Rowan and I headed out for a night dive Sat night. It was a little bit foggy with a bit of swell coming in, but otherwise quite warm and pleasent. We chatted to a couple of anglers who were returning to thier car. They had caught nothing but a small conger all night.
Jumping in, the viz was shocking for the first 50m, but cleared quickly once out of the surf zone. We saw very little for the first hour, only small pollock, and ended with me taking the one bass. Switching from the reef to the sand proved a bit more rewarding, with lots of small sole and medium flounder, but nothing takeable.
It then started to drizzle and get a bit more foggy so we called it a night. On the plus side, we discovered that the public toilet next to the beach has an outside freshwater shower, so all out kit was washed for free.
Yesterday, change of location, and a shallow shore dive again. I saw some small schoolie bass and the standard pollock, so switched to bug hunting.
Bingo! One big 5lb lobster found in a shallow hole. I tickled it out with a cut down kelp stalk, pinned it down and turned it over for bagging. Sadly for me, it was a berried female, so I apologized and put her back into her hole.
With only cannonballs to be found after that, I took a leisurely swim in.
Jumping in, the viz was shocking for the first 50m, but cleared quickly once out of the surf zone. We saw very little for the first hour, only small pollock, and ended with me taking the one bass. Switching from the reef to the sand proved a bit more rewarding, with lots of small sole and medium flounder, but nothing takeable.
It then started to drizzle and get a bit more foggy so we called it a night. On the plus side, we discovered that the public toilet next to the beach has an outside freshwater shower, so all out kit was washed for free.
Yesterday, change of location, and a shallow shore dive again. I saw some small schoolie bass and the standard pollock, so switched to bug hunting.
Bingo! One big 5lb lobster found in a shallow hole. I tickled it out with a cut down kelp stalk, pinned it down and turned it over for bagging. Sadly for me, it was a berried female, so I apologized and put her back into her hole.
With only cannonballs to be found after that, I took a leisurely swim in.