake and I get my arse into gear and get ready. We only arrive at 8pm and get in the water 8:30 after launching Keith’s kayak we swim from the shipwreck from the nearest beach. On the way I pick up some dinner, 2 red rockies. We arrive at the headland and start general diving in close where I debate killing a blue mowie in a cave before shooting it and 3 sea urchins. Keith leaves to call and find out when the people are arriving. I dive close by to keep an eye out on the kyak while some people are on the beach. I berley around a school of bait to no avail, only some small snapper, small blue fin trevally and some other small but exotic fish swim around. He comes back and we swim of to the point where the shipwreck is. It was a large ship and there is nothing really notable except the boiler I think. The metal hull has collapsed and folded down on the rocks. How they didn’t see land is a mystery, maybe they where pissed of their heads.
At the point I unwind my flasher and swim around looking for berley to avail, keith swims further away to a shallower reef.
I swim over to him and see how he’s doing then come back to get my flasher….Big king! I dive and slowly strum my rubbers as the kingy around 15kilo swims in and say’s good bye…bastard. We swim further out and I look for the mega drop off Keith talked about to no avail. I go looking for good kingy terrain but just find shallow reef. Then I go looking for Keith who’s swimming round in the shallows. There are bigger fish in the deep end! He decides to go but so now I’m alone. Our plans to meet back at the car at 2pm; it’s about 12pm when he goes. I swim out further looking for drop offs to no avail so I decide I will head back to where I saw the kingy. I notice something looking at my rig rope and a school of big leather jackets emerges, I think unicorn so I teach the biggest a lesson. Then 2 sargo’s are on the stringer and I’m trying to get a fish out from a cave when something feels wrong and I swim back to see a 20kilo wobby thrashing with the 2 red rockies and blue mowie on the bottom. I consider my options and naturally the most inappropriate and dangerous thought goes through my mind. I swim down and push down on the unsuspecting wobby with one hand. Drop the gun, grab one pec fin, then firmly grip the other while the wobby releases my fish and tries to make an escape. It thrashes round but I overpower it and pin it between my legs. Swim you sl$t! I try and get it to give me a ride but I think it may have been too freaked out as it just froze up while I was on top of it, shoulda taken a whip.
Anyway my heart was beating irregularly by now so I let the wobby go and went for air. Grabbed by gun and went back to where I saw the kingy…..hang on, there’s a strong bloody current!! It takes me 90min to get back against the stiff current that had pushed me near lobster rock. I’m grinding my teeth in frustration at 2pm when arriving at the wreck. I wind my gear up and climb out around 2 :40 from the nearest beach and walk for 20min to get back to the car park. Crap.

Fish pics- red rocky and leather jacket…unicorn?

The people who are renting the place will only come at 4-5pm so we have times left over. I’m waisted after that battle with my nemesis the east Australia current. We dine on some lobby’s I took with me and some of Keith’s beer before getting ready to leave. Shame as it is a very nice place with 3 bedrooms, wooden floor, big kitchen…..perfect base camp that Keith had renovated on his own giving it a very nice touch. Well we packed some food and fish and a tent before leaving. We arrive at Honey moon bay…don’t get any ideas now and set up the tent. Put the sleeping bag out and eat a bit before breaking out some bears and then bed. Keith slept in the van and I slept in the tent. By the way the’re where kangaroos everywhere here, bloody possums falling out of the trees, which is only cute in the day time, pain when getting to sleep. I also liked how though it’s a national park, during the week days when it’s closed the navy shoots the shit out of it!! Only in Australia!

