Burnsy's 15kg Cobia / Prodigal Son 

The day started with an early morning drive down the south coast and just incase the water was good the dive gear was packed along with the rubber duck and all the fishing gear.

On arrival at our destination the sea was crystal clear with a 3ft swell and no wind. Just south of the parking lot was a rocky point that looked inviting and in no time at all the wet suit was on and I was rounding the point in the at least 20m vis.

On the point itself there were no fish of any substance besides the shoals of over weight stone bream and the fat chubb that milled about just on the backline darting in and out of the sand clouds. The rocky structure off the point was robust with big boulders that mushroomed from the bottom and formed deep gullies that looked perfect for ambushing baitfish.

In my case hopefully ambushing kingfish that I'm sure would appear from behind the boulders at any minute.

After a short while with no fishy action I started collecting the odd the crayfish that were hiding in the cracks in the rocks. With the cray bag getting close to the 8 limit I decided to head out to some deeper water that looked promising. On arriving at the small but well structured reef in about 8m of water, there was little fish activity but I quickly found a decent cave which housed a few good sized crays. I secured my 1.1m Rob Allen rail gun next to the cave and made my way to the surface.

On preparation for my next dive to the cave a strange shape of what I thought was a small grey shark or should I say a shoal of sharks appeared??? Then it dawned on me , these weren't sharks but Prodigal Son, and amongst the small fish in the shoal of about ten there some big brothers lurking. With a very quick trip to the bottom, which I tried to be as quite as possible, I grabbed my gun and waited while the shoal moved just above the ledge. Then the moment of truth as the biggest fish in the shoal gave me a good broad side and the spear flew true and straight hitting just behind the gills.

Then all hell broke loose as the fish took off in a wide circle before breaching the surface making a massive splash before it tore off back to the bottom. After another two minutes of fighting the fish making sure not to apply two much pressure I wrapped my hand into its gills and secured it's body between my legs before subduing it with the stinger. I collected the final crayfish I then hit the beach and made the heavy walk back to the car where the fish tipped the scale at a good 15kg's. What a way to start the bug season!!!

Cheers,

Sean