Guernsey 2006

[Old Man Dave]

Getting greedy now! Went in twice yesterday. Had a late afternoon session testing my new gun. I'll post a report on that on my gun thread ( [ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showpost.php?p=603152&postcount=5"]DeeperBlue Forums - View Single Post - Euro-Hybrid R&D Project[/ame] ). Second dive was with Ed starting at 10pm, so that was definitely a night dive.

Ed's got a new LED torch he was keen to try and I took the new gun on its first night dive. It was a big spring, high tide and strong NE winds. We went west coast to a sandy bay. There was a bit of chop but no swell and the vis turned out to be a nice fishable 20 ft.

We worked the flat rippley sand between 15 and 25 ft deep. I was struggling at first mainly due to eating a large evening meal only an hour and a half before. However come the end I had got my rhythm going and was diving well. There were soles everywhere and by the end of the dive I must have seen about 20. Mainly they were smallish with probably half were legal size but I tried to select the biggest. As well as the soles there were a couple or three bass about and the new gun got blooded.

After a dive of about one and a half hours we had some soles a bass and a small brill, while having left a few fish for the rest of you.

Good dive , good company, nice catch .

Dave

PS The brill was absent from the photo shoot having gone home with Ed.

 

[SpeedySpigola]

Hiya guys!
Its Lora and Marco coming to you live from australia, the land down under, and its definately under (the water) where its at its most beautiful! Hoping to extend our stay as we've had an offer to go out to the high sea on a commercial fishing boat to catch tuna (250lbs!!!!) for 1 week, i think you'd agree its quite an unbelievable offer and hopefully we'll be able to take it!
Here our fishing (or Marco's fishing) consists of staying on dry land, where so far we've caught a lot, but we're still waiting for the BIG one!Dave you'll be pleased to hear that i am now a master at rod fishing! i've been the one that has caught all the fish! We have bream coming out of our ears! Tommorow we'll have a pasta with a huge spanish mackrel...yummy...brings back memories of our bass pastas with Ed back on your summy isle! How is the fishing this year?
I can hear Ed thinking about Marco's shark fear...we''ll guess what? He saw a black tipped reef shark whilst scuba diving, and didn't come up shaking, but instead witha huge smile on his face....maybe he can now not be scared of Guernsey waters....i keep telling him that the english channel is obviously a lot more risky than aussy waters....but he doesnt believe me!
We'll speak to you soon...and wait for us to return to Guernsey...
Lora and Marco

 

[spicer]

Back from South Africa and managed a quick dive this afternoon. Beautiful day good vis and loads of fish about. Shot a nice bass and missed a grand daddy at max range. Water 18.2 degrees. More mullet than I could shake a stick at and real close.

 

[ADM]

Saw two guys round the cowshorn today? Anyone from here, catch anything after you scared the bream I was fishing for away? I bet there were tons of spiders down there, kept reeling in with no hooks...

 

[beardy241]

Just back from a night boat expedition to Fermain with George. Boy was it good to be out!... seems like ages.

Saw lots of baby sole. G saw a +2ft squid. Quite a few spiders about and lots of baby Red Mullet.

Came home with nice 4lb Golden Grey Mullet.

G spotted him then we did our usual trick where I drop in from outside of his light and shoot from the side.

Water 15C. Max depth 12m. 1h30m
Stunning deep red moon-rise as we left the bay.

[m]

 

[foxfish]

Sounds like a nice dive Beardy. I think your mullet would be a new British record!!

 

[ADM]

It would be a british record if rod caught!! A massive GG, and a full lb over the local rod caught record.

 

[beardy241]

Sorry to disappoint... I've pulled it out the freezer... seems like it's a Thick Lip after all.

I'd thought it was a Golden because there's quite a gold tint where you'd normally get the spot — I figured that it just wasn't a well defined spot.

I take it then that Thicks also have this goldening on their cheeks?

[m]

 

[Draenog]

Hi Guerns.

I had a couple of snorkels here in Gower this weekend and the 1m viz has made me look forward to my trip to Guernsey in August even more.

Thanks to Beardy and Foxfish for offerring to take me out. I can't wait.

I notice you guys do night dives, which is something I've always wanted to do.

what kind of torch (and how much £££) would I need for that? I bought a really cheap torch a few years ago for looking in holes , and going through dark limestone swim throughs but it was pretty rubbish. and I know I'd need something a lot better when it's properly dark (especially as it leaked and broke on its third outing).

 

[Old Man Dave]

It is quite easy to comfuse common thick lipped mullet and golden grey mullet. Some thick lipped can have a pronounced gold spot on the gill cover. More distinctive is the proportionately longer pectoral fin of the golden grey. With a lot of experience you can tell a gg even in the water. They have a slightly different profile and act and move slightly differently as well.

Re torches; started off with a technisub (Luma 6 - I think). Ed and Peter also used cheap 5 or 6 watt torches. They cost about £15 and work fine. Rechargable batteries and a charger will add £30+ but you can get away without them just to try. I now use a twin bulb UK C8 which gives a choice of 13 watt spot or 18 watt flood. I use 8 rechargable C cells giving a burn time of 1.5 - 2 hours. Cost about £50 for the torch with standard batteries (which lasted 2 dives) and about £40 for the recharge set up. Ed's got an LED which is supposed to be good but I think you're talking £150.

