Guernsey summer fishing

[portinfer]

water temp : 15C
max depth : 11.5m
max dive time : 1.21mins
no of dives : 19
visibility : 5m
----------------------------

Went down to Fermain this morning hoping to find better vis and I wasn't disappointed.

Off the beach over the small shingle strip and hitting the sand just beyond it... a few drops down to 5m and this was easily visble from the surface.

Completely calm and not a ripple in sight so I was pretty happy

It's neap tides at the moment so although low water was at 4:30 this morning I figured on staying in bed a bit longer than that so made it down there for half tide rising. I was counting on the neaps to mean that the current off the point wasn't to strong and the depth not too deep. On spring tides it is impossible to fish there beyond about an hour up from low water.

Anyway I was following the contours of the reef out and aiming for the bouy at the end. The dives started to increase in depth and soon it was about 10m.

THe vis on the bottom was ok and quite fishable but I just wasn't seeing the fish - I knew where to go and this was a slightly longer swim out than I fancied. I normally go there at low water - so was a bit wary of the current and being solo thought I'd better take it easy.

I took a 20m line with me and tied a bright fluorescent net bouy to the line about 6m from the weight. This helped with the depth/vis /seeing where you were going and how much further to dive...

Anyway I saw one baby pollack and 3 wrasse in the hour/hour and a half or so I was in... No bass ! Still it was a very calm and chilled dive and I had fun. Guess that's it for another week.

Ed

 

[Old Man Dave]

Just a quick postscript to trigger fish issue.
Went rod fishing for a couple of hours last Sunday with my brother in his 14ft ali boat. Guess what? He caught 2 trigger fish. He had caught one before, a few years ago but had never eaten one. On my suggestion he took both home for a feed. Another convert.
Shows they must be around. Gotta have another go.
Dave.

PS I caught some bream with the rod. Gotta get one with the gun. Not this week though - got the damn flu........AAAArrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhh.

 

[portinfer]

water temp : 15C
max depth : 7.5m
max dive time : 1.27mins
no of dives : 27
visibility : 5m
----------------------------

Went out yesterday and as I was in the north-east coast area thought I'd give that a try.

I was going to head down to Fermain again to practice a bit of deeper diving but from the looks of it at St Sampsons there was little point. Force 5 to 6 I guess and alot of wind blown chop and rough seas....

So I went to the little offshore islands and hide behind on in the lee of the wind.

Just out from the shingle and stealthing through the water in about 2m I could see that the visibility was better than expected considering the rough weather.

Found my first bass in about 2m of water in amongst the bootlace. Perfect shot right on the lateral line and gill plate - not stoned but a good clean shot. Long 100cm woodie gun was a bit too long in that depth but hopefully that will be sorted out in the next few weeks or so...

Anyway, kept heading out in the lee of the island.

The depth was about 5m to the sand and I fished the kelp/sand border - just a few drops and aspettos. Seeing the odd pollack and a few wrasse.

Off the end and beyond the reefline I found some good spots that I hadn't been to before as I normally head there at a mid tide when the current is stronger (? seems that way - I am always confused by the currents on the east coast !). Some nice drops down into little sandy clearings between the kelp.

On one of these drops I saw a familiar outline nosing it's way towards me. I lined up and took another perfect shot. Or rather a perfect miss ! I swear some of these bass have moves like something from the Matrix ! Spear-dodging bass-t*rd !

Well after some underwater cursing I surfaced and continued out until it got too rough and I was hungry anyway so wandered back.

About this time of year last year Charlie caught a nice 9 pounder so I have my hopes high before the water drops below 12C...

(Tom : good to meet you at the party - hope you have some luck catching those seals )

 

[jaketheshed]

And you Ed, I'd say its good to see you're still catching the bass but its not, leave some for those of us that like to stay dry eh!

Mind you, had me some nice bream on sunday so can't complain too much

Tom

 

[portinfer]

Ahh ! One of the lurking worm drowners comes out of the woodwork !

 

[jaketheshed]

I lurk, therefore I am...

 

[portinfer]

water temp : 14C
max depth : 9.0m
max dive time : 1.42mins
no of dives : 23
visibility : 2m
----------------------------

Been a busy week so I thought I'd go for a dive this morning - 7am for a couple of hours. Was not the best tide but good to get wet... Visibility was shocking but a float line helped me tell which way was up.

Saw alot of large mullet, some wrasse and managed to miss a 4 or 5 pound bass that was heading out of sight. Took a split second shot and missed

Bit of a swell too but at least the wind has cut back a bit...

 

[aydin]

Sorry to hear to miss the bass again Ed.
I'm not to be arrogant but what is the exact features of the gun ?

 

[portinfer]

Hi Aydin
I think that the gun is too long for the conditions and also I don't have enough experience with these dark waters !

It's a 100cm totemsub Pelagos (140cm-6.5mm Devoto / 1 x 18.5mm band)- I think that an 80cm gun would be better but there you have it - need more weaponry (Joining the dark side and have started to sort out a Mamba 90.... could be better for winter) - you have a Mamba right ? The 90 or the 100 ?

Also all I saw was a murky looking shape moving fast away from me - I know it was a bass from the shape and the way it was moving - all the mullet were in the water higher up... Nice orata by the way Leave some for me !

