Guernsey 2006

[podge]

Hey Podge Condor are doing £20 day returns to Guernsey at the moment perhaps you would join me in the water?

Foxfish would like that a lot I’ll have a word with my mate and let you know.
Only thing is I’m not a lover of shark infested water’s so we’ll wait for you to do the toothy critter first.
If the invite stands will PM you before we come over.

 

[crazyman]

hi
i manage to catch a turbot to day out on a boat trip but have absolutely no idea how to cook it can you help??

 

[Old Man Dave]

Had a really nice night dive with "House Builder" on Friday.

Usual night dive chaos i.e. "Where the bloody hell are we?". Eventually found the spot (we were too far out to sea) and did some night diving on one of my favourite day flatty spots. We were on the edge of a tide run although not much tide running due to it being low water neap tides.

Not really done this before. At night we usually just mess about close inshore in the sandy bays. About 6.6 metres deep ( 22ft real measurement) according to Ed's computer. I was on form and despite the darkness the clear vis meant my big torch was lighting the bottom from the surface and I was building a good rhythm. Up and down I went working a pattern with short bottom times but with equal short surface recovery so as to try to spend 50% of total time actually searching the bottom.

Saw some small and medium soles and took a few while leaving some of the smaller ones. Spotted a big buried plaice and added that to my stringer. Next fish was a big ray. A small eyed rather than the common blonde but a big one. Must have gone 10 - 12 lb. Later on saw 2 small blondes but left all of them. Despite being a worthwhile catch I have an amnesty with ray at present. They've joined my list along with conger, I look but leave alone.

Meanwhile Ed had wandered off chasing bass, john dory and god knows what else. Anyway got him to concentrate long enough for him to get a nice sole to add to his mixed bag.

Time to head back after all it was nearly midnight. In the shallows saw a bass and some more small sole but none joined my catch. Also saw a bass on Ed's belt. Still we left a few for you guys.

Well that was it. By day mild mannered Old Man Dave but at night Clarke Kent- Nightstalker :martial .

Dave

PS Was out in the boat tank diving and trotting, rod fishing etc. on Saturday. Looks like the big flats are on the inshore banks at last. Actually they're only due to arrive about now it's just the good weather the last 4 weekends makes it seem later in the season than it is. Had a great dive in 90 ft with 40+ft vis, drifting over some superb gravel banks on the edge of some towering reefs. Lots of bait and small fish to look at and some brill to 7.5lb to handspear .

 

[ADM]

Where abouts were you Dave? Casting distance from shore or one of those way out west marks?

Sounds great, next time I must try looking over the sand for flatties.

 

[Old Man Dave]

Andy,:wave , I've sent you a PM.

Dave

 

[beetroute]

Lihou video

Hello fellow spearos

flash video on this site - http://www.gy1gallery.co.uk/

here's a first attempt at some local underwater filming, the first of many. Took a digital stills camera out to sea and used the 30 sec video mode, which turned out better than expected. I've uploaded the video as a streaming flash file so any potential viewers will need flashplayer 7 or later available here -

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

Looking foward to seeing what a night dive looks like on film!

I've tested it a few times, and it seems to stream relatively smoothly. It's about 2 mins long. Let me know what you think. (only if you like it though).

Pete.

 

[Magpie]

Good job Pete, thats pretty good quality for a stills camera.

It streams pretty smoothly too, did you have to reduce it much to stream it? Could you do a better quality movie to download rather than stream, two options like.

All you need now is for a big ole bass to come and play for the camera eh!

 

[Old Man Dave]

Excellent Pete. I was impressed. Thought the cutting, fading and especially the sound track were great. My only recommendation would be to have the first few stills on the intro hold a bit longer as they a bit too quick for a tranquil scene. Everyones a critic but overall 9/10 for the finished product and 10/10 for the effort.

Dave.

 

[portinfer]

Good work Pete - I can assure everyone that it looks fantastic at 6 foot by 4 foot off a projector ... first of many hopefully, but I hear that you are off to China maybe ?

 

[Robbo66]

Great footage.....still amazed at you guys hunting in 2ft of water though !!

 

[Magpie]

All my decent fish so far have come from water you can stand up in

 

[beetroute]

yeh most of my fish have been in really shallow water. sometimes less than a metre.

tj. I've added a download option to the video page, although it takes quite a while to download it on guernsey broadband. you'll need quicktime pro to save it to your computer.

 

[foxfish]

Very nicely put together Pete, hurry up with the next instalment.

 

[Magpie]

Its worth downloading the full clip boys, its a fair bit clearer, its 78mb so takes quater of an hour or so on broadband.

Pete, if you want to convert it out of mov format I use RAD video tools all the time, its pretty good for freeware: http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm
You can make it avi or wmv with that, or use divX to compress it.

 

[Draenog]

Draenog I will be hunting Porbeagle around the Knife & Port Grat from my boat, you are welcome to join me :martial If you prefer we can do a shore dive in the bay?

Thanks for that
I'll be leaving my Son with the grandparents so cant be much more than a couple of hours. I presume that would rule out a boat trip?

 

[Andy.R]

My ear has not improved much so I went to the Dr. He says I've got hayfever, and thats why my tubes are blocked up.

Bummer......just as I got myself all psyched up. Never mind at least I know and it should clear.

Please leave some fish for me.

Thought the video was superb

 

[foxfish]

well that is good & bad news Andy but cant you do some shallow surface hunting?
Draenog we can do a two hour shore dive if you want maybe someone else would like to join us as well?

 

[Old Man Dave]

Went in this afternoon. Seems like I haven't been snorkelling for ages. Took my new R&D hybrid gun. Got off work early and was in the water just after low on a decent spring tide. Flat calm and excellent vis plus sunny to boot.

All things considered thought i'd look for flatties for a bit and then chase some bass as the tide rose. Had to work very hard with lots of bottom time to manage to find anything. In the end it took me nearly 2 hours to get 2 plaice and a decent sole. All were buried in a mixed bottom of sand/gravel mixed in amongst bits of weed on the edge of a tide run. Saw a small blonde ray as well, also well buried.

Saw one bass out in 8 - 9 metres while flattying and about 5 in the shallows on the way back. All the bass were small but size, between say 2 and 4 lb. Left them all for another day.

Dave.

 

[Andy.R]

See the airport says its blowing force 8 ENE at the moment and forecast not much better for weekend :-(

Was thinking of doing some surface hunting, only thing is what if I see the grandaddy of all lobsters (I wish) not sure I'd be able to leave alone!!

 

[foxfish]

Thing is Andy you might see the grandaddy of all bass in the shallows, which you might not ever have seen if you were deep!