Just a reminder about our club meeting next week on Tuesday the 17th. Should kick off from around 7:30 with a BBQ feast served by BBQ king Alex joined by our very own Smokey BBQ LEGEND Ali making a return star appearance serving up a game meat feast. The boys are donating plenty of meat for the night but if anyone has something they can donate please contact Alex to arrange it. Would be much appreciated!! And get your taste buds ready.
Once everyone has had their fill we’ve got another installment of a species specific presentation. This time were looking at the all popular king fish, and just in time. If your after a big kingi the next few months is the time to do it!
Evan will be discussing hunting kingfish locally and abroad, enzymes that affect the flesh (the mushy factor), shot placement, equipment, hunting techniques, safety, current records, regulations, recipes, when and where to find these fish. Feel free to bring in your gear to get checked and critiqued.
Let me begin by saying that boats are a fantastic thing to have in your spearfishing life. Like your girlfriend, boats have their pros, and cons too. There are a couple of old sayings I like to quote “the wife told me it was either the boat or her. Gee I am going to miss her cooking.” Or this one, my favourite. BOAT – Break out another thousand. IF you don’t mind constant maintenance, you have the room to store one, and importantly, you think can afford to keep both your wife and your mistress (…the boat) under the same roof, you might even decide you need new friends then go and visit your local boat dealer.
Sea Devil
The range of coastline you can travel by boat in a session far exceeds that of the rockhopper; if a spot you have chosen is fishless or dirty simply pull up anchor and move onto to another headland or reef; you can fish otherwise hard locations; my favourite is that fact that you are out on the ocean and enjoying the vast blue sea, you never know what suprises you will see out there on a given day. Whales, pods of dolphins, massive bait balls, awesome bird life, huge sharks, blokes floating around on an esky lid, sunfish, the list is endless. I enjoy being out on my boat and sharing experiences with my friends.
Aaron Puckridge’s World Record Green JobfishAaron Puckridge’s World Record Green Jobfish
Almost a year to the day SSD entered to world of Instagram. Aaron Pucko’s WR Green Jobfish was chosen as the ice breaker. This fish received 35 ‘likes’ but helped boost the SSD account into (possibly) the greatest of the Insta World. It was an underwater pic, had I chosen the other version, with Aaron’s curly blonde locks, on a fancy Yacht, with dreamy blue water in the background it may have received more attention. In fact, it did.
This pic I speak of was posted some time later and received over 60 ‘likes’, thus proving my theory correct ( this had nothing to do with the fact the account had grown substantially).
a nice Eastern Rock Lobster
The most ‘liked’ pic was that of a nice Eastern Rock Lobster with 130. Ironically, this was posted during the time Trippey was giving the social media world hell on their ‘watermarking’ of photos. The accompanying hash tag #dontknowhowtodowatermarks just may have catapulted this pic onto the podium and its first place finish. Some numbskull felt it necessary to tell us “pretty sure you don’t measure like that”. Guess what C%&TFACE, it is.
Evan Leeson’s 40kg Cobia
Furthermore, following closely behind in second place was cracking shot of Evan’s 40kg Cobia. This pic captured the attention of many, including a lovely comment from Dan Galea that read, “cracking fish”. However, it also captured the attention of some unsavoury characters such as @j_james_coughtrie who responded “filthy brown log”. I thought this particularly funny as those of us unfortunate enough to have Evan on Snapchat receive daily video’s of his ‘filthy brown logs’. Some other punters recognised Evan and proclaimed “these are the lads we met at the burger shop”. We sure are boys, we sure are.
Evan Leeson’s 28kg Spanish Mackerel
In third place and just scraping onto the podium was another pic of Evan. A lovely 28kg Spanish Mackerel. This fish received 120 ‘likes’. There weren’t any funny comments on this post, in fact they were all very pleasant. Evan looked particularly handsome also. In the ensuing statistical analysis of the demographic that engaged this post it was found that 98% of the likes were from females ‘over 50’. The remaining 2% were from men in Evans circle of friends . Marshy also liked it, but the Jury is still out on that one.
