Guernsey 2018

[njb]

Been in three times so far.

Dive 1 - Sunday - Bordeaux middle rocks castle side - short dive for gear check - saw plenty of mullet but no bass.

Dive 2 - Tuesday - in at fontenelle and around the back of the fort against the tide - tiring but nice dive - 1 bass ~3.75lb seen and caught in the string out of the tide on the left of the fort if looking at it from the rifle range.

Dive 3 - yesterday - in at rousse in the fog and stalk the weed to/around the shingle bank connecting to the knife. I know this mark very well and can find my way back of it had come in like glue. 1 bass seen ~3.25 and caught in the string by the large rock pier side when swimming back in.

Vis not great in all areas but certainty perfectly fishable.

 

[little sarge]

What an amazing summers day, about time though eh.
Got in for a group dive with the guys today, I know we are always moaning about bad viz but today it was almost too good unless you had some decent weed coverage. In for around 4hrs so the longest dive this year for me (only the 3rd mind) and the temp was good.
Was seeing loads of just legal or undersized bass which was nice. Took a nice 4lb fish and a smaller one too. Great to be in and thought there would be a few more catch reports here from Guernsey or Jersey.....
What’s going on with the forum I can’t seem to upload pics most of the time

 

[westcoaster]

2 recent dives, out Thursday evening, encouraging viz after last weekends poop, only saw one bass, shame as area was full of potential, fish came to take a look at me, Ifired but the it had spooked before then and I missed, came across a nice sized spider, convinced myself I’d had enough of picking them but could resist in the end, a nice 3lb 6oz crab with plenty of meat for a couple of meals
Out again yesterday, stunning day, stunning viz, like Kerin said almost too good, plenty of mullet around, but not so many bass today, was stalking through some jap weed and looked over to my left and a 4lbr cruising along in the weed, gin clear aquarium view of the bass, It didn’t notice me but couldn’t turn the gun in the weed (and there’s a tonne of it this year!!), circled around hoping to find it again but gone, took a mullet, carried on, was watching some feeding mullet when a bass looms in to join the party and bang a bass on the stringer
Was in about 4 meters of water, bottom mainly sandy apart from a massive clump of jap weed, saw a big shape under the weeed, and I’d estimate a 6lb bass, could have been bigger as decent length and thick and solid, stayed still aiming at the fish but out of range, thought it might come in for a look but didn't and swam off the other direction, nice to see though. Bass and crab for tea with a nice chilled bottle of Rose

 

[portinfer]

Catching up with dive reports!

Saturday 26 May - 12C / 13C - 2hrs 20
Fabio was over for his annual see the relatives weekend (but really to come diving). We normally go to a spot him and his brother like - fine if it's flat calm but that day was rough with chop and waves making it hard to fish. I stalked the shallows in between the waves and Fabio took the outside line with 4m aspettos. Loads of small bass everywhere. Finally found a larger one - good shot behind the gill plate. The new gun works well, I like the short length but decent power & easy to load with the small ID bands. Fabio had a couple of bass too by the end. In for a couple of hours. Water felt cold!

Sunday 27 May - 11C / 12C - 2hrs 30
John suggested a dive with Edd so with Fabio that made four of us. Again, loads of small bass and some massive mullet. Felt cold. The others had bass and saw a few gilthead. I didn't see anything big enough. Little bit murky but calm and sunny, nice dive and good company.

Monday 28 May - 12C - 2hrs 30
Another dive with Fabio - this time far out behind a reef. Brandon came too and we all had hopes of catching a big bass as this has traditionally been a decent spot. Very clear water - you could see someone dropping down on aspettos in 7m and see all of the detail from the surface. No bloody fish though! Fabio got bored and swam in early but I fished on the way back in with Brandon. Good dive but really quiet on the fish front.

Sunday 3 June - 13C / 14C - 3hrs
Quite a few of us on a group dive in a new spot for me - was happy just to be in the water. Saw loads of small bass, no shots taken. The other guys had a range of bass between them but the hope of a nice gilthead was in the back of everyone's mind...

Friday 8 June - 13C / 14C - 2hrs
Night dive with Brandon. Broke one of the cardinal rules of night diving and swam too far out! I wanted to explore a little spot that I dive regularly in the day just to see what it was like at night. A little sandy bay that I think would be good with the right conditions. Too much swell coming in to that spot but we saw some lovely five pounders bassing past. Both left them as we were after flatties. Found some more sheltered spots but there really wasn't much around. I got lucky with a large sole (2lb 12oz) on the way in and then we each took a bass for the table.

