thedeepblue

Keeping current

Thankfully the warmer weather is here once again and some nice fish are being seen and taken. Well done to Jon for his awesome powerhouse of a kingfish from the mid north coast which was one of two seen that day and weighed in at 37.5 kg

Meanwhile the Shire is turning it on at the moment with a choice of good fish to be had. The planets lined up for Craig recently with a quality haul including Dusky flathead 3001 gms, Yellow fin bream 2200gms and Rock black fish 3023gms.

Here are some pics from a couple of recent dives we did on the south coast. With kind weather we were able to explore some new areas and  managed some nice fish in the process including Petes cracker king wrasse, hefty silver trevally and a fair whack of a kingfish (16kg) for mine.

With conditions a little rough outside, Pete and I tackled some sheltered waters near Jervis Bay and concentrated on reef fish in about 10 metres. The sand line below boulders was lightly planted with kelp and with some cold water about conditions looked promising for boarfish and sure enough....... King wrasse another delicacy, was also targetted along with goatfish, flathead and blue morwong.

With the weather relatively stable and a light nor-easter hitting the South Coast it was good enough to jump in the zodiac and head south along the magnificent cliffs of the Beecroft Peninsular, Jervis Bay. The visibility was down due to recent rain, a cool current on the coast and constant north easters. After a short trip I had the 'Drum and Drumsticks' in sight and soon anchored up in a favourite kingfish haunt.

It only took 20 or so minutes before four 20 kg plus kingfish loomed in from the gloom. The shock of the 7.5 mm spear thudded home powered by twin 16mm rubbers. Despite this the fish fought hard for 15 minutes before I had my arms and legs wrapped tightly around it and it was mine.

The kingfish measured 1.3 metres and weighed 21 kg, the weight elevated by a belly full of squid, trevally and thousands of roe. By any account an awesome fish and a fantastic end to 2006

After being schooled by a parade of 20 or so just legal kingies we had the taste of things to come when 10 or so real ones came in. Being on a bomb I didn't hear Pete's cries of kingies as they schooled him and watched him dispatch a nice 3 kg black drummer. With slightly sideways grins the hoodlums cruised past. I was pleased to bump them mid water in 6 metres and lined up the closest. The shot was true and pinned two nice kings in the school. I hit the surface yelling Kings and joined Petes chorus. Happy days.

hoodlums

A nice mixed bag, bring on summer.

Trying new tactics and improvising with gear sometimes pays off on a grand scale to persistant divers. A case in point is the 'dodgy car sun shield' which attracted the notoriously curious king fish (see story below). So too it was when Scuba Pete and I went out in search of kingies, but this was no ordinary dive, Pete had a secret weapon!!!!! The 'SCUBA Pete wonder wobbler' dangling from the tip of his gun. This silver lure was 'guaranteed' to deliver, after all what fish could resist a little bit of SCUBA Loving????

Pete with his wobbler and a nice 10 keg kingie

Scuba Pete sharing the love.

The mercury had us at 28 degrees by 10.30 and the wind blew hot from the west. My regular dive buddy, SCUBA Pete, was unavailable so after a quick ring around my mate 'Tuna' and I were speeding to the coast. 'Tuna' is heading to the Coral Sea in 3 weeks and wanted to get in some target practice and I needed a feed.

When we hit the coast we were met with an absolute pearler of a day and as we suited up we could smell the faint smell of Jewfish in the air. After dragging a large rubber mat for target practice to the depths with him Tuna and I fired off a few practice shots and grabbed some handy video to improve techniques, then I was off in search for that feed.

The vis. wasn't great, around 7 metres which was my distance away when I spotted a couple of handy sized jew making their way along the bottom out of the wash. Instinct took me down where I lined up the first one, gently squeezed and .......oh shit the safety was still on from the video work earlier. A missed op. and that second or 2 delay saw the lead fish move off, The second fish presented but was smaller so i held the shot and waited for the third who obliged by following the line of the other two. By this time i was much closer and placed a solid holding shot into the shoulder of the third fish whose initial instinct was to try and 'cave up'. By maintaining the tension he was soon at mid water, with me on the surface and shortly after he was in my arms. As I 'iki jimi'd' the fish his mouth opened wide and i was sure I had him. I yelled to Tuna who made his way over, then took off after the other 2 fish.

As I uncliped my speed stick I relaxed my grip on the lifeless fish which to my horror casually kicked off and swam away.!! So there I was with an unloaded gun watching my fish (still with mouth wide open) steadily examing the rocks below for a place to hide. I thought about reloading but he still had too much go and I would lose him for sure, so i dived on him knife in hand.  I managed to catch him but he slipped away through my arms and got half into a cave, as he turned i stuck my hand in his cavernous mouth, the only place which provided something to grip. This time after some deft knife work he was mine.....for sure.

The next couple of hours saw us searching for the others with no luck and its amazing how fish can literally dissapear. So i decided to try my hand at some crays and before long had a nice one in the bag. While I was swimming around I noticed a cray bag and measure nicely tied floating about on the surface, it was Tunas, beauty clip that one on the old float. Minutes later something blue caught my attention on the bottom, a small 900 gun wedged into a rock gave itself up, sweet. All in all a pretty damn fine day. Thanks Tuna, awesome mate.

Target practice                          Best place to grip a jew, by the gill rakers through the mouth.  

Fair lump of a fish.