Dorset Spearfishing 2007

[SurfnSpear]

The sea is still OK - 13c last Saturday, it's just changing that's a bit nippy... Just a shame there will no fish left for you, as I'm going tomorrow!!!

Today is a good day alright! Crispy frost and dead calm. Good luck and give us a heads up on the vis etc. for Saturday morning.

 

[flyflicker]

Out for a dip this afternoon; the sea has dropped down to 12c, but felt OK once the face had become numb!! Vis Brilliant!

Mullet and wrasse still about in numbers, but I was after a bass... Swam out and was only in about 2m when I swam through a good shoal of smelt, hmmm maybe a bass about.. Down I went and grabbed a rock, I was immediately surrounded by the largest shoal of bass I have ever seen. There must have been hundreds of them all swimming round and even coming over for a bite of me! Their size must have been at least 4 to 5 inches - OK small but fantastic to see and made the trip well worth it..

Their parents were no where to be seen, so out to the depths to see what lay at the bottom... Saw two good sized thornbacks and after a few more dives enough scallops for starters for tomorrow nights supper...

I also noticed the jap weed is already a couple of feet in length, preparing it's self for the return of the spring bass to hide in.... a great afternoons dive was only spoilt by a couple of idiots water skiing close by, they knew I was there but I still felt very uneasy..

 

[jimy286]

Sweeeet.

So where was the hunting spot....Aaaay

I want those thornbacks

 

[podge]

Good work as ever John and I bet that shoal of Bass was great.
Soon be Christmas and time for those Mince Pies.

 

[mikel]

Went out from sailing club beach today . Vis was the best I have seen all year from this spot . Shot a large flounder in the first 10 minutes ,but saw nothing else worth taking . Followed Podge`s post the other day & swam for what felt like 5 hours but still didn`t find any scallops ! was in nearly middle of harbour & could still see the bottom , amazing!

 

[Almostafish]

Mikel There are no scallops in that area! :t

 

[SurfnSpear]

Well, hooked up with John (Glowworm) today for a marathon explore from Newtons Cove, through the labratory experiments:hungover, all the way along to the opening of the harbour at the end of the first arm. We decided then to go around into the harbour and come back down along the whole arm and get out that side. Almost 3000 yrds of swimming.
The vis was incredible at times, but there were some big murky patches too. We hunted for flatfish quite a bit but did not see any, before moving up the outer arm. The pollack seemed a bit bigger and in large schools and the mullet seem to be joining up in bigger schools now too. I took a couple of mullet and a few pollack. The highlight of my season so far was seeing my biggest bass yet, hiding in a hole amongst all the boulders. I did not see him for more than a couple of seconds while his fat hulk did an about turn and left via his emergency exit. He really was thick and was a very good double figure, and in a way deserves his escape for his age.
A few very fast mid size bass were seen bombing out with the tide deeper where the boulders meet the sand but that was it. Oh, except for the fact that I was very fortunate in that my relatively new cressi matrix mask strap snapped just hanging on by a couple of teeth...very lucky to continue the dive.

cheers

 

[fearthespear]

Sounds like a super dive SnS! Ade, John and I went in this afternoon off Portland...no bass! Viz good though, and we saw a dolphin (before we got in)! Probably why we saw no bass????!

 

[glowworm]

Shouldn't be posting i should be finishing my packing for my holiday today...but yesterday's dive with Surfnspear was too good not to mention myself.As he said it was a marathon dive with some good vis and lots of fish.I must have seen 6 ballen wrasse over 5lb on the arms so many bait fish it was amazing.The highlight for me was finding what was left of a yacht in about 9 meters it was like something you see in the bahamas..Lots of mullet about i only saw 3-4 bass but hundreds of pollock and pout some of which must have been pushing over a lb.

Not as cold as i thought i would be after being in for being in for 3 hours and my D3 reported a temp of 11 deg...BBBrrrrrrrrr

 

[SurfnSpear]

Yes, I forgot to mention that sunken catamaran John, nice find. You are right about those pout, there were loads were'nt there! Really good colours on them with the black stripes really showing up. Some quite plump for their species and schooling in some numbers. The different wrasse species were good to see. I found one cuckoo in a hole that was behaving like a potato bass it was so big, and I wish I had something to feed him! I am kicking myself not having taken the camera.
Oh, and what about that new wreck in the Weymouth Bay? What's the thought on them raising it, or leaving it to be a fish magnet?
cheers all.

