The Axemen Take the Barrier

  THE AXEMEN TAKE THE BARRIER, Donovan Gibbs

The whale broke the surface about 10 metres in front of our launch then gracefully disappeared. The crew peered over and a minute later she resurfaced… the start of another magic trip to Great Barrier.

The team at Axemen Spearfishing decided to launch another mission to Great Barrier Island following our onslaught earlier in the year. We re-booked Peter the skipper and his 48 foot luxury cat launch “Into The Blue” for three days and nights in early September.

A Promising Start

We arrived at the Broken Islands on dusk, was in the water as the anchor was set. Snooping over to the rocky ledges at the end of the bay koheru baitfish worked in the murk. The water was a chilly 14 degrees and everything seemed to be in hibernation. Quietly working along the shallows watched as red moki and butterfish swayed in the light current above weed covered boomies. Duck diving silently before a likely looking boomie peered around the corner and spotted a nice snapper sitting below the ledge by the weed. Extending my gun secured him with a nice kill shot. The next ledge would reveal a nice 1.5kg red rock lobster which was soon in the dive plat. Darkness had descended upon us, and the guys enjoyed a night dive under the stars. The highlight for me was in failing torch light bumping into a large stingray sleeping at the entrance of a cave… my signal to go back to the boat and enjoy dinner.

Life Is Swells

The first morning dawned overcast and somewhat chilly with a strong NE swell developing as we headed to the Needles at the north western end of the island. This group of islands and rocky outcrops had delivered big XO kingies in April so most of the guys were keen to test out their arsenal of weaponry. Matt “Kingie” Crockett and Rob “Chairman Mao” worked the steep drop offs and found the usual suspects, koheru, mackerel and blue mao mao teemed in schools. Further off the drop off a large school of ocean going kahawai swayed in the current. Good signs, but the effects of the cold water, lack of kingfish activity and swell induced dry snorkel heaving had the crew moving down the sheltered coast for lobster. Kingie Crockett secured a couple of nice packhorse lobster, their green and orange hues separating them from their spiney red rock lobster cousins who also joined the floats as more lobster holes were discovered. Our club captain Brent “Porae” Robinson couldn’t help but molest the lobster holes that everyone else had left behind and picked up a few stragglers which were stored in a sea water hold on board the launch.

Snoop-a-holics

As we moved along the coast I noticed the swell was building and it didn’t take long to convince Antony “Navy Seal” and Aaron “The Godfather” to join me on a quiet snoop for snapper along the more sheltered rocky coast line. Swimming into the edge of the channel through a rocky gut I noticed good fish life, blue mao mao, demoiselles, promising… then a large tail with the tell-tale white fluro outline of a big snapper moving ever so quietly away from me. Too far for a shot, I chilled, and quietly resumed my snoop hoping to meet him later. Snooping is a technique you either love or hate, there is really no middle ground. It basically involves patience and stealth to move along the coast line, using the surroundings and camouflage to sneak up on snapper resting up in rocky guts or under weed or ledges. Another important element is ensuring that you are quiet in the water, pulling the snorkel out of the mouth before descending, ensuring your fins don’t break the water as you move through and being as quiet as physically possible, so as to not alert your prey to your presence 20 metres before arriving… it is pretty addictive, snoop-a-holism

Moving around the sheltered bay the effects of the NE swell were less pronounced and promising signs of fish life encouraged me on. Large schools of parore with their pronounced silver bodies with black stripes patrolled the weed between sand beds and into the shallows large drummer stormed out of cover once discovered. Where you see drummer you may spot a nice snapper sitting among them, so it pays to check out every “drummer” you come across. More pleasing was seeing juvenile snapper and demoiselles when peering over ledges and around boomies. Promising… Peering down I gently finned along and couldn’t believe it when 3 metres below me at the top of a boomie just sitting there was a large packhorse lobster, secured in mint condition the prize 2.1kg lobster of the trip, stoked.

As I worked the coast I had a couple of opportunities for long shots at larger 2-4kg snapper testing my new Effesub gun from the boys at Wildblue.  I realized after a couple of missed opportunities that the gun was shooting dead straight, but the operator was not. But I was here for large snapper, so resumed the snoop in earnest moving to the next bay.

