Factors of bad visibility

[gladiator]

There is nothing worse than looking forward to a great day of spearing, driving and gearing up to find out that the visiblity of the water is not good. This has happened to me quite a lot lately. My question is this: are there any flags or indicators that visiblity is going to be bad? ex: wind speed, low/high tide, moon phases !!! ????

I always go to the same spot every week, visibity ranges from 10+ meters on a great day to just 1 meter on a bad day.
To get to this spot we swim from shore for about 1 KM and depth ranges from 20 meters - 2 meters along the way.

This might a be a stupid question to some of you, but I decided to ask it anyway.

Thanks

[Amphibious]

when I lived in the gulf I found wind and sea state (wave action) to be the biigest contributers to poor viz.

extreme tide changes has a little effect, but usually lead to great fishing days.

[SpeerO]

Thats the thing i hate most... when im excited for the day and all is calm.. just to hop in the water and barley be able to see the tip of my spear. Well thats always the case right now.. this season now in the arabian gulf is the worst for visibility and it'll unfortunatly only get good around March or April. Reason is rain wind (shmaal) and Mainly the change in water temp. Since hot water floats up and cold sinks down, the sea is basically being stirred up moving the bed and disturbing it and thats the main factor for the bad vis.

Sometimes it would be real windy outside but the viz is so great.. so u can really rely on that for viz.
Another thing to keep in mind is.. at least its what i was told.. that its best to go out in the middle of an arabic month.. dont ask me why! but its tru and theres always an abundance of fish and viz is usually good.

Please anyone correct me if im wrong.

Hey maybe u should get urself an inflatable boat or a kayak rather than swimming that mile to get to ur spot... ull save urself a lot of energy for better bottom times and u can also store ur stuff inside

Anyways thats my .02 cents

Good Luck!!

[Marwan]

ah im in the right place, viz was shit this weekend, me and my buddy took my boat out and after 45 minutes of bad seas, we ended up in the spot. Couldnt see 3 meters ahead, that is the worst after being psyched up for some action...it was freezing cold too..
on another note, gladiator, i would also advise on getting a kayak at least. not just for saving energy but also for safety, should you get too cold, cramp, need to exit the water for any other reason... kayak is cheap, portable and fun... cheers

[Amphibious]

I lived on the gulf coast just north of bahrain and the viz was excellent in the winter. usually more consistant then summer too.

inshore spearfishing was always best right after a good shamal or rain

[gladiator]

Gents, thank your for your replies and good info. I totally agree with you on the kayak, I do have one myself but the problem is this: in Khor al Odaid there are no boats, Kayaks, or even inflatable dounuts allowed I didn't know this when I first started to frequent this area, the Saudi border patrol almost shot me down and the Qatari forces almost fined me 1000 Ryials. Luckly I didn't get shot nor fined. So the 1.4 KM swim is a must and it's definetly worth it.

"EXCELLENT FISHING AFTER RAIN OR NORTH WIND" = VERY VERY TRUE.

It has been pouring lately in Doha and indeed, I just got back few hours ago from a very great & depressing trip at the same time.

When we arrived to khor odaid, it was windy and raining. Since this is the second week in a row with bad weather, we decided to gear up and swim the 1.4 KM anyway. I was more excited than usual since this is the first time I'm going to use my brand new Omer Carbon T20 gun (love at first sight)

Surprisingly, visiblity was very good (5-6 meters) and the second we got to the spot I saw the biggest 2 Groupers ever, My buddy shot one and I missed the second ... it was huge. There were on orgy of all kind of fish. We had 4 Groupers and 2 sweet lips (4 KG each) on our stringer in less than an hour.

Having secured dinner for a group of friends and my neighbours I tied my gun to my boogie board and the stringer also (5 meter lead) 30 minutes later, I got very tired so my friend offered to trade boogie boards (his was lighter since he was not pulling the fish behind)
Not even 1 minute passed after the trade and about 50 meters from shore, something huge ripped the boogie board from my friend's hands and took off with the board, fish, and my brand new gun (&*^)(*()&^%%&&())_+)

I honestly was scared shitless and didn't care that instant of our losses. We swam with our backs facing the shore and praying to arrive safely.

What the hell was that? can a barracuda do this? was a shark or a dolphin? I have no idea. do you?

I need to find a way to keep the fish out of the water for next time if I build the courrage to go back there again.

Sorry for the long post.

[The Killer's me]

well guys you talked about hammer heads in Qatar... so expect the un expected. you have to use a flat float and not a torpedo, in which you will place the fish in a bag on top of the float. the only disadvantage is that the fish might get spoiled in the sun. Guys dont put yourself in the middle of the sea like that. u need a boat. if no chance for a boat, then u need to be in a group and you should know the area very well.

go scuba in that place, check it up, then do your freediving/spearfishing with more serenity.

cheerzZz

[SpeerO]

Holy shit dude that must have really scared ur friend fishless

Where did the thing end up? Did u see it dissapear into the horizon or was it pulled down? It must be somthing HUGE to be able to pull a boogie board down and keep it down!
Didnt u guys stick ur heads in the water to see what it was ?
Wow... dunno what to say man.. freaky hahaha..

Killer Me is very right about that.. i think u guys r very vulnerable so far out there alone with nothing to jump in for safty..

I know its boring to say that, but try to be safe!

Later
Zane...

[gladiator]

Thanks Speero & Killer. Usually I do go in a group of 4 (is this a good number?)
The boogie board did not sink, it was just dragged very fast for about 25 meters. then it just drifted with the current. We did stick our heads in the water but didn't see anything (thank god)
The reason we like this spot very much because it's very abundunt with large fish (no boats allowed therofore no commercial fishing) + the long swim makes it unpopular.
We were thinking to tie a 500 meter rope to the truck and drag it with us half way. Then use it on the way back to pull ouirseleves to shore.

Cheers

[SpeerO]

Here's your ULTIMATE solution!!! Tie them to an anchored buoy when u get there! Tadaaaaaa

[The Killer's me]

good luck and these are the things that we live for... otherwise we are only losers.

[Amphibious]

never had much of a problem with sharks (in 10yrs of spearing in the gulf) and my fish were kept on a stinger on my float, then floatline to gun. if you kill the fish quickly you limit the thrashing and bleeding.

personally I wouldn;t worry buch about the gulf hammerheads. the tigers on the other hand...

[island_sands]

Originally Posted by gladiator

There is nothing worse than looking forward to a great day of spearing, driving and gearing up to find out that the visiblity of the water is not good. This has happened to me quite a lot lately. My question is this: are there any flags or indicators that visiblity is going to be bad? ex: wind speed, low/high tide, moon phases !!! ????

I always go to the same spot every week, visibity ranges from 10+ meters on a great day to just 1 meter on a bad day.
To get to this spot we swim from shore for about 1 KM and depth ranges from 20 meters - 2 meters along the way.

This might a be a stupid question to some of you, but I decided to ask it anyway.

Thanks

Gladiator
do you dive anywhere near where they are dredging for the Pearl Islands?
http://www.thepearlqatar.com/SubTemp...?ID=144&MID=84

[Marwan]

i met the taxman about 1 km out to sea and i was shore diving, wasnt a cool experience, i had no fish on my stringer and he was a little less than 2m long, a grey shark, that was in the med, i did 360 degree sweeps for the 20 minutes (felt more like 35 minutes) swim to shore, its funny now, but it wasnt then

[baracuda]

me got an idea !!

why dont we open a thead and and every time one of us gos diving they

post the : time/date/wind/tide/current/viz/amout of fish/moon..

so we can make a databank and try to find a pattren for good VIZABILITY