congratulations ... will Jane be wanting the guard of honour again!?
Hope all goes well
God bless
[m]
Posted via Mobile Device
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Guernsey 2008
- Thread starter portinfer
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
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congratulations ... will Jane be wanting the guard of honour again!?
Hope all goes well
God bless
[m]
Posted via Mobile Device
Good luck Andy. Hope it all goes well.
Looks like it will be a good weekend for the rest of us.. can anyone offer me some info on spearing at Sark?
Tom, Ed, Derek, - are you guys going to enter the kayak fishing event at Cobo on sunday? should be a bit of fun... Anyone else?
Looks like it will be a good weekend for the rest of us.. can anyone offer me some info on spearing at Sark?
Tom, Ed, Derek, - are you guys going to enter the kayak fishing event at Cobo on sunday? should be a bit of fun... Anyone else?
Spearing advice on Sark? Yes, DON'T DO IT! It's illegal and the local fishermen are known to carry shotguns....at least thats what I always thought, but for some reason I'm doubting what I thought I knew???
No, I'm not mate. It was a toss up between that and something else and the something else won.
No, I'm not mate. It was a toss up between that and something else and the something else won.
Got my new torch today. Princeton Tec Shockwave LED with 3x3watt Leds and 8 x C cells. Bargain at £80 (new). Went in to try it out. Vis was good, not great but definitely "good". Tried for a bass but ended up doing a marathon swim looking for everything. Got a few plaice, left some small soles, got one medium red and somehow missed 2 bass both from about a foot range. Saw a few grey mullet as well but left those. Nice dive and a good feed but must say the winter fish don't seem to have arrived inshore yet in consistent numbers. No squid and not many reds. There seems to be less fish about at night than last year IMHO anyway. Still another day another dive. Oh yeh! The torch was good too.
Dave
Dave
Dave, how did the torch compare to your UK C8 ? I'm thinking of buying a torch soon and I'm wondering if there's much to be gained in "fish finding power" by spending extra money on a brighter one. What do you think? A UK D8 is a possibility. Is the Shockwave a better bet?
My "old" UK C8 was upgraded to a "R" by adding rechargables and so had a 13watt and a 20 watt bulb which are switchable in use with a 2 position trigger switch. I have dived with mates with other torches including some expensive LED ones.
Firstly light output. It's claimed that 3x3watt LED's is equivalent to 40watt halogen type bulbs. I found this untrue. A 3x3 watt LED Famas with rechargables in it (nearly £200) was nearly as bright as my 20watt halogen and definitely a little better than my 13watt halogen in my C8. The 30watt bulb in the UK D8R was brighter than the LED's. So personally I would say that in practice 3x3watt leds is near to 18watt halogen as regards practical use. One reason they claim more output for the LEDs is the type of light. Halogens are yellow and LEDs are white. Supposedly the white light penetrates further and gives more natural colours underwater. Personally I liked the yellow but in truth there is little difference for fish spotting.
Burn time. You need rechargables unless you go very rarely. So using rechargables burn time is only half that of non-rechargable batteries. My UK C8 would go 1.25-1.5 hours on rechargables using the 13 watt bulb. Switching to 20watt gives less than an hour (not enough). All the twin bulb UK's are the same. UK D8R goes max 1.5 hours on 18watt and not long enough on 30watt. UK D4R goes enough on 13watt and not enough if you swich to the 18watt. All these halogen torches give long enough burn times on non- rechargables but it's £5-£10 a time for replacing these big batteries. The 3x3 LED torches use AA's or C cells. The expensive Famas (spelling?) uses 4xAA's. It's burn time on re-chargables is about 2 hours (just enough). Another similar one with cast/machined alloy body and 3x3 LED's costing £160-ish(forget the make but Magpie has one) has 6xAA's and at 3hours + is plenty long enough. The princeton Tec with 8xC cells should have a burn time of forever (4+hours) in terms of night diving anyway.
