Dorset Spear Fishing 2012

[ickledevil]

Mornign all, up early for an aborted dive due to crappy vis at my intended destination. However I do have one word to share with you all.. TUNA..
have heard from three sources now of sightings so reckon they are back. Will do my best to see one in the water when I get chance, be a delightful thing to see if I get the chance. Cant say I will be attempting to beat Brett's fish though attracted (understandably) too much attention of the wrong sort last time. Not that I wouldn't have done what Brett did, I am sure a first sighting would have had me pulling the trigger too but I wont be trying for one this time round, well I say that having not seen one. Could all go out the window of course if I do!?
Dive safe all looks like my early start means I can get some more gardening done instead lol.

 

[BarnacleBoy]

You need some potatoes for fish and chips in any case, so crack on

 

[Scoobaru]

Early morning dive with will (rowlzy). Picked him up at 3:15 then in the water at 3:30. As soon as we got to the venue we shone our torches into the water, and there was a sizeable mullet in 3" of water. After joking about taking a shot from the shore, we crept into the water. As soon as will laid down and started crawling the suicide mullet swam past him into the shore. Will kept stalking and eventually grabbed it, but unfortunately the mullet jumped out of his hands and bounced across the surface for 3m before disappearing. Very amusing to watch

Anyhow back to the dive. We continued swimming to the chosen spot, just as daylight was breaking I saw the outline of a bream feeding off the reef, it just so happened my gun was about 1ft below the fish, so I slowly raised the gun......... Schoolboy error, as the fish sensed it and shot off out of sight. Gutted as that could have been my first bream if I had of instinctively shot whilst the fish was looking away instead of waiting for it to turn then spooking it. After 2 hours I started swimming back, I saw the outline of two mullet that were too fast to get a shot off, and missed another that was too close to get a shot off.

I was meant to meet joe after and continue the dive at a different location but abandoned the dive due to lack of Vis. So again no fishys for tea, but an eventful dive. I will let will continue the story with his account of missed fish and scary fish

 

[Scoobaru]

Forgot to add at the location We fished, there is a very strong chance the bream was a guilthead as they are pretty common there and I would estimate around the 3lb mark

 

[BarnacleBoy]

Had a dip yesterday, near the harbour. No fish seen but lots of spider crabs. Picked up about 10, said hello and popped them back to grow bigger. All were MLS but after picking all the meat from these guys I'm getting fussier). Ended up taking two larger ones home, but still nowhere near the 3lb'ers you guys seem to get (let alone the 5lb'er)! Both were around 1lb 6Oz mark. Spent 1.5 hours picking off every bit of meat and managed to get 200Grams. A lovely dive in a spot I'd not done before and surprised to get vis of up to 4meters! At the shore it was butt of gun viz, and didn't clear until I was 100m.

I'm guessing this wind will muck up all viz now for a few days at least?

Was just about to upload a piccy, but you have to host them somewhere else right?

 

[speerolee]

Mate for large spiders go to the western ends of chesil beach when it clears; it's the main breeding ground for them here. They should be able to pick off a couple of jumbo males for dinner.

To upload a pic just add attachment using the paper clip above.

 

[misterlizard]

Quick dive yesterday evening with a friend who hadn't ever been spearing before. Not a lot of fish seen. I shot one 2lb loner bass, and Pete missed a shot at a similar one.

Lots of little squid swimming about. Two tiny sole, one small sea trout, and hundreds of smelt.

 

[BarnacleBoy]

Cheers speerolee for pic tip.

OK, here are the two spiders I got. Not exactly warranting a picture ( ), but well over MLS and I like seeing people's catches so here's mine!

 

[rowlzy295]

Early morning dive with will (rowlzy). Picked him up at 3:15 then in the water at 3:30. As soon as we got to the venue we shone our torches into the water, and there was a sizeable mullet in 3" of water. After joking about taking a shot from the shore, we crept into the water. As soon as will laid down and started crawling the suicide mullet swam past him into the shore. Will kept stalking and eventually grabbed it, but unfortunately the mullet jumped out of his hands and bounced across the surface for 3m before disappearing. Very amusing to watch

Anyhow back to the dive. We continued swimming to the chosen spot, just as daylight was breaking I saw the outline of a bream feeding off the reef, it just so happened my gun was about 1ft below the fish, so I slowly raised the gun......... Schoolboy error, as the fish sensed it and shot off out of sight. Gutted as that could have been my first bream if I had of instinctively shot whilst the fish was looking away instead of waiting for it to turn then spooking it. After 2 hours I started swimming back, I saw the outline of two mullet that were too fast to get a shot off, and missed another that was too close to get a shot off.

