February 28, 2009 Opal Mining Update - No 92 Enjoying the holiday, but the fishing is not good

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This is a map of the Coffin Bay area, you can see our starting point at the boat ramps, if we go to the farm beach we take the road out back to Port Lincoln then take a sort cut on a dirt road across the main highway, up to Wangary then turn left again onto that dirt road and onto Farm Beach.

Fishing at last, must admit though this is the second day out, we went out the first day from the boat ramps which is not far from where we are staying, but if the weather is right I prefer to come out this way to go fishing, which is called Farm Beach, we have to launch in shallow water every day, just enough to float the boat then after Pat has got in I push it out into water that is up to my knees and then I put the motor down and Pat starts the motor and I then get in (we have a double ladder at the back) and away we go. This direction is looking North out from Farm Beach and we are about one kilometer off Point Longnose which is about two kilometers straight across from Farm Beach, there is a very large stretch of sandy beach running right along the edge of the Seaweed bed where the whiting breed.

This is Point Longnose and this beach runs along right up to Point Sir Isaac, sorry to say that we are not doing any good with the Whiting fishing here right now so will move on to another spot and hope for the best.

Here is a fishing boat returning back to Coffin Bay, I have no idea what kind as I cannot see any kind of equipment to give me a clue.

This is a photo of the Abalone farm some five and a half kilometers north of farm beach, there is a marker buoy on the four corners with an X on top, you can just see one left of photo, looks like a railway crossing sign, we have not seen anyone working here as yet this year, around this area is a popular fishing spot and the depth of the water is around forty seven feet depending on the tide, which is not very big here in Coffin Bay.

This called the Fence Line, you can see the line running down the side of the hill, this Abalone Farm is opposite this fence line and a lot of locals and tourists like me come here to fish, they use this fence line as a marker and fish it right out into the bay.

This is the view of the scenery further north of the fence line, I have not been up that far as yet but intend to have look before I leave here.

Got a very nice big squid today near the Abalone Farm, we anchor very near the boundary, as nobody can anchor or fish in the farm area itself, Pat had a squid on her bait as she was pulling the line in but let go near the surface, as I have two rods set up with squid jigs I quickly threw one in and let it sink to about forty feet and started reeling it in slowly and bingo got it, the biggest I have ever caught so far, when I got home and cleaned it and cut it up, it made two bags up which is two good sized meals for Pat and I, should catch some more before we leave, if I cant have fish I will have these, Pat likes squid better than fish anyway.

We have come back into shallow water, ten feet deep at this point, just near the weed bank again trying for King George Whiting of which Pat got one about 35 centimeters long, the legal size is 30 cm, so was a good one, then this seal turned up so the fishing was halted for a while.

Not long after this guy turned up and I had finished taking a few photos to make sure that I got a couple of good ones, the wind picked up and we had to pull up anchor and head for the beach, so today we only got the big squid and Pats whiting, better than nothing.

This is were we park our vehicles on the very solid beach, you can just see the road entrance to the beach to the left of the vehicles and the boat is over one of the weed beds right now which goes right up to within about 150 feet of the beach, then it is all sand, but it has a drop just on the edge of the weed bed where we put launch the boats, here the water is very shallow until you reach the edge of the drop off, which we never do unless it is on the lowest tide and at low tide, so most of the time we launch the boat in 9 to 12 inches of water, when I back the trailer in the water I try and get the water about half way up the wheel rim of the trailer and the same for winching it back on the trailer. This is the reason we got a power winch on the boat trailer so Pat could use the control and I can handle the boat when the wind is strong and pushing the boat sideways which is most of the time when you come from fishing, we can dry winch the boat on the trailer if necessary, we do not need much if any water to put it back on just to launch it.

Today we had to go into Port Lincoln for an appointment with a cabinet maker for a price on a new kitchen, so as we had the day off we decided to do the tourist bit and have a look around and ended up at the Fisherman's Waif, I was chasing some squid for bait and was sent here to a shop which did not have any so I decided to take all of these photos and how you big the fishing industry here is, bigger then I thought.

So here are some photo's of the fishing marina, the thing that I was impressed with was how clean and tidy it was, no mess or smell you think would be associated with fishing boats and the Marina is well laid out as you can see.

This big boat looks like a private boat, but as it is the fishing harbor it must be a fishing boat of some kind.

The housing units at the back turned out to be apartments when we went round there to see what was on the other side of the marina.

All kinds of boats here and worth many millions of dollars, the ones right here are prawn trawlers.

Another prawn trawler, the two metal trays sticking up in the air at the back, are in fact the table that they open the trawl net and drop the prawns into, then they slide down a tray below after that I have no idea what goes on, was no one there for me to ask.

