Winter diving for spearfish

I find some of the best opportunities to get out and spear a feed of fish are in winter. I love the challenge of the cold, the shorter days and just finding the motivation to get wet!

Recently the viz was looking good in the inner Hauraki Gulf. And when I say good, I’m talking a couple of metres. I got up at 6am, had a quick breakfast, geared up in my shed, and walked 100m down the road to the beach, still cloaked in absolute darkness. The tide was an hour or so away from full.

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After dropping my Wettie float boat into the water, I took my fins, mask and snorkel out, and sat down in the cold, dark water up to my armpits.

I heard a noise behind me. It was a guy with his dog peering at me. He said nothing, but I knew what he was probably thinking!

Rolling over, I was quickly enveloped in darkness and stinging cold, although my Wettie suit largely kept the latter out.

The reef I wanted to dive was a 20-minute swim away; if my timing was right, I would arrive about 15 minutes before first light.

But upon finning forward, a shower of phosphorescence poured off my mask. I have been in the water in the dark many times and experienced this before, but never to this extent – my gun became a swirling light-show, mesmerising me.

This also presented a problem: the amount of phosphorescence was making it impossible to see anything else. Believe it or not, you can see rocks when it’s pitch black if they are not too far down; I needed to be able to do this to locate my reef.

In the end I had to stop and wait for the sun to light the sky marginally, hoping it would make the phosphorescence disappear. Sure enough, it did, and I was on my way again, soon finding the reef.

I got my berley set as the sun peeked above the horizon, and the fish soon went ballistic, tearing in and smashing pieces of pilchard amongst the gloom – it was very exciting!

In no time I had four small trevally and a john dory – enough for a good feed.

Soon after I grabbed my float boat and finned back, landing on the beach by 8am.

It felt great to have accepted and overcome the mental challenge. Staying in a nice warm bed is very tempting, especially when you’ll be alone and the water’s so dark and cold. Worse, you must then locate a marginal spot you can’t really see and find fish to spear! However, missions like this make you feel alive and force you to use senses often forgotten in the modern world.

A couple of weeks after this, the rain and wind finally looked as if they would abate. I kept a close eye on the weather forecast and decided a dive around the outer islands was in order.

Again, it was cold and dark as we departed in my boat (I think we were all wondering about our sanity), with the wind a little more than expected – not dangerous, but a little uncomfortable. An easy solution would have been to turn around and watch the last Americas Cup race of the day with a hot brew in our hands… Nah!

After an average ride we reached our destination, suited up and in we went. The viz was great, there were loads of fish, and all discomfort was soon forgotten.

I swam 50 metres, snuck quietly over a rock, glanced to my left and then to my right … when something in my scan registered with my brain. I stopped and scanned back: there, right in front of me, was a snapper of about 3kg sitting in the weed looking straight at me – a sitter. A quick thrust forward with a Wettie Carbon 110cm reel gun and his day was over.

Once I had him in my float boat, I swam a little further and discovered a big nest of packhorse crays. Normally I don’t take them, but felt like a feed, so a quick look for a mid-sized model amongst them soon had a 2kg beast sitting beside the snapper in my float boat.

The day was about to get better though. Next spot saw two of us drop into a school of around 400 to 500 kingfish, maybe more; most were between 10 and 20kg. It’s been years since I’ve seen so many fish of this size – what a wonderful sight!

I rolled some film, then my friend Andrew Wilson and I took one each, topping off a day that could arguably be described as better than some of the best sessions experienced during peak summer.

Also, I swear the fish speared on these cooler days taste better than those taken on the warm, comfortable, sunny days, and often there is no one else around to challenge you for the best spots.

The moral of my story – if you haven’t worked it out already – is don’t put your gear away in the winter. You might be surprised at what is waiting by applying a little mental toughness and having the right gear!

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

August 2017 - Darren Shields
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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