Spearfishing - Bowen (pics)

[Mick]

Went out Saturday morning with Dan (Devocean) and 1 other mate for a dive. Our original plan was to go to the reef, but a last minute calculation of tidal flow, which was a 2.5 meter run, changed our minds and we decided to dive some inshore spots with less current (cos we are unfit and drink too much beer). 8-)

We dived a coastal reef, only a few Kms off a remote beach, about an hours run from the ramp.

Almost immediately dan had 2 trout in the esky and i got 2 school mackeral that were swimming next to the boat. Soon after I caught up to Dan with 2 of my own trout. We thought it was going to be a ripper of a day, but then things slowed down just a little... 8-)

After a lenghty time frame without boating a fish I plugged a funny looking parrot fish and a couple more trout. Soon after that dan and i found a couple of tuskys. Dan placed a good shot in the side of an estimated 8kg blue tusk fish but the powerful tusky was too good for dan (without a float attached to his gun) and dragged him into a cave. He had to cut the line and say good bye to a nice fish. I got the other one but it was only 3kg. (Dan took his frustrations out on another trout seconds after the bluey mishap.)

We decided to head back and stop to check a few shallow spots closer to home for crays, but we couldn't find any. So, I convinced my skipper to do the opposite and drop me off at some deeper reef for one last dive. Dan and the skipper line fished and I jumped over board. On my first dive I was met with a school of Golden trevally, swimming in about 11 meters of water I picked out one of the bigger ones and WHACK! At this point in time I went from being happy with a good shot on a good fish to realising i had no float on my gun - 'oh o' is an understatement! However, the gods were on my side and although I nearly drowned and got pulled under and dragged along the bottom the boys in the boat manged to give me a hand to land the fish.

On the next dive i manged to get another Golden Trev (with a float). On the third dive the school of Goldens were still there but i wasn't interested in them anymore. I saw a good sized trout on the bottom and pludded that to end my day.

All up I think we got 8 trout, parrot, bluey, 3 school mackeral and the 2 Golden trevs which made a pretty good day.

Mick

First pic are of the 2 schoolies

[Mick]

Dans 2 trout before 7:30am.

[Mick]

Me with 2 trout and looking a bit more alive then the first pic

[Mick]

Parrot. I am not sure what this type is called thou.

[Mick]

I originaly thought this was a schooly, but after hitting it i thought it may have been a spaniard. Measured it to be 76cm so it didn't matter. After i had a good look at it again, i realised it was still just a schooly.

[Mick]

Dan with his third trout

[Mick]

Golden Trevelly. Can't believe I shot this thing with out a float line and float. Silly, silly, silly! [smiley=oops.gif]

[Mick]

The second Golden Trev did not want to pose for the camera

[Mick]

And my best trout for the day.

[Nathanrb4]

Mick i thought Bugman had already told you about the rules!?! ;D

As always great trip mate
Nathan

[Mad_fisherman]

Gold nice fish there

Well done

MAD!

[Fishinmishin]

A nice report and pics mate ;). Looks the colours of a surf parrot but they got a rounded head :-?.

[morty103]

thats a ripsnorter of a golden ;D well done matey
Morty

[outsiderskip]

hi mick

nice mixture of fish there
good feed on BBQ tonight



cheers pete

[DougHanning]

Good stuff guys. What was the viz like? You broke rule No1 Mick - no floatline, what if a 20kg spanish had swum past?
That coastline brings back memories of diving off shoalwater. Cheers Doug

[jeffo]

going to have to disagree with you on the mackeral. the one that went 76 is a spaniard, and also, the one in your right hand in the first pic looks like it has narrow bars as well ;)

[truggah]

they are definately spanish

[bugman]

Mick,

Nice post - No crays hey ! 8-) 8-)

Good to see you're following the rules - or are you just trying to get out of sending me my share >:(

Bugman

[Mick]

Not sure about the Spanish call as the mackeral all had the white coloured skin bit near the dorsal fin which is only found on the schoolies. I know the bars make it hard to pick with juvies tho. After half an hour in the esky the skin faded into the more recognisable blotchy type colour, while spanish hold there skin colour and the bars are still recognisable after a fair while on ice.

Doug, we were diving the shallow spots without the floatline and I just forgot to attach it when we moved into deeper water. If a 20kg spanish came past I would of still shot it because I didn't even realise I was missing the floatline. That would of been an expensive mistake!

Vis ranged alot. From only a few meteres in some of the algae spots to about 10 meters at the ocean side of the reef.

Thanks for all the kind words, cheers, Mick

[Fishin_Dan]

Nice work Mick! :D

Will definately let you know when I'm heading up to the area (ish). Just make sure you get rid of all those sharkies before I get up there... I'm too big and slow and make an easy target for em! ;) ::)

[Daintreeboy]

another great diving trip Mick, well done. I'm with Jeffo on the bigger mack. It has the bars of a Spanish. I'd like to see a closer pick of the smaller one too. Nice trevs too mate.
Cheers, Mark.

[Mick]

Nice work Mick! :D

Will definately let you know when I'm heading up to the area (ish). Just make sure you get rid of all those sharkies before I get up there... I'm too big and slow and make an easy target for em! ;) #::)

(picture Mr Burns rubbing his hands with an evil look in his eye)

....Eeeeexelent! :D :D :D

The perfect decoy ;D

[Fishin_Dan]

If it comes down to it, I will work out how God walked on water!!! ;D

As long as they don't have "Friggin lazers on their heads" I should be alright!!! ;)

[Mick]

;D lol dan.

I was wrong about the Mackerel too. The 2 small ones are greys and the bigger one may never again be able to be identified. See, the greys are the ones with narrow bands, not the schoolies / doggies, and the bars fade nearly immediately after death which is exactly what happened. I can't remember paying too much attention to whether the bigger Macks bars faded or not, but they all had the bit of white at the first dorsal fin, which led us to believe they were not spanish.

So, basicaly, if your anything less then an absolute expert, little spanish and medium sized greys are only distinguishable by having the white part on the front dorsal fin and faded bars on the grey mackerel after death (which may be too late if its under 75cm). So, since I do not have a masters degree in fish identification, the bit of white on the front dorsal fin is all i have to go off for correct identification.

Thanks for pointing this out (jeffo i think?), I have just done a quick study of all the mackerel and i shouldn't be faced with the same confusion again.

DPI fishweb confirms all this.

[devocean]

You forget to mentio the stingers Mick my face is still a bit swollen. Ears good though so Im happy. As foir the small macks they were definetly schoolies saw heaps swimming around can tell easily under the water.

Bait soakers I dont know what to say except buy a speargun