South Devon report 2007

[James T]

Originally Posted by spearheads

Dived along along the coast towards the harbour today in the canoe which is hard to get in and out of.
Total catch 3 bass 2 mullet 2 mackeral 2 pollock.

Saw 2 triggers in a hole.

post some pics later.

Spearheads - where on the coast were you going towards a harbour - is that towards Torquay?

By the way if you ever get a chance to shoot an oceanic trigger fish you should take it - I think they taste fantastic.

[spearheads]

started at meadfoot beach and dived towards torquay harbour.

[foxfish]

[quote=tribs;653648]
What ground should i find the bass in? I fish budeigh with sandeel in strong tide and catch but in the tide with the gun i don't see any, just mullet.

do i need deeper water i only fish about 4m

Any help would be great.

Tribs out[/QUOTE

Hi Tribs I am sure you will find them eventually, perhaps you should try in the shallows. I find a lot of my bass in less than 1 mt, sometimes half that depth. Look out for boot lace weed, bass like to rest in amongst the weed, very often you can creep up on a resting bass so close you can shoot it in the head without fear of missing. When hunting the shallows make sure the tide is just on low or coming up, bass appear more relaxed under these conditions. The shallows need not be close to shore & very often (in my case) quite far out near the top of exposed reefs.

[tonyiannu]

Dived Babbacombe yesterday and it was great I saw a lots of fishes but no bass,swimmed right side of Babba for the first time,lots of huge wrasse but I didnt wanty to spear them (to easy to catch and to difficult to clean),lots of pollack always around mackerel and never see before all those grey mullet they came around like four or five time shot one the first time(good size) the second I missed one and the other time they where so diffident that never came close enough to be shot.I also get a edible crab,the viz was about 3 to 4 meters and dived even around 10 mt.

[tonyiannu]

Does the scubas hate the spearos?Or is just my personal feeling?

[scottwilson]

if you talking about the Babbacombe lot. they think they own the place. Ive had some right dirty looks from them in the past and the guy who runs the cafe is very anti spearo, at least thats the impression I get from them. when ever i dive around the air breathers I always keep a safe distance from them and ask them what there route is so that I dont cross there path.

[tribs]

Foxfish

Cheers for the info, will try the reef over dead low tide as there is string weed there and it lies on the surface. I have also been told that a little way around the corner is the possibiltiy of plaice and monk. Do you know if they will stay over the low tide or retreat and come back?

New to spearing but learning fast from this forum Thanks again!

Tribs
Out

[Spaniard]

Originally Posted by tonyiannu

Does the scubas hate the spearos?Or is just my personal feeling?

In the UK there is a strong anti-spearing feeling amongst the Scuba community. Not sure when or why it started but BSAC are very critical of us and blame us for all kinds of environmemtal disasters!!! When I was importing sporasub spearing kit about 8 years ago I spoke to the vast majority of Dive shops ALL AROUND the UK and 95% of them were completely against spearfishing and I was even threatened by some. I very rarely get a balanced, educated opinion from anti-spearing bubblers as to why they think we are so bad?? They don't seem to mind liberating wrecks of lobsters and crabs and taking flatfish by knife/handspear.

[James T]

Originally Posted by tribs

Foxfish

Cheers for the info, will try the reef over dead low tide as there is string weed there and it lies on the surface. I have also been told that a little way around the corner is the possibiltiy of plaice and monk. Do you know if they will stay over the low tide or retreat and come back?

New to spearing but learning fast from this forum Thanks again!

Tribs
Out

Tribs - I like diving at Budleigh but it is quite shallow - with all the cold rainwater run off where you are fishing it wouldn't surprise me if the fish had moved out deeper. I fished there three times last year and saw Bass on every trip - Pekka is the specialist and gave me some good tips. High tide seemed to be the favourite there with a drift around the reef - diving down to the bottom of the gullies and waiting with the current running fast over the top of you. Budleigh is not an easy dive. I found it hard last year with the current so fast I struggled to equalise fast enough with everything else going and screwed my ears up - had to lay off the diving for a couple of months - be careful.

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by tonyiannu

Does the scubas hate the spearos?Or is just my personal feeling?

In Babbacombe the answer is that most of them do. I think it is mostly due to propagana from BSAC and the man in the cafe (who doesn't mind accepting a nice mullet from an angler I have noticed!).

Having said this I have had a couple of friendly converstions with Scuba guys there. Just make sure that if you ever shoot a cuttlefish you don't let anyone see it as Babbacombe is a bit famous among the scuba fraternity for cuttles.

[glowworm]

Hey guys myself and Podge dived meadcombe on sunday and met several scuba guys there and only had friendly exchanges.

And for the record guy's i never miss fish i choose for them to live

[scottwilson]

Ive been looking at the barrel for my speargun and reckon it cant be that hard to make a longer one. Does any one know of a local company that sells tubing ?

[tribs]

Originally Posted by James T

Tribs - I like diving at Budleigh but it is quite shallow - with all the cold rainwater run off where you are fishing it wouldn't surprise me if the fish had moved out deeper. I fished there three times last year and saw Bass on every trip - Pekka is the specialist and gave me some good tips. High tide seemed to be the favourite there with a drift around the reef - diving down to the bottom of the gullies and waiting with the current running fast over the top of you. Budleigh is not an easy dive. I found it hard last year with the current so fast I struggled to equalise fast enough with everything else going and screwed my ears up - had to lay off the diving for a couple of months - be careful.

Thanks James

Typical though that two obviously experienced Spearo's have given conflicting advice; one high tide under the fast tide and the other at dead low awater in the stringweed! Both probably worth a try on the right day.

Do you know about the plaice though? Will they retreat with the tide or will they stay fairly close and just move back again with the incoming tide?

[SurfnSpear]

Just my opinion, but I have had my best results exactly as described by Foxfish..I now quite often look for that time of the day to go poking around stealthily..

[James T]

Tribs - I am interested in how you get on if you do try low tide - I have never tried fishing Budleigh on the low tide - so cannot comment on it there - let us know how it goes.