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dives at Tiffs had been disappointing due to a cold upwelling
of green, murky water, limiting the visibility to an eerie five
metres. I began to pace impatiently, "Where the hell was
Graeme?" And should I try persuading him to dive elsewhere?
And would the irritating shoals of dusky sharks be lurking in
wait of us, to play havoc with our heart rates?
Around
2.45pm the "Ghost Crab" came grumbling towards me
… out stepped the "Damager". "Hey Graeme,
what do you reckon? Looks really good but I'm not sure it
will be clean out the back. Maybe we should shoot down to
Sheffield?"
Now
anyone who knows Graeme will tell you that he is a Tiffs die-hard!
When everyone else is shore diving Sheffield, he is pulling
a late afternoon solo mission at the drop-off on his skep.
It, literally, is his back yard! He just looked across at
me and said, "No ways, it looks really good and the couta
will be thick! There is a huge front coming and this place
really produces fish just before it hits!"
"Right,
I thought, lets see what Karma has in store for me today."
as I was pulling on my wetsuit. "I had yet to have a
productive day at the drop off, could this be the one?"
A few minutes later, after a haze of gear management, I found
myself finning furiously out to the drop-off!
To
my amazement, the visibility out back was excellent. Top to
bottom! As I swam deeper, I began marvelling at the beauty
of the reef system and the mass of life that clung to it!
On days like that you really have to appreciate everything
about the sport we love! Blue water breeds calm into me, a
pure feeling, unmatched!
I
figured that with the north-south current I would swim out
to the false drop-off to the north and deploy my flasher there.
In the crystal blue water, the bright rays of light emanating
from the flasher had me in an almost hypnotic state. It seems
the salad fish were under the same spell. They appeared out
of nowhere, amazed by the sparkling mass sinking down into
their domain. I was in 15 metres of water and at that moment
totally unaware that the next hour and a half would become
the most amazing of my spearfishing life thus far!!
At
the very instant the flasher reached the right level, a diver's
dream unfolded right there! A large shoal of dart couta swam
lazily up to my flasher and began arcing around it! I dove
silently to their level, and without interpreting the situation
at all, speared the first fish I laid eyes on. As I fought
the five-kilo couta, I began to notice that the shoal was
much larger than I first anticipated; they just kept coming
through and must have easily totalled thirty fish. Sadly,
the shoal disappeared in time for me to grab my speared fish.
As
I strung the first fish, I noticed two small duskies cruise
up to my flasher! "Mmmm, I was wondering when you guys
were going to show up", I thought. Lucky for me they
had no interest at all in my fish.
I
decided to swim further out onto the sand, followed by my
new friends, the sharks and ever present salad fish. As I
arced to the right, in the direction of the true drop off,
not even five minutes after spearing the first fish, another
shoal of couta came filing through. Even though I was aware
that the shoal was huge, I instinctively dove down and spined
the first fish I could draw a bead on.
The
sharp quivering of the fish seemed to puzzle the rest of the
shoal, and drew almost all of them in for a look at their
paralysed mate. This was an awesome sight! As the whole shoal
snaked through, I began to realise that there were a few larger
fish amongst them, mostly to the rear!
After
the fish moved off, I brought the 7kg fish to the surface
and strung it. "Wow, I thought. That's pretty good going!
Ten minutes and 2 couta in the bag!"
I
decided right then that I was on the G spot and would wait
for the couta to come back to me. It seemed like the shoal
was making passes over the same section of reef and was following
a similar hunting path. It also seemed like there were larger
fish to the rear of the shoal and if they weren't too agitated
I would try to let the first 10 fish go past and wait to intercept
one of the larger one's. Hopefully the flasher would keep
those first 10 mesmerised enough so as not to frighten fish
further back.
The
two duskies became three…
Three
became four…"Hold on that's not a dusky…it's
another couta!" I thought aloud as the whole shoal began
to snake its way past the flasher! "Time to put my plan
into gear!"
I
slowly sank down the first fish's level and waited. The fish
seemed to ignore me and was transfixed by the flasher. More
couta started to materialise behind…"Wait for the
larger fish" I told myself! Now any spearo will tell
you that it takes severe will power to resist drumming a couta!
About ten fish into the shoal I could resist the urge no longer
and shot an 8kg fish.
Three
couta down and still the duskies were only interested in my
flasher…they were darting in close and veering off at
the last second…as if trying to decide what to eat first…reflective
discs or wine bag squids?
Just
then I noticed my snorkel whistling and popped my head out
of the water…a huge westerly had come up. White horses
and spray…the whole works!! Looking back down at the
flasher, my eyes nearly popped out…the shoal of couta
was back again…result…another 8kg fish. Four down!!
After
stringing the fish I began to notice that the surface current
had become stronger and I could no longer stay on the drop
off. "What the hell", I thought " Just drift
with the flasher over the sand for a bit and see if the shoal
comes in again. If it doesn't, start swimming back too shore."
Four Couta later I had not space left on my stringer! Had
the shoal had not disappeared I would probably have been lost
on my way to the Maldives. I looked back towards land and
found myself almost a kilometre out to sea and about 600m
north of the drop off. For the guys who know Salties, I was
in line with the mid point between Van der Riets and 4 Poles.
My
buoy was standing upright and almost sinking! How the hell
was I supposed to drag all these fish against the big west…and
then carry all the fish back to the car??
"Oh well", I thought, " Here goes nothing".
Half
an hour later and after some serious finning, with the fish
right next to me, I washed up on shore. Soooo stoked and soooo
tired!! But hey, it's amazing what adrenaline can do to you!
I split the 8 couta in half, 4 over each side of my right
shoulder and began the long walk back to the car.
And
so ended the best dive of my life so far…8 shots for
8 couta. Biggest 9kgs and smallest 5kgs! Just over 50 kilo's
of fish!!
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