Ireland spearing 2007

[paddyc23]

Hi everyone, dis is pat im irish use to live in west cork but im currently living south of the med at the moment, been here 8 months, im kinda new to spearfishing been at it sense i got here different locations around the east coast and south east coast, got a nice couple of fish bass mullet palometa salpa sargo mainly, mostly dinner size, i dont shoot or kill anything that i think is small, ive only caught 2 pulpo both here near almeria, both ok size, both delicious, i usually dive in 10m or less, as im new i wanna understand my own limits b4 i dive deeper and i tend to stay around the reefs rocks and breakerwalls just to be on the safe side especially if i go alone, weathers not too good out here, wind wise, last few days and today up to 25knts, its a mill pond in the marina but very rough out at see, the viz is terrible, sandy green silt 300ft out to sea, so wont be out till sunday, unfortuntly, been practising instead holding my breath, diving a ship wreck on sunday, its 2.5m, yeah very shallow, theres a 9m hole nxt to it and a shelf of 4.5m conecting to the 9m hole and wreck, so hopefully i mite find a few pulpo which is my main focus my mates after a bass or two, we got a yacht so were gonna anchor up as close as we can to the wreck and me and my mate were gonna do some spearfishing theres a few others but there gonna be fishing, i got a dingy and i bought recently a fish finder so ill see down first b4 i hope in...ill let you know either way wat happens and keep this post going.

[fcallagy]

good to hear from you paddy I was reading about your GWs in the med on the other thread. We,ll try to keep you posted about home here anyway. Sounds like your having a blast down there though, wouldn't mind a bit of a yacht meself.

[sunfish]

Feargus, I had the camera on underwater mode.I'm sure the problem is the length of water between the camera and subject.If you look at your own photos, the longer shots [eg divers resting on surface] are less clear than closer shots [brown crab and leopard goby].
Congratulations on 29m dive. I'm comfortable down to 50ft though I can go deeper if necessary. I'd love to get some proper training if you were nearer. I don't like to push things as I almost always dive alone.
Sea hunter, I think stoneshot said it all but if you come down to W.Cork PM me. Belated happy birthday to Stoneshot. Good luck with the baby, babies are great, I just became a grandaddy on June 1st.

[abusingelves]

well done on the 29 metres feargus!

sunfish, you must tell us more about this mackerel pate. post a recipe perhaps?

lemon juice for the cray! the meat in the legs is the best ( personal opinion, may be biased)

[Sea Hunter]

Stone shot
Thanks for the suggestions. Here in California it is also illegal to spear trout or salmon. We have lot's of size limits, so it should be easy for me to remember the 40cm rule on just a single species. Since there's no way measure a fish unitl it's shot, we just have to go for the big uns.

[sunfish]

Went spearing out at end of headland this morning.Got one 6lb pollack.6lb pollack 24.JPG Then went to look for crabs/lobsters. Found one lobster but I messed up my first grab and he retreated to the back of the hole. I got my wire hook from the kayak, but still couldn't get him.I found a few medium sized cock crabs, but the only big one i could find was a hen so I released her on principle.Big male crabs seem easier to get a goodish amount of meat from, as their claws are way bigger.
Foxfish, if you're still watching this thread, how deep was the cave where you found those two beauties, and how big and far in? Were they in cracks inside?

[foxfish]

I am not very keen on holeing for crabs but I have a look every now & then, in that case only about 3mt but on a low tide of 1.6. The crabs weighed about 4lb & 4.5lb.
Yes in cracks or on ledges maybe? one was close to the entrance & the other higher & further back. The hole (cave?) was about the size of a hatchback!
Bit of a nightmare to swim back with two big crabs especially with free "ish" claws! I had some PVC tape on my float but it was a bit water logged & it was difficult to secure their claws.

[Cavan AL]

Hi guys, just joined!

I'm from Cavan, no jokes, OK!
I started spearfishing in Italy after meeting my girlfriend in Uni in England. So I got my degree and have a lot of Irish fishing to catch up on.

Ive Had a few trips to Lahinch and got some nice Bass. Recnetly was away with mates for 4 days in Lahinch, Cliften an Achill Island. We left the wrass alone as they were everywhere. But what we did find in a Cove in Clifften were lots of big Ray up to 13lb. In Achill we could only fins Wrasse and Pollach.

Im living in Blanchardstown, but will be no travelling most weekends to Spearfish. The Bank Holiday weend comming I hope to go to Wexford as I have been hearing about some good Bass fishing. Is this true? Does anybody know some good locations there?? (or should I just go to Lahinch again!!)

Will also be looking forward to budding up with some of you guys this year.

Kind Regards

Alan

[fcallagy]

Howyah Alan and welcome to db give us a shout if heading west. There were a couple of trigger fish last time I was in achill but plz dont spear them nice to look at and there not that plentiful there. Any time your heading west give us a shout usually a lot of pollock where i dive at mullaghmore and plenty of edible crabs. Scallops across the bay in st johns point donegal but the locals can be very protective. There are a few of us who have just started a regular monday night training session but I usually dive most sundays mornings sometimes with scuba but ideally without. we can leave the cavan jokes for another day.

[Huan]

Geez I am going to have to make an effort to get out, since number 2 came along I have had about 2 dives.
I can probably make 12m now if I am lucky!
Sunfish thats a nice looking cray probably about €70 euros worth, they are very expensive now, last I heard somewhere in the region of €40-50 a kilo.
I am looking forward to trying my new/old speargun I replaced the 90cm alloy barrel with a 100cm carbon and hopefully it will give me just a little more reach.
Mind you with the weather we have been getting here I think I should dust off the 55cm pneumatic as the vis will have gone to hell with all the westerlies.

[foxfish]

"AR" Huan you are alive! welcome back

[Huan]

Thanks, the rumours of my demise were greatly exaggerated

[fcallagy]

welcome back Huan good to see you.

[sunfish]

Good to see you back Huan. Vis is probably bad now, but maybe not. On Tuesday, when I was crabbing, I could see the bottom at 35ft while breathing up on the surface.[I keep my D3 on ft as I tend to think in ft].
I wouldn't mind a 50cm gun myself. I use a Picasso 90 for everything and a couple of times this year, while diving in strong surge in the shallows[6ft and less] I've had good bass appear inside the speartip so I couldn't shoot. On one occasion I saw the same large fish 3 times, and between the bad vis, and trying to avoid being smacked into rocks, I never got a shot off. The shallows can be a tricky place to dive sometimes.
I used to have a Beauchat 120. It was good for longer shots, but arkward to turn quickly, and useless in poor vis.
Feargus, we get triggers here but I havn't seen any this year yet. I think the numbers vary from year to year. Sometimes I've seen shoals of a dozen or so, but mostly singles or pairs.Always they've been among rocks or alongside a reef or headland, but that could be because I always dive rough ground. Do your triggers seem to favour any particular kind of terrain? They should make good photo subjects, being easy to approach. I take the camera on every trip now, carrying it in its housing in the kayak with a sealed freezer bag over the housing. That way if I don't use it I don't have to rinse the housing afterwards.
Can someone explain to me how rep power works please. I've found some postings invaluable so I'd like to know. I suspect its something to do with the symbols in the bottem left of the post.

[fcallagy]

Hi Sunfish, Trigger i saw was in Keem(keel) bay in achill and was very agressive must have disturbed him in his lair. I legged it in any case.
With rep click the mouse on the weighing scales icon on the top right hand corner of the post a subject line will appear and you can enter a message in to that the reciever can then read to know why you are giving them rep.
Heading for rosslare this evening for the double dip so will talk to you guys on Mon/Tues. Have a good weekend.