Fishing & Diving Competition
11th February 2006
Well it was five able bodies who meet at Paul's place to head off for some serious hunting for big prize winning catches of crays and scallops. Alan McMillan, Stu (prospective member), Mike, Jonno and myself. After hooking up the Club's Osprey 590, we all headed to Okiwi Bay for our days diving. Heading out of the bay we contemplated our choices for the day. As the weather was good at the Islands we chose to go for scallops first.
Jonno, Stu and Alan went in to gather the tasty morsels. 30 minutes later they returned with low numbers, and no prize winning sized scallops. We went south to a point on the coastline. Mike and I descended to the depths. The viz was only a couple of metres maybe. The country looked pretty good for bugs with large rock formations and big boulders all around, but no feelered creatures. I found a healthy looking cave but sadly had left my BIG torch on the boat. I poked my head in a wee way and saw a set of feelers just behind a rock. I managed to just touch the feelers before the wise cray moved back into the safety of his cavern. Once my eyes focused I could see deeper into the cave with my small torch. At the back was a monster big granddaddy bug, one you know has grown to that size because he will always outwit the slow moving human. And once more he stayed there as there was no way I would get anywhere near him; and didn't even try. I don't really like caves underwater too much anyway. Further on I spotted some feelers and with a quick grab he was bagged. Time up, and back to the boat.
Stu, Jonno and Alan hit the water a few hundred metres along the coast. Mike and I absorbed the suns rays and watched the bubbles move around. Alas they surfaced with no luck at all, and nothing even sighted. Still keen, Mike and I ventured back to the area we started last dive. I carried the sling this time as I tend to see crayfish if I'm prepared for spear-fishing, and Murphy's Law: that is exactly what happened. Straight away we found a family of crays. Mike went on one side and me from the other. I was busy trying to get the ones he had spotted, but were out of reach to both of us, when he pointed to a nice sized bug right next to me. Quickly bagged, we moved on. A large moki swam past and Mike, quickly followed with the sling. Several attempts later the wise Moki swam away leaving Mike very frustrated! After several minutes I managed to bag a few more bugs. Mike caught some fin fished beasties so we ascended and boarded with our bounty.
Jonno, Stu and Alan jumped in again, but they were back on board with empty catch bags. Next stop was to get the rest of our scallop quota. Mike and I had a good look around but were unable to make our quota, pretty close to it though. It was low tide on arriving in, but this proved no problems for the Osprey! Jonno and Stu headed off while Alan, Mike and I cruised back to Paul's to cleanup the Osprey and tell Paul stories of the ones that got away. The prize giving was excellent with many spot prizes to those who were present. Alan McMillan's name was drawn out for a scallop dredge and rope, but as he wasn't present he dipped out. James Perham won a ski biscuit and a bucket of goodies from spot prizes. It is great to support this competition. Hope to see you all there next year.
Cheers, Angus