Thursday 14 June - 14C - 2hrs 15
Cloudy murky rubbish visibility at my local bay but was a bit stressed so wanted to relax for a few hours in the water. Eventually found a slightly clearer spot in the bootlace and started playing 'poor-vis bass chess'. Bass would come in when I was making shallow aspettos but by the time they were in, they zinged out again. Found a shoal with a large bass or two at the back but after half a dozen aspettos I still hadn't got the timing right or the bass would appear from the wrong direction. Shot a bass in the end - small one rather than the big one.

Thursday 21 June - 15C / 16C - 2hrs 15
Dive with John and Matt near my place. Little bit murky but fishable. Saw a few small bass but nothing much else, no wrasse and no mullet. Felt quiet out there. Tried a few aspettos while working over to where John was. Dropped down and a lovely shoal of bass came in over my left shoulder and looped around my back passing my right side - shot a decent bass towards the end of their loop. Had a lobster lesson from John and am starting to get it Matt stuck to the other side but had a cracking crab.

Saturday 23 June - 14C - 4hrs 20
Dive with the guys - wanted to explore some different areas close to the start and not swim miles. Started off sticking to my plan - loads of decent aspettos waiting for something more golden than silver to come and be curious but got cold in the end and hoofed it uptide to warm up. Found a great new area (to me) and saw a tail in the bootlace. Facing away from me was a good sized gilthead bream. I was too far so tried to get closer but it swam off. Gone I thought... but it stopped. I took the long shot as it swam off again - terrible shot to the gut - it went beserk - I was flogging uptide trying to grab it - saw the spear tearing the belly but managed to bear hug it in time. Pretty damn happy with that one!
Explored a bit more but the tide was covering the reef now and alot of weird currents running through - basically it was the first time for me in that area and the currents were strong so I swam back to the others. Fast swim in the current with weed flapping manically below.
Back in the shelter of the reef I had a chat with Kerin and then swam back in - thought I'd call it a day. Mooching along I stopped and saw half a dozen decent sized gilthead file past - they were down on the bottom and in front of me by quite a way - I took a diagonal shot down but it was too far - probably could have tried 'pesca in caduta'. Absolutely amazing sight to see - keep replaying it in my mind (need a camera!).

 

[portinfer]

 

[little sarge]

Went for a dive yesterday a.m with Brandon. Got in at half tide down till low which is something I wouldn’t normally do but I had plans in the afternoon and we couldn’t resist a dive in this perfect weather and excellent viz.
We went west and dived a spot we have only dived once before but went on a massive swim and found some really promising ground so will definitely be going back.
First hour and a half was pretty quiet, was seeing schools of bass (at a guess the schools ranged from 20 fish to 60) which is always amazing to see. Saw a few border line fish which were left.
Second hour and a half we were quite abit further out and there was abit more movement in the water and I started seeing a few more larger fish. After 7 hours of diving over 2 days I was feeling pretty shattered by the time we got back to the beach, still not quite dive fit yet. Took a couple of fish for a family bbq, one of them was just over 6lb.
Cheers for the dive Brandon.

 

[Brandon89]

Some good reports there,

I went out Friday evening with Pierre to dive one of his local spots, state of tide was wrong with us getting in 3 hours before low but we thought we’d give it ago anyway.

Spent the first hour in deeper water doing drops to 9m into some really nice reef (got potential for a nice pollock).

We made our way round to some shallow water (2-3m) to stalk the bootlace, there was only a hand full of bass seen with me taking 2 of them, after that I went on the hunt for a guilthead but they were no where to be seen.

Great dive

Saturdays dive was pretty quiet for me, a few schoolies at the start of the dive then nothing for about an hour.

Found a nice little bay which was holding some nice sized bass, but they all seemed to be swimming away making shots pretty much impossible for me.

Had a good dive and was nice to make the most of the great weather.

Well done with the fish kerin

 

[little sarge]

Nice photo Brandon, is it Pierre?

 

[Brandon89]

Nice photo Brandon, is it Pierre?

No it’s me, Pierre took it

 

[portinfer]

In yesterday at 1:30 (low at 1:52pm), howling wind but found a little spot that was calm with great vis. Shallow stalking for the first half and aspettos on the way back. Bass everywhere! Amazing to see. The guys I dive with now have a sort of self imposed limit of 3 bass and so I was three and done fairly fast. Nice to see some fat bass out there, left a clunker that went under my gun, I'm going to say 'seven pounds' but you never know until it's weighed. The bass I took were about 5, 4 and 3 pounds.

Stalking in the shallows is great fun and every time I stopped I would see little bass faces peering at me from the bootlace, sometimes as close as a gun length. Loads of min bass and I got shoaled twice with maybe 30 basslets circling calmly then twitching off and coming back in. Great in the sun (yeah...need a camera...).