Roo picks

Hard core
Vis 13m
Temp 22
High fishness
Saturday 3rd march 2006

I was interesting to see how far I could push myself so next day we woke around 6am.
Packed the tent up, after some exercise I put on my cold wettie and started the long bush walk while Keith went to kayak the distance, we would meet at long nose point a 2.5km walk with all my gear through rough trail. Keith would kayak there from the boat ramp about 3km I think. I remember how it was still getting brighter I was walking into numerous spider webs and ant nest. The nest’s weren’t a problem but bloody walking into a web with a big spider in it sux. I walked into so many I started to spot them a few meters in advance. The trail just went on and on, endlessly into the distance with just 1 sign 500m before the beach. I was cold and uncomfortable, with an empty stomach and a wettie filled with dirt.
A bead of sweat dripped down my face as I emerged onto the beach in the increasing light at 7:30am. I rolled into the ocean to cool off and then geared up. I had 9lb lead, 1m omer dragon gun, 5mm top, 2mm long johns. I was pretty heavy but still experimenting. I wonder after that walk if I didn’t go too far or something so swim out without shooting any fish as I may be in a reserve area. I get to the point and look around(underwater) some nice fish, nothing special, big tarwhines but I wonder where Keith is. I hang around a big drop off looking around I realise long nose point is the next point out, I’m in the right place. I start swimming there. Strangely there is a small current running along inside the harbour. Maybe the tide was causing it since high is at 12pm. I swim into the shallows but cannot nail any tailor from the wash since I suck. Finally Keith comes, at 8:30am or so. We dive and I head out to the bomby like the nautical chart describes. I follow it out and find salmon which get shot at and see a small kingy, encouraging. I swim around to where I find a big rock, suddenly a king appears so I nail it, stoned. I find some berley and swim out to the bait berleying a bit and kingy’s would appear almost each time! Unfortuanly not very big, I was hopping we could swim to the tubes but not against current esp if it changes on the way back, bugger. I get on the beach and have something to eat with Keith, showing him the fishies, bloody soo good to eat after 5hrs in the water on an empty stomach. All too soon it’s time to go, I give Keith my heavy stuff and he paddles of.


It’s maybe 2pm when I arrive at the car park and Keith is soon there. We go back and pack the kyack up and go to get some stuff at his place. The people are out so we chat drink quickly and take the mountain bikes out Keith that has. At the original dive spot I go out for a ride to mermaids inlet I think that’s the name. A note to anyone diving around here is to bring a bike as you can ride most of the trails, walking is toooo long. At mermaids I get out and chat up the fishermen. Darn it’s a nice spot but I’m worried Keith’s not good at getting in and out of the rocks. There are some entry and exit spots that are safe on calm days. The fisho’s catch marlin and tuna though that day big 20kilo+ kings where busting their 50lb line. It was late so I went back to the bike, unlocked it and checked out lobster rock quickly, hmm has potential, also easyer entry exit spots.
We cook some food up at the car park Barbie area, I do my best not to fall into the public toilets there that have had their seats ripped of, while “offloading the crap.” Some warm food, a lot of mosquito bites and a crescent moon later we head back to where we camped before at dark. A lot of beer later the tents up and we soon go to sleep after harassing little skippy.

Still dark at 5:30am I’m up and manage to put on my cold wettie after doing a lot of push ups so I wouldn’t go insane(maybe it didn’t work since I’m not making much sense). Tent packed, it’s time to go to lobster rock. I put my gear on my back and ride off while Keith paddles there from the car park.

 

[the seal]

Lobster Rock
Vis 2-13m
Fishynes medium
Water 22
Swell 1-2m

I lock the bike up with lobster rock in the distance, the swells picked up a bit. I gear up get in and out into 2m vis, yuck. I start to swim out to and past the island wondering if any fur seals live on the island and if their best friend is near by. “control yourself seal!” I say, it’s not SA your diving in! I find better vis to 10m and drop offs from 8 to 13m but no kings. so I swim to the headland past the island to find lots of fish life, drummers, bream, salmon and even big spinefoot!
I get some berley and dive amongst the schools of salmon strumming my rubbers, hopping a big king will emerge from somewhere. It was embarrassing when I nailed a salmon nearly the same size as the kingfish from yesterday. I swim further out and though lots of bait are present I can’t find any kings. Only saw one rat that was in the wash. One good thing as the tide was coming in the current was softly pushing me back to the island most of the time. I looked at my watch and it was time to go, back at car at 1pm, with just a salmon I left back to the beach. Met Keith there who hadn’t bothered getting in after a boat said the fishing sucked.

We headed back and arrived at the house at 1pm as planned, ate and drank and washed before packing up a bit and leaving, it was good that we were leaving as by now the 3days of fishing had left me with cut hands, rashes on my feet and legs and my tongue felt like a pickle. I must say Keith’s drinking habits will easily make him fit in with other dolphin members and looking forward to him joining the crew.
Got back to Sydney at 8pm. Went to uni next day, all good

The seal and his pickled tongue.

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