Fitzy Down Under

[Fitzy_1982]

Nice wan fitzy you getting the offspring into snorkelling at all? That shark looks a bit on the skinny side

Haha, ye it was a gutted shark at the pier, gummy sharks are highly sought after here, most fish you get in the chip shop will be gummy shark, they can be speared aswel but they are generally out deep.

I've had the eldest lad out allright, I've a little 60cm gun in the garage so I'm going to get him out spearing this summer. I've let him out messing with the pole spear but he hasn't caught anything with it yet.

 

[Fitzy_1982]

Here's my new toy, never dive without it now, I get a lot more confidence knowing my fish are out of the water

 

[Fitzy_1982]

This was a dive from a month ago, it was just coming into winter but still some fish life about. We headed out in the boat and tried a few spots, the best being an old gun fort in the middle of the bay. We done a couple of drifts past the fort, it was like an aquarium, the most fish life I've seen in one spot since i got here. There was a few seals about though. That's not the fort in the pictures, that's just a channel marker with a shit load of seals on it.

The bay is full of scallops but funnily enough if you go into any of the shops or restaurants all the scallops are imported. I hope it stays that way

 

[bobdonny]

Awesome

 

[Fitzy_1982]

My brother has recently moved over to Geraldton in WA to work on the mines, he was going to get back into the diving over there. That was until I sent him this

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/14178047/divers-close-call-with-a-great-white/

 

[NZRegan]

Here's my new toy, never dive without it now, I get a lot more confidence knowing my fish are out of the water

Ah Jaysus, I didn't even know you had a Fitzy Dare Nunder (phonetic) thread running on DB.

That's a bad ass looking float boat (or plat, or whatever you wanna call it), Fitzy. Man, I think it's totally worth it. Not just for the sharks, either - like, those 2m stingrays are irrepressible; once they are convinced the fish is theirs, there's little you can do to discourage them - prods with your speargun do bugger all. In the words of the Waco Kid, "No no, don't do that. Don't do that. If you shoot him, you'll just make him mad".

Living in Ireland has made me more complacent about threats in the ocean, but after that shark munched my big sweep off the back of my float line in NZ in February, I've been thinking about it more and more. I'll get one when I'm in NZ this Xmas; the places I'll be regularly diving are fair sharky in summer.

 

[Fitzy_1982]

Being a Kiwi I would have thought you'll be building a plat rather than buying one. I'm sure you'll find some old useless piece of wood on the side of the road that you can userofl

 

[Fitzy_1982]

Happy New Year Y'all

Here's a little clip from my new toy, hopefully many more to follow.



And here's a picture of my other new toy. I'll be getting out very soon to test it out

 

[bobdonny]

ya missed wan

Nice gun!

 

[Derekn]

Bloody hell...you could p1ss off a few seals out in Dalkey with that one. I'd say you'd need an extra bowl of weetabix to load it.

 

[Fitzy_1982]

Went down to Port Fairy last weekend. The place is steeped in Irish history. Originally the town was called Belfast and the river that runs through it is called the Moyne. It was a 4 and a half hour drive from Melbourne and when we reached the town we were greeted with Irish flags everywhere.
Had a great weekend, caught my 1st crayfish, 1st King George whiting which are a challenging fish to catch and my PB squid not much under a 1kg. A few more weekends like that and I'll be a happy man
Funnily enough the beach where I caught the Crayfish is called Killarney.

 

[bobdonny]

savage! How do they compare to lobsters?

 

[Fitzy_1982]

savage! How do they compare to lobsters?

They're nice but not as good as lobster, there is no claws which is the nicest part, just big front legs so there isn't as much meat in them. I just boiled it and ate it plain to see how it would go. Next time it will be lobster Thermidor. Still fun to catch and it goes down well.