Dorset Spear Fishing 2012

[Spacemonkey]

Hey, where have my thumbnails gone? All I get now are links saying.."blah,blah,blah.jpg" instead of nice thumbnails of juicy fish! This is for attachments and pasted pics. Only Scoobarus pics remain, rest gone, and on the South Devon report too. I've made sure I can see images in my CP. Oh and the links never download a pic, just ages and ages of the download timer thingy...

Anyone else got this problem? I need to see fish!!

 

[misterlizard]

Went for a dive last night at my local spot with Matt (Scoobaru) and met Nick (Winky) and Matt (Spiderman) down there. The viz was terrible (around 1m) and it was quite eerie finning 5-6m down to suddenly have the bottom appear just in front of your face!

It was a beautiful night though, with the stars shining brightly and a mist forming over the flat calm sea. It was quite funny watching everybody's breath steaming out of their snorkels like little steam trains.

We hunted around for a while but saw nothing but a couple of palm-sized flounder, lots of tiny tiny 2cm squid, and Nick spotted an otter on the rocks!

Finally decided to get out after about an hour when I swam down to the bottom and surprised myself by bumping my nose on a rock which loomed out of the gloom.

When Matt and I climbed out over the rocks, a face appeared on the harbour wall and offered to take my kit for me. I hesitated a bit before noticing that he was holding a Princeton Tec torch and realising it was Nick (who I have only ever seen in the water with a hood and a mask covering most of his face) and that he wasn't too likely to run off with my gear!

Anyway, nice to meet you guys properly, and we'll have to get together for a dive sometime soon when there's some proper vis...

 

[Scoobaru]

Yea shame about the Vis, but it's definitely got potential and I will be re visiting that spot again.

Good to meet winky and spiderman.

 

[winky]

Yeah lovely dive last night despite the poor vis and lack of fish! As Tom said highlight fro me was getting to within 1m of an otter on the rocks who suddenly woke up, squeaked at me, the grumpily slide off into the watery murk! Also spent a few mins just lying on my back star gazing - it was such a clear nigh it was amazing - albeit cold, only just thawing out now!

As previously said saw loads of tiny squid and small undersized flatties but nowt came home with me. Matt took a load of velvet swimmers so eagerly awaiting his report on how they tasted before trying it out myself. Seems to be far too much effort for not a lot meat meat but I stand to be corrected!

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I've been meaning to try velvet swimmers for a while and there were a lot out and about last night so I collected 14 of them. Tried the recipe in Edible Seashore by River Cottage - velvet swimming crabs with garlicky mayonnaise.

It was a fun and sociable family evening as we pulled them apart and hunted for meat. Although it was a fiddly job the meat was very good and there was a suprisingly good amount of it considering how small the crabs were. Certainly a better meat to weight ratio than a brown crab has.

Definitely a crab to cook when you have good company and plenty of time to enjoy them

 

[Gaz D]

Well, I've been meaning to try velvet swimmers for a while and there were a lot out and about last night so I collected 14 of them. Tried the recipe in Edible Seashore by River Cottage - velvet swimming crabs with garlicky mayonnaise.

It was a fun and sociable family evening as we pulled them apart and hunted for meat. Although it was a fiddly job the meat was very good and there was a suprisingly good amount of it considering how small the crabs were. Certainly a better meat to weight ratio than a brown crab has.

Definitely a crab to cook when you have good company and plenty of time to enjoy them

I once saw a Phillipino guy microwave one, alive, in a bowl of sprite - apparently they cook a lot of their crustacean type food in sprite. I've never got around to it, but they assure me it's good.


.

 

[foxfish]

I have eaten Velvet swimming crabs, we call them lady crabs where I live.
People collect them during the winter spring tides but I would have to say I dont bother anymore.
I have cooked them a few times & spent hours picking the tiny claws I also used them for decoration on seafood platters & let other folk pick them.
Apparently they are best eaten when the shell is soft but just as Spider man found out its just like to much effort for the return.

 

[Spiderman]

I have eaten Velvet swimming crabs, we call them lady crabs where I live.
People collect them during the winter spring tides but I would have to say I dont bother anymore.
I have cooked them a few times & spent hours picking the tiny claws I also used them for decoration on seafood platters & let other folk pick them.
Apparently they are best eaten when the shell is soft but just as Spider man found out its just like to much effort for the return.

I wouldn't bother with them in the summer when there are spider crabs to be caught but when it's January, the vis is rubbish and we haven't eaten crab for ages they are very welcome

 

[bobdonny]

Guys check out the new look forum and please read the top 2 stickies and give us some feedback
UK & Ireland - DeeperBlue.com Forums

 

[cesar]

Well, I've been meaning to try velvet swimmers for a while and there were a lot out and about last night so I collected 14 of them. Tried the recipe in Edible Seashore by River Cottage - velvet swimming crabs with garlicky mayonnaise.