More trawlers and again not a piece of paper lying around.

A couple of different type of trawlers, could be for prawn, but look a little bit different from the others and shorter.

Here is a fishing boat just coming back in, at this stage I am wondering what the crane is for on the rear of the boat, will ask later.

Just watching the skipper put the boat in its moorings, did a good job getting it in between the pylons, as this is at the end of the line it makes it a bit easier for the skipper, the rest would have to reverse into there bay, this guy sneaks in sideways.

I had to move my vehicle out of the way after I took this photo as this truck pulled up behind it, turned out it was going to supply the boat I had just took photos of, so now I would find out what kind of boat it was.

It turns out that this is a Mussel boat, there are two of them this is the seeding vessel, the one that gathers the ones for sale is still out there, the guy on the truck tells me that that they work in pairs, one doing the seeding which I have seen done, there is a coil of material which is in the white bags, looks like a loosely spun black rope, its this they put the very small baby mussels in, must have a name for them but I don't know it, after the rope has the mussels put in it, a length is cut off and put inside a fine mesh stocking and suspend in the water along rope I think it is, lot more than that is involved I know before they are big enough for sale.

So here it loading plastic floats and the other items that are on the truck, would be good to go out with them for a day to see how they do everything.

A shot looking back up the wharf.

Back to us, Wednesday 3rd, we have not been out fishing at lot at this stage in fact this is only the third day, but today the sea is calm, too calm and it is also what is called a Dodge Tide, very little movement in water, so not very good for fishing but we have to try, better today for water skiing as you can see anyway there is no whiting only this type of fish and another that we throw back

This is the other type, I have no idea what they are called, nice colors but not what we are after.

This is Point Sir Isaac, quite a long trip from farm beach, but are chasing the whiting, but on this day we did not catch any at all, this is the seconded day that the sea has been like this, one day calm, one day was so rough we came back home within an half hour of going out then the next day was this day and the day after it was too windy again, so not good right now for fishing with the tides and the wind. So far it has not been good, I have damaged a mussel my left shoulder in trying to push the boat off the trailer when launching it at farm beach, I have also go a tooth ache and have made an appointment with a dentist in Port Lincoln for having it extracted on Friday morning, so this week we have not been out fishing at all, but it has been too windy anyway so far, the shoulder is sore but will not stop me going fishing at the moment.

Thursday 12th, decided to go for a short trip into the national park this morning, there is a beach in there that I have been told about that I want to check out for when the weather is windy, there Emus crossed across the road in front of us, so was lucky enough to get a photo of them before they disappeared into the bush, the father and two half grown chicks, turns out that the beach will not be good for us.

In last months issue I showed you a photo of these birds, a local here told me they were called Port Lincoln Parrots which was not true, I found out after I had sent out the issue and I have since changed that info, also someone sent me an email telling me about the mistake but already knew, they are called Rainbow Lorikeets and today the 13th I managed to get some more better photos of them again on the empty block next door to me.

You can see they are a pair and very lucky to get a photo of the two right next to each other in the wild, there was another pair just to the right of these two, very pleased with these photos, not easy taking these as they are in amongst the braches and do not seem to stay still that long, they were cleaning themselves at this time and I had to whistle to get them to stop and look which lucky for me worked, but I had to use the cameras telescopic lens to get a close up shot, I will try over the next few weeks to get some photos of the Ring Neck Parrots, have not seen any next door as yet, but have seen them on the way to farm beach and they are also in pairs.

Its now the Monday the 16th and the fishing we have done has not been great, today again we went out in perfect weather and caught nothing, not only did we catch nothing we did not get bite and we was not the only ones catching nothing, there was four boats including us and as far as we saw nothing was being caught, the last day out (Sunday) I caught two squid but again we caught no whiting, some did as there was 47 trailers on the beach when we came back in, the most I have ever seen there and one boat that was back on the trailer on the beach was cleaning some fish, but not us, again. I still have a bad left shoulder, I think I injured it in pushing the boat back on the trailer when launching it in the beginning our first time on the beach, but since then I have had days off giving it a rest but every time we go out fishing I have to put down the anchor and as we fish some of the time in water that is around the fifty feet deep mark that means that  I have to let out rope to around a 120 feet plus if the wind is up or the anchor will drag, so pulling the anchor up every time we have to move which can be around ten times a morning is not letting the shoulder get better. So again tomorrow we are going to have off and give it a rest again and I am going to have to try and pull the anchor rope in just with my right arm and not hand over hand as normal, can only try, this shoulder is going to make it hard to get to sleep again tonight and every time I turn over it will wake me up, just lets me know its sore and I fall asleep almost as soon as I wake up.

