Awake at 7am. Dark. Cold. Bugger diving.
Awake at noon. Lovely day, can't see any whitecaps on the ocean. Must be time to go diving! I ring my mate Ben and we finally work out what the real time is. Daylight savings.. brrr.
Get out to Bass Point at 2.30pm and find horrible conditions. Swell is in excess of 30cm. Very poor for Bass Point.
Water temp is 18 degrees. Viz about 4-5m
There are a couple of line fishos in position underneath the jetty so I take the long way around. Viz is about 2-3m underneath the main structure where concrete is loaded onto ships. No kingies. No fish of any sort. I play around with diving after exhaling and find that I can sink simply by exhaling. My weights need reducing.
Ben and I decide to swim across the little bay to check out a few holes for Bream and Luderick. We had seen some Salmon there previously so it was worth a shot.
Visibility is improving by the meter as we swim across and I end up slightly ahead. I come across a small rock that forms a ledge about 7m down where I can just make out a Groper hanging around. I dive down to make an administrative kill. Its good practice and the Groper dont seem to care. I take the "shot" but also spot two strange looking rocks that are moving. I move closer and can make out the side fins. Bream! Drifting further down I end up about 2m behind and 1m above the two fish. Big ones too. I aim and nail the biggest one just behind the head. It stops and quivers. Game over. I show Ben but can't make out what he mutters. After stringing the fish I follow Ben further up the coastline.
After struggling against the current for a while I catch up to Ben and find he has shot at something but missed. Just as Im wondering what he shot at, a school of several hundred Aussie Salmon surrounds us. That answered my question. I follow a portion of the school as it splits off and manage to miss twice before hooking a 3-4kg fish through the middle. Crappy shot but even with a 10cm lead I gave it the fish was still too quick for a head shot. For revenge the *#@!!**&** fish drags my RA along the bottom somehow managing to snap off my line release (in front of the handle). The frying pan shall teach you lesson my fishy foe! :t
Time to head back. I stay about 30m from the shore out of courtesy to the line fisho family camped out along the rocks. In one rocky bowl I spot a couple of goatfish snooping along. Hanging back a little is a Bastard trumpeter. My next victim! I drop down to 6m and aim just behind the head. The fish, perhaps unaware of my requirement for it to stay still while I shoot, moves off. How rude! Following I manage to spook it and it begins to accelerate towards the open ocean. I manage to cut it off by srpinting about 15m and herd it towards a cave where it succumbs to a carefully placed shot in the middle. Its all I could see with its head in the cave, so it would have to do. I grab the fish and push my hand into its gills. Finally I get to go back to the surface for a breath! About time too..
On the way back I check out the spot where I speared the Bream about an hour before. Its mate is back! I dive and it moves under the ledge. I drift down to about 7m and wait until I can make it out in the shadows. Its sitting about 3m away and doesn't move. Since Bream are usually pretty spooky I wait for an explosion of piscine power but nothing happens. A spear just above the pectoral fin ends any chance of escape. As I surface I notice that the eye on the side facing me look a bit white. I touch it and the eye falls out. Eeewww. :yack
About 20m from where we get in and out I get run over (and into) by a school of Salmon that has some absolute thumpers! Well into the 6-8kg range.
After I get out the line fisho near where our car was parked comes over and admires the fish. Apparently its the closest he has gotten to a fish all day. I give him two lures I found and explain what the underwater topography looks like in the area and where the Bream and Salmon are hanging around. He responds by telling me off a few good spots for spearing around Sydney. Nice guy, Im sure he wont be throwing rocks and sinker at spearos. Unlike some others who frequent the area..
Finally its back home for a shower and photographs of my catch. Its a new record for Bream for me! 41cm and roughly 2kg. Its also the most fish Ive ever shot in one day but with friends coming over for dinner and my love of Sashimi all of it will get eaten inside the week. In fact the Trumpeter is roasting as I type!
All in all a good day. Its really something to see a school of several hundred 60-90cm fish walling around you. Now all we can hope for is for the Kingfish to show up!