Value for money and reliability. Halogen bulbs burn out especially the high wattage ones. I get through min of one bulb a year and sometimes two. At about £10 inc postage that mounts up. They also get very hot and really you need to light them up in the water not on dry land. Also wait for the batteries to cool off if they are re-chargables as straight from the charger they blow bulbs (especially the 30 watt UKD8R). LED's last forever and also don't heat up. They also don't break if you drop them. LED torches have been £150+ and UK's with rechargables about £100-£150. My C8 cost me about £60 + £30 for the rechargables and £10 for a bulb upgrade.
The princeton Tec Shockwave has a lifetime guarantee, is £85 inc VAT with standard batteries that are good for 3 dives. Rechargables will be another £30 and are not supplied as an optional recharge pack so you just buy 8 rechargable C cells (try 7day shop on line). You need over 2000ma/hr batteries but watch out for the high output AA's as they are fatter and don't always fit. The C cells are fine. Some people say rechargables don't work in LED torches but we've had no problems over here.
My conclusion well while not exactly rich (like night watchmen :t) I can buy more or less what I want and I bought the Princeton Tec.
Phew!
Dave
PS Just as a postscript I saw another rare Guernsey flounder as well as 2 small brill and a small turbot last night, plus the bigger of the 2 bass I saw was about 7lb and as such biggest I've seen this year. Missed him when the gun failed - but that's another story for another day - or night. Love night diving :inlove.
Firstly light output. It's claimed that 3x3watt LED's is equivalent to 40watt halogen type bulbs. I found this untrue. A 3x3 watt LED Famas with rechargables in it (nearly £200) was nearly as bright as my 20watt halogen and definitely a little better than my 13watt halogen in my C8. The 30watt bulb in the UK D8R was brighter than the LED's. So personally I would say that in practice 3x3watt leds is near to 18watt halogen as regards practical use. One reason they claim more output for the LEDs is the type of light. Halogens are yellow and LEDs are white. Supposedly the white light penetrates further and gives more natural colours underwater. Personally I liked the yellow but in truth there is little difference for fish spotting.
Burn time. You need rechargables unless you go very rarely. So using rechargables burn time is only half that of non-rechargable batteries. My UK C8 would go 1.25-1.5 hours on rechargables using the 13 watt bulb. Switching to 20watt gives less than an hour (not enough). All the twin bulb UK's are the same. UK D8R goes max 1.5 hours on 18watt and not long enough on 30watt. UK D4R goes enough on 13watt and not enough if you swich to the 18watt. All these halogen torches give long enough burn times on non- rechargables but it's £5-£10 a time for replacing these big batteries. The 3x3 LED torches use AA's or C cells. The expensive Famas (spelling?) uses 4xAA's. It's burn time on re-chargables is about 2 hours (just enough). Another similar one with cast/machined alloy body and 3x3 LED's costing £160-ish(forget the make but Magpie has one) has 6xAA's and at 3hours + is plenty long enough. The princeton Tec with 8xC cells should have a burn time of forever (4+hours) in terms of night diving anyway.
Value for money and reliability. Halogen bulbs burn out especially the high wattage ones. I get through min of one bulb a year and sometimes two. At about £10 inc postage that mounts up. They also get very hot and really you need to light them up in the water not on dry land. Also wait for the batteries to cool off if they are re-chargables as straight from the charger they blow bulbs (especially the 30 watt UKD8R). LED's last forever and also don't heat up. They also don't break if you drop them. LED torches have been £150+ and UK's with rechargables about £100-£150. My C8 cost me about £60 + £30 for the rechargables and £10 for a bulb upgrade.
The princeton Tec Shockwave has a lifetime guarantee, is £85 inc VAT with standard batteries that are good for 3 dives. Rechargables will be another £30 and are not supplied as an optional recharge pack so you just buy 8 rechargable C cells (try 7day shop on line). You need over 2000ma/hr batteries but watch out for the high output AA's as they are fatter and don't always fit. The C cells are fine. Some people say rechargables don't work in LED torches but we've had no problems over here.
My conclusion well while not exactly rich (like night watchmen :t) I can buy more or less what I want and I bought the Princeton Tec.
Phew!
