Ireland spearing 2008

[sunfish]

Originally Posted by togo

hello Zimgonzo

Seen that you're keen on RA gear as I am. I just bought a couple of guns from them from the factory it's taking 2 weeks to get at your door but you'll have to pay duties as I have. I'm getting my gear this afternoon from the airport 1x70 1X80 1x90 1x100cm sparid guns as Tuna gun is too powerfull for here. 70 is good for holes fishing and poor visibility 80when visibility get better and cave 90for open water and 100for good visibility and long range fish. Got 11l buoy but order a 22l as boat around and doesn't look to see divers often so try get a flag.

Good luck

I see you've got a few guns Togo!
I've got one Picasso 90cm but I'd love to have a couple more.
If you dive anywhere where boats are it's best to assume they won't see you. As you say, they don't expect divers to be there and some boat drivers think no-one should go in the water anyway.

[sunfish]

Originally Posted by zimgonzo

Howsit,

I introduced myself a month or so ago. I am getting closer to moving back to my Ireland. Probably gonna be back end of august, and hope to get some diving in before the end of the year. I know there aren't any spearing shops over there, so do you guys do all of you rigging and fixing yourselves. I figured I'd be doing so myself, so was going to buy myself a whole bunch of stuff before I come back. Below is a link where I posted the stuff I am thinking about getting.

Let me know what you guys think.

Cheers

Moving to Ireland - Spearboard Spearfishing Community

Hi Zimgonzo, Seth on Spearboard posted good advice. He seems to know about conditions here.
I have a 90cm gun with 20mm bands and that works fine for me. Sometimes when vis is really good and fish are wary I think a longer gun might be useful. Has your RA tuna got double bands? If so you might want to take one off.
I see you're moving to Carlow. I don't have any experience of diving there but in general the best spearing, (best vis and most fish) , is on the South and West coasts where the Atlantic has its influence.
If you're into guns and equipment, you'll enjoy looking at European internet spearfishing stores. There are some beautiful guns made in Spain and Italy, both wooden and aluminium or carbon tube guns. Also the best fins in the world are made here in Europe, in my opinion.

[baldyfish]

thats a whole lot of guns!!!! you spearing long togo??

[Mr. X]

Good to see some more RA users around. I understand getting the 70/80/90/100 - but picking the right one to take might give you a head ache. (And taking more than one might give you a pain in the backside!).

Originally Posted by togo

... Got 11l buoy but order a 22l as boat around and doesn't look to see divers often so try get a flag.

If you plan to dive from shore & walk-in to locations, I would recommend getting an inflatible float rather than, or as well as, a solid float. I too have the 11 litre solid float with flag & it sits quite high in the water making it quite visible. However, it is quite large & heavy - and we don't usually have to worry about tuna/marlin collapsing our floats (although you do get blue fin tuna in Ireland don't you). An inflatible float can be folded up & stuck in a small swim bag with other odds & ends for a walk in.

[baldyfish]

i use an inflatable from the shore too. handy to be able to pack it away and real easy to tow. only problem is that the flag is low and not visible in a swell bigger than .5m.i dont even know if people in cork harbour know what an alpha dive flag is!!!
its sad to think that people who have little or no knowledge of the water can buy a boat and drive it as fast as they want, wherever they want, with no licence or any type of qualification. some sort of regulations have to be brought in. its getting dangerous around cork harbour. "stupid season" has arrived!!!!

[Mr. X]

By the way: THANK YOU IRELAND - apparently the only real democracy in Europe.

RA used to make inflatible floats upto 35l (probably w/o flag). I saw an older competition spearo in Devon with a regular european-style inflatible torpedo float that was similarly huge & that had a dive flag. It's worth reading Portinfer's tale of a couple of speed boats using his diving buoy as their turn-around marker -- they told him where to go, not realising the buoy was his.

[fcallagy]

I guess we oughta start reporting these guys to the coastguard although this may lead to increased regulation in the future.

[Spaniard]

Unfortunately all these idiots don't recognise the 'diver down' flag! Until a couple of people get killed the relevant authorities will do nothing. I'm not sure if any type of 'test' is in place for people who use boats, large and small, in inshore waters? If so then it should be compulsory to be able to distinguish the diver flag. I'm sure no test is needed to ride jet-skis and lots of recorded instances of them using a diver bouy to slalom around....

[baldyfish]

my brother is actually to get guys summoned for the first time for harrassing resident bottlenose dolphins in cork harbour. a british guy(who is not the only one at it) was circling them in a jet boat constantly the other day. you could see they were stressed because they were surfacing a lot and spy hopping.the reply he got was "f**k off, who the f**k are you? i always do this. look they like it, there smiling"
idiot. the sooner these guys are taken off the water the better!!

[Spaniard]

Come the revolution! I suppose with the amount of idiots on the road we can only expect the same when they take to the water....Sharks should cull them.

[baldyfish]

i am praying for sharks. eat all the irrisponsible water holiday makers!!!!

[scottwilson]

Put a big flag on your float that says "Goverment shallow water twat seeking missile test in progress" that'll f**K*M

[fcallagy]

Couldn't we just start using mines instead of floats. I know it might take some getting use to but after a few guys get blown up word might filter down to some of the others. You might need to watch where you hold on when breathing up though other than that and the fish might be spooked after the initial explosion wheres the problem?

[sunfish]

Ickledevil has a post here http://forums.deeperblue.net/cornwal...2008-a-17.html about boats and floats.

[donnachad]

Headed east of Cork yesterday to Knockadoon pier just west of Youghal. Vis wasn't great maybe 2-3 metres. Saw a shoal of small bass and a couple of mullet. I didn't shoot anything but did take a decent spider. Capel island is a few hundred metres out and I'd imagine its well worth a look. Gotta get a yak