Cornwall 2009

[SurfnSpear]

I had a good and bad afternoon yesterday. Good fishing and dive but man down from sinus pain from when I got out until I woke up this morning. I dived near Fowey and had two bass, a flounder and a pollack. There was plenty off bloom but loads of Vis below it. There were also clouds of sandeel. Within a a minute of getting in I missed a big mullet within the weedy murk of the shorebreak. I also had a playful meeting with a 25lbish conger right out in the open where the the sand meets the kelp fronds. He was initially hell bent on getting something out from under the kelp but soon turned to work out what the spear was. Class day and dive but the worst sinus pain post dive I have ever had. And all it was is tiny sniffle/congestion and I was very shallow, hey ho! Guns going away and surfboards coming out for a mellow Crantock surf, or maybe Penhale if Rick the_milkman turns up! Also probably meeting Foxfish later perhaps at Lewinnick Lodge who is over from Guernsey. Sorry about lack of photos but I am writing on my iphone.
Cheers

 

[Padaxes]

didnt consider shooting the conger ? My mate says they taste delicious?

 

[Gaz D]

Had a dive down on the Lizard today as the tide came up.Vis was outstanding 10m maybe more and it felt much warmer today.Loads of fish around.So many bait fish around and pollock.Fairly early on drew in a group of 30 or so bass which all looked fairly small but popped off a better sized one that turned out to be bigger than i'd thought.Fished the same area for about an hour and though i saw the big group a few more times i wasn't ever able to get a shot.I took my net bag today as i had orders for some spider crabs from the Mrs which proved to be quite a laugh.The last one i found was pretty big and aggro and i had a bit of fun getting him in the bag.I found though after much tangling that if you turn them upsidedown and drop them they curl up into a ball and make it easier to bag them.
Beautiful dive that was almost as good as it gets.

Mate, I did battle with one of those things for about half an hour earlier in the season (I'm a bit wary of them after taking a nasty nip off on last season - I was screaming my head off, 5 meters below the surface!)

Have a look on the Dorset thread for a couple of good recipies that have been posted for spider crab in the last few days, courtesy of Hugh Fernley Whassisname.

Enjoy,

Gaz

 

[Broseidon]

...courtesy of Hugh Fernley Whassisname...

Courtesy of my camera! rofl

 

[badlander]

They are a crack up to handle.I enrolled the help of a mate to help cook and clean them but he was too scared to pick them up.. We eventually got two good bowls of meat from the four spiders and had it with some pasta and chilli oil.It was well worth the effort.

 

[Broseidon]

Had a strange moment today. I was buddying my girlfriend's dive from the surface and caught a glimpse of something large-ish and silvery to my left. Lots of churn in the water but it was indistinct but definately fin-like. Looked out of the water in the direction of the thing and there was a large area of disturbed water. Really s##t me up good and proper.

How big did the beasty seem?

Could be a monster mullet cruising at the surface making a run for it when it saw you? A big bass maybe? Blue shark?

I had the absolute shit scared out of me when I was bodysurfing a few years ago - I was standing in about 5 feet of water with a wave coming towards me, I was looking at the wave, waiting for it to lift me up when suddenly the bit of water I was staring at exploded.

Spray got thrown everywhere and the water was boiling with the power of the thing that disturbed it... I crapped it and got out sharpish!

In hindsight, it was probably a big ass bass chasing whitebait but dear god did it scare me at the time! rofl

 

[diver9]

Morning all,

I finally managed to have a quick dip this morning which is the first outing since my "incident" a month ago!!! Unfortunately, either weather, work commitments or family illnesses have delayed my return! (Oh and setting up the new yak for spearing!!!)


I hit the water at about 0530 and it was great - quite cloudy with plankton on the surface but clearer underneath - only had about 40 minutes as the wife was working - no fish, but caught a huge catch of confidence - deep diving without any problem - I neede that!!!

Anyone here dive from a yak - I have one question - which is the easiest way to wear the weight belt?? Do you have it in the foot well or actually wear it while paddling???

Cheers

Stay Safe

Diver9

 

[nickever]

Hi guys,

Had a couple hours in the water down at Sennon cove on saturday. Vis was excellent, water pretty calm too. My mate fluffed a shot on a decent mullet as his safety was on (schoolboy error!). I didnt see anything all afternoon! Really disappointed.

