9 June 2007
We had a tight deadline from both SWMBO's to meet, so we had a quick paddle out to a point that looked OK, and Donovan stayed there while I went on towards a spot I know of. It turned out my spot was too far given our deadline, so I checked out a reef with some current, shot a couple of KY and a trev for bureley, and ended up stuffing up a burley and spooking a nice big snapper.
Running out of time I returned to see how Donovan was doing. He had seen some nice snapper, so I worked just along from him in our last half hour.
I swam into the next bay which was just chock full of nice snappers. Almost every gut in the shallows had a few and there would have been a couple of dozen or more around one rock. They were sitting on the edge of visibility circling, so I burleyed for them to come back in. While letting it cook for a bit I drifted further in to a gut that had a nice feel about it. Looking over the edge there were a nest of a dozen more nice snapper just hanging out. I didn't have a near shot, so I backed off for a breath, and returned to the far corner of the gut. Looking back into the gut again from a different angle, they had all gone! Bugger.
Or had they? I relaxed and waited. There, below me, a big snapper stirred and dropped further into the weed. Will he stay or will he spook? I crawled towards him behind some cover and then dropped, my spear pointing at him, dropping quietly, him sinking and starting to stir, me sinking, him turning and dropping. I was right above him so was going to have to take a shot from directly above. I dropped further and was expecting him to bolt, but when I was in range I let the spear go. the fish was hit straight in the brain from above, the flopper did not even open as the tip was lodged in bone. I rammed the fish down to the bottom and got my fingers into its gills. Yep, It was stoned, and it was secure. Nice. It latter weighed 6.9 kg.
I looked up and Donovan was back on his yak ready to pack up. Perfect timing! He had picked up a cople of crays and a nice pannie, but had seen some really nice snapper just crusing around in the clear water, with vis ranging from 10m to 15 m.
What an awesome day. A strong headwind had us working hard to get back to the beach, but we made it in reasonable time, and back home just in time.