I was meant to meet joe after and continue the dive at a different location but abandoned the dive due to lack of Vis. So again no fishys for tea, but an eventful dive. I will let will continue the story with his account of missed fish and scary fish

As matt said we got in for a dawn dive, only to see a mullet straight away in the shallows about 2ft from the shore, once we got in the mullet swam between us and the shore so it would have been dangerous to shoot it as the spear would have skipped up the beach so i thought i would see how shallow i could force the fish and then try and grab it for comedy value, anyway the fish had over ideas and once its tail touched the beach and it had nowhere else to go it bolted off skipping across the water past matt. we continued out to where we had planned to go and on the way i saw a large flat tie but somehow messed up the shot and missed.

Annoyed at this I swam on to try and catch up with matt, after getting to the point where I thought i had seen him last I had a look about and then when looking back in the water was confronted with a very large conger swimming casually past 2ft away from me after coming out of the gloom. This was a total surprise and scared me somewhat as I was definitely not expecting that and the shear size (thigh thick and of the thing made me thankful that i didn't have the mullet or flat tie on my belt stringer. I proceeded back to the shallower sections in an attempt to come across some mullet or bass feeding in the shallows but had no luck there.

By now matt had reappeared from his excursion and told me about his bream encounter. Both being cold from the wind and our other planned spots having no vis we called it a day.

 

[BarnacleBoy]

Crab mixed with some home made mayo (by hand so right arm looks like Popeyes now) and had on thin toast. Delicious.

Safe diving everyone (if you find any viz!)

 

[Benc]

Just a quick one to say I tried to get in at a load of spots around Portland and Chesil yesterday evening and couldn't find any vis at all, on the bright side the beaches were empty!

 

[Matt Barker]

Work over for another week. Only two weeks to go before we hit the glorious clear blue sea of the sunny Dorset coast for our first ever spearfihing attempt
(Fingers crossed on the sun and sea bit!)

 

[Scoobaru]

Went in for a last minute dive with a mate. Managed to find some half decent Vis. Went for a long walk then stayed in for 4 hours. We managed a bass each of around 2lb but missed another 8 between us due to rushed/guaranteed shots. Felt a bit sea sick with the swell but came home with a fish each so happy. Can't be a@*€d to post up pics as its hardly worth the effort. Vis was up to 4m in places

 

[speerolee]

Jumped in last night. Not much about at all, saw 4-5 bass ranging from 1-3lb and took home a nice mullet and a lobster.

Surprisingly we had up to 6-8 meters in one area. But mostly around the 2-4 range.

Going to drop in again for a quick one tomorrow over high.

 

[Scoobaru]

Good effort lee. Glad to hear some others ventured out in the bad weather.

 

[misterlizard]

Got in last night after playing at a barn dance (my weekend job). Got down to the water at 11:40pm and stayed in for a couple of hours. Saw a few bass but most of them were too small. The only one that I saw that was of a reasonable size shot across me too fast to get a shot off.

 

[BarnacleBoy]

6-8m viz after the weather we've had?!?!? I am now completely convinced that you dive in a well stocked aquarium called spearfishelysium.

 

[Scoobaru]

6-8m viz after the weather we've had?!?!? I am now completely convinced that you dive in a well stocked aquarium called spearfishelysium.

Just gotta keep going out until you find the Vis. Or stalk lee and nobby and let them find the Vis or fish

 

[spearo nobby]

Just gotta keep going out until you find the Vis. Or stalk lee and nobby and let them find the Vis or fish

roflroflrofl quality answer mate. rep sent.



yeah got in last night saw run of the mill 2lber bass but left them in hope to hoax a big boy in but no such luck:waterwork. up side my very first buddy for the length of about 5 dives when i first eva touched a speargun come out with lee and i and had a great time. not the best dive but glad to find viz.

 

[BarnacleBoy]

Just gotta keep going out until you find the Vis. Or stalk lee and nobby and let them find the Vis or fish

Never mind stalking lee and nobby, I reckon I just need to stalk their buoys I reckon that would be prime fishing ground.