It was a fun and sociable family evening as we pulled them apart and hunted for meat. Although it was a fiddly job the meat was very good and there was a suprisingly good amount of it considering how small the crabs were. Certainly a better meat to weight ratio than a brown crab has.

Definitely a crab to cook when you have good company and plenty of time to enjoy them

Good effort guys 1st of all for spearfishing at this time of the year!!
Also good you tried these edible crabs ,I agree little meat but perfect for a social picking!!,also next time keep the water you used to boil them,that is a very special stock!!!!!
Kind Regards
Cesar

 

[misterlizard]

Good effort guys 1st of all for spearfishing at this time of the year!!
Kind Regards
Cesar

Honestly mate, I don't know how anybody can keep out of the water! I have really enjoyed my winter dives so far. When is this bl**dy wind going to let up?

 

[Scoobaru]

Honestly mate, I don't know how anybody can keep out of the water! I have really enjoyed my winter dives so far. When is this bl**dy wind going to let up?

Me too mate, I'm constantly thinking about my next adventure into the blue. It's not really too cold in the water (often colder on land than in the water) its just the Vis that is letting us down at the moment

 

[barny02]

Anyone got in today ?

 

[misterlizard]

Anyone got in today ?

Yep, I got in with Matt (Scoobaru) at 3pm. Found 3-4m vis but no fish (except 1 small flounder which I followed around for a bit). Changed spots as it got dark and saw several plaice and flounder, and I managed somehow to miss the two decent sized ones I had a go at
Ah well, was good to get in the sea.
Sorry to have missed you Lee and Nobby, but we couldn't find you when we went to the second spot. Ah well, we'll do another night dive sometime very soon...

 

[Scoobaru]

Yep, I got in with Matt (Scoobaru) at 3pm. Found 3-4m vis but no fish (except 1 small flounder which I followed around for a bit). Changed spots as it got dark and saw several plaice and flounder, and I managed somehow to miss the two decent sized ones I had a go at
Ah well, was good to get in the sea.
Sorry to have missed you Lee and Nobby, but we couldn't find you when we went to the second spot. Ah well, we'll do another night dive sometime very soon...

Yea was good to get in again. I came home with 4 flounder in the end. No particular size to them but big enough to feed me so was happy with that. The water temp was still 11 degrees and then dropped to 10. So a very pleasant dive, I could have stayed out for a few more hours

 

[misterlizard]

Yea was good to get in again. I came home with 4 flounder in the end. No particular size to them but big enough to feed me so was happy with that. The water temp was still 11 degrees and then dropped to 10. So a very pleasant dive, I could have stayed out for a few more hours

Glad you got a few. I really shouldn't have missed the ones that I saw but I was in a rush as I had to get back home (lame excuse but nevermind). They certainly started appearing after dark didn't they. Well, I'm now wondering about another dive on Monday night perhaps, so I'll be in touch...

 

[Scoobaru]

Yea that would be good. Tuesday would be better for me as I'm busy in Monday's. I'm wonderring if it's worth trying somewhere else so we don't overfish that mark, maybe church ope at night if the winds stay w/nw??

 

[speerolee]

Yeah sorry we missed you guys. We saw some good sized mullet during the daylight, then when it got dark saw plenty of flounders, most the usual 1lb size, so left them today. I did manage my biggest flounder to date at just over 2.5lb! And 2 nice sized lobsters. Nobby missed a 7-8lb bass in 3ft of water and at point blank range, it was just sat there not bothered at all by the lights.

Post up pics tommorow

 

[spearo nobby]

Yeah sorry we missed you guys. We saw some good sized mullet during the daylight, then when it got dark saw plenty of flounders, most the usual 1lb size, so left them today. I did manage my biggest flounder to date at just over 2.5lb! And 2 nice sized lobsters. Nobby missed a 7-8lb bass in 3ft of water and at point blank range, it was just sat there not bothered at all by the lights.

Post up pics tommorow

yeah sorry to have missed you 2. great catch lee and matt! glad the lobster tips have paid off lee.

yeah as lee said a really poor shot on a big bass! had all the time in the world and i rushed a shot and lazy shooting as was dead sure it would have hit:duh:duh:duh . lesson learnt. i do have a good hit rate to at about 90% of all shots r a winner so was truly gutted about it:waterwork.

still nice to see big silver fish!!! i will have him next time!!! great dive with suprisingly good viz with these winds.

 

[barny02]

Morning dive ! bah could not see the end of my gun viz was realy bad