John Brown’s 41kg Mulloway
Well stuff me, it seems that I have missed a post. Disregard the above as the REAL FIRST PLACE pic is that of longtime friend and corrupter of the club, Mr John Brown. No surprises, but his whopping 41kg Mulloway received an astonishing 164 ‘likes’ and a cloud of Marijuana smoke. Delpopolo was no where to be seen. Lots of comments for this one folks, such as ‘horse fish, and ‘donkey’. I don’t know why fish are referred to as land animals but I guess it’s fine. Other comments included ‘nice soapy mate’, ‘nup, this is fucked’ and aptly put ‘muthafuckan Jewy King’. Well done Browny!
Thank you to everyone who sent in pics throughout the year, I think Instagram really put SSD on the social media map and generated a lot of interest in the club. This was apparent by how many times I had to tell everyone that meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, at South Sydney Amateur Fishing Association Club House, on the corner of Hastings Ave and Macquarie Street, Chifley, Sydney, NSW, Australia at 7:30pm. Despite this knowledge, I was always asking when they were, hey Simon, Derrick and Evan?
I’m not sure if this fits the structure of an annual report but it sure was fun writing it.
I am very happy that I just read that the diver is recovering and he is ok!
Unfortunately the articles does not give many information on the event. He was found unconscious in 12m depth (at the bottom). 99.99% this was a black out with no safety dive buddy.
Definition of safety diver/dive buddy: One who watches a diver throughout all of the divers dive, i.e. never looses sight/information on where the diver is. A guy that is fishing 5/10m away from another diver and does not pay attention during a dive, is a great mate, but not a safety diver.
From experience I have from freediving competitions it is most likely (probable) that what happened to him happened either at the surface or very close to the surface. Then the diver being unconscious descended (maybe too many weights, or he lost air and became negative in terms of buoyancy) . After that, somebody found him – we don’t know how much time passed until he was found.
It is unlikely that there was a dive buddy watching him throughout his dive and lost him during the dive. If this was the case the dive buddy / safety diver would find him immediately and would only need to keep his head out of the surface and he would start breathing again on his own.
Once the black out happens, the diver stays unconscious and does not breath for a very short period of time (about a minute?) After that as a reflex he starts having contractions that result – if underwater – water into the lungs from which point and on recovery becomes very difficult.
Now the majority of you guys have start having hi-tech diving equipment that allows you to stay longer and dive deeper into the water. I would please like to ask you to consider – at least for competitions – to have a dive buddy system. Otherwise I am afraid we may start having more often dive accidents – I hope we’ll never EVER see one ever again!!! – related to breathhold black outs. Diving in a competition without a safety diver is something like driving a racing car without a seat belt. And I am sure nobody wants to drive a racing car without a seat belt.
After the state titles a couple of the Dolphins went for a little drive further north and bumped into the legend that is MickD, he was very polite and put up with my boat for a whole day before he politely suggested I park the Devil in the garage and we take his Milligan out for the next days fishing.
So we did. Thanks Mick we had a fun couple of days.
Pics are of Evans Black Kingie, it went 41kg. Awesome couple of dives on this tremendous fish, Evan knew what he was doing to bring the fish in and still the fish was too big, taking off with all his kit for some 20 minutes before the float popped up tomb stoning. Cheers went up all around the boat. I was privileged to be there to see the black behemoth in the flesh. Check out its chopped Dorsal fin and the shark bite scar tissue on its flank from previous altercations.
Evan’s CobiaEvan’s Cobia
The yank has been in form lately the past 6-8 weeks. 28kg Spanish, 31kg Jew, 17kg wahoo and then the 90 pound cobia. Good stuff buddy not bad for a crappy Sydney fleabag diver.
The NSW Championships this year were hosted by the Central Coast Sea Lions. A rock hopping only event this year’s championship saw great conditions with near flat seas and slight winds complemented with viso ranging from 8-14m saw two great days of rock hopping for the 49 keen competitors. The scoresheet was held under Sydney Metro Zone scoresheet. Seven Dolphins made the trek up to the Central Coast and were well rewarded.