Got in at porthmeor in st ives yesterday. The swell was quite big but was on the beach anyway so gave it a go. Saw a couple of tiny flatties but again nothing of size or value. Really dissapointed with spearing this season so far. Either I am just unlucky at the moment or our waters are suffering from severely depleted fish stocks. Sure that by this time last year we were all raking in the bass!!!

Oh well hope for a few more dives this week as it is half term.......

 

[MARK BISHOP]

Had a nice dive yesterday which went on for hours without me really realising. I saw lots of bass for the first time this year but only got one. I did hit a good sized bass but high on its back. I tried to pull him to me and it ripped off. Shiny1 advised me I should have let go of the gun as the viz was brilliant. I did take some pollack as well. I have not seen any mullet yet. There was tons of bait fish around.

MB

 

[googlyfloogly]

I took my daughter out kayaking and snorkeling yesterday and couldn't believe how clear it was. After convincing the wife that it was once in a lifetime conditions, I got a permit to go out for the evening high tide. Saw quite a few reasonable bass, and managed to catch one, which was my first of the year and second ever. Had it for lunch today with a bit of dill. Yum.
On the subject of weight belts in kayak, I find that I'm perfectly comfortable wearing it whilst paddling, as I am with my fins, despite looking a bit weird. Easiest to get as ready to dive as possible on the shore I reckon.
Hope these conditions keep going for a bit - yet another teacher with a week off.

 

[tribs]

I took my daughter out kayaking and snorkeling yesterday and couldn't believe how clear it was. After convincing the wife that it was once in a lifetime conditions, I got a permit to go out for the evening high tide. Saw quite a few reasonable bass, and managed to catch one, which was my first of the year and second ever. Had it for lunch today with a bit of dill. Yum.
On the subject of weight belts in kayak, I find that I'm perfectly comfortable wearing it whilst paddling, as I am with my fins, despite looking a bit weird. Easiest to get as ready to dive as possible on the shore I reckon.
Hope these conditions keep going for a bit - yet another teacher with a week off.

Teachers rule!! Bring on the summer hols 42 consecutive days off :friday

Tribs

out

 

[fearthespear]

Grrr........

 

[scottie3030]

42 day holiday in the middle of summer i dont know how you teachers cope

Teachers rule!! Bring on the summer hols 42 consecutive days off :friday

Tribs

out

 

[SurfnSpear]

didnt consider shooting the conger ? My mate says they taste delicious?

Pad, seen a good few but never been keen. The kitchen toil, slime and boil to get to that taste is what I am not bothered with! And they tend to give spears a hell of a beasting if not shot perfectly I hear and the size one I saw probably would have ruined the one spear I had with me. I am happy with bass, mullet and flatty's!:t

P.S. Good to see you down on the beach Simon

 

[Kernowsniper]

Whats on guys!

Just been getting the gear ready for the summer and thought I'd pop online and check out whats been goin on.. looks like a few people have been getting some early luck.. good skills!

I have a question that I'd like to put out there.. any insights would be greatly appreciated

My ear is giving me some serious probs this year.. at xmas I was really unwell with flu etc and blew my nose so hard that I perforated my eardrum! - crazy I know but it happened! Since then it hasnt really healed properly.. went to the doc he said.. "cant see any perforations.. you're lying!" the strange thing was that my ear reseals (so it seems!) very quick and I can pressure check on land a day later and it seems ok.. then I surf or dive and in no time at all I get water in my eardrum and when I pressure check.. I got bubbles squeaking out.. and it hurts if that water goes in.. so no real depth allowed! :vangry

Doc says wear plugs.. so I have been, but forgot them once the other day after 6 weeks with em in.. perforation again.. so after running straight in to the surgery to show him I'm not lying he said he could see bubbles behind the drum.. (?) but it seemed sealed?!?! - so he's referred me to the ear,nose and throat dept but who knows how long that'll take!

So.. really just wanted to know if anyone else has had depth related ear perforation problems.. cos I am at a complete loss here and am so keen to beat my personal bests this summer!!

Cheers all.