Off for another session now.
Ed

 

[aydin]

I have reserved the other oratas for you mate.
A mamba 90 will work for you i think.I have an 115 Asso+mamba kit.I have asked your gun for the missed shots but Pelagos is a versatile gun and also good for bass hunting but go for dark side quickly mate,you will get easily and look in your hands how much kg. they are

 

[portinfer]

Cheers Aydin ! I'll make more of an effort to weigh them properly and stop this window-shopping

Just back from an afternoon dive.... the visibility ranged from about one metre to about 30cm.... Not much fun at all... Dave will no doubt post his version of the dive but essentially we went looking for revenge on the trigger fish population after one of their kind had taken a chunk out of Dave's hand. So a bit of reefing planned but in the end with the vis we had a short dive and maybe that was a good thing.
Ed

 

[Old Man Dave]

Ed's the master of understatemant. It was crap!
Until today havent been snorkelling for 3/4 weeks. Weather has been worse than usual even for this time of year. Also had the flu - yuck!
Haven't even been able to get out in the boat for 2 weeks. I fear that even with the tanks vis of 3 foot is a dead loss.
It's always possible to catch fish in any conditions but poor vis is such a downer that it's hard to be enthusiastic.
I managed a few dives on the sand/gravel in 15/20 ft but you'd have to have landed on top of an uncovered flatfish to have got anything.
Ed found the triggerfish reef but we got constantly disorrientated by the swirling current as without sight of the bottom you have no point of reference. I saw a few small wrasse amd one small crab but common sense prevailed and we headed back.
Both of us stealthed the shallows on the way back and you could have caught a bass provided it was within 2 ft of the speartip but no luck.
Overall it was good to get wet but yeh "crap" about sums it up.
Dave
PS Ed's ordered me a mamba 90 too.

 

[aydin]

Congrats for the crab Dave.
Now i understand when i read today the ED's couple order of mamba 90 in www.medfish.com.
So welcome to the dark side
Aydın

 

[Old Man Dave]

Ed, Dave, Martyn and Steve are all about to be armed with Maori Mamba 90's. With this amount of firepower after we've finished off the Guernsey bass we're gonna invade Iran.
Dave

PS Only jokin'. No offence to any Iranians out there. :ko

 

[portinfer]

Hasn't the weather been pants ?!

Just checked the weather online and looks like it might be better after this weekend:::

(Looks rosy off Ireland on Saturday :wave)

 

[jaketheshed]

Where'd you get that wave height prediction from Ed?

 

[portinfer]

water temp : 15C
max depth : 7.6m
max dive time : 1.27mins
no of dives : 15
visibility : 2m
swell : medium
----------------------------

Well landed a small bass today. Went out this morning on the low water hoping to find the water clear and no swell... but no the gods of the deep consipred to send me a swell and 2m of visibility.

So you make do with what you get - or at least until you get seasick. Had a few dives and wasn't in for long but it was nice nonetheless - tried out hte 7mm jacket and can honestly say that it is amazing Very warm...

Saw alot of large mullet too but left them alone - probably massive bass swimming past at 3m away (ie in range !) but couldn't see them - it was like diving blind today with the bottom of the seabed looming up suddenly - all a bit frustrating but at least I won't go hungry tonight Is anyone else still diving in Guernsey ??? I know Dave tried a boat dive offshore and said the swell went right down to 95 foot... but apart from that anyone else ?

Ed

 

[aydin]

Ed, Dave, Martyn and Steve are all about to be armed with Maori Mamba 90's. With this amount of firepower after we've finished off the Guernsey bass we're gonna invade Iran.
Dave

PS Only jokin'. No offence to any Iranians out there. :ko

rofl rofl rofl rofl
You really enough power now Dave.

 

[Old Man Dave]

Ed's right I was out in the boat today.
Just a small window in the train of awful weather. East coast was calm but "down west" the swell was 10-15ft. It was enough to make John the boatman very nervous and getting back on board was a bit of a gymnastic exercise.
As I told Ed the swell was reaching the seabed in 95ft. It's bad enough trying to drop exactly onto a little patch of seabed that's 2 miles out to sea, 95ft down and avoiding the p*ssing tide, with 6 foot vis and naff all light, but to top it all the swell follows you all the way down. As I was grovelling on the bottom the SMB line kept trying to jerk my shoulder out of its socket as the swell on the surface seemed to tug the bouy one way while it surfed me across the seabed in the opposite direction.
My "secret spot" had had half of the gravel stripped away by this last months storms. This combined with the bottom surge made for hopeless conditions. Then all of a sudden I'm looking down on a large brill which is hunkered down on the stoney ground just off the moving gravel seabed. Swiftly dispatched it with the handspear.
Found new energy to search the rest of the "patch" but the one brill proved to be the only fish stupid enough to be hanging around in these conditions.
Once I'd managed the gymnastic re-entry back into the boat we set off back to the east much to John's relief.
Stopped off to pick up 2x25 hook lines we'd set on route. However, as there was too much tide I dropped in again and did half a tank in 70ft until my no stop time was up. Was just after a few scallops and managed a couple of doz and a crab which was not bad considering the mucho tide and sod all vis.
Not much joy on the baited lines, just loads of doggies, one bream, a load of dead weed and a first for me, a crab cleanly hooked in its mouth. Never seen that before. I've had them tangled in the line, or with the hook caught in the leg joint or somewhere but never properly hooked in the mouth. Always something new!
Had to make a detour on the way home to rescue a drifting boat but that's yet another story.
Aydin. Looking forward to the new gun. Starting to dream about it. Just need some better weather. Ed is proving that the bass are still there but it'll soon be too cold, too dark and if the postman doesn't hurry up, too late.
Mmmmmmm Maori Mamba 90................Dream on.
Dave

 

[aydin]

Dave really too hard weather,huge swells,strong tides.But nice to see your struggle mate.
Hope to see your new toy in your hands soon ,also with proper weather .
Aydın