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Dorset Spearing 2008

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mishnish if you give portland coastguard a call on 01305760439 before you go in and another call when your back safe and dry! that should should stop the inshore and offshore lifeboats form scaring all the fish away :head

be safe, Ricky
 
LOL!!! Yeah, that would be mega embarrassing since I work for the RNLI! I can really do without a crazy night time rescue... I'd get such a ribbing I'd never hear the end of it! Thanks for the info though, I have tried night snorkelling before in Greece and still managed to scare the crap out of myself! Once I get a nice big torch me and the buddy will give it a go. Will Portland coastguard cover me if I am diving off say Sandbanks or Swanage?

Say Flyflicker! Where were you to see all those fish?!!? This weekend the dive buddy and me had a good look at Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door, Man O War bay, the Training wall, and Jerry's Point! All we caught or saw was a couple of wrasse, 3 tiny Pollack, and the Plaice what Grant took home! Or is it that at this time of year you see more fish at night?
 
Had a good dive last night and as Flyflicker has said lots of fish seen.After not seeing a John Dory before this week i saw 2 last night but left them alone.Also had a very large red squid move in on my right and i tried hard to track him but i couldn't get a bead on him.Lots of quite large pout on the sand and several small flatties.

Came home fishless but i do need one of those C4 or C8 torches my small l.e.d torch was completely shown up by the other torches.
 
Came home fishless but i do need one of those C4 or C8 torches my small l.e.d torch was completely shown up by the other torches.


John get a priceton tec shockwave 3x3watt led with 8 C cells. Similar price to the halogens you mentioned but at least as bright and 4 times the burn time, plus no blown bulbs. Similar price £80-£100. Do a google and find the best offer. I have one to replace my UK C8 and have not regretted it.

Dave
 
john do you use the priceton tec? would be interesting to put it up against my D8. its a pretty good torch but quite heavy. my mate uses the led C8 not as bright as the D8 but light from the led is better! what do you think OMD?
 
Dived again today with Sir Almostafish.We planned to dive Portland Bill but dived some where sheltered instead.

The vis looked good but was a bit disapointing once in.We made our plans and headed off.I soon noticed that my left fin didn't feel right so i checked and the side support had come off the blade making it very floppy and not much use.I swam to shore to try and fix it but after 10 minutes and seeing a rat working it's way along the shore towards me i gave up and went back in.

It was hard going but i managed a flounder of about 1 1/2 lbs early on.I soon found some deep water but for all my best efforts i saw nothing on the bottom.I met up with Almostafish had a quick chat and i will let him tell the rest of that particular story.I soon had probleams clearing my right ear.The combination of that and my fin had he making for the shore.

Even now my ears feel like they have earplugs in!Hopefully this will clear up soon.On the way back in i found a slightly larger flounder than the first so he joined his mate on the stringer.Both flounders were fillet and skinned then dusted with flour,dipped in my beer batter and fried.

Another good dive in good company:)
 
Ha.. Well after meeting up with Gloworm and dropping in Newtons I meet up with him about 250m relative NE of the Nothe fort in about 9-10m of water over nice sand. I tell him about me dropping down onto a chunk of metal that I had never seen before and looking at what I thought was a greyish pipe about 25cm across.. Till it moved and looked at me.. Feck me that's the biggest conger I have ever seen, must have been bigger than me, including my fins!

I Stopped putting my head in holes for a few dives after that..

Anyway Gloworm is not a happy bunny, his fin blade has detached from the foot pocket on one side and he's also not happy that in this lovely sand he has seen nothing apart from a flounder ( On his float )..

A good 10 seconds after talking to GW I drop down straight onto a nice shelly thing, I am not in the mood for him so just tap him on his shell and wish him luck, I swim on another 10-15m along the bottom.

