Spearing the Bay Report
hey guys
as promised last week here is a quickly tossed together report from monday and tuesday spearing in sharkbay...
had the pleasure of meeting Lucky Tim and his lovely lady friday evening as he had come up from the Level One apnea course we did on saturday and sunday which was a success but when stumps where pulled sunday afternoon it was home to ready the gear from a 3am get go... my mate dave was due to arrive some time during the evening after playing baseball all day sunday and after a 1230am arrival and quick gear prep we hit the sack for abit over 2hrs sleep... id had abit more hitting the sack about 10ish but dave was knackered to say the least!
alarm goes off , quick travel mug made drag dave to the car by his hair lol, quick fuel stop and we hit the highway... hit denham about 830ish after a few stops and after gathering some ice and a spare bung we hit the road into Cape Peron.... The water looked very verrrry nice but the light sth west wind blowing had me concerned as it was forecast to be easterly!
arrived at chosen camp site without problems altho our water drum had been punchered and lost half our water for showering and washing up ect but that was a minor problem. plenty of drinking water was safe and wat remained of the drum would be used sparingly.... camp was setup very hastily and in a blink of an eye we where wet!
we decided on diving some new ground this time and first up was a nice bombie in about 6m. float rope was thrown over and gun tossed in loaded and dropped ready for collection on the bottom.(new tips from the course)
breathed up and dropped down - collected my gun and sussed out the surround not expecting too much... just as i was ready to make my way back topside a gooood tuskie came flying in on the burley.. hello hello - bit of left to right darting and just as it looked ready to depart i sent one flying straight thru behind the gill plate - nice first dive of the trip! 650mm and a quick check of the watch said bottom time of 1:10 which i was pretty happy with.
the fish where around and a few spot changes and burley bought richo 2 nice tuskies and i also bagged another in the dropping vis and setting sun. dave finished the day nailing a nice bar cheek and his biggest on spear of about 600mm whilst i burleyed up and it was sitting there watching me from its ledge... good way to pull stumps....
fillets packed away - fresh tuskie and salad for dinner some beers and sleep came very veryyy easy.
day 2 dawned better again - breaky was el pronto bacon mushroom n egg wraps - gear prepped and into it again.... today would be abit harder as we only wanted some bigger species for home and a number of mid range tuskies passed us by tempting but no triggers pulled...
mid morning saw us spook a big mulloway under a ledge - could hear the croacking but couldnt see the fish - by the amount of sand it churned up was a goooood fish... some decent trout where also being spotted but suprisingly sooooooo flighty! i did get lucky with a goood bar cheek mid morning after spooking it under a ledge.... it came out the other side in plain view and gave that typical trout look before copping a stone shot just behind the gill plate and into the spine - lovely! dave had also bagged 2 nice tuskies and the bag was looking healthy... whilst dealing with this fish i had a trout of over 900mm conservativly! swim by under me... this thing was huggggge but alas once this one was sorted and no amount of burlying would tempt it from its hole.... got the co ords for next time tho ;-)
mid afternoon saw another big trout get abit cocky and come face to face with me under a ledge - a slow asscent and gun swing also saw it deposited and our trout limit reached with 2 fish - very nice....
a few more spot changes and nothing of note saw us settle on some nice looking ground - dave having a rest and spotting from the boat saw me drop into 7m of water with very very hazy 3m viz to be greated by that huge yellow and blue underslung jaw that only a monster blackspot tuskie can own! 2 quick fly bys wernt enough for a shot and it departed leaving me very peaved as this was the fish i had been waiting for all day.... Another drop saw me greeted by a school of mulloway slowly departing from there chosen ledge! i was stoked having never seen mullyz under water before and a quick assement saw me bring the gun around onto the leader of the pack. est maybe 7-8kg? lined up and click - school gone in a flash and me spewing i didnt check the safety! lol never mind
back on the surface and breathing up i was greeted by a wonderful sight! not sure if it was the same tuskie or another but it just glided in oblivious to me above... quick breath drop down a 2metres and just as it rolled over slightly to see wat i was i ruined its day.... 10kg of thumping tuskfish! i was stoked!!!! fish of the trip rapt up right there....
