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Cornwall 2007!

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Hi Steve, welcome to the club. You are in a good location, buy yourself an ordnance survey map and enjoy the journey of discovery!
 
Hi. Went spearfishing for the first time (in good vis) a few weeks ago and caught a few wrasse. Didn't realise how common parasites were in sea fish and got grossed out when a worm popped out on the kitchen worktop! Binned it :vangry and after researching on the net, the French eat a lot of Wrasse, and it's just us snobby English that class them as inedible.

Anyway, we're gonna spearfish this weekend and now have a couple of lobster pots and some more kit.
We only saw Wrasse and no other fish last time, and I'd like to ask - is this just due to location?
Are there some types of location that are more likely to have more desirable fish? What about a particular depth?
We didn't weigh ourselves down and think that maybe you can't sneak up on decent fish from the surface. Any tips that could help us would be greatly appreciated!

Also, can you just put lobster pots anywhere attached to a float? Or can you just put em somewhere and remember where they were?
As you can tell - complete novice.
Thanks.
 
The French spearfish wrasse as there are almost no bass or other fish left in their coastal waters. The reason why we don't spear wrasse here is that they are a territorial species and it would be very easy to wipe an area out. Also, they are very pretty and great to see when out snorkelling. They are hardly sport to shoot either.

I spearfish in France each year and it can be a soul-destroying experience to spend 3hrs in the water in perfect vis and great ground and not see a fish! Let's not let that happen here.
 
Reactions: Spiderman
Andy Davies said:
The reason why we don't spear wrasse here is that they are a territorial species and it would be very easy to wipe an area out.
Click to expand...

This argument gets brought out a lot, but I dont think it is true. In the bad old days, when wrasse counted in spearfishing competitions, literally tonnes would be taken out of places like Portland Bill, Branscombe and Sandy Bay on an annual basis, with no noticeable effect on the overall population.
I am not saying that spearfishing cant have a negative effect on fish populations, and I think everyone should fish with conservation in mind but spearfishing is a pretty inefficient way to catch fish. I think we are sometimes too quick to accept the blame for things that are not our fault. The lack of fish in French waters has a lot more to do with unregulated inshore netting and technological advances in commercial fishing than spearfishing
I dont normally spear wrasse (unless I want one for soup) for a variety of reasons, but they are actually pretty good eating (I even know one commercial fisherman who sells them to a sushi chain, that really is a potential threat to wrasse populations). Worms etc in them are nothing to worry about, its all protein
The main thing for seeing more decent fish is just spending more time in the water, and learning to move smoothly and quietly. You need a weighbelt
There is nothing legally stopping you putting pots out with floats on, but they are likely to be nicked or have the floats cut off by the commercials

cheers
dave
Spearguns by Spearo uk ltd finest supplier of speargun, monofins, speargun and freediving equipment
 
Reactions: foxfish
hey! the wrasse are territorial alright. i have to say, i do spear them, but that's because i eat them! around here they used to be fished for using tramel nets, but that's pretty much extinct now. there seems to be an abundance of the critters.

on them being territorial front, as far as i know you're right. in any one group of wrasse, only the largest one is male, with all the rest being female. so if you take out the very largest one, the rest will generally scatter.
correct me if i'm wrong on that. i think they all atart out female as well, and in the right conditions ( no males) one will change sex.

as for lobster pots, i spent some time using them. best spots are just at the edge of the drop off into deeper water, or on clear sandy spots in kelp beds.
they are dangerous however. don't set them if you don't think you can haul them(weather wise) stay away from breaks unless you have extensive knowledge and experience of the area. stay away from cliff bases (dangerous but very good spots).

will see if i can get a few wrasse recipes up in the next few days.
 
Reactions: Mr. X
apt remark went here...
sargatlarge, Andy is normally to be found posting on behalf of all other spearos (well in his mind maybe)...
Spearo Dave makes good rational points due to his experience. Shoot a wrasse very occasionally for a soup or in my case fish curry (nice thick skinless fillet). From my perpective taken at particular specific underwater marks, I actually seem to be noticing more and bigger wrasse. That does not mean that I would take any more than one large wrasse on one trip, but that's my choice for my curry and what I will eat, you choose your approach.

P.S. You definitely need a weightbelt to allow you to start doing 'aspetto'/ 'agachon' loosely meaning to ambush the fish (bass/mullet) while hiding dead still, low as you can get, in the weed.
 
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abusingelves said:
on them being territorial front, as far as i know you're right. in any one group of wrasse, only the largest one is male, with all the rest being female. so if you take out the very largest one, the rest will generally scatter.
Click to expand...