There is a lovely 5lb plaice sitting proud on the sand! Ahah.. I point the gun and like a tw@t... Miss it.. Its only the size of a bin lid..Don't ask. :head

The fish was still sitting there trying its hardest just to be hole in the water, I slowly pull my spear out of the sand in front of the fish, give it a very easy shake to clean off the sand, Im thinking that this fish is going to just blast away any second but it just sits there and looks at me... I try and keep it all calm and slowly grip the spear and drive it into the fish just behind its gills!! It goes nuts but then kind of gives up.

I surface grining like a cat and can just hear Gloworm questioning my lineage!

Good dive. :)
 

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Sounds like some good diving has been had over the past few days gents.
Hope you've left a few fish for Friday!!

See you then
 
Well done one and all. Personally I hand spear all flatfish using the loaded gun even the big uncovered ones. Can honestly say I lost more in the early days by shooting them than by stabbing.

I found that a 3x3watt LED torch is roughly equivalent to a 15 to 18 watt halogen and yes it has a different colour (temperature) light. The princeton tec shockwave is brighter than a UK C8 halogen on 13watt bulb and almost as good as the 20watt bulb. The UK D8R has a 20watt and a 30 watt bulb, so it is brighter, especially on the brighter 30watt bulb. Trouble is the C8 and D8 halogens only have a one hour burn time if you use the biggest bulb. The Princeton tec LED has a min 4 hour burn time. I also got through at least one bulb a year using halogens which adds expense and inconvenience. You also have to be careful using halogen out of water as they overheat (and blow bulbs). My UK C8 was (is) a good torch but the future is LED.

Dave

PS Just reread your post Scottie. Has your mate got the Princeton tec LED with 3x3watt LED's or the UK C8 LED with one 5watt LED? Makes a difference.
 
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Well done Bryn, I reckon you had a fishy chat with that Conger and he told you where to find the Plaice.:):):)
And a couple more nice Flounder for the pikey:D; it’s all good stuff at the moment gents.
Dave you're the man when it comes to the torch thing, i've got a Princeton tec LED and i must say that i'm very happy with it.
 
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Monster plaice Bryn well done and there's lots of strange thing in that area - used to be the local tip years ago and well know spearo hotspot..... :)

I have a Princeton Tech quote from the ad "Triple three watt MaxBright L.E.D.'s combined with Princeton Tec's proprietary optics offer unprecedented brightness and beam smoothness. 9 watts of pure brute power is offered with two modes of illumination, high for super bright and low for extended battery life. The light output is calibrated for both close range tasks and spotting at a distance." or "it works bloody well"!!
 
Yeah I did see some much bigger boils in the sand and that conger was a brute. I only had one gun with me and really did not want to shag it up getting a 7 foot ball of slime out. As it was I must have landed with my hand very close to its mouth, no problem I know with gloves on, as they are mostly friendly, but my Omer gloves have white flashes on the back and that would have it doing the old bite'y swim backwards thing!

Saturday's night dive spot Podge? Fancy some king Conger action as your light fails as your looking in the hole at it... Thump! Now would the bubbles reach your wrist seals?? Hmm
 
Saturday's night dive spot Podge? Fancy some king Conger action as your light fails as your looking in the hole at it... Thump! Now would the bubbles reach your wrist seals?? Hmm


Dam straight they would, just thinking about it make’s me want to order the Golf Clubs.
I’ve still got that device that me and Jim were going to use to blow that bloody great Lobster out of his hole that we found when you were out on the boat with us, do you reckon that would slow him up a bit?:blackeye:martialroflroflrofl

tf.jpg
 
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I suspect that with the great respect for the environment that we all have the use of a Mk8? would perhaps not be the best... Part from that it might just piss it off!

I will show you the spot and you can take it from there! :blackeye


Bugger that we'll let Jim's mate from London (Russ) have a play with it.roflrofl
 
That will be the " Oops where have my fingers gone " Abbot then!

Just found some boots that look like they can stand up to some rocky abuse!
 

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those boots look good Bryn, where you find those? I need some new gloves as well.

Might be up for a night dive Saturday if I'm allowed out to play. Not been in the water for a couple weeks and need to get back in - mind you the forecast looks bad!
 
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