A couple of trips out, went twice in at my usual spot under very different conditions, first time no swell at all, calmest waters conditions for that spot you could get, saw a bass but was a bit passable size so left it alone, saw a nice fat white bream but too far away to get a shot and disappeared into the kelp as I moved closer, realised in these ultra calm conditions I didn't have enough weight so added a little more now, I prefer a bit of tide running or swell to disguise any noises im making, didn't have that luxury here. Was swimming along when a big shoal of thin lip mullet passed by, shot one of the biggest of the shoal, rather than diving to the fish, I got lazy and pulled it up by the spear, the shot wasn't great through its stomach and as I tried to grab it once close to me, it went mental and ripped off, lesson learned and shame as it was a nice size.
2nd trip out there was loads of swell, plenty of water down the snorkel, looked at the spot and thought about going somewhere else, but sometimes there are big bass here and I wanted to check it out. Conditions weren't great so spent a fair amount of time dropping into the kelp and holding, felt nice and relaxed and breathold was alright, but didn't see any fish on these drops, maybe noisier than I think. Did see a lovely shoal of around 5-6 5lb - 6lb fish but in the distance, a 2 pounder which I decided was the scout for the shoal came to check me out but that was the last I saw of the shoal, swam out further and hunted an area that almost always produces bass, sure enough a couple of fish around 3lb to 3.5lb swam around a bit of kelp, the first fish knew something wasn't right and swam off, the 2nd fish was chilled and enjoying himself, well until I shot him and he became tonights dinner. As I was just about to dive down to the fish, the biggest shoal of bass I've ever seen swarmed around me, although I had a 3lbr in the kelp to retrieve, I spent 20 seconds filming them, have some epic footage in HD to show at some point. After that I dived down and got the bass out the kelp, well wrapped up and spent a good number of seconds yanking my spear and the fish out the kelp, after that didn't see a lot, working most of this weekend so was nice to get a couple of hours in the sea yesterday.
Best thing tonight was cooking the bass and my youngest daughter who doesn't like fish became a bass convert, absolutely loved it, so that is a result!.
2nd trip out there was loads of swell, plenty of water down the snorkel, looked at the spot and thought about going somewhere else, but sometimes there are big bass here and I wanted to check it out. Conditions weren't great so spent a fair amount of time dropping into the kelp and holding, felt nice and relaxed and breathold was alright, but didn't see any fish on these drops, maybe noisier than I think. Did see a lovely shoal of around 5-6 5lb - 6lb fish but in the distance, a 2 pounder which I decided was the scout for the shoal came to check me out but that was the last I saw of the shoal, swam out further and hunted an area that almost always produces bass, sure enough a couple of fish around 3lb to 3.5lb swam around a bit of kelp, the first fish knew something wasn't right and swam off, the 2nd fish was chilled and enjoying himself, well until I shot him and he became tonights dinner. As I was just about to dive down to the fish, the biggest shoal of bass I've ever seen swarmed around me, although I had a 3lbr in the kelp to retrieve, I spent 20 seconds filming them, have some epic footage in HD to show at some point. After that I dived down and got the bass out the kelp, well wrapped up and spent a good number of seconds yanking my spear and the fish out the kelp, after that didn't see a lot, working most of this weekend so was nice to get a couple of hours in the sea yesterday.
Best thing tonight was cooking the bass and my youngest daughter who doesn't like fish became a bass convert, absolutely loved it, so that is a result!.
