Guernsey 2018

[portinfer]

Nice dive yesterday out west. Saw plenty of bass but nothing over two pounds so I thought I'd have a go at trying to catch a golden grey. I saw loads of mullet but it definitely took me a while to work out which were the golden and which were the grey.

Not sure if the grey were thin or thick lipped but I could start to tell the difference between the golden at least.

Missed a few! They tend to zip around in the top water and often near rocks so I was a bit careful of not lining up a nice granite rock behind them.

Found a white bream too and had a decent shot on that. Saw another one later on in the dive that fled, I tried a hidden aspetto but it had gone - looked a good size too.

The night before I'd been on a night dive with Pierre & John.
Good dive and plenty fishy - it's amazing how the time flies when there are fish about and it got late fast.

We saw alot of small red mullet, John found a big one. Pierre had a decent sole and 'helped' me with the gilthead. Quite a few lobsters about, picked up the fist one and wasn't sure about the size but John measured it and was well over. The second one I picked up was pretty big but a bit blonde. I had a decent plaice too.

I measured the gilthead: 40cm / 1lb 14oz / 866g (I think this is the minimum for the comp?).
Lobster went 2lb 9oz / 1180g
Plaice: 1lb 6oz / 626g

Good dives, good company, good eating.

 

[DafyddRees]

Nice catches guys! It’s great to see such a variety!

 

[jerseymike]

View attachment 52191

Nice dive yesterday out west. Saw plenty of bass but nothing over two pounds so I thought I'd have a go at trying to catch a golden grey. I saw loads of mullet but it definitely took me a while to work out which were the golden and which were the grey.

Not sure if the grey were thin or thick lipped but I could start to tell the difference between the golden at least.

Missed a few! They tend to zip around in the top water and often near rocks so I was a bit careful of not lining up a nice granite rock behind them.

Found a white bream too and had a decent shot on that. Saw another one later on in the dive that fled, I tried a hidden aspetto but it had gone - looked a good size too.

The night before I'd been on a night dive with Pierre & John.
Good dive and plenty fishy - it's amazing how the time flies when there are fish about and it got late fast.

View attachment 52192

We saw alot of small red mullet, John found a big one. Pierre had a decent sole and 'helped' me with the gilthead. Quite a few lobsters about, picked up the fist one and wasn't sure about the size but John measured it and was well over. The second one I picked up was pretty big but a bit blonde. I had a decent plaice too.

I measured the gilthead: 40cm / 1lb 14oz / 866g (I think this is the minimum for the comp?).
Lobster went 2lb 9oz / 1180g
Plaice: 1lb 6oz / 626g

Good dives, good company, good eating.

Great catch... hope to see a few gilts in a couple of weeks time..if u leave us any .....ha ha.... is the 40cm measurement from tip of snout to tip of tail?

 

[portinfer]

Saturday dive:
Went with Edd to a new spot for me but one well known to him.
Lots of deep drops onto mixed sand / weed / gravel around a reef.
The first few drops were down to about 6m but we gradually worked our way out to the weed/sand edge at 10m - 12m and started following it around the reef. I really enjoyed these slightly deeper aspettos and was doing 1'20" at 11m / 12m.

I was seeing white bream on a few of the drops but they looked small. Edd took a nice Couche's bream early on and am sure he will tell the tale here shortly. About half way through the dive I felt like taking a break and hit the shallows hard up against the reef to look for bass. Sure enough in about 2m of water three bass cruised past in the kelp, I took the larger one.

Back out into the deep and diving 9m - 10m over kelp and gravel. I hit a patch where every drop had white bream. It was fantastic to see as they flitted in and then out of range. I couldn't get a shot though! Great to see in good numbers. On the way back in I had a drop and saw a shoal of a dozen juvenile red mullet lift off the gravel in front of me then settle and start swimming around in front of the gun. Great sight! Good dive!

 

[portinfer]

@jerseymike - yes, tip of nose to tip of tail. How I always measure them. Full length of fish.

 

[portinfer]

Sunday dive:
Kerin's gill's had dried up after a week cruising around the Med so he kidnapped me for a quick Sunday dive that turned out well.

For me this was exploring new ground, similar to yesterday - fantastic condtions, flat calm, 0.9m low, in just before the low and the ground looked great.

Thought I'd carry on with the pattern from yesterday in the hope of seeing bream so I started with 6m aspettos on the way out and K hugged the reef. The water is exceptionally clear at the moment and I could see a dozen bream swimming under me on the sand around a clump of kelp/rock. I wasn't sure if I dropped whether they would swim off or not but tried it.
Sure enough after a while they came back in but zoomed past and played over my shoulder, turning as I turned slowly - no shot!

