[miles]

Hiya

Finding fish is probably THE most difficult aspect of speafishing!! Most spearo's will be very happy to teach you techniques and chat about gear, but once spots where good fish are to be found is broached, they'll become tight-lipped!!

Lots of things affect fish holding spots. Start off by keeping a spearing diary. Make notes on tide, viz., prevailing winds and currents. Some spots will be barren on the low tide, yet have loads of fish on the high tide. Similarly, some spots will hold lots of fish in cetain winds. Take note of where other spearo's fish and what they catch as well as what the conditions were like. Pretty soon you'll have a good idea of where to find fish!!

Some things to help:
Fish LOVE structure. Reefs, wrecks or pinnacles are good spots to start. Any structure that is considerabily shallower than its surroundings will be a good place to start looking. Say, a 10m pinnacle in 30m of water. Look also for bait fish. Large predatory fish will be fairly close by.

Get a chart of the sea bottom in your area. Look for the shallow spots and try and find them. Not easy doing shore-dives, but still do-able.

Watch fisherman and see where they fish!!

Definitely do use a flasher for game fish. Even some reef fish will respond to flashers.

Chumming is a bit more difficult when shore diving. Firstly, it attracts sharks, which might not be an issue in your area. Since you're shore-diving, your chum will have to be fish that you need to shoot!!

Your simplest method is simply to drift with the current over an area with a flasher. That way, you'll attract pelagics to you, as well as being able to scout the terrain.

Hope that helps!!

Regards
miles