and so ended our diving - not a great deal of fish but absolute quality and im not complaining at the trout and tuskie fillets in the freezer....
seen my first mullys underwater - also saw (im 99% sure) potato cod - magic looking fish! also had a big pinkie elude me after taking 2secs to figure out wtf it was in the hazy viz and had a good time again with a great mate spearing! weather couldnt have been better....
hope you enjoy the pics
poddy
Fear The Spear............!
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
sizing
sorry that 2nd last pic come out too big? any chance u can downsize that adam plz???
Fear The Spear............!
scotto
Posts: 2470
Date Joined: 21/04/08
again and again.
i hate you poddyfish. we can hardly wet a line here in perth, and you're showing us this shit. you disgust me
nice work, you arsehole
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Cor that parroty is so big
Cor that tusker is so big he wouldn't fit fullscreen.
buschy
Posts: 626
Date Joined: 27/11/09
good work
good report there mate and well done on some nice fish. I'd love to see that big mulloway on the end of my line :-)
oh - and that tusky in the 2nd last pic is by far the largest I've seen
just out of curiosity - what were the winds like up there at this time of year?
soupster51
Posts: 2723
Date Joined: 29/11/06
Top shots
Nice work once again. Some quality fish. Pity you didn't see the mulla. Would you have shot it given the chance is the question.
The best reason for doing what's right today is tomorrow.
Lamby
Posts: 3145
Date Joined: 04/08/09
jealous very jealous
jealous very jealous
TWITCHEMUP
Posts: 274
Date Joined: 12/05/10
Shooting Tex....
Nothing but quality again Poddy, well done mate..
SHIMANO PRO ANGLER
mullows
Posts: 738
Date Joined: 25/12/08
Ditto poddy!!! Awesome
Ditto poddy!!! Awesome effort, love the boner. Hows the colour of the brown trout too. Never ceases to amaze me the differences in the colour from one spot to another, reds oranges, browns....fish are cooooooooool
Cheers
Mullows
The Older I get the better I was :-)
Paul G
Posts: 5215
Date Joined: 12/12/07
Top stuff guys those tuskies
Top stuff guys those tuskies huge ,good size trout also.how deep were you diving looks shallow from the pics well done again look forward to the next report
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SamC
Posts: 2013
Date Joined: 30/08/06
Yep, wouldn't expect
Yep, wouldn't expect anything less from you Poddy!
That last tuskie is stuff you dream about, let alone getting close enough to pin...epic
Me and a mate are organising a spearing trip around Dirk/SB verrrry soon..
Cheers,
Sam
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
cheers
thnx for the comments guys.... yeah sambo dirk hartog is already being planned weather permitting...
depth was shallowish paul deepest up that way was about 7-8m...
regards to the mulloway i would like to shoot one and i did line up one the leader of the school mentioned but only out of interest to see wat they are like eatting and to tick one off the list.. it would not be wasted!
pretty cool looking fish underwater too the mully....
Fear The Spear............!
Digger01
Posts: 43
Date Joined: 29/09/09
Your Potato Cod you mention
Your Potato Cod you mention may have been a Rankin Cod Poddy - Dont know, it was your head under the water, not mine. But I used to dive up there a bit in the past and have seen more than a few up there. Might want to check it on the 'net for your own curiosity.
Brings back some great memories for me - although I used to carry a camera more often than a gun.
Cheers, nice to see that its still worth the effort
brenz
Posts: 2182
Date Joined: 15/06/06
freaking awesum!!!
freaking awesum!!!