Kerin came over and just got on with is and shot one. Nice shooting! We weren't sure what bream they were but once on the shaft they were easy to identify as black bream.

Carried on swimming and hit a quiet patch, both thinking maybe that was that.

Round a reef corner, more drops, more shallow stuff and found a new spot with good tide and bass.

I shot a small/medium sized bass and then started more drops on the edge of the tide. I kept seeing nice bass cruising past and it looked so fishy. Managed to shoot another bass on the drop - a big shoal of decent bass came in and slowed right down. Good sight.

Kerin had shot a 'bass' and I went over to check it out - I am sure that he will tell you the story but it's a good fish! Both of us were laughing and saying to cap the day off wouldn't it be good if we saw gilties on the way back in....

A few moments later on a drop I saw a good shoal of bass come in. I waited as I already had two bass and that was enough for me. Out of the silver came a little spot of gold and a gilthead swam up calmly and then flicked off. Took a high shot but landed it and added it to the fish float that K was hauling (forgot my stringer... pita).

Swam back, checked sizes to make sure Kerin's bass was legal - just scraped in on the limit

Great dive, cheers.

 

[little sarge]

As Ed said a good dive for us yesterday afternoon. Tried the reefs we usually check out at this spot but all the boot lace was high and dry with the super low spring tides. Moved out over the sand and Ed said he was seeing shoals of breams but they were pretty skittish, wasn’t long before I found the breams and one was on the spear. Was a black bream at 30cm and I was pretty chuffed as I have only ever seen black bream a handful of times and never had a chance of a shot.

Had a stop and a quick chat as it had gone quiet. We decided to move out to the next set of reefs which are quite a distance off shore and have a lot of tide running around them. We were seeing fish pretty much straight away on arrival. Came out of the tide and just on the edge of the tide I saw a decent bass and got off a solid shot. Dived to retrieve the fish and realised it was bigger than it first looked and when I put it on the float I realised just how big it was. Had a quick chat with Ed and he had shot a couple of bass so we decided to cross over the strong tide and start making our way in. Saw more bass on the way in but all were left. Ed took a guilty which we had been talking about only 5 mins earlier! Was a great dive and we both ended up with some lovely fish on the stringer.

Bass was 12lb 2oz and 83cm.

 

[Magpie]

Woah!

 

[westcoaster]

More back issues again this year so side lined for 2 weeks with trapped nerve and 3 muscles out of place, had the muscles pushed back and after a binge on hardcore prescription drugs, back up and moving again.
Was fairly keen (totally desperate) to get in the water somewhere, time was tight this weekend as had other commitments on, went 4 hours before the very low tide, stalking the kelp and bootlace in not bad viz I thought i'd spend a bit more time exploring the outer edges and gullies, a flash of silver caught my eye and there was a decent bass resting under some kelp, had a chunk out of its back so had been wounded somehow. Started to creep closer and got to about as far as I thought I could safely get without spooking it, took a shot and one of those - how the foook did I miss that moments!!
Continued on and 5 mins later found another bass resting, 3.5lb on the stringer, saw some other sizeable bass but wasn't close enough for a shot. Took a mullet for a curry

Picked up an absolutely quality gun from Ed who was selling one of the ones he has made, can't wait to take it out.

 

[little sarge]

In again tonight with P, Brandon and Fro. Viz was mixed but mostly good and the water was warm. Saw plenty of silvers and almost bumped heads with a seal! I think we both jumped as much as each other, wish I had the GoPro with me but that’s always the way when you see something good.
Great dive with great company and we all left happy with a couple of fish on our stringers. B
Cheers guys.

 

[Pierre Joubert]

Lovely dive in Guernsey yesterday! Viz was amazing!

 

[Brandon89]

As Pierre and kerin said we had a decent dive yesterday, definitely one of the more tiring swims I’ve had, but we covered a lot of ground exploring new reefs and massive jap weed forests. Finished off with two bass.

 

[Brandon89]

One of the bass taken

 

[Pierre Joubert]

Guilties are about!

 

[little sarge]

Great pics Pierre.