Wednesday the 18th, My shoulder is coming good and I had no problems as I stated I might have above, but did have a day off, went fishing on Monday morning and it turned out to be a bad day, we did not get a bite all morning and we fished until 1:30 in the afternoon, again the weather was good and the sea was somewhat calm, perfect day we would have thought, but no matter where we tried it did no good, so came home again disappointed. So again we went out today and the wind was up some and we went to the same spot as Monday and although we went out an hour later, we was a bit dejected after getting up at 6am every time we go out and catching nothing, but this morning the fish were on the bite, for a while anyway, the wind dropped and the sea went calm, so we started drift fishing as the breeze then was around 3 kms per hour. We ended up with six King George Whiting and two Goat Fish, called Red Mullet by the locals here, not bad eating little fish but not a lot on them, we did catch a few more of these, but smaller ones which we put back, we also caught around another seven of eight whiting's but undersize which also have to be put back, the legal size on these fish is 30 centimeters which is the size of the top fish, the bottom one in 37 centimeters in length, as we are allowed to catch twenty four per day between us this is a poor catch, but right now we are happy to have this lot, but will not near fill the freezer at this rate

Went out on again on Sunday the 22nd, was a nice day and we caught seven whiting in the morning and put seventeen back that were undersize, thought we was going to do well today and catch our bag limit of twenty-four, but the wind dropped and the sea became calm again and the fish went off the bite, so came home again disappointed, but had a good day in all and with the weather being good for us anyway, was not such a bad day out. Next day fishing was on Wednesday 25th as the last couple of days have been to windy to go fishing for us anyway, so today it was windy in the morning but then dropped around lunch time, that was not in the forecast but appreciated by us, but the fish were not on the bite today, Pat caught one whiting not long after we had started fishing (trust her) and then she had a good bite but no hook-up and then not a bite for more than two and a half hours, when the wind dropped I started to drift fish, changed spots a few times and we managed to catch another five whiting's but all undersize and had to be put back, so we came home with one fish for the day. Below is the place that we have been fishing at, its called Gallipoli and as you can see the sea is dead flat, that cliff face on the left is Gallipoli and is about 6.5 kilometers from Farm Beach, we like this spot as it is a large area with a sandy bottom with some small weed areas, but as good as it is for fishing the fish are not always there or if they are they do not bite, so who can work them out.

End of the month the 28th and again we went out to Gallipoli, the wind was up, more then the forecast of 9.7 knots from the SE, not that it mattered as we have to get out to catch some fish, we are way behind what I would have liked in the freezer by now, was choppy on the way out and took us a bit longer then usual to get there. No drift fishing today for us, so had to throw out the anchor and the fish was on the bite almost as soon as we put the baits in the water, the depth of the water where we were as 40 feet just nice for us and not to bad for puling in the anchor, the shoulder is good now so was just a muscle that I had upset in launching the boat in the beginning, anyway this morning we caught ten whiting which is the best we have done in on day so far, but a long way from the twenty four we are allowed to catch in one day. We also caught another nineteen that we threw back for being undersize, pity we cannot get onto a patch of big ones for change, below are the fillets

End of month one, five weeks actually as we came down the last week in January and only four more to go and we are not doing that good with catching the King George Whiting, this month we have only caught 39 fish and 5 squid, not a lot and as all of the fish are small unlike the Spanish Mackerel we were catching last year it takes a lot to fill the freezer and we have no chance of doing that this year now. The weather has been against us on most days as it been too windy to for us to fish and then we have had beautiful days on the water and no fish biting and then we have had perfect days for fishing and again the fishing has been bad, it has to do with the tides which are not big here at the most I think they are around 1.5 meters and the cycle of the moon. Who really knows, all we can do is go out when the wind is not too bad and try, as I have said above we are allowed to catch 12 whiting each per day and if this was the case we would fill the freezer, easily, it takes about 11 or 12 legal size whiting (30cm) to make 1 kilo of fillets, so it takes a lot to fill our small freezer which can hold around 38 kilo and so far we have 4 kilo in it. We will have to buy some fillets in Port Lincoln before we leave, in fact I will start  buying some next week when we go in and some Squid Tubes that sell for $6.00 per kilo which is a very good price over here, so a couple of kilos of that will do us fine for during the year, so now we hope for some decent weather that the fish like, but we have been catching some whiting but most are undersize and have to be thrown back, if they had all been legal size we would have had more than 60 more in the freezer. So see you all next month if I can get enough photos to make a newsletter, but battling to show you fish. Again I Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Good Looking Opal and lots of it, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us, but only time will tell, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes. Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report. Until the next issue......... and wish me lots of LUCK. Cya Later, Stuart Bird. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here!

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