Dave
PS Just as a postscript I saw another rare Guernsey flounder as well as 2 small brill and a small turbot last night, plus the bigger of the 2 bass I saw was about 7lb and as such biggest I've seen this year. Missed him when the gun failed - but that's another story for another day - or night. Love night diving :inlove.
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Great summary Dave, look forward to seeing your Princetontec as if the output if the same as our LEDs its great value.
Mine is a Seac Sub (though its obviosuly made by Fami for them when directly comparing the two) DIVETORCH UK - SEAC-SUB X-LED 40 WATT DIVE TORCH, and holds 8, not 6, AA's, I've never seen output drop off in my time using it, including long walks out to the water and back as well as the dive itself. I use 2800mahs, but as Dave said, they are fatter than normal AAs and I needed to do some judicious "adjustments" with me dremel to make the battery holder fit in the alloy body, nothing major, but it wouldn't fit as standard.
Mine is a Seac Sub (though its obviosuly made by Fami for them when directly comparing the two) DIVETORCH UK - SEAC-SUB X-LED 40 WATT DIVE TORCH, and holds 8, not 6, AA's, I've never seen output drop off in my time using it, including long walks out to the water and back as well as the dive itself. I use 2800mahs, but as Dave said, they are fatter than normal AAs and I needed to do some judicious "adjustments" with me dremel to make the battery holder fit in the alloy body, nothing major, but it wouldn't fit as standard.
I went dangling down the cliffs today, didn't catch but I saw a lot and what I saw was BIG, one massive bass which refused to take the lure, just followed it and scared my mullet away (they scattered when he cruised through), I would put him as a low double in weight. Big mack follwed the lure as well but they weren't taking. Maybe because the water was so clear, I could easily make out the mullet feeding off the kelp in what according to my float depth was over 14ft of water adn they were crystal clear so real viz was actually much more. Wouldn't fancy carrying enough lead to sink me down there though!! Plus, that much lead and I might get make the rest of the cliff collapse when I run over the dodgy bit...
Sounds like a few heart stopping moments Andy. Next to spearing then surface plugging (or spinning) is my favourite method of fishing. A follow from a big bass is fairly amazing. Conditions look good for spearing but bet next weekend with my speccy hunt round 2 session it will be crap. Never mind must make the most of it while we can.
Had another night dive last night. Tides are poor (2hrs after high going down) but conditions were good, calm and clear. Left a size plaice and 2 size sole, plus a small red mullet as I was looking for specimen size fish or any size bass. Only had 4 bass over the last 4 night dives and having missed 2 last time and one of them a biggy I wanted to redeem myself. In the end i only saw one bass which was probably due to the falling tide. However managed a vey neat head shot and at nearly 5lbs it was a good fish.
Where I was diving there are no houses etc close by. With no moon and no light polution it was pitch black but the stars last night were amazing. I took a few minutes to lie on my back in the shallows staring up at the sky. What a fantastic sight and how sureal.
Dave
Had another night dive last night. Tides are poor (2hrs after high going down) but conditions were good, calm and clear. Left a size plaice and 2 size sole, plus a small red mullet as I was looking for specimen size fish or any size bass. Only had 4 bass over the last 4 night dives and having missed 2 last time and one of them a biggy I wanted to redeem myself. In the end i only saw one bass which was probably due to the falling tide. However managed a vey neat head shot and at nearly 5lbs it was a good fish.
Where I was diving there are no houses etc close by. With no moon and no light polution it was pitch black but the stars last night were amazing. I took a few minutes to lie on my back in the shallows staring up at the sky. What a fantastic sight and how sureal.
Dave
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Mart and I went prospecting today. Not too good I'm afraid. Still if you don't go you don't know. Vis was patchy but mainly terrain was disappointing. Sand was too deep for me to fish effectively although did see a big plaice mark. Shallows were "not right" and Mart turned back to leave me just one last rock to swim around. Turned out that this was the only bassy spot, a small cove. I got one about 2 or 3lb but lost one about 5lb that broke off the spear and missed another. Saw a few big mullet and a couple of jumbo wrasse and Mart found a conger. All in all a bit (a lot) disappointing.
