Re: Shore based cray dive
Posted: 07 Feb 2015, 16:39
Came looking for you guys this morning. Geez Mav, that carpark was chocoblock. I thought i could actually film you guys underwater. It is hard to cray hunt and film, and get your head right for hunting. I couldn't get a spot so i drove around the area a bit trying to find a spot to park. Ended up looking at the end of St Pauls road where there were parking spots but an armada of spearos and SCUBA divers in the water and lots about to join them. The water looked sensational there. Excellent conditions. I thought that Portsea Back beach would have similar conditions but at london bridge there were surfers on a nice apex breaking left and right. Water was stirred up and turbulent...i must have swam 4km around all the ledges to Spooks. After about an hour of passing over lots of undersized crays, I free-dived down through the bubble cloud to about 10 feet and at 15 feet below me were two antennae tips of a cray popping out of his hole for a captain cook. I shrank behind a big boulder to conceal myself and tried to relax for about 30 seconds, grabbed a huge breath and finally pushed downward past the surge through the white cloud, relocated the bombie flank and swam from nowhere and hit him square on the head with my claw like left hand. He backed backward and had anchored himself radially with his ten legs like a 10 pronged grappling hook. How much longer can i fight him and hold my breath? He put up a great fight inserting his front claws across my hand in a vice like grip. Both claws detached from his body but still were applying pressure across my hand. But he was done and dusted. I swam about 50 metres to the ledge. I waited on the edge of the rock platform waiting for a wave set to pitch me and my crustacean friend homeward. Right now I'm steaming the monster in my whopper steel pot. Hope you guys got some action too.