Hey, been following your threads for a while and Im finally in the position to add something positive ( I think ). If wrasse work in the same way as our red roman, the red one in the pic. Its true that only the largest one in the group will be male, if you take out the male the largest female in the group will change to a male, so the group will still stay in the same area, theyll just have a new male. Or at least thats how I understand it
 
Reactions: Mr. X
yup exactly same. Colourful male cuckoo wrasse below starts off as the pale reddish female also pictured. sometimes You can catch them in tranny mode, where only the head has blue stripes but the rest of the body is like the female.
 

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I am not sure about Ballan wrasse, but Cuckoo wrasse definately change sex. I have seen several "confused" ones with half male and half female colouration.

These last few weeks have (almost) made up for the crappy summer. I have taken my biggest ever pollack at 12.76lbs and 2 bass over 9lbs. Yesterday I bunked off work and went spearing in the afternoon at a new spot. Well worth the effort. I saw a pod of about 20 dolphins before I got in the water, and found a wreck with LOTS of small black bream on it (now i just need to find where their parents and grandparents are hiding) I also got a 9.4lb bass, and a 4.1lb Gilthead bream. The bream was in a big school, which just came straight in on me in crappy viz. At first I thought they were bass, then I realised it was more giltheads than I had ever seen before. It was such an amazing sight I almost forgot to pull the trigger!
cheers
dave
Spearguns by Spearo uk ltd finest supplier of speargun, monofins, speargun and freediving equipment
 
Reactions: Mr. X
Nice one Dave. Was it the first time you saw Giltheads in that particular area? I think they are being seen more and more. Are they the same species as the ones in the Med?
 
atomichaggis said:
Ballan wrasse are also hermaphroditic.
Click to expand...

I thought they probably were. Are all members of the wrasse family?

On the giltheads, it was a new spot, but i have seen them in the general area before (but only the odd one mixed in with bass schools) They are definately more common than they used to be. The UK spear caught record has been broken at least 3 times in the last 2 years. They are the same species (Sparus Aurata) as in the Med. I think bream generally are becoming more widespread in the Southwest. I have seen some big Black bream and Sargo on an offshore mark recently, and a friend speared a Zebra bream earlier this year

cheers
dave
Spearguns by Spearo uk ltd finest supplier of speargun, monofins, speargun and freediving equipment
 

I do tend to agree with you on this one, there are a few spearos who catch ballans over here in Guernsey but they are mostly left alone. I may take one a year for the table as they make very good eating but even then I feel guilty about killing such easy prey.
Ballan Wrasse are not that easy a target for commercial fisherman as nobody sets nets over rock if they want their net back in one piece. They are caught in pots though the ones with buoyant flaps on the pot neck. I would think they are very vulnerable to overfishing by spearos but I dont think that they actually are over fished by spearos. (at least not in Guernsey)
Years ago when spearfishing competitions were popular over here Wrasse were caught in huge numbers & it always disturbed me to witness such slaughter, luckily we dont have any competitions nowadays.
 
Reactions: Mr. X and Spiderman
Thanks for your sensible post Foxfish. The problem in the UK is the setting of inshore gill nets near reef areas that probably catch wrasse. I think this is the main reason for the lack of inshore fish in France.

Taking an occasional fish is not a problem. I am talking about repeated fishing in a localised area which is likely to have an impact on the maximum fish size as well as possibly on the reproductive rate as it may take time for a female to turn into the male. I'll have to check on this though.

Surfnspear - how about having some manners on this forum and leave out the insults. Check your facts first. I was the spearo who started the thread on the proposed spearfishing ban in S Wales and lobbied the S Wales Fisheries hard in opposition to this ban. All my views are personal ones and I have never purported to speak on "behalf of all other spearos"!
 
Cheers Dave.
Fingers crossed for some nice eating this weekend then!
How far out do you spearos usually go if not on a boat? I don't know anyone who spears you see, so my bro and I are guessing most of it or learning through trial and error!
 
Easy boys, anyway, I am also reasonably new to this game and this is the biggest mullet i have caught, on the wrasse front I have eaten them but can't really see the point unless you just need some meat to pad something out that actually tastes of something.
 

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You have PM
 
Guys, guys, guys. Come on and chill out. Any newbie reading all of this on here is going to wonder what is going on. Lets not scare them all off. I dont shoot wrasse but someone else does. Who cares? The thing is to make sure any fish that gets shot is respected and eaten. Not wasted. Maybe we should just agree to disagree?? I have just made up my mind not to take any more mullet but i don't mind if someone diving with me does. I just think you are all odd (that was a joke before anyone gets offended)

If you do want to air your dirty washing why not hit the "send a private message" button?
 
Looks like i was a little late. Thanks guys. We want people to think we a friendly bunch. Lets lull them into a false sense of security
 
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