Day 1: Bateau Bay
So with zero knowledge of where to swim here, I went looking for a few of my old mates from the Sea Lions, big wave surfer and charter operator Ian Stewart didn’t let me down and gave some great advice to the Dolphins on the terrain we could encounter. Benny Bayfield rocks up now grinning from ear to ear, he has been scouting the coastline and has devised a plan, which involved a lot of running, with this event if you choose you can go on foot a distance before entering the water.
At the start many divers run down the steep hill and turn left and right, I waited up the top to see who went where and I decided then to get away from the masses and to stroll along the path and turned left awhile before entering the surf, a lucky choice of direction as I landed 14 species with 563 points (90%).
Peter Saunders – 4.4kg Giant Boarfish NSW State Championships 2014
Ex Dolphins member and President of the USFA Peter Saunders had the overall lead with 11 fish including a cracking 4.4 kilo Giant Boarfish, probably the best fish I have seen weighed in a comp in a few years. It was good for me to see two V’s (Veterans) at the top of the leader board.
Ben Bayfield (79%), Dez (68%) and Evan (66%) were all still in the hunt for Day 2. I had a feeling the fitness of these guys would show on Day 2 with the location being announced at the weigh in – Norah Head, “The Bull” is offshore a little and it would be a drag race to see who could get their first.
Day 2: Norah Head
Derrick, Evan, Simon, Ben & Patrick – NSW State Championships 2014
What a race! Evan had winged feet and took off like a shot dog, his Banks Board strapped over his shoulders. Spearos were saying in disbelief as they reached the top of the stairs at the Lighthouse “hey that guy is over-arming out to the Bull!” That’s how fast Evan was to the water before everyone else and he had the Bull to himself for a while.
When I finally arrived to the Bull, one hour later… there were great fish all over it, and many of the competitors elected to fish here. One interesting specie landed was Parry Gryllis 1100gm Spotted Sweetlip, a fish not common in Sydney. I saw all of our guys out at the Bull, Pat Mullins our champion Grand Master had some bad luck with a stuck spear and he spent 30 minutes dislodging it. Parry and Paul ‘Mudcrab’ Marsh had great scores and PB’s on the day, they fished very keenly. The Bondi Brats or Maroubra Marauders, or as Roso calls them the “that tinny trio!” each had a great strategy and I witnessed how hard they were fishing.
Ben Bayfield – NSW State Champion – 2014
Derrick pulling out a great 710pts with second on the day and 95%, however it was Benny’s day and being consistent with 659pts and 88% had the edge on Dez from Day 1 to take out his first NSW Open Spearfishing Championships.
Derrick 2nd, Evan 3rd & Ben 1st – NSW State Championships 2014
I took out the Veterans Championship by the skin of a bee’s’; Pat Mullins is the Grand Master Champion; we had four Dolphins in the top 10; Ben winning Seniors as well, with Dez 2nd and Evan 3rd. Paul ‘Mudcrab Marsh was 15th ans Parry 19th overall. If ‘the 3 Amigos’ had remembered to fill out their 3 man team sheet they would have smashed that trophy as well by several hundred points.
Thanks to the Sea Lions and Al Cooke their President in particular for hosting the event. Al was very appreciative of the Dolphins as we all assisted in scores on Day 1 with him and ran a set of scales on Day 2. Well done guys!
Top 10 NSW Championships 2014
Next year the Championships will be held in the South Coast of NSW and is always well attended as the locations are very desirable spearfishing areas. I hope to see you all there.
Conditions: Westerly winds with strong gusts up to 25knots during the competition, a North Easter did appear out of nowhere approximately 11am to 11.40am where the breeze swung back to the West and increased steadily throughout the day. Seas pancake flat with a non-existent swell up until the NorEaster came rising to about 1m dying out as quickly as the wind change did. Harbour was choppy later in the day. Visibility was excellent south up to 20m while North was so-so. South today was the way to go with those running north not overly happy.
