Magic days begin like this… well, the alarm kicks in early, 4.40am in fact. Perhaps not so magic, certainly not forcing down a bowl of porridge before a big day’s battle ahead. Dolphins schooling the boat a couple of clicks out of Omaha a couple of hours later, yes, absolutely… Matt and I hit the water at Strangler Rock and within minutes were surrounded by schools of large ocean going kahawai, trevally and a bronzie, no, make that two, hang on there’s a third… not good. “Ah Matthew, I think we need to turn around” I suggested rather tensely to my dive buddy ten metres ahead. “Yeah, there’s about ten over here, bring the boat over” he calmly replied. Sent back to the boat by my dive buddy, I couldn’t believe my luck when ten metres below me a big mother of a snapper was doing that “staunch swim” along the bottom. The king of his domain he shuffled with that swagger the biggies have, staunch, oblivious to the Snoop threat 10m above shrouded by the early morning sun. I levelled off on an intersecting path. A great believer in “shoot first, ask questions later” I pealed a round from the 1.5m canon. Here’s a photo of the beast…. Well, there would have been if I didn’t shoot high Tough shot, worth a crack. Moving the boat onto the plate in 5m of water I anchored up. Matt was convinced taking a king from the group of accountants surrounding the boat might not be the best strategy – so pulled out his Canon dive camera. I pulled out my canon and proceeded to shoot a 23.5kg king in front of him. Played it above the plate for about 5 minutes and only a couple of the bronzies showed interest and made it back to the boat all limps intact. Matt grew some nads and shot a lone 24kg king circling the reef, then off to Great Barrier. Oh, I levelled off in open water on another big big snap (might have been the same one) and spear fell short. Stink. Could have got slightly closer but was a tough shot. Saw a third big snapper on decent, swim in to check me out. Great fish – big dark red hues and large, chunky white tail. Radical. Really stoked to see such big fish relaxed, doing their thing, in their natural environment, in open ground! Big snaps are pretty cool individuals MLJ’s dive posse were covering huge ground on the outside of the Brokens, scaring all the decent fish away. Despite their efforts I managed to spook three goodies and shoot none. My crowning achievement was holding in lunch. The combination of heat and surge made for hard snooping. I moved through the Broken and covered some decent ground, the weedlines full of baitfish and the odd good kingie, but nothing decent for the plate. No terakihi spotted on MLJs spot. Did manage to create a third eye for a squidy (which was delicious might I add). Off to Strangler Rock. Shark fins breaking the surface as the anchor hit the rock, teeming with fish life, no kings of note. Snapper sick of getting shot at had gone on vacation. Off to Little Barrier and a favourite weedline visible from the surface. Swam a k along, spotted 4 rather large boaries in pairs, but all bolted on sight. Spearos have been here before me thinks. As Matt ascended I noticed a nice boarie move off the weed. Got told off by Matt for ditching him (rightly so) during his dive to chase it down, all in vain. Spotted some weird seaweed that morphed into a johnnie just before the boat. Managed to spear it, bring it to the surface and swim back before Matt had surfaced, for fear of another lecture. Filleted out my kingie on the boat parked on the weedline. Threw the frame overboard. We washed up the boat. Matt was mucking around so I decided to actually just go for a quick dip. Well, long johns, booties, snorkel and mask on of course. 18 degrees is surprisingly not that warm after wearing a full dive suit. Was more surprised when a school of big kings pulled in (one would have pushed the mid 30s). Screamed at Matt “big kingies, get in”. Dived down “athletically” to a metre and a half I kicked my little toes off to attract them in. I succeeded. Well, succeeded in bringing in the largest shark I have seen in my life. A BIG bronzie. Matt yelled “you didn’t mention the shark”. I don’t want to give estimates, but for those who have experienced it, you know that moment “when time stands still”. She was beautiful, light copper colour and definitely not intimidated by my mock “swim at you to show I’m staunch and not scared” swim that didn’t work. We left the water. Gotta say, really really enjoyed the day out. Diving with so many sharks was a great exercise in mental toughness. Yes, to be fair, there is definitely a difference between small 1.5-2m sharks though and the motherships. Of that there is no doubt. But a great experience, none the less. Magic magic day. Gotta love summer - Snoop

El Snoopo you will live to regret the "grow some nads" comment ... one rush of blood to the head around some smaller bronzies in 5m of water does not a "danger ready" diver make ... I shall have to seek some extreme action tomorrow to put you to the test :) - Kingie

I have a bag of snapper, jd and kingie bones and guts - and a big burley bomb - let's see who is crazy shall we... - Snoop