Dave

 

[beardy241]

Mullet
Thanks for that Dave. Have you found any good web-based fish identification resources. I had one a while back but can't find it again.

Torches
George and I are using D4 lights http://www.uwkinetics.com/D_D4.htm which is a great bit of kit with dual bulbs for a Hi / Low beam (5.8W & 18W) and I use a Q40 http://www.uwkinetics.com/D_MQ40.htm and a head mounted backup.

Spicer
Welcome back!

 

[portinfer]

Good report 'Nighthawk'... ! Fermain at night must be gorgeous ... saw the red moon on Friday - thought I had popped something in my eye

Draenog - You should be able to pick up a Ikelite PCa Lite / Omer / generic little 7W UW torch off eBay for about £5 to £12... most take 6 AA batteries.

The 'lantern' style torches that Dave / Marcel / George use are more powerful and more expensive and give better light as far as I can see.

To try for a few times get a new or second hand PCa - these are very small (palm sized) and will work fine ... and if you like night diving you then have a backup/spare/guest torch when you buy something a bit brighter.

Jury is still out on the LED I got.... need to use it more. So far the light quality is : very white (5000K ish) - burn time ... it tails off after an hour and a half noticibly but you can still see as well as with a smaller torch (4 AA rechargeables - think it would work better with 4 new AA duracell) and power... well it is as bright if not slightly brigher than Dave's 18W on land but about the same in the water I guess - hard to compare as the 'light circles' are different - at any rate it is a step up from my PCa 7W and I am happy with it

 

[Old Man Dave]

Fish identification; have a technical book that give details like fin ray counts etc as well as underwater pictures and line drawings. Site on the net I favour is this one http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aquarium/index.html . Don't rate ARKive which is often quoted (not enough UK species listed).

Dave

 

[Mr. X]

Of course, there is also the old torch thread: [ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=64145"]Torch - anybody use a torch for spearing?[/ame]
...with more torch info. than anyone should ever know really.

BTW I noticed at Easter that the Co-Op in Seaton (E. Devon) had inexpensive, small, LED dive torches from a major brand (Energizer I think) in sealed packs (about 7 pounds I think).

eBay is worth a look for bigger torches (seems like often it is a retiring scuba diver selling off gear).

 

[ADM]

GG Mullet here:

That one is 1lb 10oz caught by your's truly, the spot is really clear and defined. Quite a long lean fish compared to the common.

Thick Lipped here:

Not caught by me . I see what you mean about the slight gold patch on the cheek even with this photo but to me the eye and mouth are quite different and well, it's just fat.

 

[daviesd]

We had similar problems working out which mullet we had caught in comps. Luckily, our resident guru put an article together to help us all out. It can be found at http://www.jerseyspearfishing.com/articles/articles_mullet_identification.asp

hope this helps

 

[Magpie]

Been in a few times lately with not a lot of luck, tried north side of rocquaine and saw pretty much nothing, and then yesterday went in from the bathing pools and saw little more, far fewer mullet than I expected, a couple of proper sized spiders and two scallops out towards Moulinet.

One, er, interesting, thing happened though. There I was out between the pool and Moulinet when I felt a strong tug on my float line, turned my head round just in time to be bashed over the bonce by an oar! :head

This bloney 4 man rowing skiff sailed past not 3m from me, suffice to say they had a mouthfull of the Magpie's finest, though on reflection its not that surprising, they had a female cox, bloney women drivers! Obviously a great big red float with a flag on top is not indication of my presence! :vangry

Hey ho. No fish for me of late, sounds like I might have to try this night diving mularky (either that or stop trying new places and get back to where I know there's fish!)

 

[foxfish]

Hey Magpie stick to where you know, plenty of sole in your sole spot

 

[Magpie]

And no rowers! Thing is normal boats are fine, you can hear them coming, first thing I knew about this was clonk on the head!:martial

 

[Old Man Dave]

I was run down once, hit on the head by a small boat while crossing some tide. Heard tell that more divers are killed this way than by drowning but not sure if that's true. I'm always amazed that more divers are not injured or killed by wind surfers. Think that's more down to us than them. They certainly scare me.

I'm writing this from home as I had to sign in sick today, only second time in about 10 years. Got a really nasty ear infection, had to go to the quack twice and am now on lots of little pills. Over the years I've not had much ear trouble but I know quite a few divers do suffer. Must be getting old.

Re fish; went in the weekend for a day dive with Ed. Saw about 50 bass mainly in 3 shoals but a few singles as well. All were about 1 to 3 lb and could have shot a few but left them to grow. Was looking for a decent fish. Found one in the end. Nice fish about 6lb in the shallow bootlace but for some reason my short range attempted head shot missed. Still a bit puzzled by that. So in the end both Ed and I were fishless (rare occurrence) but it was a nice dive and catching fish is only part of the pleasure.

Dave