One fish that has been tops of my 2 spear list since moving back south is the WA Dhufish... Ive caught my share on line ect but on spear and freediving was what i really wanted.... Today was my lucky day

Forecast was nice but the swell has been cranking lately and vis was always gonna be the x-factor for us. My dive buddy called at lunch time to see if all was a goer and with that the battle plan rolled into action. Hit the marina at about 1pm to a lovely flat sea a dropping swell and not so clear water. Heading out towards the channel markers and onto hells gates the vis began to clear and our hopes of some divable conditions began to rise. We pressed on.

Today we started to diving in a area not visited to previously and straight away it became evident that the swell was still causing havoc for us - strong surge and cloudy vis. Rob spotted a nice trout towards the end of our little warm up dives in 6m but it didnt like the look of the big orca railgun he was holding and bolted after the one sighting.. He took a nice 40cm skippy heading back to the boat but was spewing the trout didnt play ball.

The next spot again drew blank with the swell vis thingo hampering our efforts and a afternoon sky clouding up also didnt help. The 3rd spot was to be a dive i wont forget for aloooong time.

Into the drink and scouted the area for some 30mins before making the decision with rob to head back boatwards and try again somewhere else. Heading back slowly i was in about 8m of water and following rob about halfway along his floatline say 10 or so metres when we moved over a sandy hole between bombies. I looked down and could not believe my eyes! There she was , the fish ive waited for. Pumped was a understatement my whole body was shaking! DONT FU*K THIS UP! I breathed up and dove leveling out just above the fish. Nervous as hell my gun outstretched and shaking the fish presented 2 different shots before gettin jumpy and moving off. I resurfaced gutted id blown my chance and cursing i didnt take the shot. But she didnt move too far and i caught sight or her again and repeated the move... This time she was off in a flash into a big cave. A quick check proved i wouldnt be finding her in a hurry in the dark.

Back on the surface i called for rob who was de-gearing back in the boat by now to come over for a look. He has a much better bottom time then me and together we dove the cave willing the fish to reappear but......... no avail

I was totally shattered at missing this oppotunity and decided to head back to the sand patch just for a look - nothing... Then i spied a much smaller ledge / cave so i went for a look there... On the bottom it looked very fishy but still nothing of note... I turned 180 degree and kicked once heading back to the top surrounded by big (3-5kg) buffies.... I was very tempted to shoot one for burley but thought twice in the low vis conditions and fading light. Hitting the surface and scanning i caught a silver flash deep under my fins. She was BACK! The big cave must have been a big swim thru and the same fish had come out for a sticky beak! This time i thought... Breathing up i dove as quiet as i could... The fish swimming away from me at a slight angle... Catching site of me she turned ever so slightly for a better look...

BANG - straight thru the brain and out the mouth from slightly above and behind the fish i had stoned my first dhuie! Grabbing her in the gills i realised it was much larger than i had thought.... OVER THE MOOOOOON!

Back in the boat a heap of pics and a celebratory beer capped off my special arvo. We dove some more a touch later with rob finding another uncooperative trout but i was so stoked i didnt mind what happened from then on. Althought we did bag 6 nice crays before heading in..

Cheers for reading i know its abit of a drabble but everyone has there special fish and this has been mine for some time and i wanted to share with you all...... She measured 84cms and pulled the scales down to almost 11kgs......

HAPPY DAYS