Good Morning Wake Up Call

Snooping does really maximise on our major weaknesses as spearos. We are not as fast as fish in the water and do have a limited breath hold. Instead of changing these variables, we can use these weaknesses to our advantage by moving slowly through the water, not disturbing feeding fish by erratic movements and conserving oxygen by making strategic dives on likely looking ledges as quietly as possible. I had just rounded a corner after duck diving a likely looking ledge and straight in front of me in no less than 3 metres of water was a large snapper sitting on the gravel at the base of a rocky gut metres from the shoreline, slowly turning, eyeing me… Wasting no time I presented him with his morning wake up call, clumsily placing a shot toward the back of the fish in the flank. The spear punched through, toggled and I used tension on the line to keep him from holing up in the rocks and weed and attempting to bust off. Securing him I eventually managed to force him into the dive plat, a good sign, he later weighed in at 8.3kg, just off my personal best.

The Hunter Becomes The Hunted

Exhilarated after a great stalk, I moved into the next bay and across to a group of boulders in about 10 metres of water. Spotting a large snapper disappearing into the gloom worked the boulders and noticed a nice fish with yellow highlights moving into weed. He hadn’t seen me, moving in behind him I looked down through the weed and spotted a school of 6 to 8 large trevally milling around. I noticed a larger fish amongst the group and duck dived down and sat above them as they moved out, securing the large trevally with a shot down through the head. As I worked him off the spear a large 6-8kg snapper appeared and circled around me, cruelly moving off just as I pulled the spear out. I later moved along the shallows and noticed him sitting in the distance, unable to bring him in. After securing another trevally and stuffing him in my over-stocked dive plat again noticed him… stalking me at a distance.

The Godfather Delivers

The Godfather had followed me around the coast and I met him at the boulders after securing the second trevally. I noticed an XO snapper hanging off the back of his dive float. He had been diving boulder strewn country at 8 metres, peered over the edge and disturbed three XO snapper which spooked. About ten minutes later he worked a similar spot securing his snapper which weighed in as the top fish of the trip at 8.9kg. An excellent result for his fourth dive of the year, proving yet again, you don’t mess with the Godfather.

Fatigue Sets In

We worked the remainder of the day down the coast, hiding from the ever increasing NE swell that moved around the Needles group and down toward us. Navy Seal shot a respectable 3kg snapper and the rest of the team secured good lobster. The water temperature hit everyone hard and despite most having invested in thicker winter dive jackets the first full day ended with lights out at 8pm.

Doing The Hard Yards

The second morning was spent south of Bowling Alley Bay and was hard work for most with Kingie Crockett and the Godfather again delivering 3kg snapper from snooping. The water was calm but the visibility was a murky 5 metres. Rob “Chairman Mao” secured his club nickname by decimating the local blue mao mao population and like our club captain showed no mercy to the mighty porae (which do everything possible to sit still when you shoot at them). Navy Seal secured a nice 3kg snapper on snoop, unable to shoot his 6kg buddy that had moved out of range. I managed to spook some large snapper in the shallows but with limited cover was unable to sneak up and take a shot. Three hours into the dive I looked across three bays away to the anchored launch. Exhausted from 6 hours in the water on day one my mate Marcus “The Bounty Hunter” advice came to the fore “you’ve got to make the most of every situation in diving”. Forcing myself to work each bay on the way back to the launch over the next hour I secured a snapper from the weed. Although not large it was a good lesson, you can’t give it up and sit it out, just keep going and the results will come.

Xtreme “Spishing”

Late in the day Kingie Crockett and The Godfather worked a 20 metre weedline while the guys enjoyed some beers from the deck and watched them, exhausted. Navy Seal had, much to our disgust, packed a light rod and what we termed politely “gay soft baits” and attempted a spot of fishing. While videoing the action we couldn’t believe it when his line went off and suddenly he had hooked into a large fish which promptly wound itself in the weed trying to bust off. The solution… we hurled abuse over at our two divers who swam over and after a minute or two of mayhem Kingie Crockett emerged from a deep dive with a 5.5kg snapper, beauty. A new sport has been created Xtreme spearfishing + fishing or “Spishing”… trust the mighty Axemen to deliver.

Fitzroy Pub

Our final night was spent recklessly at the Fitzroy Pub which we discovered after staggering around a country road past the peer. I can thoroughly recommend the steak and chips, and the White Pointer beer certainly hits the spot. The locals are a pretty friendly lot and we had a great night before staggering back to the launch.

Cut A Hole Through It

I was woken a couple of times that evening by swirling winds. The forecast in the morning pointed to an early return home and a run through building NE swells and a forecast 35 knot wind. I was so impressed with Pete’s launch, the cat cutting a hole through the rising swell and returned us home with possibly only a broken television set which was hurled through the cabin by a rogue swell set. Grateful to see land, we celebrated another excellent trip away. The Barrier is outstanding and if you ever get the chance to visit, make it count.