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
cod
most deffinently not a rankin digger... caught my fair share and seen a couple there the previous trip - would like to nail one on the spear actually... this one had the creamy coloured skin and very large black blotches... if it was a potato cod and im only going on the pics and videos ive seen of them pretty rapt.. very cool looking fish thats for sure.... i know they get the QLD groper at dirk hartog ect but anyone else heard of potatos being down in that area?
Fear The Spear............!
Digger01
Posts: 43
Date Joined: 29/09/09
Fair call then, I have
Fair call then, I have actually seen a couple up there - Potato (like I say but back a few years) but I have only seen small ones and your post sounds like it was a nice fish...might be the same one, would be about 70kg+ by now... ;-).
Had some dynamite dives up there - always remember one down a face of about 30m with big holes in it. Me with camera and hand spear sliding into a big hole - opened up more in the back and had about a 100kg Rankin in it with its mouth open. Looked like a second cave. My Dive buddy had a speargun and I just backed out and indicated to him to have a look with speargun poised. Could see him sliding in but not being able to see until he was in about 5 ft - then he stopped, tensed, and backed out, offering the gun to me. it was a real crack to see the look on his face.
Hope it is still the same for my kids if they get the urge - but it killed me for diving around metro, just cold not get motivated - spoilt, too many good dives elsewhere.
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
baby
nah mate this one would have only been 3-5kg only a tiddler..... where bouts where you diving digger??? dirk hartog way? havnt had the chance to get over there yet but its in the cooker just waiting for the weather window and the right crew
Fear The Spear............!
Digger01
Posts: 43
Date Joined: 29/09/09
More north of Hartog
More north of Hartog although we did dive around that area at time but big tidal movement toward the north end made the dingy tenderer chase us (bloodly frightening now that I think about it but at the time it worked out OK...) I was a bit of a lucky bastard as a good mate of mine was a skipper of a prawn trawler up in SB. (the guy I mentioned earlier) I used to go up each year later in the season for a couple of weeks and we used to always be able to find our way over to Bernier, Koks, and Dorre for some priceless diving and fishing times - Like I Said - spoilt, hard to come back to the real world after that sort of exposure.
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17861
Date Joined: 11/03/08
great effort there. you
great effort there. you certainly had the weather looking after you. coupla nice fish without a doubt. well done
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
grayzeee
Posts: 2283
Date Joined: 09/07/09
wow. trout and tuskfish. are
wow. trout and tuskfish. are there any better tasting fish out there??
good work !
If I spent half as long fishing , as I do reading this bloody forum , I'd be twice the fisherman I am.
DazSamFishing
Posts: 1518
Date Joined: 19/08/09
some crackers there poddy.
some crackers there poddy. well done!
Lucky Tim
Posts: 2536
Date Joined: 28/11/07
onya Poddy, all the km's
onya Poddy, all the km's were well worth it. Hopefully there's a spearing adventure up there with our names on it sometime soon, can't wait to nail a big blue bone myself.
Here's to better bottom times and bigger fish!
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
bottom time
yeh mate was doing a minute - minute 10 comfortably up there when i used all that was taught properly....
so hard once the gun is in hand tho - have to remember to tuck in and streamline haha
Fear The Spear............!
Black Pearl
Posts: 59
Date Joined: 19/06/10
Shark Bay
Nice pics there! Getting up there next month for a few days... totally cant wait now!!!!
Got to get out there!
poddyfish
Posts: 986
Date Joined: 01/05/07
the bay
where bouts ya heading black pearl? sure hope you get some nice weather like we did - i checked the forecasts for up there out of interest this morning and there aint a great deal below 20knots for the next fortnight! hopefully blows by for you
Fear The Spear............!
Black Pearl
Posts: 59
Date Joined: 19/06/10
We are heading up there on
We are heading up there on either the 10/11 of next month for about 4/5 days, so really hoping the weather is as good as it was for you guys, really excited. Hopefully we can get onto some good fish!! Just as long as we get out a couple of days i'll be happy!
Got to get out there!