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Cornwall 2009

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 90 days.
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I think the wind came up a little as i was in,Swanpool and Maenporth looked pretty murky but it was okay at a spot a little further on.Just so nice to see some bass,i was begining to loose hope.
I live at Porthtowan....here, chapel porth and st agnes used to be called the badlands....back in the good ol' days.Now's it's called 'hideously crowded free-for-all' hence my love of spending time miles away on the seabed alone but for the company of fish!
 
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Great sunsets at Porthtowan. Me and the girlfriend often head up for a stroll and a beer. The same friend was telling me of some spearing spots up near "aggie" that are supposed to be good.
 
Got in this morning around Falmouth. Not much to see fish-wise as at least one seal had the same idea as us and had got there first (we saw it lurking). Spotted a couple of flatties of borderline size which we left. Managed to check out the broken remains of a WW1 U-Boat (one of several in the area) which was quite a find. You could make out the curve of the pressure hull and I think I saw a bulkhead door or hatch of some kind lying on the reef. Vis was 3-5m variable with flotsam from recent swell. Could improve if sea remains calm.
 
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After a morning of working on the boat,i was pleasantly surprised to hear my wife suggest bringing my spearing kit for our afternoon down at Maenporth.Forgot my stringer so made a makeshift affair from my shoe lace and a tyre lever from my bike's repair kit!
Vis was 5m mostly but some patches were even better.Just billions of pollock straight off the bat and whilst viewing these a legal sized bass presented himself for the taking.Continued being joined by loads of pollock and the odd group of schoolies but didn't really see any more worth taking.Had a swim down the way a little but just more pollock and the odd lone mullet.Returned to the original spot on the way back and had a group of mullet go over, one of which i was convinced was a golden grey.Took the shot and got two mullet on the spear, the second was smaller than i'd normally take but he'll still do nicely.On closer inspection i think it was just a thin lipped with golden patches (probably wrong mind) but not defined enough to be a golden grey.Still,not complaining though.
 

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Wow, looking at the photo you have either very small feet or those fish and fins are massive!!roflrofl

Great fishing. It is nice to see the fish are on the way back in.
 
The middle fish in the last pic is a golden grey mullet. Only golden greys have the long pectoral fin. Other pointers are the gold spot (although this one is feint and common thick lips also sometimes have a gold spot), small eyes and thin lips. Thin lipped mullet have the same short rounded pectoral as the common thick lipped, although they have thin lips and small eyes like the golden grey. The long pointed pectoral is definitive though. It's a golden grey. One of the best eating fish in our waters.

No golden greys in the hall of Fame at present. Do you have a weight?

Dave
 
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I weighed it before i filleted it after a night in the fridge it came to 1.3lbs.The second mullet was identical to the GG but had no golden markings whatsoever but the pectoral was of equal length relative to the size of the fish..A trait both fish shared however was slime,they were both very slimy compared to a normal mullet.The flesh of the GG i thought was noticably lighter than a normal mullet also.
Obviously pleased now as i agree that they make superb eating.
 
Tes, I never mentioned the slime but GG's are much more slimy than common thichklips. Couldn't see the pectoral fin on the back one but wouldn't be suprised if it was a GG as personally i have always seen GG's together and not mixed in with thicklipped. One of the ways to spot GG's is the way they move in the water, which is quite distinctive.

Unless I hear different I'll put it/you in the HoF.

Dave.
 
do you have a photo OMD that shows the difference. i can't see it myself , but do not have your trained eye :)

I never appreciated there were different types other than Red and Grey. Suprised they havn't all inter bred like the estuary dabs. Do they swim together?
 
The best guide I know of was in the Jersey spearfishing club web site but it isn't working for some reason. The rod boys site The National Mullet Club has info. Go down the page and click on mullet ID. However basically there are 3 types of grey mullet.
1. Common thick lip - most mullet you see and have a distinctive thick "warty" upper lip, short rounded pectoral fin.
2. Golden grey - smaller eyes, thin lips and a long pointed pectoral fin, slimey feel, usually with a bright gold spot on the gill cover but other species have this spot sometimes.
3. Thin lipped - smaller eyes, thin lips, short rounded pectoral fin with black spot at base.

I'll see if I can find some good pictures.

Dave
 
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I had a group of about 12 or so go overhead and pretty much focused in on the biggest one which due to it's svelte look i imediately thought 'golden grey!'.
I'd describe their way of swimming as almost fluttering.

And slime....devils to grab hold of,especially with two on your spear.Had to scrape it off my suit with my knife after i got out.Told my daughter it was fish spit.
 
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Bending the pectoral fin to see if it covers the eye is a recognized way to identify GGs but definitely not fail safe.
I can tell a GG underwater quite easily from their behaviour but you can get very similar looking thick lips!
I once caught a potential record thin lip but even the local marine biologist could not say for sure what type of mullet is was. In the end the fish was sent to Alwin Wheeler (spelling) in the natural history museum but it got lost in the post!
 
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Bending the pectoral fin to see if covers the eye is a recognized way to identify GGs but definitely not fail safe.
I can tell a GG underwater quite easily from their behaviour but you can get very similar looking thick lips!
I once caught a potential record thin lip but even the local marine biologist could not say for sure what type of mullet is was. In the end the fish was sent to Alwin Wheeler (spelling) in the natural history museum but it got lost in the post!

Losing a mullet in the post. That's got to be a first!!!rofl
 
Isnt that in Dorset ? Thats a loong way from Cornwall!

Anyway I`m very pleased Ive just done my personal best breathe hold of 2 minutes, I know its not much compared to most but going from 1.30 to 2.00 is a real moral boost for me being out of the water an all!

:)
 
Well done on the breath hold - I'm hoping to concentrate on mine this year.....children, wife and dog willing!!!

Got in this afternoon on my local patch and found that it had chopped up since this morning and the viz was varied to say the least. A lot of loose weed inshore and a fair amount of bloom over the weed/reef. Vis was between 1m and 3 metres although it was cloudy.

Saw a fair few sandeels and some smaller pollack as well as some monster wrasse!!!!

The last time I went in was February when the area was completely barren yet this time the weed was up , the tiny starfish were bigger and the mussels were bigger.

Saw no bass but it felt very bassy, if that makes any sense?

Hope to be gettign in over the wekend, but we will have to see

Stay Safe ....Shoot Straight
 
Isnt that in Dorset ? Thats a loong way from Cornwall!

Anyway I`m very pleased Ive just done my personal best breathe hold of 2 minutes, I know its not much compared to most but going from 1.30 to 2.00 is a real moral boost for me being out of the water an all!

:)

Well done on the 2min. Was that in water on on sofa? Last year i got my pb of 2 3/4 min on a dive but as per normal i am struggling to do better that 1 1/5 min in water at the start of this season. I did 2 1/2 min on the sofa watching a spearing dvd last night. I just need to work on that to move it into my diving again. It is looking good for this weekend so fingers crossed :)
 
Hehe yeah it was dry, got a broken leg atm :) But apparently physio says flippering is good for it so hopefully Ill be able to put all my training into practise soon!

2.30 is my next goal!
 
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