Gero Spear 6th January
First report for the year & the first spear for the year!
Rob and i where both coming off nightshift which made things alittle harder but with not a drop of swell and the promise of half decent conditions we bit the bullet and headed out about 730am straight after knocking off work. Along this time with us was Robs future son-in-law Timmy. Very keen surfer and dosnt mind spending time with a gun in his hand.
Forecast was for fairly light sth-west winds which where pretty much spot on and made the trip fairly slow but not too bad but the grey overcast skys and intermittent rain showers didnt help the viz once in the drink! Arrived at about 845 and geared up. First in the drink was robbie and he came up stoked the water was clear as and fish everywhere! I jumped in armed with the camera in a attempt to get some nice shots - that lasted all of a min when a monster baldie came ghosting in from the gloom. Tim traded my riffe for the camera but it was too late the fish had continued on...
Went for abit of a swim and came across a nice groper of about 4kg so my first shot had me on the board and we where on our way.... Dropped the fish at the boat and swum over to find tim and rob on some beaut looking ground in about 10m and timmy just dealing with a superb baldchin of about 6kg! Great Fish....
Little bit of buffy burly and i spyed a nice spango off on the sand along with another big groper and a couple of small dhuies... Being a good swim from the boat tho rob made the call to head back abit closer so the fish where left be for next time.... Caught up with rob who was burlying a buff and had woken up every wobbie in a 10mile radius - had 7 swimming about at one stage all different colours and patterns quiet cool to see...
Timmy mean while had knocked off a big Blue Bar Parrot on his swim back to the boat and he had his 2 fish limit on the first dive!
I traded the gun for my camera again and was busy taking snaps when robbie called us over for some pics - he had nailed his first Blue Groper! Not very often seen up this way and he was pretty happy to chalk another off the list! Beautiful soft white fillets i might add when doing the cleaning later on! Cant wait to try it
Moved out into some deeper water which proved fruitless so headed back in to try find the area i saw the spangos before.... Stumbled across some ok looking ground nothing spekky but set about spearing a buff and getting some action happening... One small sambo of about 15kg came looking but was let continue on his business and then suddenly the spangleds appeared... Timmy was following with camera and i was flat out trying to burley these flighty fish in closer when rob gave us a warning yell! "OI LOOOKOUT"
Turned around to come face to face with a 10ft tiger 5ft away.... Dropped the burly and put my gun between us and the fish while tim did his best to climb on my sholders and rob came over to lend a hand.... Ate the buffy i dropped and came for a couple of tight circles really watching us before drifting off... AWESOME ENCOUNTER... Tim wasnt really in picture mode therefore only got the one snap - Video would have been unnnnreal. He retired back to the boat after that...
Traded gun for camera again incase he came back in and fired some shots off of some small dhuies , groper and trout - robbie missed a nice baldchin and we decided to move again to try find our 2 more fish....
Viz had begun depleting here in the deeper water which didnt help - fair amount of swimming for me only showed a couple of parrotfish but nothing worth shooting... Rob managed one small groper which left one fish to shoot.... We caught up and where discussing one more move or what to do when i looked down to find a ripper 6kg plus baldchin moochin in under me... SCORE
Quick breath up drop down and nailed my 2nd fish for the day and our bag of 6 was complete....
Home cleaned up and ready to do it all again next time the weather permits with some beautiful fillets for dinner!
Great day out
Cheers Poddy
Fear The Spear............!
STEVE231
Posts: 1443
Date Joined: 05/01/10
Always a good read Podman, I
Always a good read Podman, I reckon I would have walked on water if I saw that tiger, bugger that!!!
southcity104
Posts: 1659
Date Joined: 27/01/09
Looks like a wreck on the bottom?
did you notice that?
great post with some great baldies
"Its a life style job"
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
sensational.
awesome read again poddy, and the photos are great. those baldies are massive mate, well done (although spewin their heads make up half the weight of the fish).
you should have put a shot into that tiger. you would have plenty of fillets then.....
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
MV Stanford
sure is mate.... good dive there - beside that bluey we dont shoot fish there. rob couldnt help himself lol! i woulda done the same yet to nail a blue..... Good area for a warm up dive get the lungs stretched and take some pics..... small trout dhuies etc most of the time in residence
Fear The Spear............!
