Guernsey 2008

[Andy.Round]

3 hours drifting around the platte this morning - 5 mackerel and a pollack.

Viz is just as bad. I heard the radio interview as well colin. Not sure I believe the French dredging theory, or the storm theory, maybe its the poo we pump out into belgreve?

Who knows?

Ed, which club are you going to join? St pierre park, grnd mare or L'Ancresse? think I might join you, although I hear golf is even more frustrating.

Maybe I'll join Dave and emigrate,

I really cannot believe that its June!!!! Its not even summer on top of the water as compensation.

[Sarnian]

Beat you to it Ed! Still waiting for someone to design the underwater webcam though!

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2006/09/scubahud.jpg&imgrefurl=http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/oceanic-scuba-mask-with-integrated-head%2Bup-display-203934.php&h=281&w=520&sz=30&hl=en&start=27&tbnid= RPN-4FIAfA0VHM:&tbnh=71&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dheads%2Bup%2Bdisplay%26start%3D21%26g bv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

[Old Man Dave]

Went angling in the boat today as f*ck all chance of diving. I was depressed 'til I found some one else worse off. Spoke to Graham Eker - well would you like to be running a dive business at present?

So back to the angling. Decided to go to Banc au Nord today. In the end it was just me and my brother Mart. Stopped at Noir Pute but the water racing past in the tide was the most coffee coloured I've seen. Couple of other boats there but nothing caught.

At BaN ther were half a dozen boats including Seager. Tide was perfect but a bit choppy. No mackerel or sandeels on the feathers and nothing on the bottom rods baited with frozen sandeels either. Eventually found a few mackerel and ended the day with about 50 plus a half dozen eels. Tried a joey live on the bottom and achieved a first for me - bass on a live mackerel. Not a big one but a nice eater and then went one better by catching another bass on the feathers.

The vis everywhere today was awful. There are big areas of brown "mud" in between areas of green murk.

25 minute run back at 19 knots through some chop saw us back after nearly 5 hours fishing for just those 2 bass and 50 mackerel but minus £40 worth of diesel. Any one want to buy a boat - free diving gear thrown in .

Dave

[Sarnian]

At least you got some fish Dave! Well done. Richard Lord was talking this morning about the "turbidity " in the sea which results from areas where Guernsey and Jersey's tidal flows cross, where you get rafts of weed ( and fish). He doesn't think it's caused by dredging in the Rance.

I also meant to mention, yesterday I saw some shoals of sandeels for the first time this year, which presumably is a good sign. Is there a prize for best Fish of the Month seen, as opposed to caught?

[Jonny250]

I hear golf is even more frustrating.

I have the honour of being a golf caddy from time to time, it is without doubt the most frustrating sport ever! at least in football you can shout at the team when it's not going well...

Is there a prize for best Fish of the Month seen, as opposed to caught?

Like a photo FOM... sounds good...

I 'saw' 2 good bass yesterday (no picture ), in for 2 hours over the low/rising tide on the SW corner... as soon as the tide started flowing the vis dropped and it was time to finish.

[Magpie]

Originally Posted by Andy.Round

maybe its the poo we pump out into belgreve?

So why has it never been like this before? We've only been doing that for 20+ years, and prior to that it came out of the rock a lot closer in iirc.

No other answer though, I can't see it being storms, had plenty of them before too.

[Old Man Dave]

Apparently Richard Lord has made some statement in his usual gobble-dee- gook about currents, tides and mainly the March 3rd storm. I like the bloke and he probably knows a lot more than me but the point is this all started way before March 3rd. I'm with Magpie on this one, we've had storms before. must say, however that we have had an unusually long spell of continuously windy weather this winter. For months it was force 5 every day. As for the shit pipe and/or plankton, well it looks like silt in the water to me. On the subject of plankton blooms, we should have had one and we haven't. Personally I think the silt is making the water light levels too low to trigger the growth of plankton. No plankton, no food for sandeels, no food tof bass. What about the birds? One fisherman told me Friday that lots of sea birds are showing strange behaviour. He says they're starving. We saw gannets yesterday flying low over the water, how can they see their prey in the coloured water?

Something bad is happening.

Dave

[ADM]

Other strange bird things are the two (though possibly same bird) Albatross seen off Jersey. Now why would they be right down here??

I had heard reports of a bloom Dave, Toerag said he had seen stringy plankton but further out.

[Sarnian]

More weird happenings with the dolphins stranded in a creek in Cornwall. Most appear to have died unfortunately.

BBC NEWS | England | Cornwall | Dolphins die after mass stranding

[foxfish]

The theory that seemed more plausible to me is based on global warming.(now there's a surprise) Something to do with the changing tidal currents sweeping away previously undisturbed silt, this may be happening many hundreds of miles away in very deep water?

[Magpie]

Does seem much more likely to me Mart. If it were the case I'd have thought we'd have a markedly different water temperature during this event from the average as we'd be getting someone elses water from a different ocean current.

[ADM]

If there was a change in such global currents, would not other normally clear waters also be finding this issue? What's going on in the blue water parts of the globe who have proper clear water (Carrib etc) rather than our patchy stuff?

[Old Man Dave]

Decided to go have a look at the vis down west for myself following recent reports of an improvement. Went in at 5-ish, an hour before low to try to maximise the chance of fishable vis.

From the top of the beach the view was breathtaking. Flat calm, sun dappled, blue water with lots of fishy looking reefs and huge patches of bootlace weed on the surface. Bit of a clamber down to the shoreline and arrived slightly hot and sweaty in my suit, under a still strong sun. The rock pools looked to have about a hundred-foot vis despite only being 6-inches deep. They looked crystal clear with no sight of suspended silt. The shallows looked similar but perhaps not quite as clear, at least from the surface anyway.

Once in the water the vis turned out to be about 6 foot. Very disappointing but still fishable – just. In the first hour I hunted the weed beds and around a few reefs. Apart from one shoal of sandeels I saw no living creatures. No smelt, no wrasse, no crabs, no mullet, zilch., FA. Heading back just after the low water I found a little area of better vis, up to maybe 10-foot. Saw a bass and although I had to go for a certain, mid-body shot, I got it fairly easily. That cheered me up. 5 minutes later I added a decent wrasse that I stoned with a headshot. Still heading back I then managed to not shoot another bass that might as well have had a target with please shoot me pinned to its side it was that easy a chance. Never mind, that’s one for another day. Eventually back ashore after an hour and a half I had seen one more bass, a half-pound wrasse and a shoal of smelt.

It is not good out there but there are a few fish and the vis is just fishable, well it was today anyway. Bass was about 4lb and the wrasse about 5lb. Post a picture later. No FOM entry for these as I’m going to do better than that this month, Oh! Yeah!

Dave

[Magpie]

Great job Dave, best take a picture with a paper just in case though eh

[Jonny250]

well done OMD!!
it did look good out there this evening...