 

[Mr. X]

... I was immediately surrounded by the largest shoal of bass I have ever seen. There must have been hundreds of them all swimming round and even coming over for a bite of me! Their size must have been at least 4 to 5 inches - OK small but fantastic to see and made the trip well worth it..
...

I saw a shoal of what looked like mini-bass yesterday too, although the ones I saw had spots on them - so I wasn't sure (also, I thought bass spawned off France/Guernsey in the winter). Apart from that not very bassy.

Super vis. for the most part - amazing, although I think it favoured the bass. Only saw one "proper" bass quite small, he was probably out of range & heading in the wrong direction fast as he spotted me just before I spotted him. I was visiting a new location and the water was a little shallower than I would have liked. There were lots of big wrasse around, the most & biggest I have seen since visiting the Lizard. Also lots of mainly small pollock. A longer gun would not have been out of place -- vis. was 30 feet or more at times, too clear - I was glad when it clouded up a bit.

Within 10 minutes of getting in, I saw the biggest mullet I have ever seen, by far - long & deep. In shallow water, in a weedy hollow as I entered the hollow between 2 rocks. I got a good shot. Hit it, I thought. The spear bounced back. Out of range? No, I could see a small cloud of scales floating away from the impact, just aft of the gill plate. The fish was stunned but, as I watched, it recovered & took off. The spear had not penetrated the fish (Pav described a similar experience recently, a "spear-proof" mullet!). So much for the 90cm gun, 20mm rubbers & oiled & sharpened 6.6mm x 130cm spear -- perhaps a "Mamba situation"(/2x16mm bands)?!

 

[UK Spearo]

dived yesterday - John, I found the parents of the small bass you saw, :t took one of about 5lb, out of a big shoal of mix Bass and Mullet. Only got one shot and then they were gone. Took two big mullet and a nice 3lb Pollock.

Dived the day before to 13mtrs and got this 7lb Turbot! Nice.

 

[mikel]

Mikel There are no scallops in that area! :t

OK , I believe you :vangry .
Mind you I wouldn`t give away a hot spot either .
Looks like yesterday was it for us all for awhile ,looking out of the window now :head.

 

[foxfish]

Mate you deserve to eat that fish - turbot king of the sea!

 

[podge]

OK , I believe you :vangry .
Mind you I wouldn`t give away a hot spot either .
Looks like yesterday was it for us all for awhile ,looking out of the window now :head.

Not quite yet Mikel,
Scottie3030 and my good self braved the wind and the rain for an hour or two this morning.
Vis was really good when we got in but when down hill after the top of the tide but we did alright in adverse conditions and ended up with-
Scottie3030 a bag of Scallops and myself two reasonable Mullet (for the time of year) and a few Scallops to top it off.
Fair the well Gentlemen of Dorset

Sorry no pictures as it was pi**ing down when we got out.

Oh and Scottie lost a dirty great Bass but I’ll let him tell that tail of woe :head

Very NICE catch Clive, well done.
And great stuff from all the boys on Saturday, Happy days allround

 

[flyflicker]

Well done Clive, bet it needed some muscle to get that up!!

I did think about coming down to see you all this morning, but after seeing the weather I stayed in bed..!

Well done Paul, mullet and scallops... Come on Scottie - what happened?????

 

[UK Spearo]

that Turbot was straight in the pan, my wife made a mustard sauce to go with it and it fed the family yyyyummmmmmmmmmm!!!!

 

[SurfnSpear]

Mate you deserve to eat that fish - turbot king of the sea!

Mmmm..foxy my man....IMHO, I vote for the freshest piece of Kingklip having the edge there...:t:ko

...but then Clive would not be spearing that off Portland!

 

[Old Man Dave]

Nice fish Clive. Where you deliberately out for flatties/turbot? Did your old man bore you with the story about when he caught one twice that size?

Dave

 

[podge]

After watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall I thought I’d have a go at his Scallops with Black Pudding and so some of today’s catch ended up like this, and they were spot on to.

Not as impressive as Clive’s Turbot but well tasty none the less.