I've been in Melbourne now since May and I've been meaning to start doing a few reports for a while so here's the 1st.
Got out for my 1st competition on Saturday morning. It started from Sorrento boat ramp on the Mornington Peninsula. You could basically go anywhere you wanted by land or boat as long as you were back for the weigh in by 3. Luckily enough I got on a boat.
We were signed in and ready to go at the mouth of the harbour by 9am. There was probably 5 boats and 2 jetskis. I have to say it was pretty cool when we all took off in our different directions. I was on a boat with 2 other guys, a russian and a kiwi, there's a good mix.
I didn't know where we were going until we got there, 1st stop was on the Western side of the bay(queenscliff). We were about 1km off shore in 10-13m of water. The bay was filling so the plan was for 2 in at a time and drift over the reefs, then jump back in the boat and back to the start again. Best fun I've ever had diving. I wasn't too succesful with catching anything as I hadn't done a drift dive while spearfishing before. I took a couple of fish but I had lost twice that from stupid mistakes. I shot a nice blue throat and it went deep under a rock. I tried to pull it out but I ran out of air, my reel ran out about 20m by the time I got to the surface and the current was running hard. I hung onto my line while I was breathing up hoping it wouldn't break. I didn't think I'd get the spear out and called the boat back to me because they were drifting further and further away. It took me 2 more dives to dislodge the spear but I got it in the end, minus a fish.
We had spent long enough drifting so we started making our way back to the other side of the bay a bit closer to the finish point. We pulled up at Portsea thinking there was no current and anchored up. It turned out the current was running hard here aswel, the tide had turned and was emptying. We decided to leave a line hanging out of the back of the boat. We took turns swimming up the line to the front of the boat then dive down and drifting back to roughly where the line ended. We pulled up in the right spot as it wasn't long before we started seeing the squid come in. One of the lads got a 1.6 kg squid that went one of the biggest for the day. I got a good shot on a nice big one and thinking the flopper would hold it I just started swimming in the direction of the boat line, :vangry flopper never came up and I lost it in a cload of ink. I keep asking myself why I didn't just grab it.
Swimming in the current proved how good a set of carbon fins can be, the lads had carbon fins and seemed to be getting around a lot better than me in my Omer Milleniums I think I'll have to add them to Santa's list.
All in I had a great day, when I seen the amount of species some of the other guys had I didn't even bother doing the weigh in, I'll do better next time though.
Here's a few pics, the 5.6kg stargazer was caught on another boat, and I only got a couple off the other pic, the rest were unwanted fish that I gladly took home for the table.
Loving it!!!
Got out for my 1st competition on Saturday morning. It started from Sorrento boat ramp on the Mornington Peninsula. You could basically go anywhere you wanted by land or boat as long as you were back for the weigh in by 3. Luckily enough I got on a boat.
We were signed in and ready to go at the mouth of the harbour by 9am. There was probably 5 boats and 2 jetskis. I have to say it was pretty cool when we all took off in our different directions. I was on a boat with 2 other guys, a russian and a kiwi, there's a good mix.
I didn't know where we were going until we got there, 1st stop was on the Western side of the bay(queenscliff). We were about 1km off shore in 10-13m of water. The bay was filling so the plan was for 2 in at a time and drift over the reefs, then jump back in the boat and back to the start again. Best fun I've ever had diving. I wasn't too succesful with catching anything as I hadn't done a drift dive while spearfishing before. I took a couple of fish but I had lost twice that from stupid mistakes. I shot a nice blue throat and it went deep under a rock. I tried to pull it out but I ran out of air, my reel ran out about 20m by the time I got to the surface and the current was running hard. I hung onto my line while I was breathing up hoping it wouldn't break. I didn't think I'd get the spear out and called the boat back to me because they were drifting further and further away. It took me 2 more dives to dislodge the spear but I got it in the end, minus a fish.
We had spent long enough drifting so we started making our way back to the other side of the bay a bit closer to the finish point. We pulled up at Portsea thinking there was no current and anchored up. It turned out the current was running hard here aswel, the tide had turned and was emptying. We decided to leave a line hanging out of the back of the boat. We took turns swimming up the line to the front of the boat then dive down and drifting back to roughly where the line ended. We pulled up in the right spot as it wasn't long before we started seeing the squid come in. One of the lads got a 1.6 kg squid that went one of the biggest for the day. I got a good shot on a nice big one and thinking the flopper would hold it I just started swimming in the direction of the boat line, :vangry flopper never came up and I lost it in a cload of ink. I keep asking myself why I didn't just grab it.
Swimming in the current proved how good a set of carbon fins can be, the lads had carbon fins and seemed to be getting around a lot better than me in my Omer Milleniums I think I'll have to add them to Santa's list.
All in I had a great day, when I seen the amount of species some of the other guys had I didn't even bother doing the weigh in, I'll do better next time though.
Here's a few pics, the 5.6kg stargazer was caught on another boat, and I only got a couple off the other pic, the rest were unwanted fish that I gladly took home for the table.
Loving it!!!
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