Thomas Rayner - Great Dolphinfish Shot 11
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Adventure Through Latin America Species Profile Jew Obbsession Reconnasaince Freedive Fiji Pieces of the Past No Place Like Home Deliverance 2 Travelling Spearo Blue Water Classic Inshore Spoils Short Tails
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Editorial Letters Spear?Tips Spearing Sydney GreatShot11 The Phantom New Products
Cover Bryson Sheehy - Pink Snapper
Features
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The forecast isn’t that great, probably not worth going to the reef.” “But with all the rain we’ve had lately and big tides, the vis might not be that great inshore.” “Bugger it, not worth wasting a day at home let’s head out; pick you up at 5am.” ownsville’s weather has not been so kind to us in the earlier half of 2011, with cyclone Yasi and the always present wet season still rubbing off and now maybe a glimpse of good weather and visibility at the end of the tunnel. We decide to head out for a ‘mornings’ diving after reports of good Fingermark and reasonable vis a few weekends before. fter a comfortable half hour run out compared to the normal two and half hour run we pull up at a spot I had dived on a couple of years before. The water looked filthy, “what do you reckon,” “may as well, at least we can say we got in.” I was still a bit iffy on getting in so geared up pretty slowly and waited for Mick and Coxy to get in first and give me an update. “The vis looks ok”. That sounds promising I think to myself as I see Coxy’s head pop up after his first dive with a 3-4kg Coastal trout on the end of his spear, “it was in amongst that school of Slatey’s you swam past Mick.” That’s enough encouragement for me, I’m getting in. The vis is actually quite good for this area off the coast with a silty layer on the first 2 feet of the surface and about 7-8m vis below that. I head around to the exposed side of the rock where I know there is a nice drop-off. I nailed a nice Spanish of about 15kg a few years earlier here and decide to try my luck again. After a few dives, the boys make their way around to meet me. Coxy has another nice Trout and Mick decides to shoot a solid Queenfish to test out the new reel on his gun. A few dives later, and I can see a solid Tusky off in the distance but can’t figure out why he’s moving so fast in the opposite direction. Mick then materializes with gun pointed at the fish and follows it down the ledge. I hear his gun go off and so go over to inspect, he comes up for a breath and this Tusky’s going mental on the surface and manages to get off. Coxy and I have a quick scout around on the bottom but the fish is nowhere to be seen. Apart from the Tusky, it’s pretty quiet on this side of the rock. We all decide to head back around towards the boat. I see one trout on the swim back but he is wary and decides to retreat back into his cave. The amount of bait around the back edge of this rock is impressive. Big schools of small Herring seem to be everywhere. I look and it’s not long before a few small mackerel swim past. I take a shot at one but miss and think to myself there’s definitely got to be more here. A few minutes later I catch the tail end of a school of about 6 mackerel when coming up from a dive. They’re slightly out of range so I hold off hoping for another chance. Sure enough, after coming up from another dive a nice Spanish swims straight in front of me well within range. I pause and take the shot, but somehow know that the shot is low before it gets to the fish. It takes off leaving the shaft fluttering towards the bottom. The fish are definitely getting the better of us so far. While reloading, a large black shape swims towards me out of the murk.
By Matthew Ludbrooke A nice sized QLD Groper of about 100kg comes in to see what all the commotion is about. Feeling sorry for myself I decide to swim back to the boat for a break and to see how the other guys are going. Mick jumps back in just as I get back to the boat and Coxy is working the point where I saw a few mackerel earlier. He pops up in frustration after a dive as he has also lost a good sized mackerel out in deeper water. Mick goes into a shallower bommie and manages to find a good Tusky, (number 2) takes a shot and misses the fish. He then goes down for another dive and misses another solid Tusky (number 3). Third time’s a charm you say? He has a third dive, the third dive in a row I might add. This time he comes up even more frustrated than the last two dives. “I just lost a F!@#en Fingermark,” that’s enough sob stories for me I’m getting back in. Mick decides to pull his finger out on dive number four and lands the biggest Tusky for the day. We guesstimate it at about 6-7kg, quite a bit smaller than the one he lost first thing that morning. Fingermark were on everyone’s mind so I decided to see what was out in the deeper water. Two dives later, I drop down on 1,2,5,15,20, I can hardly believe my eyes as a school of about 25+ Fingermark swim casually towards me out of the murk. I waste no time taking a shot at the biggest one out of the school. Not a massive fish, but a Fingermark none the less and not a bad way to take my first fish of the morning. On returning to the boat
Mick also has a small Fingermark of around 2-3kg. I fill the boys in on where I had located the school and make my way out to try for another. The school again were still in the same area so I drop down and try to pick out a fish, but they are a lot more skittish second time round. 15 fish swim fairly fast towards me in one direction and another 15 or so fish come in from the opposite direction and join up with the rest of the school. I try and pick one out of the school and end up missing as the fish are moving a lot faster than before. Once I hit the surface I direct Coxy to the school and before long, he lands a nice Fingermark of 4-5kg, the biggest for the trip. We all decide to take one more Fingermark each out of the school before leaving. This proves slightly more challenging than the first few dives on the school. We all found that good bottom time and waiting for the curiosity of the school generally brought the fish within range and usually at the end of your breath hold. Two fish each and we were all more than happy with the result and the time was only around 10am. We decide to take a look at another small island close by but the vis is a lot worse at around 3-4m. I manage to get a nice Tusky before getting out, around 6-7kg. It was an awesome mornings dive and one that we were lucky enough to get, right in the middle of the wet season. Let’s hope the weather gods play nice and allow us a few more trips like it leading into Winter....
and please no more rain.
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