Ireland spearing 2010

[williew]

had an amazing time with greek gills and aegean sea hunter this weekend in cork. tried out a couple of spots i never tried before, mostly around a headland. got some nice bass on day 1 and some crab and a lobster. set up camp on a secluded small beach, lit a fire and had an amazing meal.
next day we went looking for the elusive big pollack but only found small and medium fish. in summary we are all dead jealous of you cork boys, its a brilliant county for spearing.

 

[sjwpjw]

thanks sunfish, will be careful with that one.

 

[sunfish]

Some mornings you just don't feel like getting out of bed. When my alarm went at 6.30 I felt warm and comfortable and had to force myself out of bed, knowing I'd be glad once I was in the water. I wanted to check a stretch of rocky shore before the tide turned at 10.00am.
The water was clear where I got in and after the first couple of hundred yards I started seeing fish. There were plenty of nice mullet and also some bass of 4 or 5 pounds. I didn't try shooting any but concentrated instead on trying to swim past without scaring them while staying ready for any biggies.
Vis varied as the water seemed muddy in places. I was going through a muddy area, pulling myself along with the fingers of my left hand. I eased slowly over a metre high rock with the gun already angled down when a large head rose up. Letting the fish turn slightly I drilled it through the gill plate, secured it and quickly killed it.
Back at the car I couldn't wait to weigh it. 11.2 pounds (11pounds 3 ounces)

 

[devondave]

Well done Sunfish, couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.
Now, pollack or bass, bass or pollack, which to enter for FOM.
The rest of us wish we had such choices to make.
That fish looks in cracking condition too.

Dave.

Edit: Just noticed the date, so talking complete b0!!0(<s as usuall.

 

[scottwilson]

August FOM
Is now open








August FOM



We have updated the rules so please ensure you read them ( in full) before posting your enteries, paying particualr attention to the Entry rules 1 - 7​

Rules


To have your catch entered in the UK Fish of the Month (FOM) competition you must satisfy the following rules.

Membership.
1. You must have been a current active member of the DeeperBlue.com Forums, when you made the catch.
2. You must have been a member of said forums for a minimum of one calendar month prior to making the catch.
3. You must have previously posted at least 10 times on said forums under your user name as described in 1. above, when you made the catch.

Catch

1. Your catch must not break any laws currently enacted in the country where it was taken.
2. Your catch must be within any size limits as laid down in the country where it was taken.
3. Your catch may be of any fish species and including cuttlefish, squid, crab and lobster but excluding scallops.

Method

1. You must have been fully immersed in water when you made the catch.
2. If beneath the water surface you may only have been using the practice of breath hold freediving to make your catch.
3. You must have made the catch by hand, using a hand spear, a polespear, a Hawaiian sling, or a speargun powered solely by your own manual loading effort.
4. No method of capture must break any laws currently enacted in the country where it was made.

Entry

1. You must have posted a report of your catch including details of its weight and with a clear photograph, on the DeeperBlue forums.
2. A picture, with a daily newspaper in the background, must accompany the entry to prove date of capture.
3 Accurate scales must have been used to weigh your entered catch and DB staff may request proof of this.
4. All entries must be in by 23:59hrs GMT on 2nd of following month. (e.g. April entries to be in by 2nd May)
5. You may post your own entry on the appropriate FOM monthly thread.
6. Staff reserve the right to modify or even reject and delete entries that do not comply with the rules.
7. All weights must be entered in Pounds and Ounces
Result

1. All winners will be chosen by popular vote on a DB on-line poll.
2. A draw will result in the first posted entry winning.
3. Voting will last for 5 days once poll has been set up.
4. You can enter as many times as you like every month but you will be asked to nominate only one entry to forward to the poll.
5. In the event of there being 20 or more individuals entering the competition a short list of 20 will be chosen by DB staff.

Staff decisions on all matters relating to the FOM are absolute and final.

*** GOOD LUCK ***








.​

 

[Old Man Dave]

Fantastic bass sunfish. Ireland's got some great fishing and some great spearo's.

Dave.

 

[foxfish]

Irelands fishing seems like Guernsey 10 yeas ago! Great spearing sunfish

 

[fearthespear]

One way to describe Sunfish is prolific! Superb fishing, especially when you consider only the other day you dragged up a monster pollack! That isn't luck, it's skill so bloody well done that man. Congratulations.

 

[stone_shot]

I got out today in the channel between Dalkey Island and the mainland, a place I have done well before. Vis at the surface ranged from none to about a foot - but strangely enough it cleared up below 8 feet to about 2m. Not that it mattered though - it was like all the fish were on holiday. I saw a few small pollock, one huge wrasse and a small lobster.
Nothing worth spearing but it was good to get out and get wet. Lookin forward to the next roadtrip down to the sunny southeast!!

 

[badlander]

Stunning bass Sunfish. The product of a great attitude towards hunting fish i reckon and well deserved.

