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Blue Water Hunting (UK)

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Soul Deep

New Member
Jul 14, 2005
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Ok.. ok... Once you all stop laughing, does anyone bluewater fish around the UK?

If so could we open this up into a discussion about methods, fish targeted etc...
 
There was talk a few years ago in the London Club of targeting the Tuna that the Irish lads are catching (rod and line), off the Southwest coast of Ireland i think. Not sure if anyone ever tried it but I am sure we would have heard by now if someone had shot a tuna anywhere around the UK/Ireland. Earlier this century there was a commercial tuna fleet working out of Scarborough but not sure if bluewater hunting would be possible in North Sea rofl rofl
 
Hi Spaniard... Thanks for the feedback, yeah I've heard this Irish coast is good for Tuna but I came across this article and it made me wonder if we may have joy a little closer to home:

“595lb tuna landed off Cornwall

A BLUEFIN tuna weighing 595 lb was landed at Plymouth Fish Market in December.
With a nose to tail-fork length of 244 cm, the fish strayed into a pair trawl net on December 4, when the Scottish mid-water pair team, 'Ocean Star' and 'Ocean Crest' were fishing for pilchards. Taken at a position about 24 nautical miles east of the Lizard Point in Cornwall, the fish set a price of over £830.

The last landing to Plymouth market of a sizeable bluefin tuna was on October 29, 1998, weighing 340 kg (750 lb).
A few catches of large tuna have been reported over the last few years in UK and Irish waters and a number of smaller tunas, mainly around one metre in length, have come from commercial catches off Devon and Cornwall. Two bonitos were caught at the beginning of October this year at Polperro on the south Cornish coast.”

(link story was from http://www.seaangler.8m.com/News/8Jan04.html)

I can arrange boat support for any other nuttahs that want to try. Only requirement will be a BIG gun and a break away rig I guess. Reel only for the die hards
 
Hahaha...

Long time no hear Boomstick!!! I guess you'll join the Bluewater Cru swimming 40m+ with just a needle in your teeth to take out a 400lb Tunny

But joking aside, have you got a breakaway rig setup on your pole spear? You'll need it if we're gonna give this a try. Guess we'll work buddy pairs due to depths dived...

Bring on the mid-summer Tunny reports...
 
Funny you should mention that, I've actually been looking break-away rigs for it.

As for a needle in your teeth??? wot are you a 'lightweight' or something, I wanna see you do it bare handed and with only one fin on:t It all be like a variable weight swim, but in reverse
 
I was on the London International Club trip to Ireland to look for tuna.
It was a fun trip, but no tuna sighted. We got lots of "you should have been here last week" type stories from the locals. Big bluefin have been caught by anglers in the area, but I cant help thinking that the likelihood of catching one is exagerated by the Irish tourist board! It needs a huge amount of luck to be in the right place at the right time (in terms of the ratio of money spent to tuna landed it would probably be cheaper for a UK spearo to fly to Capetown and go diving with Miles )
That said, good luck to anyone who wants to try!
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk
 
I think someone shot a small pelagic (bluefish?) off the Plymouth breakwater a couple of years ago. I'm sure global-warming type stuff will mean we eventually see amberjack etc. closer to home................
 
Quite a few "Blue Water" species have been sighted/caught around the Channel Islands. In the last 5 years this has included several species of tuna and jacks plus others such as barracuda. Tuna in particular have been sighted regularly. However like Spearo Dave I think you'd have to be trmendously lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Can't see it would be worth the effort.

If you want that sort of action you could go the shark route. Spearing a big blue or even a porbeagle should be possible. Both are edible and the porgies especially so. However, in recent years killing sharks has definitely become politically incorrect. You definitely would have a bad press from some for spearing a shark, not withstanding it would be a great achievement for a freediving spearo to do so , especially in UK waters.

Personally I would be tempted by a "small" Porgie if it crossed my path and I had the right gear. However, chances are that that would be at night and in wintertime so maybe not. Did fit a reel to my gun last year though when we were diving at night and the toothy ones were known to be about. When I mentioned my intentions I did notice everyone tended to swim a bit further away from me than usual .

Dave
 
Thanks to all the feedback so far...

Spaniard I agree, global warming is bringing greener waters to us and thus better opportunities to spear pelagic fish.

Boomstick... give me a PM and I'll give you a break down of detail for your breakaway rig...

Dave... Yeah I guess it would be.. but hey... getting blue water fishing in the UK up and running just sounds like fun, and that’s the name of the game right

Old Man Dave, spot on with that... I have heard the French spear the north coastline of France for blue tunny, but they keep the details close to there chests... If I hear more I'll post it but in the mean time no reason why they won't cross the channel When it comes to sharks you got me beat. They are too rare and intelligent (yeah.. I know saying something like that opens a can of philosophical ethical arguments, but I guess we each have our own lines, and hey, I'm not one to judge others, theres no way there is a black and white ethical line without you take on the suffering argument) a fish for me to want to go after them... I save the free diving for them (still waiting for my first Porbeagle encounter at Portland but I may have missed my chance this year due to winter being over and squid f*ckin off)...
 
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