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Exeter\devon hunting trip

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Pekka

neoprene dreamer
Aug 22, 2001
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So here it was, bit late in the Summer, bit off the sea and little bit too touristy for our usual “only-diving-holiday” but it was nice.

The visit started brilliantly as after 5 hours on British motorways and on SAS dodgy planes which had to be replaced not to forget the rental place worker who asked me how to spell Wing Mirror… we were at Exeter. Our plan was to get some serious Bass from Budleigh and dive little around where we could if the weather would turn against us.
First day and drizzling rain met us in the morning, we got told by the locals that the weather had been excellent if not too hot the past week. We were suspicious. Better mention right now that we included my Brother Tuomo and his Wife Elisa who joined for the ride.
Our usual McDonalds start of the hunting trip went almost without a hitch and first dive after visiting Budleigh was done at Torquay, where we found nothing but Mullet. I believe this first spot was Babbacombe or something like that, the reef was ok, but there were no sign of bass anywhere, on top of all that Tuomo lost his stringer while adjusting his gear, so the result of our first day of diving was negative one stringer. The next day was our first dive to Budleigh.

We got up early and hit the beach at 8:30 or 9am if I remember right, the weather was as we had gotten to know it, rainy or at least misty with some fairly strong wind. The whole trip seemed to be a repeat of yesterdays u-turn at the parking lot, but I examined the conditions, whilst Elisa declared that she was not getting into the water if we stayed at Budleigh. I thought despite strong wind and choppy water the colour of it was still looking good.. Jez you might know what I am talking about, it was sort of Blueish yellow, rather than Murky Yellow and Brown.. I don’t know, perhaps it was just a hunch, but I told Tuomo that we should give it a go.
After kitting up and being told by Elisa not to drown we took off, I expected heavy current and we let plenty of time for us to drift. After about 60 meters from the shore Tuomo dove down and came up looking at me and asked if we really should go all the way to the reef in this weather. But I was not about to give up before I had seen my home reef and the beautiful hunting grounds I had gotten used to in the past few years. I swam to the speed limit buoy where we rested, and I helped Tuomo load his gun as he was experiencing some technical problems with loading his gun with some seriously tough new bands. We planned to drift past the reef once and then come up and so we did. I was ready for some good hunting though viz had not gotten much better, it was about 3-4m at best and the current was very strong. after few too early dives I saw what I had come all the way to England for, Some 4-10pund bass and some bigger that came to check out the intruder with a gun. I was little rusty and only nailed one fish, but to my relief Tuomo had gotten one also. I better clarify for those who might not have experienced Budleigh diving, the swim back to the shore took most of the time and was exhausting, we both sat there on the beach with our fish and just recovered for some 20-30 minutes before getting our strength back to clean the fish and get back to Exeter....
 

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The very next day was yet again Budleigh time and little less choppy but equally strong current was there to meet us, I was tired of our dive to Budleigh the day before but I pressed of to the reef. I was making sure I had my gun pointing to the imagined direction of the big bass at every aspetto.
First dive down I saw a shoal of Bass scatter away for me, and I knew I was about to get some dinner. Slowly I glided down and waited, as expected the fish came back to check me out, I waited long and patiently before nailing one of the swimming fish from the shoal. It was easy as anything. above all I was only half way across the reef. I kept diving and drifted across the reef to the spot where the bottom drops to about 10m and deeper. I did yet one more dive as I knew I was bit off the sweet spot, but I had seen some fish here before. My wait was rewarded by a four bass which slowly glided against the current to circle me from the left. I waited and picked the middle first fish, which looked rather fat and inviting. the spear hit the fish and left a line of small bubbles behind. I had waited for so long there was no chance for me to swim after the fish and I was still at -10m of water. I had to gently lift the fish hoping that I had nailed it well and the fish would not rip free. Sure enough I had put the spear very close to the spine and there was no real fear for losing the catch. I had gone pretty far out and it was time to swim back. I made my way slowly but surely back to the shore, this time awoiding the shallow water at the reef close to the shore, but circled the whole reef from the sea side and resting at the buoys on the way.