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Horse Baldies Poddyfish, well
Horse Baldies Poddyfish, well done!
alfred
Posts: 3097
Date Joined: 12/01/07
Top fish again! Fantastic.
Top fish again! Fantastic.
soupster51
Posts: 2723
Date Joined: 29/11/06
Top Start
Great start to the year mate. I haven't made it out yet. Champing at the bit.
The best reason for doing what's right today is tomorrow.
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
mate they are some cracking
mate they are some cracking photos, and fish to go with it.
Bet that tiger got the blood pumping!
grayzeee
Posts: 2283
Date Joined: 09/07/09
good going poddy. stuff that
good going poddy. stuff that , bobbing around on the surface with a 10ft tiger around and burley in
well done
If I spent half as long fishing , as I do reading this bloody forum , I'd be twice the fisherman I am.
Adam Gallash
Posts: 15610
Date Joined: 29/11/05
nice work
Nice work Podman, no spearing around here as the rains have filthied the waters. Got a nice trout off a bombie for work yesterday though, made up for a very crap day with engine dramas (least it was glass until the front came through and dropped 35mm on us in 15 mins)
Site Admin - Just ask if you need assistance
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
tiger
our run in was pretty lame compared to a mate on another boat grayzee.... he had a 10ft appear out of nowhere on the surface and charge him bad 4 times.... very experiance diver tho so kept his cool and some serious prodding eventually seen it off... no burley nothing just one very angry shark.... he wasnt to far away from us at the time either
cheers for the comments crew
Fear The Spear............!
fishfish
Posts: 303
Date Joined: 01/09/09
Free Dive
Hi Poddy I noticed that your free diving this time, can I ask you what depth your in and how long can you hold your breath for ???
I've also noticed in a couple of your posts that you burley, is this nesesary or does it make it quicker/easier especially if your free diving and have limited time under water ???
Cheers fishfish...
alfred
Posts: 3097
Date Joined: 12/01/07
Don't think I have seen
Don't think I have seen Poddyfish with tanks before - but I don't look at all the pictures.
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
tanks
gday fishfish...... no tanks in any of my pics mate all freediving
as for breathhold we normally run at about a min - min15 which is comfortable for me and my usual dive buddy rob.... this gives us options if something bad happens ie a reserve tank so to speak - this helps prevent blackout etc occuring....
depths are anywhere from 8-20m - usually we operate around 10-15m for most of our fish
burley again depends on your confidence diving , how you go with sharks which arnt certain to show but the chances multiply by doing it and stuff like that.... we normally just shoot a buffy for that - but any crayshell and the like we also use and works great all the fish we chase bar mackies etc.... urchins work wonders on baldies!
hope that helps mate
poddy
Fear The Spear............!
kwozz
Posts: 36
Date Joined: 03/11/09
solid work
awesome work there poddy I dont often post on here but you really put the effort in mate and deserve the good fish!
keep livin the dream chief
ant
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17868
Date Joined: 11/03/08
sounds like a great day.
sounds like a great day. that visitor of yours would have been a surprise for the newcommer. some nice fish taken. well done guys
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
fishfish
Posts: 303
Date Joined: 01/09/09
free dive
Hi Poddy thanks for the reply, sorry mate I thought I remember seeing tanks in one of your old shark bay reports I must be losing the plot !!!.
How long does it take you to swim down 20m, and how do you sight your fish as I presume you wouldnt get to many days where you can see the bottom or do you just set your burley trail going wait a few minutes and dive down and have a look ????
Thanks once again ..fishfish
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
fishfish
haha nah mate never used tanks - thanks for your comments tho bud!
20metres would take 25secs roughly? at the moment we rarely hit that depth tho
alot of the time its just a matter of luck - diving on the ground. See some nice ledges or something from uptop and drop onto that... hopefully a nice fish is in residence. The burley aids in bringing them into the area aswell so that increases your chances....
but on the odd occasion when it is a 1/100 day and ya can see the fish from uptop it does help.... Nothing like seeing a 5 or 6kg baldie come ghosting in
Fear The Spear............!
DazSamFishing
Posts: 1518
Date Joined: 19/08/09
awesome report poddy. again,
awesome report poddy. again, some hooter baldies. yummo. geez you blokes know how to keep your cool when those biteys are around. well done mate