Bournemouth Spearos

[chrisreynolds]

Really enjoyed meeting people last night. Thanks everyone. As tony said, its always interesting to talk to fellow spearo's. I reckon this year could be a corker what with all the new buddies and the enthusiasm to get together for diving, drinking, bbq'ing and generally having a good time. Judging by some of the other local threads there should be some fish for everyone too.

Cheers Rick

 

[Gaz D]

Hi all
I would like to go tomorrow evening for a dive:inlove (anywhere)
for who is interested please send me a message.
Toni

Tony

I don't think I can make that mate, as I am in the doghouse with the girlfriend for staying out spearing too late today (or, more accurately, tonight - she thought I had been swept out to sea!).

I owe her some time anyway.


I've got your number and will give you a call if anything changes.

Gaz

 

[tonyiannu]

Tony

I don't think I can make that mate, as I am in the doghouse with the girlfriend for staying out spearing too late today (or, more accurately, tonight - she thought I had been swept out to sea!).

I owe her some time anyway.


I've got your number and will give you a call if anything changes.

Gaz

Gaz
I understand she need to spend some time whit you aswell. If you dont she will think that you found a marmaid in the deep sea and start to be suspicious :chatuprofl.

 

[Gaz D]

Rik and Chris,

Thanks for last night fellas, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Look forward to when we can just nip down to our own local spots and do the same thing.

 

[chrisreynolds]

Me too Gaz.............pretty good first night dive for me. Thanks to you and Rick for the top company. You're more than welcome to test drive the book when Rick is done with it......its a top book and well worth the investment if you can find a copy. You can also test drive the fins next time too, remind me cos i forgot last night.

Thanks again, it was a good evening, and thanks for the loan of the torch Rick, it was a bit better than my 'candle in a jam jar' as fluffpicker would say.

ps. i'm gonna try and get a ticket for tomorrow under the guise of dropping of an application form off in winfrith..............

 

[the_milkman]

Thanks again guys, and cheers for the loan of the book, Chris.

We'll have to get in the water again soon...anyone up for a dive on Thurs pm?

 

[Mr. X]

...have you ever tried swimming?Is much better and less tiring

Unfortunately swimming can stimulate a ferocious appetite too. Seen several v. good, fast swimmers that are tubby but not many runners (perhaps because their knees pack up?:crutch). I did triathlons for several years and my weight didn't change (although body fat went down). Lost a lot of weight running, cycling & climbing though (ate unrestricted low fat, high protein diet at the time).

How's the visibility & forecast looking down there?

 

[the_milkman]

How's the visibility & forecast looking down there?

Poole bay is hopeless - the east winds have left a band of murk stretching out to sea for 100 metres.

Portland crew are saying the bloom is starting and things are a bit murky but fishable.

Good news - it's nearly May!

 

[tonyiannu]

Unfortunately swimming can stimulate a ferocious appetite too. Seen several v. good, fast swimmers that are tubby but not many runners (perhaps because their knees pack up?:crutch). I did triathlons for several years and my weight didn't change (although body fat went down). Lost a lot of weight running, cycling & climbing though (ate unrestricted low fat, high protein diet at the time).

How's the visibility & forecast looking down there?

Hi MR.X,
yeah as you said maybe it's the right definition my knees are both pack up that's why the only chance I have is to swimm,dont feel this ferocious appetite becouse I have it alwais :head.

 

[Mr. X]

Poole bay is hopeless - the east winds have left a band of murk stretching out to sea for 100 metres.

Portland crew are saying the bloom is starting and things are a bit murky but fishable.

Thanks Milkman. Knew I should have got an 80cm speargun, now I have to decide every trip, 75 or 90!:head I usually opt for the 75 these days but reports earlier in the week were talking of 2-5m vis. I missed some big bass last year, just out of range, didn't take the hint when IckleDevil mentioned using his v. long speargun the day before (110cm?); I'm anxious not to repeat that mistake. (Although I kind of already did: saw a huge fish, just out of range, last trip of the year last year). I see a couple of people mentioned missing fast moving mullet though -- the 75's forte. I guess it's always going to be a compromise (or a Mamba!).

...dont feel this ferocious appetite becouse I have it alwais :head.

Me too!

 

[Mr. X]

Visited Purbeck today. Took rods based on BBC forecast but fortunately the ITV forecast was more accurate & was able to spear. Well, I say spear but didn't really see any fish - just some medium wrasse & mini- & micro- pollock. So diving is probably more accurate.

Vis. a respectable 2m (approx. 1.5-3m). Some significant green "May bloom" starting up in places. Generally murky and eerily devoid of sea life. Picked up a large Spider crab which turned out to be small at the surface, so returned it. The sea was nice & flat for the most part but a powerful, low frequency swell was hitting the reef I wanted to pass making it awkward & out to sea was worse. There was also a fairly strong rip. I opted to forgo the longer more exposed trip extension today. The swell was causing a lot of white bubbles/oxygenation, which bass are said to like (and that has been my experience too) but nothing in there today -- & no bait fish to draw them in.

Placed my nifty new rectangular box-shaped lobster "pot" on the way out. Good news, bigger crabs can definitely get into this more easily than the old spring-cylinder design -- after just 2 hours there were two large spider crabs inside, a smaller one trying to get in and another large one making its way towards it, which I picked up. Unfortunately back at shore they were all just a tad too small to be worth bothering with, so returned them all. So no fish, no lobster, no crab. I did find a 6oz lead fishing weight though.

