So, I got a new toy earlier this year and so far it's just been awesome. It tells me all sorts of things, like, the water temperature went from 17c to 16c in parts today. Or, you knob, your diving to early again, give yourself time to recover. Yes, a dive watch. It's been great for safety really, I now try to work to a 2minute recovery between dives and yep, it's mean knowing the time, not just following the sun - much more productive. So, yeah, you could say I like my new toy, but... Decided last night to head to old faithful in Tairua today. The hourly check of www.swellmap revealed westerlies, well, I interpret SSW as "Westerly - Pretty Much". Never mind the 0.25m NE swell, the Westerly would knock it out. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more of a SSW, and the NE swell still packed a surgey punch on the coast, but the vis a workable 5-10m in places. Plenty of butters around, red moki and the odd snapper drifting off. Managed to spook a nice 5kg number in the very shallows, again timing. Popped up over the ledge after spotting the "gold" on the other side to see him drift, just out of.... range. Stink. Found a nice packie shell, freshly shed, and to my dismay, a nice packie 2m away in soft shell status. They be yummy, but soft shell is soft shell I'd managed to concoct a couple of crayfish/trevally/butter body burleys out the remains of the last trip up north. Set a couple and managed to attract plenty of snaps, but only to panny size, not what I wanted. Drilled a few butters for the daughter, and a nice blue cod (always a bonus ay MLJ). Smacked up some kina on a boulder just asking for it, and came back to terminate a goodie JD chasing down a scared tiddler parrotfish Tried a new area, swam around an island, and on the return, just when the 7mm jacket and pants really earned their keep, at the end of the day, I drifted into the shallows. Half light, weed, not much going on, time to check out my toy, holding the reel gun by the barrell, I checked the time... "yes, it's exactly 3.13pm and there's a big snapper below me under the ledge, aawwh...." too late to pull the barrell around I didn't watch him depart. Nice big dark red kelpie with munter nose and humphead - you know the one, the one you want to drill. Crays then fought my way home against the southerly. Gotta love the old kayak based spearfishing.... - Snoop