The Dolphins had 19 sign on and weigh in, the Dragons surprisingly, where we thought they would come out en masse, had only 10 members, many believing the event would be cancelled and not bothering to get out of bed. We smashed them, everywhere, overall points 3975 to their 2769.
GPS Marks
Dolphin’s Junior, son of a gun Aaron Puckeridge continued his fine form taking out his successive Alliman with a splendid 22 species and 990 points. Quite achiever Derrick Cruz runner up with a solid 888 points and 16 species there were some splendid fish in his catch. Ian Puckeridge 3rd 845 points; Grizzly Whaler Steve Wayne made an appearance to land 813 points for 4th. Paul “Mud Crab” Marsh gaining a PB with 517 and 5 species of Leather Jacket for 11th, Sam Krywulycz also a PB score with 471 and 14th overall.
Meritorious Species:
Bream 1050gm – 84pts – Derrick Cruz
Red Rock Cod 1655gm – 99pts – Derrick Cruz
Red Rock Cod 1400gms – 84pts – Sam Krywulycz
Yellow tail Kingfish 5685gm (largest fish on day for SSD) – Parry Gryllis
Deep Body Jacket 2400gm – 96pts – Pete Manolias (club record)
Rock Blackfish 3400gm – 68pts – Sam Krywulycz
Yellow Spot Surgeon 1850gm – 74pts – Derrick Cruz
Tassie 2200gm – 88pts – Aaron Puckeridge
King Wrasse – 1075gm – 64pts – Ian Puckeridge
Clown Triggerfish – Derrick Cruz
and of course the Clown Triggerfish – 885gm – 43pts – Derrick Cruz
Dez donated the Triggerfish to Mark McGruther at the Australian Museum and it is only the second Clown Triggerfish in their collection, Mark was stoked to have it.
Deep Body Leather Jacket 2400gm – 96pts – Peter Manolias (club record)
Pete’s Deep Body is a sensational fish and it ties with 3 others of the same weight going back to the 80’s, amazing, the three spearos all former much loved characters being Froggo Goldsmith, Dave Andrews and “Rocky” Rob Thomas, Rocky came to the 60th.
Special mention made to the Harbour master, Scotty Bailey whose boat always contributes along with Wade’s Seydel very important harbour species. Alex Delpopolo just missing out on a club record Fan Belly weighing just shy of the 800gms that is the current record.
The Dolphins won the 4 man Team convincingly with over 3300pts scored. Overall we lead the competition by 3 points with the Dragons in second place. Derrick is leading the Open individual Championship, Benny Bayfield close behind and breathing down their necks is Evan Leeson in 3rd other Dolphins feature in the Top 20. Nine Dolphins in the top 20, just fantastic!
Parry and Dave manning the scales
Thanks to Parry & Dave Rogers for doing the scales, and Pat Mullins, who is in fine form and came 16th on the day, for keeping us all entertained as always.
Hope to see you all with sharp spears, and wits, at the next one at Gunnamatta Bay.
A few of the guys headed up the North coast of NSW in March. Here is the report from Ben Lake.
Jeffro, Marty and I drove up to the North Coast on Thursday night. Jeffro managed to safely navigate us out the bar in the shiny red Seydel each morning (on a low tide) under some challenging conditions and we dove Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Jeffro’s Spanish Mackerel & Gold Spot
Overall the conditions were good with surprisingly few boats out at the islands and viso up to about 20 metres in parts.
We all managed a new species on the trip: Jeffro – Gold Spot Wrasse, Marty – Spanish Mac and Bluebar, Ben – Cobia. There were good numbers of Spanish around and we managed 14 over the three days. We all got visual on Wahoo a couple of times but we didn’t manage to boat one (lessons learned by Marty and Ben). Jeffro said it’s not his fault he didn’t shoot one as ‘we spooked the school taking pot shots’…. Marty and I say they must have been bigger than we realised!
It was a shame that more of you couldn’t make it up, but I’d encourage you to try and make the effort to get a crew and boat together and go.
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