Brendan, Dad and I out for a spearfishing session on the Aquila.
The plan was to go out to the Bucks first, have a quick go and then work our way back towards Mousehole, stopping off at the inner Stannock and the Kellin.
I took the outer Buck and Brendan took the inner. Neither of them are big enough really to support two divers.
Unusually, there were no bass on either. I drifted off the pinnacle and over the deep to try for a pollock. My first dive in about 18 meters found me bombing down right on top of a good 6 to 7 pounder. I missed. Bugger!
I had three or four more dives in the deep. Nothing.
Called Dad over and he dropped me off on the Stannock and went to pick Brendan up who also drew a blank on the Inner Buck.
There were Bass on the Stannock. Not many, mostly just isolated fish but they were a good size. They were also completely disinterested in me and even quite skittish.
I called Dad over to move on and while he was steaming towards me I thought I’d take one last dive.
Sitting on the bottom in about 8 meters of water, I spotted a good size bass peeking at me from amongst the kelp. As soon as I spotted him he moved off so took a bit of a blind shot into the kelp where I though he would be.
The result was one well skewered 5 pound ish bass. Things were looking up.
Back up on the boat and over to Brendan who had been seeing fish too and also had a good one, though not quite as big as mine. Yes! Tee Hee.
We moved off the Kellin and both jumped off and drifted down towards it. Again ,I saw the odd rather skittish lone fish but couldnt really call any of them a chance.
Then, about 30 to 40 meters outside of the Kellin I was approached by a really good shoal of bass. There were about 10 to 12 of them and mostly good 5 to 6 pound fish.
As usual, I was overcome with greed and hung on for dear life, going blue in the face, waiting for the biggest one in the shoal.
Just as I thought I would have to surface empty handed, one of the big slabs turned and thought it a good idea to come over to me and have a look.
Silly fish really. I shot him!
(hey, we’ve all gotta eat)
Brendan had again seen bass but nothing as good as the shoal that I happened upon. So we had another drift on the right spot and we both saw the shoal again but by this time they were well skittish and offered neither of us a realistic chance. Whatever.
I had a pop at a small one later on and missed a point blank ‘shoot from the hip’ shot.
That fish shot off like the clappers to live another day and I was strangely OK with it.
Must be getting old and going soft.
And so off home. Took some lovely pics with the sunset through a pink sky on the way home.
Good to have you back Waters!