 

[SurfnSpear]

James T is having issues and there was some feedback to him from within the LIC club that may be of help. Check your email.
cheers

 

[James T]

Hmm - lots of problems would be right. In a nutshell most GPs do not come across the kind of ear damage you are more likely to get spearing and on scuba. This means that they are often actually not that well qualified to diagnose you. The feedback that Surf and Spear is talking about pretty much confirmed this to me recently and mirrored my own experience. The key lessons learnt from me are as follows:
- Any dizziness, vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, nausea you experience is very likely to involve some inner ear damage to a greater or lesser extent.
- If this continues after you get out of the water (I haven't been able to stand up straight before.) you must seek medical attention asap with your GP/out of hours service as it can be an emergency.
- The recommended immediate treatment of 7-9 days strict bed rest! -My doctor actually told me this was old fashioned advice and that generally exercise is what is now recommended for most injuries - THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU SHOULD DO WITH INNER EAR BAROTRAUMA - any increase in inner ear pressure from coughing, to exercise, to farting can have you reeling again and can do further damage. The longer you leave it the worse it can get and can result in permanent hearing loss. I have been 4 weeks without getting the rest and I am pretty fedup about it now as it could wipe out the season for me. (I am hoping this is the worst case - but in some cases it can mean a full stop.)
- Lastly and for the future don't take your ears for granted. I think my mistake was I was doing a very different style of fishing in the Bognor comp - I am used to agachon, whereas it all seemed to be hole fishing. When you drop down onto an overhang and then push around into a cave I think my Eust tubes where being crushed and stretched in unusual ways which didn't respond to my normal equalising, plus with one hand on the reef and the other on the gun it made equalising more difficult - then decending into a cave and movement of my head, I think, resulted in over pressurising my left ear - game over.

There are some really good resources on the web on this topic - I am no expert - but it won't cost you anything to get a second opinion with an ENT expert. Do this as early as possible.

The worst thing is that it hit me with no warning or pain - and my ear drum is perfectly intact - all classic inner ear barotrauma - this is what can mislead some GPs.

I am lying in bed as I write this now!!

 

[DafyddRees]

My brother (Winky) and I went on our annual fishing trip and spent 3 days down in Coverack! Conditions were absolutely amazing all weekend with flat seas and huge viz! On the saturday, we swam from Porthallow. We found 7m+ viz but sadly the huge patch of stringweed that held large numbers of shinies was still only a few feet tall. Winky managed a nice mullet for tea though and we saw an absolute bus size shoal of schoolies which excited us even more! Sunday, we decided to fish from near our campsite at Coverack as Winkies car brakes decided to fail for the day! Again, there was huge vis with an ever so fishy reef but it was a rather disapointing swim. I think we swam ~2km in total but only saw small pollack and wrasse. We must have done something wrong as we could not believe there were no fish? Maybe it had something to do with my colourful wooly socks I had to wear as i forgot my neoprene ones! We visted a diving shop and it felt like I had asked to buy a baby with the response the shop assistant gave me. After the fruitless morning, we went back to Porthallow were we caught a cuttlefish, small pollack and spider crab for the evenng grub. On the monday we were absolutely shattered considering we had dived for 5-7 hours on the previous two days and it was our first spearing of the year so we had a late start. We decided to try Porthoustock which is the next bay around from Porthallow. Again, the vis was unbelievable. We could see sand at 10m from the surface! We only saw a few small pollack and wrasses to begin with but as we moved further out, we came across a kelp covered shelf which was at about 2 metres with another shelf below it, at about 7 which leveled off to sand at 10m. As the tide started to move in my brother saw the first shootable bass (which ofcourse he missed) of the weekend and I managed my biggest pollack of 4lb (post gutting and freezing) which i was very happy with! All in all, a fantastic weekend.

Interestingly, on our standard 12:30 mug'o soup and cuppa tea, we were speaking to a comercial fisherman that said bass did not normally start showing this far south until later in the season. Looks like a trip back later in the year! Pity I live so far from the sea!

 

[diver9]

Glad you had a great visit - apologies for strange shopkeepers - there are some really clued up dive shops around the Cornwall area all of which have better customer services than you experienced.

Stay Safe - hope you manage a trip later in the year

Diver9

 

[Kernowsniper]

Thanks for your insights into the ear perforation guys.. really appreciate it. Got on the phone to my health insurance company who are getting me into a specailist ASAP.. hopefully not too much damage has been done already.. I'll let ya know what they said. Thanks again.