I went to the beach today, hoping to wet a line.
But the sea is like a washing machine, the rocks I normally perch on were being smashed.

And I could not find and cunjevoi anywhere, it seems the Ricks have been scoured free of nearly all growth.
Even the weed has been scoured by the relentless pounding of the sea.

The beach has all but washed away with the stairs from the surf rescue hut now hanging a good 5 feet from the sand.

I watched one die hard tossing in some seriously heavily weighted line, but it was washed back in seconds without a nibble.
I asked him how it was going and he said he hasn't caught a fish in days.

It will be weeks, perhaps months before it gets close to normal again
Cunjevoi will grow quickly, but it will need a respite from the currently pounding surf.
The fish will be feeding well, with pipis, weed and washed out cunjevoi to munch on to their hearts content.
There were also no worms to be had, I'm assuming they have gone deep or have been washed out as well.

Oh well, things will settle in time
They always do.

Not everyone fishes at the local Aquarium shop like you Smithers.

freediver wrote on Feb 8^th, 2022 at 6:44pm:


Often the weather reports are inaccurate.
I fish by tide, and generally at low tide things settle down a bit.

The beach/rocks where I fish usually have at least one protected side.
But at the moment, it's coming from every direction.
I have not seen it like this in the 34 years I have lived here.

The forecast is for some more moderate weather.
But my favorite bait is all gone for a while.
I guess I'll just have to use meat.
Not as good, requires more frequent changes, but still catches fish.

Jasin wrote on Feb 8^th, 2022 at 7:46pm:


Never managed to get a mulloway on my spear, only ever seen a couple.
Got a few good sized snapper in deeper water
And a 5 ft King off North Head in Sydney a few years back.
I also speared a small barracuda up north when I was younger, didn't know what it was, and it just kept hanging around, so I shot it.

Mostly I'm after drummer, bream, snapper, mowong and my favorite leather jacket.
Which as you probably know, keep mostly to the weed beds.

If there is a nice sandy bottom I don't mind the occasional flathead or flounder.
When hunting leather jacket I prefer a hand spear.
But in deeper water I use my double rubber gun.

Been a while now, my diving buddy packed it in a few years ago and have not bothered looking for another, one day......

Quote:

Jasin wrote on Feb 8^th, 2022 at 8:27pm:


Where do you fish, I live on the central coast and spear most of the rocky outcrops around here.
Mullaway just don't seem to hang around here much, or I'm looking in the wrong areas.
I also don't like diving deeper than 50-60 feet, so that also limits my prey a bit.
Used to dive with some guys who regularly hit 80 plus feet, that's pushing my comfort zone too much.

I too only spear what I can eat that day.
Enough fish for my family and I, I don't believe in taking too much, its wasteful and greedy.

We also get the occasional lobster.
I'm not a lover, but the wife likes them, I find early mornings best.

I used to have a small (or large) problem spearing off the rocks a few years ago.
A beautiful big blue grouper started following me when I was fishing. he must have weighed 100 kg.
These are beautiful fish, no fear of humans at all, but they tend to take bites out of fish you spear if you don't get to them quick enough.
And they head under rocks to eat them, getting the bloody spear back is a real pain.
This big bugger wouldn't even move off when i prodded it with my spear, seeming to know I wouldn't hurt it.
One day it just wasn't there any more, I really like that fish.

The other problem I had in this area was the Port Jackson and wobbygong sharks.
They seem to like the area, they tend to be territorial, so once you know one is there you can avoid them.
They aren't really dangerous, more just bloody annoying.
I have heard that they latch onto divers and drown them, but I'm dubious of this.
I swam into a small cave one day and all I saw was an open mouth coming at me.
It was a 4 ft Port and I somehow did a 180 and started swimming backward, the bloody thing latched onto my fin and wouldn't let go.
No fear of death or anything, but I slipped the fin off my foot and it went back into the cave.
Never got it back, cost me a pair of good fins $200.00 worth.

Went to a different beach today, a more protected one.
Took my diving gear, sans speargun.

Swum around for about an hour and a half and was somewhat dismayed at what I saw.

Visibility was around 10 feet, not bad, but not great.
Most of the weed beds were decimated, all mushed up.
On the sand around the weed beds was all the weed ripped off, in some places a couple of feet deep.

Not many fish
A few small bream hanging around the white wash.
A mowong that was very skittish.
An eel hiding under a rock,but still curious enough to come out
and the always there rock cod.

Would not have been a good day for fishing, nothing really to catch.

When I got to the base today, the sea appears to have died down considerably.
I have a 270 deg view of the ocean and channel.
the sea was lumpy but no white caps.
And at the moment the Infra red camera shows an almost dead flat bar.

Ill have another look next week, too much to do over the next couple of days.
And the bloody fins gave me a blister, been too long methinks.

He's a hard man that Valkie.
He only likes it when it's a hard days work fishing.