Awake at noon. Lovely day, can't see any whitecaps on the ocean. Must be time to go diving! I ring my mate Ben and we finally work out what the real time is. Daylight savings.. brrr.
Get out to Bass Point at 2.30pm and find horrible conditions. Swell is in excess of 30cm. Very poor for Bass Point.
Water temp is 18 degrees. Viz about 4-5m
There are a couple of line fishos in position underneath the jetty so I take the long way around. Viz is about 2-3m underneath the main structure where concrete is loaded onto ships. No kingies. No fish of any sort. I play around with diving after exhaling and find that I can sink simply by exhaling. My weights need reducing.
Ben and I decide to swim across the little bay to check out a few holes for Bream and Luderick. We had seen some Salmon there previously so it was worth a shot.
Visibility is improving by the meter as we swim across and I end up slightly ahead. I come across a small rock that forms a ledge about 7m down where I can just make out a Groper hanging around. I dive down to make an administrative kill. Its good practice and the Groper dont seem to care. I take the "shot" but also spot two strange looking rocks that are moving. I move closer and can make out the side fins. Bream! Drifting further down I end up about 2m behind and 1m above the two fish. Big ones too. I aim and nail the biggest one just behind the head. It stops and quivers. Game over. I show Ben but can't make out what he mutters. After stringing the fish I follow Ben further up the coastline.
After struggling against the current for a while I catch up to Ben and find he has shot at something but missed. Just as Im wondering what he shot at, a school of several hundred Aussie Salmon surrounds us. That answered my question. I follow a portion of the school as it splits off and manage to miss twice before hooking a 3-4kg fish through the middle. Crappy shot but even with a 10cm lead I gave it the fish was still too quick for a head shot. For revenge the *#@!!**&** fish drags my RA along the bottom somehow managing to snap off my line release (in front of the handle). The frying pan shall teach you lesson my fishy foe! :t
Time to head back. I stay about 30m from the shore out of courtesy to the line fisho family camped out along the rocks. In one rocky bowl I spot a couple of goatfish snooping along. Hanging back a little is a Bastard trumpeter. My next victim! I drop down to 6m and aim just behind the head. The fish, perhaps unaware of my requirement for it to stay still while I shoot, moves off. How rude! Following I manage to spook it and it begins to accelerate towards the open ocean. I manage to cut it off by srpinting about 15m and herd it towards a cave where it succumbs to a carefully placed shot in the middle. Its all I could see with its head in the cave, so it would have to do. I grab the fish and push my hand into its gills. Finally I get to go back to the surface for a breath! About time too..
On the way back I check out the spot where I speared the Bream about an hour before. Its mate is back! I dive and it moves under the ledge. I drift down to about 7m and wait until I can make it out in the shadows. Its sitting about 3m away and doesn't move. Since Bream are usually pretty spooky I wait for an explosion of piscine power but nothing happens. A spear just above the pectoral fin ends any chance of escape. As I surface I notice that the eye on the side facing me look a bit white. I touch it and the eye falls out. Eeewww. :yack
About 20m from where we get in and out I get run over (and into) by a school of Salmon that has some absolute thumpers! Well into the 6-8kg range.
After I get out the line fisho near where our car was parked comes over and admires the fish. Apparently its the closest he has gotten to a fish all day. I give him two lures I found and explain what the underwater topography looks like in the area and where the Bream and Salmon are hanging around. He responds by telling me off a few good spots for spearing around Sydney. Nice guy, Im sure he wont be throwing rocks and sinker at spearos. Unlike some others who frequent the area..
Finally its back home for a shower and photographs of my catch. Its a new record for Bream for me! 41cm and roughly 2kg. Its also the most fish Ive ever shot in one day but with friends coming over for dinner and my love of Sashimi all of it will get eaten inside the week. In fact the Trumpeter is roasting as I type!
All in all a good day. Its really something to see a school of several hundred 60-90cm fish walling around you. Now all we can hope for is for the Kingfish to show up!
