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ireland spearing 2009

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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I was out West today with the kayak, on the Beara peninsula. The weather was a bit grey and the clouds were down to the mountaintops but it was nice to be among rocks, heather and holly bushes again.
There was very good vis there (7 metres) and the spot I chose had a shellgrit sandy bottom sloping gently down to 40 feet at 100 yards offshore, then falling away to an 80 foot rocky bottom that stretched out to a rocky island half a mile away. I started out diving the steeply sloping side of the island where I found pollack to 4 pounds and medium sized wrasse but not much more in the depths I went. (50 foot max). I moved back to shore and dived sand at 20 to 40 feet, taking a few scallops for breakfast and finished up poking around the shallows, sightseeing.
Great scenery both above and below water. A grand day out.
 
You lads are getting some lovely clean Scallops, well done and yes they are some of the best tasting shellfish in the sea.

So Flilpe what was the recipe that you did a few posts back as they look delicious?:):)
 
"Outwest" with the kayak again today, this time to our usual scalloping spot. I took the kayak to search out other places nearby to take pressure off the hotspot. I found a couple of fairly good areas but chose to take only six shells as thats all I need at the moment, my wife and family being away.
I had a look around with the gun and found a few triggers too. I took one by hand spearing to save wear on my spear (they were all hiding in rocks). The trigger was a bit bigger this time weighing 3 pounds exactly.
Catch 26 Oct 09.JPGTrigger 26 Oct 09.JPG
Vis was down to 2 or 3 metres, but still great for late season fishing.
 
Yes, well done, excellent catch. FOM?

..and one for the Hall of Fame I think? In fact, just checked ... would be the leader :).

Dave
 
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Well done on the triggers Dave, are those new spots accessable from the shore? Myself and Felipe went to the usual spot on sunday and came away with half a dozen each and they were hard work in rough conditions. We also had a big bull seal swimming too close for comfort, he didn't seem at all happy with our presence.
 
Dave how are the triggers to catch by hand only met one on scuba and he buzzed me agressively or so my buddy told me as I didn't see him at all. Always had them down as aggressive and thought they may have been away by now or do they stay with you all year round?
 
Well done on the triggers Dave, are those new spots accessable from the shore? Myself and Felipe went to the usual spot on sunday and came away with half a dozen each and they were hard work in rough conditions. We also had a big bull seal swimming too close for comfort, he didn't seem at all happy with our presence.

The areas are accessable from the same parking spot but swimming Eastwards. The second one in particular would be a bit of a long swim. I didn't go West but I've tried West on other occasions, by swimming, and never found much there.
The seal's been around most times we've been there lately but I didn't see him on Monday, only a female. Their breeding seasons almost over so hopefully he'll back off a bit through the winter.
 
Dave how are the triggers to catch by hand only met one on scuba and he buzzed me agressively or so my buddy told me as I didn't see him at all. Always had them down as aggressive and thought they may have been away by now or do they stay with you all year round?

If you find them holed up in rocks you can sometimes get hold of them by the root of the tail. They can't bite you like that but if you let their mouth near enough to any bit of you they WILL biteroflroflrofl.
The one I caught on Monday was speared using the loaded gun as a spear. I then unloaded the gun and released it from the spear so that the floating gun would mark the spot until I dived again to extract the fish.
They're still here at the moment but I suppose they'll either die or retreat to deeper water if/when it gets cold. At the moment my D3 says the water's 14 degrees in the bays on the West coast. I swam between four and five hours making 93 dives and never felt cold at all.
 
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"Outwest" with the kayak again today, this time to our usual scalloping spot. I took the kayak to search out other places nearby to take pressure off the hotspot. I found a couple of fairly good areas but chose to take only six shells as thats all I need at the moment, my wife and family being away.
I had a look around with the gun and found a few triggers too. I took one by hand spearing to save wear on my spear (they were all hiding in rocks). The trigger was a bit bigger this time weighing 3 pounds exactly.
View attachment 26087View attachment 26088
Vis was down to 2 or 3 metres, but still great for late season fishing.

Cracking Trigger Sunfish.....had a few scallops aswell down in Devon....
Beautiful part of the world where you live...
 

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  • ClamsOct09.jpg
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Off for a few days - no surf but offshore winds so visibility is good.

Dived a new spot yesterday - was only in 45 minutes. Mullet, pollack and coalies so will try it again. Lots of string weed and sandy gullys. Mate got a 6.5 lb pollock in 12 feet of water - fluke IMHO!

Dived my favourite spot today but went further out and deeper. Looks like very promising ground but am wondering whether the tide was wrong as the only pollock/coalies I would see were up to 1.75lb or so. Got a 1.5lb plaice hidden in a very small sandy patch - nearly missed him/her! Took two attempts as the spear bounced out the first time (must have been a rock underneath). Found him again after a few minutes and got him and using OMD's tip pushed right through and kept him pinned down until got my hand underneath etc. Was about 6-7m down.

Got a mullet (3lb) on the way in but another got off the spear (i find that happens a fair bit with mullet).

All in all a cracking couple of days diving even without a big haul of fish - just nice checking out new spots.

This area has not been great for flats this year.

The big swells have fairly knocked the tripe out of the kelp which is probably not helping.
 
Hi all,

i was out scuba diving two weeks ago. when we finish our drift dive one of friends suppose to meet as at right time and place , and he delay by only 30 min. we got very very cold for waiting out of water. of course i got chest cold. all most OK , by now . all is left to finish course of antibiotics.
any way - weather looks very promising for next weekend, this one is bit windy. i my get my family out for spin is far is West Cork or Killarney . any body have any plans ?
 
good trigger dave. itching to get in for big pollock! have you anything planned for pollock?
 
Hi Johnny. I've no plans for pollack at the moment as the sea's too rough and no vis. In the bays will be diveable but the best chance for big pollack is where there's a bit of tide running. It should be possible to dive for scallops, triggers crabs etc. in the bays this weekend. My cars getting the timing belt done on Saturday so I've only got Sunday and that's looking a bit rough.
Looking at windguru Friday November the sixth looks like the first day the sea starts to calm down!!!rofl
I'll ring you and Filipe if I'm going out but it's not looking good.
 
Divespot Nov1st.09..JPG
The conditions weren't great in the main ocean today so I decided to dive in one of the bays. I didn't need scallops or triggerfish so I took a camera, hoping to find vis to use it. I took the 75cm gun too but never took it off the float. The sea was choppy enough in the bay but I found vis wasn't too bad. Some of the bays here are deep and narrow, almost like mini fiords.
In the second picture the little red dot is the flag of my float.
I found quite a few triggers still here (temp. now 13 degrees) and hand caught one for the camera (for Feargus). I photographed a hole and one of the triggers from it to show the kind of places they were. There were actually two triggers in the hole but I hand caught the first and although I released him back at the mouth of the hole he didn't go back to join his buddy.It was darker in the hole than it looks in the photo due to the camera flash.
Float Nov1st.09..JPGHole Nov1st.09..JPGholed up Nov1st.09..jpghandcatch.Nov1st.09..JPG
 
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Bay Nov1st.09..jpgMouth of the Bay Nov.1st.09..JPGRainbow Nov1st.09..JPGTrigger Nov1st.09.JPG
More from todays dive. The first and second pictures show the mouth of the bay in the top left corner. The rainbow appeared during a squall which blew in off the sea.
 
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