C Grade story by an A grade good bloke
Or did I have it the wrong way around
Anyway my recollection of comp from a "C grade perspective"
After chasing leather all day sat (1st day of a 2day game Opp Score 289) and then sinking piss afterwards with the gloating opposition
. I knew my legs were looking forward to a 6hr swim the next day let alone any surge above 5cm which my stomach loves.
(5cm is not a typo)
Wake up 6am, arrive at San Remo Bakery 8am, get some food which would I knew I would violently erupt as berley later on.
Travel across the bridge and sign on 8:10am. Get all the gear into Pauls boat-HMS Legendary and then after few happy snaps by Clint and briefing from Muz the flag goes down and everyone is racing toward the ocean. Awesome turnout by the way.
As we hit the Woolamai corner in HMS Legendary and went through some decent swell. My first thought was for the newbies (Nathan, Chris and Naths Mate(Sorry forgotten your name)) way behind us in Naths new Inflatable and how it was going to handle these conditions. (Tip for next time Nath, ditch the blokes and have couple of slim bikini girls, be much lighter and better on the eye;))
This thought quickly changed to my second thought which was calculating how much time the ham & salad roll I purchased earlier would last....... my guess within the first hour.
After a bit of searching about we find a little protected spot where there is already 3 other SFD boats. The riddles are first to jump in, followed by Carly and me 10mins later, then Marcus and Paul. We make our way towards a small headland and within the first 2mins of swimming away from the boat I catch view of a stonker Black Parrot. I dive, it sees me and starts swimming away and ive only got a tail shot until it turns to see where I am. Pow ...1st fish for the day. (Don't have my scoresheet but I "think" it was close to 650g???) Then 15 mins later im watching Carly from the surface she is on the bottom stalking a Blue throat which is a good 2m+ from her speartip and she takes the shot and im praying that shes in range. Pow ..... flopper gets through and holds .... awesome shot on a flighty fish. She told me later that she had been working on that fish for bout 10mins but she kept on losing sight of it under boulders. 15mins later and she stones a good Maggie(score carly 2-1). . Meanwhile I move further into deeper water but everywhere I go the fish are real flighty as there are divers all around me and I can see from the riddles floats that they have a good 5-7 species each
. See some decent sweep but the water I am in i'm getting thrown all over the place and when I dive they get spooked. After a couple of spews. Paul yells out from the boat that were making a move.
We jump on board and find out that Marcus hasn't been able to dive the whole time due to not being able to equalize. I know how frustrating not being able to dive down is as i get frontal sinusitis from time to time. We drop the riddles off in another spot and then Paul drops Carly and I off at Pyramid Rock. Carly then proceeds to shoot another two fish borderline Zeb and a big Six Spine (Score Carly 4-1). Meanwhile ive shot the same Maggie too high twice and its got off.
.
I move on after getting frustrated chasing this Maggie and as im reloading after another shit shot i start get schooled by sml borderline salmon (500g mark) . I reload but they've gone but i knew theyd be back. I shout out Salmon to Carly but shes a good 25m away. 2mins later they're passing me again, I dive down and for some stupid reason I have lined up the smallest fish. I take the shot cos they're flighty and hit him right in the mouth. I scramble cos im worried it aint going to hold but i end up securing the fish. Head back to the float and Carly is already there with a Lined Jacket (Score 5-2). Salmon swim past again, Carly dives but they are hammering now no chance.
Swim round a bit more but theres a lack of fish life. I shoot a sml blue throat, six spine and then Carly points out a good Maggie not as a big as hers that I shoot (Score 5-5). We both had a orange jacket each, but they would definitely struggle to make weight. (We did not weigh them but they weighed 255g and 275g).
Jump back in the boat as the riddles boys said lets go back to the spot that they were at as it had more life. So we get there and Carly and I go in search for some sweep. We make our way to the inside of this exposed reef and theres lots of white water coming over the top. After about 5 mins i spot a nice cray looking ledge. I dive down and drop my gun next to me which Carly then picks up for me while I peer into this 15cm high ledge. The ledge is quite deep approx 2m, i first see a cuttlefish and then as i move further down the ledge i see a cray (1kg) about half metre in. I grab the cray but its a shit grab ive got it by the antennae it holds firm before scuttling through my grip to the back. Come back to the surface and wave pushes me back towards where Carly is waiting. At this point im still abusing myself for the shit grab and i am blissfully unaware that Carly is holding my gun out for me to grab underneath the water. 15-20secs go by and I say can i have my gun and she says i gave it to you. Don't think so. Im sure i felt you take it. I replied i wouldn't be asking for it. Search for the next half an hour up down up and down but nothing
, so much kelp and vis was average. (MIA - Torelli Taipan Carbon 90cm.) Told Carly shit happens. Thought to myself well let me see if i can brighten up the loss by getting a cray. Went back to the ledge first cray still right at the back not interested in my berley pin moved around and found a similar ledge with another cray 1.3kg. Up to my shoulder in but couldn't wrestle him out. A couple of spews and then both my legs cramp and i call it a day. Paul comes over picks us up and tell him the story, than pick the riddles up and fly back to sign off area.
Weigh in as always its a great spectacle seeing the variety of species caught. Awesome effort by Muzz
with 20 species, Congrats
.
But back to the C graders no disrespect. Carly and I were the last to weigh in. My five species Black Parrot, Salmon, Six Spine, Blue Throat and Magpie Perch all weighed in. Salmon went 400g. Carly only had 4/5 species weigh, (Blue Throat, Maggie, Six Spine and Lined Jacket). Her Zeb was 50g out and there weren't heap of zebs weighed in.
If her Zeb weighed or my salmon weighed 1g less or she doesn't point out a Maggie for me to shoot. She smashes me due to all her fish being much bigger not to mention also having A scale species (Lined Jacket).
Anyway she kicked my ass, did brilliant overall on what I thought was a tough day for C graders. And she's only been spearing for 14mths, she probably dives once a month if you average it out and she's still learning what fish is what. Im pretty sure thats her 3rd comp. Western District last season (didn't weigh in fish, but participated both days) and Woolami and Newhaven this season. Anyway shes rapt and what made her day was that fact that some of the best divers we have congratulated her. Thanks Rob, Brett and any others if i missed ya.
Special thanks to Paul for taking us on his boat, offering helpful hints regarding areas and trying his best to put us onto the fish all day. Awesome effort by Marcus who was sick and ordinary after the 1st hour and stuck out the day by waiting for us and the riddles to finish.
Last of all thanks to comp organisers (you know who you are), boat drivers and everyone that helped out on the day and at weigh in to make things runs smoothly. Good to see quite a few new people who have been on the forum for a bit, enter into their first comp. I hope you guys enjoyed yourselves and hope to see you at future comps. I guarantee you the more you attend the more you will improve and learn.
Special thanks to Lethal who didn't dive but travelled down and bought all the food and looked after the Barbecue.
Thanks for reading see you at the next meeting or Cape Conran
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