Saw a bream-like shape about 7m away (vis was cracking) but it legged it. I'd just watched a video this week on bream fishing in Brittany that suggested a hidden aspetto - tried it and the bream came back in. Very flitty though and darted between the stands of bootlace. Took a shot - another terribly placed one but a keeper. Definitely less fight than a gilthead! Nice white bream.

 

[little sarge]

Took the afternoon off for a dive with a few of the guys.

Got in and the viz was pretty patchy but fishable. Was seeing bass around the 2lb mark straight away but as I had a few last week I just watched and thought it best to hold out for a bigger one later in the dive. 1 hour later I hadn’t seen much more, I was in a area where the weed was pretty thin when I saw something silver shimmering to my left which quickly disappeared. I dropped down and swam in that direction, as the weed thinned more the bottom was a cross between sand and gravel and I could see 3 large bass. (5-7lb) I lined up for a head shot on the biggest one when a guilthead came in for a look from my right. I quickly turned my attention to the guilty and let off a solid shot which hit just behind the head. Boom first guilty of the year on the stringer and a massive smile on my face.
Carried on and saw small bass here and there. I decided to head back in and as I was crossing over some long sea grass in about 10ft of water I saw another guilty, took a surface shot and managed to secure another fish.

Was great to get in and catch up cheers guys. (Although it’s never the same without our little cherub Shelly around)

 

[portinfer]

Friday 29 June - 14C - 3hrs 30 ish
Good group dive, howling wind and slightly murky. Saw lots of small bass, a nice gilthead swam into range for a second and then off into the murk, got cold, got out and had a good catch up with the others.

Sunday 1st July - 15C - 2hrs ish
Early early dawn raid with K & B. Saw a juvenile gilthead in the shallows going in. Saw baby plaice, cuttle, bass. Missed a bass, seemed quiet but looked fishy! Out and breakfast.

Wednesday 4th July - 15C out and 17C close in the bay (niiice and warm) - 2hrs ish
Good dive with P. Stuck to a small area and I got in the rhythm of five minute loops. 3minute breath ups and 1:40 ish on the bottom, then fin a bit, breathe up and dive. Maybe 5m / 6m.
Super clear, super calm... you could hear every wetsuit squeak and splash... a gilthead came in on the second aspetto, again a blip in and then out to the murk, they really don't hang around. Saw some small bass, great dive and nice to hang out with P.

 

[foxfish]

Please check in here https://forums.deeperblue.com/threads/the-2018-guernsey-specimen-hunt-social.109589/page-6 if you are diving in the competition.
Thanks Mart.

 

[Kristian Allen]

Does any one have any recommendations on fins ? snapped a pair of apnea ones and currently using some cressi gara 2000's that are to tight in the foot pocket. After some different ones really, any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Fro-in-shorts]

Cheeky dive on my own this morning at 8am on the west coast. Went with the intention of checking a couple of my favorite lobster holes, but took the gun just in case.

I got in and started putting my fins on in 50cm of water. At that point before even setting off i was seeing dozens of small bass zooming around chasing bait, new it would be a good dive.

To cut a long story short I cocked up finding the first lobster hole so bailed and swam towards my second, half way and in 6ft of water and bootlace I saw a big school of bass/mullet, just slowly moving in to the bay, I sat tight, held my breath on the surface and waited in the hope that bream might be schooled up with and follow in at the back. Sure enough a big white bream appeared followed by a half dozen even bigger bream.
I sighted in on one of the close bigger fish and as it wouldn’t come closer finned hard towards it, after 5 -10 seconds it was just in range and turned, giving me a very flukey long shot. I got lucky.

After this I checked the 2 remaining stops and was pleasantly surprised

 

[Tipticiter]

What an awesome dive, you'll eat well tonight, but is the bream not a Gilty?

 

[Fro-in-shorts]

Yep it is, funny though how different species swim together , the first thing I saw was mullet then bass then white bream all in the same group then giltys appeared

 

[Tipticiter]

That sounds amazing, do you see them just cruising midwater? thats how i saw my first bass/gilty combo this weekend but they were more resting under the jap weed, yours sounds more like a fish corridor which is handy to know.

 

[foxfish]

I saw two unusual fish today! I think they might of been gilheads and maybe the light was just playing tricks but they were silver fish around 5-6 lb big head but sharply tapering to the tail. I did not see any gold or black, just all silver?
Sort of cross between a bass and a bream!

 

[portinfer]

Sounds like that's a case where the fish is better identified on land...