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Dorset Spear Fishing 2012

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#1,361
Scoobaru said:
1st porbeagle SHARK ENCOUNTER......

Just came back (pretty quickly) from a dive with will and Clive. We were out in the water, Clive had a couple of fish and will had a bass. Then I suddenly saw a strange shape out the water right next to Clive, thinking it was a sunfish I was quite excited. Then it turned sideways and I saw the dreaded triangle shape emerging 1.5ft from the surface. The tail fun then emerged and it was a fair distance behind the dorsal fin. Me and will looked at each other and were contemplating swimming away pretty quick. But Clive started shouting, so we thought we had better go an help him. As we swam towards him we could see this fin practically on top of him, pushin him around then circling around. So we thought oh god, it's gunna get messy,see put our heads down looking around underwater, and swam towards Clive to help him, within seconds Clive had already passed us. We looked up and saw the fins following Clive's float and all had an Olympic swim towards the shore.

We all made it out safely with different coloured wetsuits. And luckily Clive and will kept hold of their complete fish. Before that a lovely dive with the sun shining and water was just starting to clear up a bit
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That is an amazing story!
I would love to get a better picture of what happened?
How far from the shore were you guys, how deep was the water?
Did your friend really feel threatened?
Amazing!
There are very few porgy encounters & considering the massive decline in their numbers (about 90% in the last twenty years) I would consider your encounter very lucky!
I would just love to see a Porgy under water.. very jealous...
 
#1,362
We were about 75-100m from the shore in about 12m of water I think. Clive has been diving for over 40 years and seem a couple at the bill before, but never been nudged or brushed against by them. He said it was also the biggest he had seen. Speaking to a couple of people they said they saw a huge shadow that was making ripples in close around Portland bill over the last couple of days. They assumed it was the rain water meeting the current underwater and being pushed over rocks. But now it looks like they may have seen a shark judgin by the descriptions. When I saw the shark it was nudging into Clive, then swimming off, turning around and coming back. It was a bit strange seeing it on the surface as apposed to mid water.

It is certainly a memorable dive but I'm not really jealous of Clive. Glad it wasn't me out there as it wasn't a nice situation in my eyes
 
#1,363
Yeah I can imagine is was a bit shocking mate!
Still, nobody was actually hurt & you have a memory for life!
I just think the whole episode is so amazing - I am shocked myself!
I can only imagine the scene - you guys have experienced somthing unique!
 
#1,364
We have been told we are lucky as not many people get that close to them. Looking back now it is a nice memory to have and a good story to tell. Think we are all just glad we were in a group as it would have been a lot worse if we were diving solo.
 
#1,365
Very true, I have dived for 40 years & never seen a shark in English waters.
Guernsey had a big shark fishing industry for many years & Porgies were very common at one time but although I have seen plenty from my boat I have never seen one under water.
However seeing one is a bit different from being pushed around by one ... amazing!
 
#1,366
I think it's a case of being in the "right place" at the "right time". To me it's mre like the wrong place at the wrong time. But I know they are quite prolific now. And I did wonder if this was due to overfishing. Do people eat them or did they just kill them to remove the supposed threat of being a shark and having large teeth (and looking very similar to the great white off jaws) so people assumed they preyed on vulnerable humans??
 
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#1,367
Alright folks,

Well having spent the last three months working overseas and enjoying numerous DB threads i now have a month off so am finally managing to get into the water.

I got in my second night dive of the week having never done it before so am really enjoying the new experience. I entered the water about 2130 in an area i'm very familiar with (by day) off Weymouth so was expecting to bag a few decent mullet for some of my wifes chilli mullet fish cakes.

To my surprise i didn't see a single mullet in the two and a half hours i was in, but i saw lots of baby eels, a number of small bass and a small odd looking red/orange eel like catfish? Very odd looking but it definately had catfish style whiskeys and was just short of a foot long. It was a shallow bay between 1-2m deep and managed to bag a couple of flatties for the table with the larger weighing in at 2.4lb.

Heading out again today between Ringstead and Durdle door with the sit on as I haven't spent much time over that way. It's great to get out again and looks like we have some good weather over the next few days to get out in.

Cheers Chris
 

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#1,369
Slicky said:
To my surprise i didn't see a single mullet in the two and a half hours i was in, but i saw lots of baby eels, a number of small bass and a small odd looking red/orange eel like catfish? Very odd looking but it definately had catfish style whiskeys and was just short of a foot long.
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Sounds like a red mullet to me. Very tasty fish and it sounds like the one you saw was a good size. Nice one on the flatties :)
 
#1,374
Spent the day out on my little boat today down at Eype. Lots of mackerel and a pouting. Beautiful beautiful weather. Crystal clear viz - I could see the bottom in 10m of water. Would love to go diving tonight but am absolutely shattered so I think I'll save it for tomorrow...
 
#1,375
Well, didnt get much diving in over the weekend due to family.

But I did sneak out of the house at 8pm for a sneaky dive on sat with Nobby. Didn't see much about at all, just a few 2lb bass and mullet, so we left them.

As soon as night fell we seen tons of scad and a few donkey bass, but vis was poor and the bass used the worse patches to disappear in. Was getting bored,,,,,,,when suddenly I see a nice donkey swimming towards me and away from Nobby who was in the shallows, I could see nobbys torch shining along the shoreline and the bass was swimming the opposite direction out to sea towards me, it gets directly under me I pause for a few seconds then aim from above at the head and stone it dead!!! Then Nobby pops up and says "you f@@@ b"@@ c@@@ I was following that monster I was keeping my torch off it as to not spook it " sorry mate.
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#1,377
speerolee said:
Well, didnt get much diving in over the weekend due to family.

But I did sneak out of the house at 8pm for a sneaky dive on sat with Nobby. Didn't see much about at all, just a few 2lb bass and mullet, so we left them.

As soon as night fell we seen tons of scad and a few donkey bass, but vis was poor and the bass used the worse patches to disappear in. Was getting bored,,,,,,,when suddenly I see a nice donkey swimming towards me and away from Nobby who was in the shallows, I could see nobbys torch shining along the shoreline and the bass was swimming the opposite direction out to sea towards me, it gets directly under me I pause for a few seconds then aim from above at the head and stone it dead!!! Then Nobby pops up and says "you f@@@ b"@@ c@@@ I was following that monster I was keeping my torch off it as to not spook it " sorry mate.
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Ha ha ! Well done buddy at least 1 of us got it. That was the only real size fish i saw and waterwork decided to stalk it. Then boom! My buddy shoots my fish.
:'( yeah had some coulerfull language aimed at lee. Ha ha! I was goin 2 shoot my fish off his float but thought better of it. In all honesty if i didnt take a shot or lee at that point it would hav bolted so hat off mate. Good catch. Well deserved.
 
#1,378
Well done mate, if slightly cheeky lol!
Looking forward to getting a dip in on Friday and maybe over the weekend.. Anyone else up for it, thinking of heading Eype way for a change me thinks...
 
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