Guernsey 2009

[ep_haury]

> Guillemots (like a puffin) catch their food underwater & are quite common >too.

What absolute luck. Just last night, I saw a documentary that included Murre (according to wikipedia the North American name of Guillemots) picking off fish from a herring ball underwater -- though near the surface. At the same time. gulls that couldn't dive more then three feet were ducking their heads down to catch in from above. After a while, all the birds scattered and a humpback whale swam up and swallowed the rest (or roughly the rest) of the fish. So I've seen what they'll be like.

Thank you.

 

[Jonny250]

Sounds like a good but fishless dive Tom, i was out yesterday for a few hours too, saw lots of small pollacks and big wrasses. Swam round to portinfer in the end and saw many many large wrasse 'surfing' the swell, quite funny to watch. also saw 2 large 'silver' fish that i couldnt i.d., possibly a white bass or mullet, but not normal ones?

Went in on the south coast a couple of days ago and saw several nice bass, took one for dinner.

So if you were going to dive a bit deeper, say down to 15m to look for fish, where would you go? I wondered whether the rocks along the south coast might be good - pleinmont ledge for example? or the reef off les tielles? Anyone dived these or any other similar spots along the south?

 

[cruise-zn]

was down the west coast sun evening and yesterday viz pretty good plenty of sandeels and a couple bass but they where abit on the quick side.

Do mullet swim down deep aswell or are they normally on the surface? Just trying to distinguish whether it was bass or mullet.

 

[Jonny250]

Czn I think you can find mullets near the surface in shoals and also on the bottom when feeding, they dont seem to be quite as inquisative as bass, but dont skit at teh first splash or bump either.

Here's a bit of footage from yesterdays dive, some little pollacks:

 

[Don_Jose]

I tried spearing the south coast a few times. Went down by that watch house thing. Parked in a field and scrambled down the cliffs. Was a right game getting down and back up. All I got was a huge spider crab. However, it did make interesting ground. Found some good caves and overhangs to explore. It's just so different to anywhere else with the dark blue/black rock. Spooky.

 

[Don_Jose]

I've done the odd bit of scuba and even caught the odd flatfish that way. Even dived a few wrecks ( http://forums.deeperblue.com/754470-post276.html ) ( http://forums.deeperblue.com/uk-ireland/81682-sussex-report-2009-a-5.html#post768305 ) although I don't do the deep stuff. About 30 metres is my limit. Who do you go with? Not one of Squeakers party?

Dave

I dive with a few people out of St Peter Port on my boat. Used to dive with a friend who had his boat at Rocquaine which is where we got all the flatfish from. Never dived with Squeaker!

 

[foxfish]

So if you were going to dive a bit deeper, say down to 15m to look for fish, where would you go? I wondered whether the rocks along the south coast might be good - pleinmont ledge for example? or the reef off les tielles? Anyone dived these or any other similar spots along the south?

Thousands of reefs to choose from all around the coast but you will find deep water close to shore on the South Coast.
I will be running a few boat trips this year to some of the shallower offshore reefs.
I think it would be safer to dive from a boat with a boat man on board rather than from the shore esspesialy on your own.

 

[Jonny250]

I've only visited a few reefs in the kayak, but in that limited experience they have tended to be sandy/rough bottom with kelpy sides/tops, whereas the rocky boulder ruckle with holes and caves as per Kev's vids looks like a very different terrain, perhaps more like the south coast that DJ has suggested? will have to take the kayak and have a look... (until i can twist yer arm for a lift Mart ;-) ). trouble is, once i find the area, i'll take a year to be able to dive it competently!

 

[azapa]

great catch Dave and nice video Jonny, thats quite a long dive your doing there, well done.

 

[portinfer]

Deeper spots I've tried (when younger & fitter ) include the stretch from Fermain down to Marble bay - but again mostly kelp reefs with distinct sand borders - never found any patches of boulders like they have in the UK - think we just have different topography. Gabrielle Rock was fun
Also out west at the Soufleuresse / Sambule was quite deep But not great viz so looked like more kelp and sand.
I've heard Rocquaine has different rock structure but not sure if it deep - went out to Les Trois Peres / Gorban north of Rocquaine and no fish that day (with Dave & Pete looking for a mate's pots.... eventful day ) but looked like it had potential.

Anyway, Johnny if you want to practice some deeper aspettos give me a shout as I'm keen to get to 15m comfortably... nearly did it one year but not quite !
Ed

 

[Old Man Dave]

I've stuck my head in more than a few holes and there aint no bass there. I have a feeling that sussex and other places with holed up bass have a very flat sand/mud terrain with isolated boulder piles and wreckage. Anglers get a lot of bass over wrecks as well but never seen that on the wrecks I've dived over here.

Still you never know and never too old to learn. God how I laughed at aspetto. I though it was the stupiest idea I'd ever heard off. I was way off beam there, as Ed showed me.

