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....
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....