Alright got back from my trip to Starvation Boat Harbour (we remained full the majority of the time with fresh seafood, yum abalone!!)  the other day and what a ripper of a trip it was!!! Although i only went freediving once, it was awesome and had such a good time!!

 

Dad and Dan had plans to go for a spear at Shoal Cape but that didnt work out so settled for little shore dive at Starvo. We headed out onto the 4WD tracks and blasted over the sand dunes and green shrub with haste. The Ocean was just visible over the ancient dunes and shrubs. The anticipation started growing again, previous memories came flooding back over me, as if i had already jumped into the water. I snapped back into reality as we pulled up to the spot. We loomed over the dune and gazed at our hunting grounds for the day. We started to unpack the Patrol and took our gear down to the beach. We chucked our gear on and dived in.

 

This was one of my first proper shore dives and was so excited!! Our targets were Flathead, Abalone, KGW, Skippy and anything that ventured in close. It was so great slipping back into the water and i was soon doing some little dives, practising my breathing and looking for ab's. We kept swimming out deeper and found some better ground. Dad stayed inshore trying to get some Ab's while me and Dan were looking for fish and Greenlip/Brownlip ab's out deeper. We kept moving around on some nice little ridges and sand holes but to no avail.

 

I saw a great ledge in about 4m of water and made a dive under it. The silver sides, Black stripes and dinner plate body made me think big Sweep at first, but as it took-off i realized it was in fact a Long-Snout Boarfish!!! I had never speared one of these before and my heart started pounding a million miles an hour. I knew they were around but never thought i would see one this shallow!! He took-off behind a ridge, i slowly crept along the bottom and over the ridge until i saw him. His sides were so camouflaged amongst the rocks and the black stripes created this wonderful hue through its body as the overcast weather kept it surprisingly concealed.

 

I took the first shot i had at it, hitting it right in the shoulder. The fish lay dormant for a few seconds but then burst out spontaneously. I grabbed him and dispatched him with my knife!! I finned across the water like a flying fish towards my brother who was stoked with my capture and the fact that we had fresh fish for dinner!! We kept diving, with me just gazing at my prize on the back of my bro's gun the majority of the time. Its terrific but weird Long snout stood out like someone in a Mankini at a funeral. I spotted probably the biggest herring in my life and spotted a smaller Boarfish for my brother a little while later. It was awesome watching him shoot it!! We headed back in to greet Dad with a bunch of Ab's. We were stoked with our catches and quickly cleaned them up for dinner and grabbed some pics.

 

I took this photo on the rocks while cleaning the fish as they all started to clean the fish and thought i should put it up.

 

TUESDAY:

2 weeks on and we were back in the water but back at my hometown of Mandurah. The weather looked to be sweet for diving so we made a few phone calls and soon we planned my last diving trip for the holidays. It was another family event this time with Dad, Dan and I heading to a little known spot out off the Cut. The gear was chucked in the boat and we took-off to the ramp and then to the wide world of Blueness. We exited the headlands and the water was superb, way exceeding my expectations!! Crystal clear, barely any wind and not a single boat out!!! Dad upped the revs and we were on our way!! Thoughts of Mackerel creeped into my mind, but i pushed them aside. 

 

The throttle was pulled back and the anchor was let down. The weather was still superb and i quickly rushed on all my gear. I put on the GoPro and it was playing nicely today filming the whole first spot we went to. I jumped in and was greeted with Baitfish schools hugging the Boat for dear life. I swam forward to the ledge that has always got me fish. After watching a million wrasse feed on our berley i spotted a school of Skippy making their way into the berley. They were really flighty and I surfaced with gun still loaded. Dan dove down and took a ripper off a shot that extended all his cord on his 1.3, a bit over kill for Skippy but they were still fun. Dan was lucky though as his spear didnt go all the way through but he had still stunned it enough to take another shot. A ripper Skippy it was at about 40-45cm.

 

Dad was on the look out for crays, not being out done by looping a beauty . There was a smaller cray of about 15cm on the back of the bigger one that Dad had guillotined with the loop. Poor little guy, but he made great burley :). A Dhuie came racing out and munched the whole head down with gusto. He was small but it was so cool watching it launch it self out of a ledge and wallop the unfortunate Cray. The skippy came back after the rest of the cray and i planted a spear in one. just behind the gills, perfect!! another Skippy to add to the boat!! Without these Skippy it would have been a disaster as thats basically all we shot!!. I went and dived down under a ledge and found another cray for Dad that he looped. Dad put a fish on the board as well with another superb Skippy. The GoPro caught all of it and i was so stoked with it, for now.....then Dan found a little Vinculim and a Nannygai while i wasnt looking and brained them both.

 

After that everything went a bit quiet so we upped the anchor and headed in shallower for some KG action. I was still yet to get my first King George on the straight hook so was very excited about the proposition of me shooting one!! We all jumped in again to be greeted with a Dhuie and a KG. Perfect!! Dad quickly dove down and had a shot at the KG but just missed it!! Dan dived down on the Dhuie and clicked the trigger........the shaft was still in the gun. His safety was still clipped on, he realized all to late with the Dhuie taking off, never to be seen again!! If only they had of let me shoot it ;)

 

We kept diving and i saw a huge Breaksea that i thought was a Dhuie at first, only to disappear into nothing. The 3 best fish had disappeared. Dad jumped in the boat as he had enough (wimp) but me and Dan pushed on. I saw a huge Bait ball that went from the bottom (8m) to the surface!! Mackerel started appearing in my mind. Just as i shut out any possible way of mackerel appearing, what do you know a school of mackerel comes around!! They were Sharkies of about 8kg's and in a huge school. There was a little school of Skippy following them so i dived down, waited for them to come in and lined them up. They were so tightly packed in that i quickly aimed in on the 2 closest ones and fired hoping to get the tricky "2 birds with one stone" trick. The school split up and the Mackerel bolted. I recovered my sight and saw 2 Skippy on the one Spear, BOO-YA!! One was Dead with a shot straight through the eyes and the other was dead center in the middle!!

 

Dad got a couple of happy snaps and i dived back down to see Daniel with another superb Skippy. We got in the boat and looked at our catch, awesome!!

Check out the weather!!

 

We headed out a bit deeper because the boys wanted to do a Tank Dive to get some more crays and stuff. I stayed on the boat while they went and did their thing. Dad got another 5 crays, getting 2 crays in the same loop!! He took a "guess" at where its tail was and another ones tail was overlapping the chosen one so he looped them both by accident!!

 

It was time to head home now and i couldnt wait to have a look at the footage on the GoPro!! After everything was sorted i went plugged it into the TV where it deleted all the footage on there......... :O :(

I was so annoyed and so was Dad. I was still happy to go diving though, was just what i needed before school, which started today. Now i just have to get through Yr11 without thinking too much about Spearfishing ;)

 

cheers, Callum.