I know a hole under a big pile of boulders that looks like the one in the vids and it is often full of mullet. Never seen a bass in there though and I've looked many times. Mind you that is the only place I've seen mullet in a hole, anywhere around the island.

I wonder if when they get to know the holes in sussex etc then they just go hole to hole a bit like some of the local lobster experts used to. You don't need to hunt them out as you know where they live. If you know where the holes are it must be a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. A bloody deep barrel and often in almost no vis but a barrel none the less.

Dave

 

[Jonny250]

Haha that made me laugh Dave trouble is getting the vis to find the boulder to find the hole to find the fish... hard enough in 5m today!

Ed i'll be keen to meet up and try some deeper dives, but 15m is a goal rather than reality by some margin for me at the mo!... my goal in Sardinia was to have a week of deeper diving, but my cold put a stop to any of that! :-(

 

[foxfish]

Lots of thing are changing Dave - the whole World in fact! & besides you shot a bass in a hole two years ago when we went in at Rocquuaine weed beds.

 

[azapa]

i was gonna ask you jonny (re sardinia) please post followup on that thread you started.

regarding cave hunting Dave, it probably accounts for 75% of my hunting and I must say it's great. the caves are dark and deep, the fish are black, and the currents are strong here. the challenges are
- seeing the fish
- getting the gun in the cave and a decent angle before it flees, despite current. often the caves seem, incredibly, smaller than the fish.
- getting the speared fish out, they always bolt out the back door, spear and all.

as I said, it's really great fun. aspeto's are too, but caving seems so much more "hunter like"

 

[Jonny250]

az, there's an update from a couple of days ago, i finally got there last week:
http://forums.deeperblue.com/mediterranean/76812-sardinia-spearfishing-4.html#post769236

 

[Jonny250]

I went in down south tonite, on the search for a bass; i found one...
as always HD is slower, but better:

 

[Sarnian]

Started out deeper for a while, was surprised how quickly the hold has come back with very little practise, but after an hour of 1.20min aspettos with no joy I went and mooched the shallows but there was nowt of interest there either.

Good to be able to see where I was going for once though!

Oh, and twice I was sure I heard a gun go off but couldn't see anyone else in the water [/quote]

You weren't where I was were you Tom? I fired twice ( and missed) - did it sound like a Mamba 90? I did check for other people, kayaks, boats etc at regular intervals, but didn't notice anyone. How far does the sound travel?

( p.s. if you've also been known as TJ I know a young chap who you may know, who plays hockey, and spears much better bass than us, the little git, but doesn't seem to post on here!)

 

[sunfish]

I've stuck my head in more than a few holes and there aint no bass there. I have a feeling that sussex and other places with holed up bass have a very flat sand/mud terrain with isolated boulder piles and wreckage. Anglers get a lot of bass over wrecks as well but never seen that on the wrecks I've dived over here.

Dave

Like Dave, I've tried looking for bass in holes here and I've come to the same conclusions. To have much success I think you need an area where the reefs and rockpiles are isolated. They may well hide in deeper reefs here but there is so much rock around that I'm unlikely to look in the right bit.
Last year though, I was diving a rockspur in current at 7 metres and a small shoal of bass came in to aspetto. This normally only happens in less than 4 metres.
I'd love to spend a day following one of the really good cave hunters to see exactly what they do and where.
On a different subject, I remember reading an old Guernsey post about a planned trip to "the cement wreck". Did it ever happen?

 

[Spaniard]

I've stuck my head in more than a few holes and there aint no bass there. I have a feeling that sussex and other places with holed up bass have a very flat sand/mud terrain with isolated boulder piles and wreckage. Anglers get a lot of bass over wrecks as well but never seen that on the wrecks I've dived over here.

Still you never know and never too old to learn. God how I laughed at aspetto. I though it was the stupiest idea I'd ever heard off. I was way off beam there, as Ed showed me.

I know a hole under a big pile of boulders that looks like the one in the vids and it is often full of mullet. Never seen a bass in there though and I've looked many times. Mind you that is the only place I've seen mullet in a hole, anywhere around the island.

I wonder if when they get to know the holes in sussex etc then they just go hole to hole a bit like some of the local lobster experts used to. You don't need to hunt them out as you know where they live. If you know where the holes are it must be a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. A bloody deep barrel and often in almost no vis but a barrel none the less.

Dave

I think it is mainly the Sussex coast where you will find bass in holes/cracks/caves from all that i've seen and heard (Portland too on occasion) As soon as you travel down the coast into Cornwall it is much less likely. I've no idea why but then if you've seen any videos of the Normandy lads they too get some cracking fish in wrecks and other structures. In the Med it is almost unheard of to see them 'holed-up' so there must be a reason somewhere....

 

[podge]

I’ve seen plenty of Bass in holes, when I first started I came across what seemed like a steady stream of Bass all swimming into the same hole at the base of a piece of reef, but on a closer inspection it turned out to be the same 4 fish just swimming in the front then out the back and around in bloody circles. I swear that they had a grin on there faces as they watched me watching them.roflrofl