Guernsey 2006

[Sarnian]

Try again as I'm not sure the attachment came through!

[Magpie]

No funny pic from me, just one from much earlier in the year...my first ever speared bass, first ever speared fish of any sort in fact, and I hope you all feel proud that if it wasn't for you lot it would still be happily swimming around eating crabs

Here's to next year boys, may your stringers snap under the weight of your catch.

[Old Man Dave]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all.

Dave

http://www.evite.com/app/ecards/view...IHGKBVI&src=SH

[Draenog]

Nadolig llawen pawb!

(Merry Christmas all)

Looking forward to seeing you all and getting in the water over there in the summer.

Probably there for last week of July + first week of August so I'll come along and take photos at the fish-off.

[Old Man Dave]

Well it's been calm for a week. Today in Chouet the sea was absolutely flat and at low spring tide at 3pm the vis looked excellent. Spoke to a mate today who's a commercial scallop diver and he said water was clear but light levels are low.

Looks perfect for a night dive tomorrow at about 4.30pm. Somewhere in the back of my mind I have this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to be doing something tomorrow. Some sort of special day? Oh! Yeh! Just remembered supposed to be diving to check my mooring in town harbour.

Wednesday 5pm looks favourite. Gonna charge my torch. Nice bit of grilled plaice or red mullet might make a change to turkey.

Seasons greetings

Dave

[podge]

Just to say a very merry Christmas and a fruitful new year to all on the beautiful island of Guernsey, and I’m sure I speak for all of your soon to be guests that the summer cant come quick enough.
Paul.

[Old Man Dave]

Some Christmas pic's on thread Christmas and New Year 2006
Dave

[Old Man Dave]

Had a great night dive last night and a fair catch, plaice, bass, sole and turbot. Will post a story later.

Dave



Report
Well at last the weather has sorted itself out. I like to try to dive every week at least ‘til the end of January but the weather has been so shit for the last few months it’s been impossible. The last 2 dives before last night the vis has been too bad although the fact that I still caught showed the fish were there. The last 2 weeks the lack of wind has seen the sea flatten right off and the vis improve. Unfortunately this coincided with me getting a nasty cold that is still dragging on. Oh! And there was some festive occurrence recently that curtailed free time somewhat.

So last night, cold or no cold, I was determined to get some fish….. please no more turkey aarrghhh! Went in 5.30 ish on a low spring tide in Grande Havre bay. Nice moonlight and a calm sea with just a 1-foot swell rolling in. Vis was okay but the swell went out a surprisingly long way.

Swam out a couple of hundred yards but as the seabed is flat at low tide only had 6 foot depth. Started a slow sweep parallel to the shore for 50 yards or so, then cut out 10 foot and made another pass 50 yards back. Carried on making these parallel to shore runs, back and forth, each one a bit further out. Eventually after nearly an hour I had covered a large area and was 400 yards out in 10/12 foot. At this point vis was too hazy to be certain of seeing a fish on the bottom from the surface. Started to get cold but partly through lack of success as well as actual temperature.

So far I hadn’t seen any flatties or red mullet not even tiny ones. I had seen a small bass, some bigg-ish squid, lots of crabs and the usual million smelt. The bottom was still surging so started to make my drops and headed out rather than parallel to the shore. The further out I went the harder it was to relate to the shoreline so had to rely on following the seabed sand waves which run parallel to the shore.

Ten minutes later in 12/15 foot I spotted a buried plaice. Wouldn’t have seen that from far away but it was a definite relief to get one “in the bag” so to speak. Hunted around for a while but no more fish so headed on back out. Another 10 minutes and I spotted a small blonde ray, which distracted me enough to nearly miss the uncovered plaice right under my nose. Things were looking up. Two dives later just as I was going up I spotted a BIG oval shape next to a bed of sea grass. From the surface I could just see the grass bed 18/20 foot below. Going down the oval materialised into a beut of a sole. Handspeared it with the loaded gun as I had with the two plaice.

It was getting on a bit so turned for home, which seemed to be vaguely that way, I think. Diving my way back, I was down again when I saw up ahead a slightly different patch of sand/gravel. Moving closer, 2 eyes became visible and as I headed up to the surface I had a nice little turbot wriggling on the spear. Was tired and cold but elated. This was turning into a good dive. Still enough is enough so headed in a bit quicker. In 8/10 foot a grey shape swam beneath me and angled off to my left. Knew it was a bass and a nice one. I followed and although it wasn’t spooked it kept on going. Twice it stopped and I almost got a bead on it but not quite. Just as I thought I’d lose it, I got a chance. My hand was shaking but I closed enough to get off a shot from the surface, straight down. Successful back of headshot taken from the surface and that was that.

Walking back up the beach toward the car, my torch started to die, a sure sign of a long dive. The ten-minute drive home seemed longer as the cold started to bite. One hot shower in which I stripped off the suit and I was back in the world of the living.

Sole went 4+lb, bass just 4lb, turbot 2+lb and the plaice 1+lb each. Very nice catch at any time but particularly pleasing just now and I think that’s my best sole freediving this year.

Dave

[derek foxen]

Magnifique,mon frere!
You don't get those guys under the Christmas tree.
How dooo you do it? Issit cos you is my bro?
As the elephant said to the naked man:'That looks cute but can you pick up a peanut?'
I hereby award Dave five peanuts!

[Mr. X]

Impressive catch Dave. I've yet to see more than a single glimpse of a flatty (maybe). Visited the Dorset coast yesterday but it was real cold here & the forecast looked bad (12mph winds blowing in from the south) -- so just took rods. [Note: no fish were harmed during this exercise! ]

BTW What size is your speargun (for scale - looks like the bass & sole are about a barrel length)?

[podge]

Bloody good work Dave. A few mates and myself had a look around Portland on Christmas Eve, stayed in for around 2 hours with bugger all but cold feet to show for it. Viz was still pants from the surface and you had to smack your head on the bottom before you knew you were there.

[Old Man Dave]

[quote=Mr. X; BTW What size is your speargun (for scale - looks like the bass & sole are about a barrel length)?[/QUOTE]

It's a 75cm that I use just for night dives. It's got 16mm standard rubbers that I just load to the first notch for simplicity at night. Just use a single line wrap. Most of the time for flatties it's just used as a hand spear but you need to fire short range shots for bass, red mullet etc.

Dave

[glowworm]

Nice catch Dave.That sole is massive..Weather here has turned really nasty so hopes of any diving action have gone...Oh well back top playing with the christmas toy's..

[beardy241]

Glad you got out in the end Dave. Nice catch. My week got crowded out and now the wind is blowing up so the next few days looks unlikely - again!

[m]

[James T]

Hey Dave what kind of light set up do you use? Is it just the single torch held in your hand? Is is a very powerful torch?

I went out the other night with Scottie around Portland. The torch I was using has a really narrow beam which creates a light patch of about a meter in diameter. I have this attached to my mask strap (mini Q40) I am really new to night spearfishing and not sure if I should go for a more powerful light set-up or just practice with what I have.

The other scary thing was that because the light beam was quite narrow I found I as half way into caves between large boulders without realising it - a bit worrying when you try to resurface!! So I then started to spend more time on descent to try and remove the chances of this happening. It worked, but meant I spent less time really searching for food...

Any tips very welcome.