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.
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.
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.
Our final & Annual General Meeting of 2013 congratulated the committee on a great year. The Dolphins still hold the Alliman Shield thanks to a 3 all draw with St George but since we had the shield in 2012 we keep it this year.
Evan Leeson – Club Champion 2013, from left Rex Oxgood (2nd ever club champ), John Black (3rd club champ, multiple state and Australian Champion), Fred Nann (first club champion, first president, first life member), Bill Richmond (foundation member and our first secretary)
The 2013 Club Championship results are finalised and congratulations goes to Evan Leeson taking out the Club Championship just barely in front of the 2013 Alliman Champion and club runner up Derrick Oscar Cruz.
The Dolphins 60th Birthday party was a truly awesome event with some amazing people coming along from previous club generations. There will be a separate post on that soon with some photos and video of the day. There are plenty of shirts and stubbie holders for sale which will be available at the club meetings or just contact the new merchandise officer Ben Bayfield.
The 2014 Committee was voted in and is already working hard on various things. First on the list is the Social Events for the year. Allot of thought has been put into this to get to the right places when fish and weather is likely to be in favour so do your best to get time off or a pass from the boss to get to these events.
High on the list of priorities in the social events is pairing up newer divers with veterans to pass on knowledge and experience. This has proven in the past to build membership numbers and earn us competition wins. You can see all the events for the year on our Google Calendar. Simon Trippe has made a nice one page Calendar if you prefer.
We now have a Dolphins Instagram account for sharing photos on your smart phones and a Twitter account if you prefer getting news that way.
Here is a couple of the photos from the presentation and some highlights from the year.
Aaron Puckeridge – 2013 Most SpeciesEmanuel Bova – 2013 Largest Rock Blackfish, 2013 Alliman Shield Four Man Team2013 State TitlesGeoff Buchanon – International Freediving and Spearfishing News Sailfish coverAaron Puckeridge – Pending World Record Green Jobfish 17kg or 34.5lb
Emanuel Bova with a 18kg Yellowtail Kingfish at South West Rocks 2013
Our annual club trip to South West Rocks was approaching and the anticipation was growing, as tales of past adventures to this fantastic part of the NSW coast were being told over a few refreshments at the club house. South West Rocks is one of those destinations where dreams run wild and anything can happen. The time had come with around 15 divers making their way up the coast. The forecast looked challenging to say the least. But everyone was more than keen for the annual trip up to such an awesome spot.
Alex Lewis with a 17kg Sampson Fish & Evan Leeson with a 4kg Blue Bar Parrot and 1.2kg Moses Perch on the 2013 South West Rocks Trip
Day one and we had 3 boats in the water (one traveling up to Coffs Harbour), eager to make that early grab of some quality fish. The usual runs were made to the usual spots and we were met with big easterly swells which made it very difficult to escape. The days diving was very difficult with very few fish being speared. The boys managed some excellent Kings and some great fish were seen such as Jewies and Spanish Mackerel. Conditions began to worsen as forecasted, with weather conditions deteriorating we called it a day. Alex Lewis and Evan Leeson doing better in Coffs Harbour with a 17kg Sampson fish speared by Alex, and a 4kg Blue Bar Parrot and 1.2kg Moses Perch speared by Evan.
Cohan Jones with a 13 kg Yellowtail Kingfish on the 2013 South West Rocks Trip
With talk of poor conditions for the Saturday the boys managed to take the night off and relax with a Rum or 2 with little talk of waking early the next morning. It was a chance to catch up with great mates and swap stories. A great highlight of dive trips away as most would know is getting away.
Day 2 and a few got out to test their luck with as expected very poor conditions with water surge throwing divers around like a rag doll from top to bottom in the water column. With fleeting hope and over two metre seas a short attempt was made to fill the esky, which was shortly followed with a long attempt to empty the drink esky. So we settled in for another night, and joined the locals down at the pub for a feed and refreshments.
Cohan Jones 13 kg, David Rogers 5 kg & Paul Scimone 12 kg Yellowtail Kingfish at South West Rocks 2013
Day 3 for most was packing up and heading off to rejoin normal life back in Sydney. A few guys managed to drag themselves out of bed early enough to excellent kings being speared (who also had some kingy luck on day one). Fish they shot over the weekend include Emanuel Bova 18 kg, Cohan Jones 13 kg, Paul Scimone 12 kg and David Rogers 5 kg.
Emanuel Bova & Cowan Jones with their Kings 18kg & 13kg respectively – South West Rocks 2013
With such a great weekend away with a great bunch of mates, poor weather rarely dampens spirits. And I’m sure all would agree just getting away and having a laugh with mates is always the highlight of the trip. With good fish being an awesome bonus!
You are invited to attend the Sans Souci Dolphins 60th Birthday Party. Everyone welcome. Dolphins old and new, families, other club & non club spearos.
Cost: Adults $40 on the day. $30 pay in advance. Kids Free. Family day, with a Jumping Castle, Face Painting. You pay for your own drinks at the bar, however the dolphins will supply some beer, wine and waters but be early.
When: Saturday December 14th 11am to late.
Sunday recovery breakfast BBQ. Bring a tent or caravan if you wish to camp the night. Plenty of room.
Basic Itinerary: 11am – 4pm Jumping Castle
12:30pm – Lunch is served – seafood, souvlakis, sausages for kids, salads, etc
1pm – 3pm – Face Painting
2pm – Introduction for speeches
5pm – 6pm – Dinner – Lamb on a spit
Party till late
Where: South Sydney Amateur Fishing Association club-house Cnr Macquarie and Hastings Avenue, Chifley NSW 2036
Gourmet Seafood lunch, throughout the day by Master Chef Ali
Presentations and speakers throughout the day (Wade Koolis, Fred Nann, John Black & Vic Stringfellow)
Meet your old and new Dolphin club mates
Bring your photo albums and old magazines
Dolphins merchandise and 60th Anniversary tee shirts available
Deposit money via direct deposit. Bank details:
Account name: Sans Souci Dolphins
BSB #: 112-879
Account #: 032 791 337
Please make sure you include your names in the deposit.
RSVP (include one or both days attending) [email protected], [email protected]
This was a short video filmed on the Dolphins yearly trip up at South West Rocks where all the guys get together and hire a house, take a couple of boats, go diving during the day and then share the stories from the day with a couple of “light” drinks in the night. Always a great trip and well worth the effort for an amazing adventure!!!
Our club go away was GREAT! we had over 20 guys there and we all had a great time, fish or no fish. But lets talk fish and lets talk about a fella called Parry! Parry (SSD shared sports sec might i add) secured himself a TOP fish with a 28.31KG Cobia!! What a top fish eh! a fish of a life time and one he’ll never forget. It couldn’t of happened to a better bloke i reckon… Continue reading South West Rocks, Next Club Meeting, Christmas Party – 2011
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