In for a dive with the guys this a.m
My plan was to hunt for something other than bass. First decent fish I saw was a bass so naturally I started to track and watch it on my right hand side. Nice guilty comes in from the left but I can’t get my gun turned quick enough and off it swims. I love their colours such a beautiful looking fish.
Saw a few more bass but all left, dropped down into some mixed weed and sand when I spot another guilty in the distance, slowly started creeping towards it but it sees me first and off it goes. By now I am thinking that’s 2 chances and you probably won’t get a 3rd! 5 mins later I can’t believe my eyes when I see yet another guilty and finally get off a solid shot and in doing so a lovely fish on the stringer. Stayed in about 10 mins longer and got out as I had what I came for. Went on the bbq (braai as Pierre calls it) this evening and tasted beautiful. Fish was 52cm and nice and thick.

 

[westcoaster]

In on Saturday with John, Kerin and Pierre, viz was a bit patchy in places at the start for me, got my 2nd ever look at a Gilty and it was quite a big one.
In the gloom I thought it was a really big bass coming in, then saw the gold, couldn’t really get a decent shot in so didn’t bother and I thought amazing to see that. How the head features stand out in bad viz
There was a big of a lack of bass around, but saw loads of mullet, was hunting the jap weed and another guilty in front of me, didn’t get much time to think about it and lined up and thought I had it, but missed, saw another one later on swimming away from me.
Continued on and saw a reasonable grey tail and it disappeared, was waiting for the bass to appear, like they do when they come to take a look, my gun was on the left side of some jap weed, and the bass appeared on the right, got the gun around but not fast enough and just missed.
Great dive with the guys, great to see these giltheads around

Went out this morning on my own, fishy but mainly loads of sand eels, juvenile bass and mullet, viz wasn’t great in my usual bass spot, so got on my float and kicked off on my float further than I normally would to a different area, still quiet but was hunting in a shallow rocky bootlace area when I looked right and looked at a white bream about 2 meters away from me, was quite a nice size and stunning to see that close. It turned as I got my gun around and took a shot and must have just missed it.
Nothing much else seen but a juvenile gilthead following a couple of mullet, this was encouraging for this area and plenty more to explore yet
Fishless trips but some learning done and on well and truest hooked on the gilty drug!

 

[Tipticiter]

You guys are seriously impressive with your in water photos and such. I've only got land pics after the fish have lost all their colours and having a Samsung?Apple mac issue haven't even bothered to try uploading yet.
I've been on the West mostly and been seeing all those species you mention, had a ba$s last week just over 8lb and had couple of failed shots on Goldens and the Bream, i hate hitting fish and not landing them so have held back a fair bit on the Gilts, but like someone above said, they look awesome when the come in directly at you with the band on their noggin standing out like a bloody beacon, but they're cunning fish eh! never really offering an easy shot.

I went this arvo, an hour before high but couldn't get near a parking space(actually nice to see) at my first choice so headed further North to a spot i hadn't dived since a teenager and certainly not when the tide was so full, parked up and went for a walk to see where i would be best to enter and straight away from a distance could see the mullet jumping and basking so figured if nothing else it could be an interesting dive.
To cut along story short i went out in the shelter of the tide straight away seeing Schoolies and greys but no Thinnies or Goldens , then when i reached the outer reef swam shallow up to the point where i new it dropped away and began a series of fruitless breathe-ups and dives over the mixed ground. About 10 dives later after just coming up i was nearing some big boulders and Jap weed I immediately saw some movement on the bottom, realising they were White Bream i did a shallow dive and took a shot at the bigger one but missed the Bugger! never found the shoal again or anything other than school Bass and Wrasse, the highpoint was watching 6 little Red Mullet feeding on an equally tiny gravel patch but thats the first time i've seen them in daylight in the shallows, and they're a really cool fish to watch doing their thing, plus a tasty morsel when big enough sure you'll agree.

 

[westcoaster]

About 10 dives later after just coming up i was nearing some big boulders and Jap weed I immediately saw some movement on the bottom, realising they were White Bream i did a shallow dive and took a shot at the bigger one but missed the bugger!

Yep I thought you don’t get much of a chance on those bream, until last wkd when Pierre had 15 gilties cuddling him in the shallows waiting for him to take one out for dinner...then last wkd I was 2 meters away from a white bream, now I think I didn’t spook it, so should have been more patient lining up my shot, normally though they are skittish and you don’t get much chance, and sightings are rare to get some target practice in
8lb bass is a great fish, you should post some pics up when you get home, always good to see

 

[foxfish]

Thanks for your report mate although I can hardly agree with your last stament!
Taste like two day old pot bait to me!

 

[Tipticiter]

Your taste buds have been spoilt though Mart, and the years probably aren't helping much eh