Dorset Spearfishing 2007

[James T]

I got in down at Beer on the weekend - May water is definately in now and will take a few weeks to clear up properly. The sea bed is full of common starfish. Took a good size Cuttle and a smaller Plaice. No Bass or Mullet. very small Pollack and also no Wrasse yet - still very early for this bit of the coast.

Mackeral are being caught in small numbers and a long way out. Again we need to wait for a month or so before things will get better in this stretch.

 

[scottie3030]

sounds like things are looking up! still waiting for my first fish of the year! nearly forgotten what fish taste and look like!

 

[midwater]

Hi James t, are the starfish feeding on small mussels? if so they should also have plaice on them, which also eat small mussels, have caught many at Christchurch on the ledges in the past. They were the sign to look out for very large plaice.

 

[James T]

Hi James t, are the starfish feeding on small mussels? if so they should also have plaice on them, which also eat small mussels, have caught many at Christchurch on the ledges in the past. They were the sign to look out for very large plaice.

You are right - there are hundreds of large orange common starfish eating the massive areas of small mussels. I followed your train of thought myself - looking for the sandy gulleys between the mussel beds. However I saw only one plaice in two 2hr dives - I was looking very carefully but didn't see any.

When you are at Christchurch how deep are the Mussels/Plaice? on the reefs I am fishing the depth only varies from 3-6m and then after that the mussels are not so prevalent

 

[James T]

One other thing, as I understand it the food chain runs: Cuttlefish eat starfish, starfish eat mussles, Plaice eat Mussels.

Really don't understand why there are not more Plaice down there. Any pointers would be appreciated

 

[midwater]

depths on the shallow side of the ledge are up to 6 metres for the mussel beds but they move yearly and are not static.
On the deep side of the ledge, the west,, 20 metres is easily found and quite devoid of life when I dived it, the east side is the shallow protected side mainly because it is not easy to trawl, (rocky) full of life but visibility is no good at springs and is not brilliant at the best of times., although in periods of calm you can see the seabed.

 

[midwater]

It is a little early yet for large plaice, should be soon!

 

[DevonDiver]

How deep is the Shambles bank? Has anyone ever speared it? There should be some awesome fish down there...

 

[scottie3030]

havent dived it but fished in a boat few years back cant really remember what the fish finder said! think its surrounded by 30meters of water but comes up to round 5 could be wrong! i would of thought the viz would be crap because of the tides flowing over it! i can remember it bein pretty rough drifting over the top of the bank! im sure somebody else will no more about it than me!

 

[Spiderman]

How deep is the Shambles bank? Has anyone ever speared it? There should be some awesome fish down there...

Never speared it. Looks like Scottie remembered the depth accurately:

 

[SurfnSpear]

I would imagine similar to the Shingles bank. I jumped in one day on the way back after we had not had much luck finding decent vis over at the Needles.
Quite an experience. freaky waves, noisy with all the stones shifting, fast drift, very quick moving fish, but the vis was not very good so I did not see the full picture and came away with no fish. Was down to about 3m in places.

 

[Old Man Dave]

I have dived many similar banks in the Channel Islands when I used to commercially spear flatfish using scuba. There would be rare occasions when you could freedive these banks. However, as the banks are formed by fierce tides piling up gravel then you are going to get strong flows creating high speed runs and low vis. The shallowest parts of the banks will be the worst. Even on scuba most of the main banks are an "experience" to put it mildly. Most of the spearing success for turbot and brill come from the small window of opportunity created by working small banks at slack tide in depths of 70 to 100 foot. Weather and tide size are critical as is the need for a lot of experience. Sometimes the rewards were great but mostly in years gone by. Nowadays heavy fishing pressure by mono longliners, trawlers and recently anglers, especially charter boats has left little for the divers. Currently there are no commercial divers working flatfish and almost no part timers. I sold my commercial license 2 years ago and although I still tank dive a few "secret corners", it's for the table.

Dave

 

[SurfnSpear]

nice insight OMD...

 

[fearthespear]

Willi and I went out for a dive on saturday, steamed out to our spot to find a lovely murk, reducing viz to 'can't see the end of the gun'! So we steamed back in, swapped the guns for rods and headed back out. We managed to catch bream, mackerel and gurnard in about 3 hrs fishing...great fun! Unfortunately it cost us our anchor (sorry John) which we couldn't budge...Ah well, best look at ebay...

 

[podge]

Well Jim and myself came down on Sunday, got in at a couple of different spots and-
Results in two word
MAY WATER :head

See you all in a few weeks

 

[the_milkman]

I blame Flyflicker for posting the pic of that monster bass and getting us all excited prematurely!! (ooer!)

Had a looksee at Portland in the Cheyne Weares area over the weekend and opted for rock climbing instead...saw plenty of white flashes in the water underneath me (mullet presumably) but it still looked a bit milky to me...

btw any other Dorset spearos into sport climbing on the board?? I have a plan and it involves abseiling with spearguns strapped to your back - the ultimate in pretending to be action man (and kebabing yourself unintentionally...)

 

[keithernest]

tried to get in today,sea dead flat,no one on beach cos i always feel a bit of a plum in my wetsuit on my own,soaped up new to me second hand suit pulled trousers up and ripped big hole in rubber so i went home had abeer in the garden with a bottle of glue!Hello all this is my first post.Am diving the national at bognor saturday.Ime the bloke with the patched up hole in the leg!

 

[scottie3030]

no one on beach cos i always feel a bit of a plum in my wetsuit on my own

yeah i always get fun looks walking down the beach kitted up, its even worst when you got to walk up the beach empty handed :head

 

[foxfish]

Welcome to the forum Kieth, good luck in the comp.

 

[tonyiannu]

Welcome to Keith and good luck for the competition,I wish to stay there but saturdays for waiters its hard to be off.:head