Hello,
Very long time lurker, looking to change that!
I'm from Ontario, Canada and have been scuba/snorkel/freediving a fair bit for the last 10+ years. I'm a relative newbie to spearfishing (maybe something like 15-20 hours spent actively spearfishing in the last year) - hard to get the reps in where I live as it's illegal in my province.
I have a trip to Ireland coming up and looking for some advice as far as where to go. Definitely not looking for anyone's honey holes - just general directions/areas to check out, and more importantly any areas to avoid for safety reasons would be extremely helpful.
I'll be spending about a week in NW Ireland (near Sligo), and then have some business to attend to in Dublin, after which I can really go wherever for about 4 days, but would prefer to stay within a 90 min or so drive from Dublin.
I have all the necessary gear and a wetsuit warm enough. Speargun is a 60cm so I'm looking to stay pretty close to shore.
Some questions:
1) Any good general areas near Sligo that I should focus on? Will be starting the dive from shore, but don't mind swimming for a km or so to get to the spot. Any areas to avoid? I assume the main bay in Sligo is a no-go because of boat traffic etc.
2) For the second leg of my trip, if you could stay anywhere within a reasonable distance from Dublin, where would that be? I'll be working remotely, but will have 2-3h to go for a dive in the morning.
3) Regulations - all I could find regulations wise is a 2 fish limit for seabass with a 42cm min, no salmon or sea trout, and then some shellfish regulations. Anything I am missing or anything else I should be aware of?
Thank you!
Very long time lurker, looking to change that!
I'm from Ontario, Canada and have been scuba/snorkel/freediving a fair bit for the last 10+ years. I'm a relative newbie to spearfishing (maybe something like 15-20 hours spent actively spearfishing in the last year) - hard to get the reps in where I live as it's illegal in my province.
I have a trip to Ireland coming up and looking for some advice as far as where to go. Definitely not looking for anyone's honey holes - just general directions/areas to check out, and more importantly any areas to avoid for safety reasons would be extremely helpful.
I'll be spending about a week in NW Ireland (near Sligo), and then have some business to attend to in Dublin, after which I can really go wherever for about 4 days, but would prefer to stay within a 90 min or so drive from Dublin.
I have all the necessary gear and a wetsuit warm enough. Speargun is a 60cm so I'm looking to stay pretty close to shore.
Some questions:
1) Any good general areas near Sligo that I should focus on? Will be starting the dive from shore, but don't mind swimming for a km or so to get to the spot. Any areas to avoid? I assume the main bay in Sligo is a no-go because of boat traffic etc.
2) For the second leg of my trip, if you could stay anywhere within a reasonable distance from Dublin, where would that be? I'll be working remotely, but will have 2-3h to go for a dive in the morning.
3) Regulations - all I could find regulations wise is a 2 fish limit for seabass with a 42cm min, no salmon or sea trout, and then some shellfish regulations. Anything I am missing or anything else I should be aware of?
Thank you!