Dave
Dave
I recommend you go down where I've been fishing... Looks lovely for diving and I know there are a lot of fish down there, I feel the clear viz may have disadvantaged me (and after all my moaning about no viz at all ruining my fishing. Maybe i'm just cr@p...) but quite deep other than a spring low. Bit of a hike though so spearfish may be a better option for youo to anchor up. My legs still hurt today for some reason, never felt this bad after a walk up. Weird.
The water is about 9ft deep in places where you can see in the 2nd pic.
The water is about 9ft deep in places where you can see in the 2nd pic.
Attachments
Those Dorset boys are putting us to shame!
http://forums.deeperblue.com/dorset/75349-dorset-spearing-2008-a-102.html#post736154
http://forums.deeperblue.com/dorset/75349-dorset-spearing-2008-a-102.html#post736154
Dave, that's a very helpful review of the torches, cheers!
sorry you didnt have more luck today - did you and mart go South - it really was very fishy last week... ?
i went and took part in the kayak fishing comp (although the temptation to spear afterwards was strong...) no one caught anything much :-( and i dont think there were many fishies in the sea just there. twas fun to fish with some other kayakers tho & i won myself a new reel nice to meet BigRob from this forum - obviously a very knowledeable angler too.
sorry you didnt have more luck today - did you and mart go South - it really was very fishy last week... ?
i went and took part in the kayak fishing comp (although the temptation to spear afterwards was strong...) no one caught anything much :-( and i dont think there were many fishies in the sea just there. twas fun to fish with some other kayakers tho
& i won myself a new reel nice to meet BigRob from this forum - obviously a very knowledeable angler too.
Yes Jonny we went to petit bot, I guess it is the same as anywhere in that there will be good & bad days?
I definitely dived too deep resulting in severe pain just above my right eyebrow, I have had a few ear problems but never experienced such sinus pain before.
We both saw empty ormer shells scattered around the bottom!? & there are, most definitely, plenty of holes to explore. I checked out a few holes but we were more intent on (& geared up for) catching bass.
I seem to remember many years ago that Derek speared a conger with his hand spear in the same spot?
So what did you catch to win a reel?
I definitely dived too deep resulting in severe pain just above my right eyebrow, I have had a few ear problems but never experienced such sinus pain before.
We both saw empty ormer shells scattered around the bottom!? & there are, most definitely, plenty of holes to explore. I checked out a few holes but we were more intent on (& geared up for) catching bass.
I seem to remember many years ago that Derek speared a conger with his hand spear in the same spot?
So what did you catch to win a reel?
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Hi All
Had an all nighter on sunday and landed a 2.65kg female!!!! (At last after a long drawn out affair, was stuck in a hole and we needed outside assistance to cut her out, but you don't want to know about that) Am now busy buying up pahrmacies (its Jane's first and she doesn't understand that kitchen roll is a good substitute for baby wipes yet)
Thanks for the offer of the guard of honour and with hindsight the sight of half a dozen or so unshaved divers carrying spearguns may have speeded thing up.
During the waiting I 'bodged' a new float out of a couple of old fenders I had lying around in the workshop. The main feature is the net to carry camera etc and a strap so it can be carried down the beach with flippers attached over a shoulder, great for the long hikes down at rocquaine.
Managed to test it out yesterday in what seem like is the last of the decent weather for a while. Saw a flattie in the day time and a moon jellyfish, pictures attached
Had an all nighter on sunday and landed a 2.65kg female!!!! (At last after a long drawn out affair, was stuck in a hole and we needed outside assistance to cut her out, but you don't want to know about that) Am now busy buying up pahrmacies (its Jane's first and she doesn't understand that kitchen roll is a good substitute for baby wipes yet)
Thanks for the offer of the guard of honour and with hindsight the sight of half a dozen or so unshaved divers carrying spearguns may have speeded thing up.
During the waiting I 'bodged' a new float out of a couple of old fenders I had lying around in the workshop. The main feature is the net to carry camera etc and a strap so it can be carried down the beach with flippers attached over a shoulder, great for the long hikes down at rocquaine.
Managed to test it out yesterday in what seem like is the last of the decent weather for a while. Saw a flattie in the day time and a moon jellyfish, pictures attached