The weather was quite good, it was dry and warm, although overcast the whole time we were there. The water though is still quite chilly -- I found myself thinking of lighting a fire when I get home. We had a good time at the beach - the short-ish 2 hour dive left time & energy for some other activities. Worth going out to get back in the swing of things - much better than pool training, longer and more intense. Good to get the gear sort out too. The trigger mech. of my little Omer kept releasing the spear the first 4 or 5 attempts I made to load it - oddly pulling the spear could not release it but the rubbers did. Eventually it started working fine. I kind of expected it as I noticed a similar issue last week when a cousin's husband wanted to hold it - so I gave it another rinse out and it then it worked fine. Salt from over winter I expect.

 

[tonyiannu]

MR.X, you had a far more better dive than mine. In one hour I saw just one little (very little) pollock :head.

 

[the_milkman]

Just wait til you see what Chris caught last night, Tony! I'll let him do the honours...

 

[chrisreynolds]

Thanks Rick

So, Milkman, Flyflicker and i met at about 9:15pm (sorry John) and got into the water.....the viz looked reasonable and off we went. Saw loads of small bass over a very shallow, rack covered section......they seemed to be sitting in all the depressions, slightly obscured by the weed. Then i spotted 1 that was about the size of the bass i had last saturday night at the same spot. Even though he was a good, legal meal for one size i didn't shoot, Gaz D's comment of last week still stuck in my head ("it's about 3 inches", it was actually about 2lb). Just for fun i decided i would see how close it would let me get........i actually grabbed his tail before he bolted. Anyway, keeping a close eye on Milkmans glowstick (what?!) i headed into some slightly weedier ground. Suddenly a large grey head appeared from the weed. I had to look for a few moments before it registered that it was a bass head. By this time it was about a foot from the end of my spear. Got a good shot through the top of the head and out into the sand but it didn't stone it leaving me slightly concerned it might try the flatfish escape trick so i kept it pinned, calling to Rick for a bit more light. As he swam over i heard him say "oh, you haven't just shot that bass have you? i just missed it." It turned out to be a different fish and after a bit (a lot) of untangling Milko headed off to find its friend.

Flyswatters scales just about gave him 5lb.

Milkmoustache and Fluffkicker also have stories of thier own that i'm sure they will tell.

Thanks guys for the great company, and thanks again for the loan of the torch and the warmer gloves Rick.

Here's a couple of pics. I think i might also put it in the FOM comp just for fun as i've never entered before and you have to be in it to win it i suppose, even if it doesn't touch John's or Dave's bass. Hey ho.

 

[tonyiannu]

Wow that's a great catch Chris congrats..... I will go to try again tomorrow to see if I can get something like that (even smaller).
Just to let you know if your oven isn't big enough you can hand it to me roflroflrofl.

 

[Gaz D]

Thanks Rick

So, Milkman, Flyflicker and i met at about 9:15pm (sorry John) and got into the water.....the viz looked reasonable and off we went. Saw loads of small bass over a very shallow, rack covered section......they seemed to be sitting in all the depressions, slightly obscured by the weed. Then i spotted 1 that was about the size of the bass i had last saturday night at the same spot. Even though he was a good, legal meal for one size i didn't shoot, Gaz D's comment of last week still stuck in my head ("it's about 3 inches", it was actually about 2lb). Just for fun i decided i would see how close it would let me get........i actually grabbed his tail before he bolted. Anyway, keeping a close eye on Milkmans glowstick (what?!) i headed into some slightly weedier ground. Suddenly a large grey head appeared from the weed. I had to look for a few moments before it registered that it was a bass head. By this time it was about a foot from the end of my spear. Got a good shot through the top of the head and out into the sand but it didn't stone it leaving me slightly concerned it might try the flatfish escape trick so i kept it pinned, calling to Rick for a bit more light. As he swam over i heard him say "oh, you haven't just shot that bass have you? i just missed it." It turned out to be a different fish and after a bit (a lot) of untangling Milko headed off to find its friend.

Flyswatters scales just about gave him 5lb.

Milkmoustache and Fluffkicker also have stories of thier own that i'm sure they will tell.

Thanks guys for the great company, and thanks again for the loan of the torch and the warmer gloves Rick.

Here's a couple of pics. I think i might also put it in the FOM comp just for fun as i've never entered before and you have to be in it to win it i suppose, even if it doesn't touch John's or Dave's bass. Hey ho.

On my way back from Portland the other week, after our night dive together, I was wondering if you had taken my comment about your little bass personally .

Nice fish mate!

Location? Location? Location?

 

[the_milkman]

Milkmoustache and Fluffkicker also have stories of thier own that i'm sure they will tell.

There's no way I'm telling mine...I have my pride!!

 

[Mr. X]

Great story Chris, I enjoyed reading that. Super fish too. (Go on Milkman, please tell us your tale -- we don't mind if you exaggerate the size of the fish. Anyway, smaller fish are smaller targets aren't they.)

 

[chrisreynolds]

i'm cut deep Gaz, deep.rofl

On a lighter note:

 

[chrisreynolds]

had a quick dip with matt this afternoon at osmington. vis was ok ish, maybe 3m in the shallows and 5-6 a bit deeper when we got in, but was rubbish by the time we got out. i only saw a few good mullet and a couple of big gar but matt saw 2 5to6lb bass on the edge of the sand and missed a sitter but got a 3lber from the wreck as a consolation prize........nice fish too.