These fish were much bigger than the ones before and we had a feast big enough from them that us 5 at the dinner table could not finish the big fish. it must have been fairly heavy.. I didn’t have my scale with so can not be too sure how big it was..
 

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Rest of the time we dove at Torquay for some crabs and lobster, which we did find but our technique for getting those bugs out of their holes was lacking and our diet included mostly fish and chicken and such. We also did a dive at Lizard Point one day, which was fun, but yet again did not prove to be a match to Budleigh for fish. We saw some mullet and a one bass, but nothing worth a shot. I took some video for fun at all places but Budleigh where I didn’t take the camera with, as I had enough stuff to carry against the current as I was.

We did do some more “unusual” for our spearing trip like go walking around the city and watching the dog races at the lizard. Food was prepared from our catch in communal effort with Tom West as a host of our yearly trip and Halle Marshall as my dear girlfriend who came to help and keep company to Elisa on the shore when me and Tuomo were on our hunting trips. Jez, thank you very much for the weights, you know if you need some extra, just ask me and I will tell Tom to give you the belt. We left it there as I could not get hold of you before we finally took off.
The grand total of fish on our trip was tuomo: one mullet, 2 bass and plenty sightings of “big mommas” (large bass) Pekka: (me) 3 bass of which one was as far as I count “big Momma Bass” and one scallop.
Mikko has told us that he loves scallops and eats them even raw, I need to say that I rather leave them at the ocean floor to filter the muddy water at the bottom. Mikko did provide us with excellent gear with affordable prices, thank you, the gloves worked fine and luckily we didn’t need the extra spear as mine stayed straight.

Now we are planning our next years trip, with few things in mind… no women.. not that they aren’t lovely and all, but hunting trip is a hunting trip.. getting off bed and in the water needs to happen in 30 minutes total, not in 2hours and 30 minutes.. and the second dive can take place right after one bottle of energy\protein drink and a bottle of coke and some chocolate.. and.. well you guys know what I am talking about. And our base needs to be close to the sea.. perhaps one of the beach huts at budleigh.. ? Well we will leave that for future, but this years serious hunting is over as Finland provides no bass… and the sea trout is for those who like to freeze their bullock$ off in subzero water at the eve of Christmas.

Thank you all for taking part ond for those who made our trip possible and of course for DB for making it possible for us to have contacts around the UK.

Safe diving for all Pekka
 

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Well it seems you had good trip, sorry the weather turned so rubbish as you came over though. Has it been hot in Finland too? Most of Europe seems to be buring up this summer!

I know what you mean about rough conditions and fish. My last trip to Thurlestone was done on a calm day but in 1-2ft of swell rolling up the reef. I guess the fish come in to look for food that's dislodged. A great time to hunt if only you could see anything!

Did you find any Sunfish in Cornwall? Id love to see you dive videos if there's any way of putting them on the site.:)
 
Jez,

I haev few videos, the camera mount for the gun totally failed, so no hunting video from this trip, I can send you some videos by email.

Does anyone konw a good way to attach a camera to a gun? my design didn't work atleast not yet.. I have steel rod that goes through the back of the gun and then.. oh I'll post a photo..

Will go night diving here and looking for interesting bugs that crawl out at night..

Pekka
 

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Bad diving, great hunting.. that seemed to be the key for our bass hunting. On the days we saw big basses the visibility wasnt that great and the current was so strong that we barely made it back to the shore..

After a fifteen minutes of diving ( or by looking at the weather conditions) we were able to tell wheter we should keep on looking for bass or put our guns aside. Lots of dives when the big momma basses were not in area and we had to concentrate on looking for crabs.

We spent quite a bit of time searching for crabs and lobsters and actually found some. But it was quite evident that we lack the skills needed for getting them out from their holes. A big crab is very difficult to get out of its hole and we seemed to lack the tools to do it. ;)

Great trip anyhow.

Tuomo
 
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