 

[Derekn]

Well done Sunfish, what a beauty. Whats the best way of killing a fish like that quickly?

This is my humble offering for this mornings outing...they were lovely filleted and panfried in seasoned floor and butter.

 

[johnnybuoy]

todays catch. 6lb bass and lobster 2lb.
well done on the bass dave, great fish.

 

[Derekn]

Nice catch too baldyfish...the lobster looks really tasty.

 

[danas]

we have been out on sunday around 1 pm on low tide in Kilmore quay .trying new spot, swim for around 2 hours , but sow only couple fish, didn't manage to shoot anything. then we went for high tide that evening in a spot i went last time, we got in bit to late at dusk. water was murky vis was around 2-3 m. seen a lot of fish , but again mist few shots. fish was very scary that day and all fish a seen was in weeds, looks to me they not in feeding mood . than yesterday we went in for a early swim on high tide , we managed to shot only couple fish . i got bass 4lb , and friend of my got mullet as well 4 lb. again fish was not i a mood to feed. we spend in a water almost 4 hours . i was bit disappointed with a results. but still very good week end.

 

[dj_bridges]

Hi guys,

Had a great weekend diving round Streadagh (sp?) and St. Johns Point near Sligo. Every dive delivered the goods - triggerfish (never seen such large shoals of triggers before), pollock, flattie (flounder / sole - never sure how to tell them apart) and scallops all consumed over the 3 days. Caught quite a few lobster that were legal (118 mm carapace right?), but they seemed rather small to me so let them go. Didn't manage to find any big lobsters unfortunately!

Pretty much stumbled onto St. Johns point - beautiful walls and clear water apart from the top 2-3 m (algal bloom). One section had a stunning drop-off where I got down to 25m and could see all the way back up the wall to the lip at 5m!

Was hoping that I might be lucky in scoring some bass, but didn't see any silver flashes. Am hoping to get south at some point in the next month, either for a day trip or weekend so if anyone in Dublin fancies going on a trip together then let me know.....

Cheers
Dan

 

[dechann]

Hi Dan,
25m on breath hold, thats some achievement!
I dont spearfish, but I do SCUBA dive, and Im familar with a St. Johns Point in Donegal, past a village called Dunkineely (Spelling may be off), which has some 25m walls, its beside a lighthouse. Is it the same place? or is there a St. johns point in Sligo too? Sounds like a good site to dive if there is.

 

[bobdonny]

Poped out last night for a quick swim as I had the family with me.

The fish werent feeding so I had to go to them, saw a couple of lobsters and crabs but got distracted by some bass Did you catch the bug in a rock or pot baldy

Anyway, bagged these two but could have caught many more! Was really happy with my catch until I saw sunfishes bass.... thats an awesome fish man! Well done! What a week for you! Tried to give you some rep but I need to spread it around a bit first

I got the smaller one first, I crept up trough some weed and was staring him in the face from about 3 foot with a kebab shot, I waited about 5/6 secs until the swell turned him slightly and drilled him!

The bigger fish I spotted through some weed, only his head mind and I stoneshot him, out cold just a few shivers so I didnt brain him.... i swam back at this stage and picked up a little pollock for my daughter and none of the fish moved...all were dead but on the drive home the big fish started jumping like mad!! really like mad!! which resulted in bloody fillets

I had a nice crab but had no bag and needed to drop it to reload after the first bass. I did hop out and grab about 20/30 mussels, which were gorgeous last night with some flounder

Great fishing to the rest of the lads... it was a crap July but it looks like things are looking up!

 

[dj_bridges]

dechann - your right it was in Donegal not Sligo, and yes same place just by the lighthouse. Beautiful spot, but was expecting to see a few more fish around.

 

[NZRegan]

Hi guys,

Went up to Dunfanaghy (way up the top of Donegal) for the bank holiday weekend and finally managed my first swim! I use the word 'swim' instead of 'dive' because I'm still sans weight belt, so I didn't have my expections set particularly high because you can barely even pull off a duck-dive in the full 7mm spearo suit. Anyway, 7mm suit = toasty warm; no weight belt = not a credible threat to any decent fish in the area.

So it was a good swim. Sighted a few pollock, skittish wrasse, mackeral and mullet. I was sorely lamenting not being able to get down amongst the kelp and try foraging for lobster etc, as the waters up in Dunfanaghy scream out 'get your crustaceans here', but a particularly stupid spider crab obilged me by stumbling out over the top of the kelp and rock. I gave him a quick jab with my spear, took a glamour photo, fruitlessly chased pollock and flatfish for a while longer and went back to shore.

Back at the hostel, while the rest of the holiday makers were eating pot noodles, I was eating spider crab with garlic, green onion and butter. Hopefully, this is the first of many fish from Irish waters

Cheers, Regan

 

[bobdonny]

good on ya regan! Spiders are easiest to catch but I guess without weight belt its kinda hard