Ireland Spearing 2012

[gavkm27]

Buzzed out to Inis Moir on Aran Islands today in a friends boat,to watch the Red Bull Cliff Diving,was mental but i found myself looking for fish tho,4-5m viz,lots of Pollack.
I'm around and off work for couple of weeks,will be doing day trips to Black Head in Clare,Doolin and maybe upto north mayo around Ballycastle,pm me if you are keen

 

[fcallagy]

Was in Doolin last night and dived there this morning. savage spot had a great day with daughter and her friend swimming with the dolphin. Then headed off to deeper water and got 14m at low tide so figure there must be 20 easy enough on full right off shore.
Some good decent sized pollock and mullet all over the shop. Vis was good varied at 2m in the morning picked up to 5-6m at depth later that day. Heavy place for boat traffic with the ferrys to the Arann Islands etc but will defo be heading back.

 

[gavkm27]

Easy.. you boil the fish with two house bricks for two hours,then throw away the fish & eat the bricks!

Conger is a connoisseurs fish in lots of ways, they excrete ammonia via their skin (maybe not a technical description) & start to stink very soon after death. (factual description)
If you are ever lucky enough to encounter a live conger you will see a beautiful, seemingly friendly creature, that has a sleek appearance but upon death this soon changes into a smelly slim ball!

However they are edible & at one time in history were in fact a prime eating fish, at least where I live!
I have killed a few over the years but due to the general demise of the conger & the thrill of finding one nowadays, I now leave them alone.

If you wish to kill one, then be prepared to clean the beast & enjoy the flesh.

Goujons are a great way but, there are many ways to disguise the strong flavour using Mediterranean recipes, with onions, garlics etc

Nothing wrong with killing a creature you intend to eat, just be certain you want to prepare & eat it before you kill it.

I dive with congers everyday in the north sea on the well heads and bottom of the rigs,some of them are massive and on one of the well heads there would be upto 50 of them all just milling about,they are so placid and chilled,not like the dam wolfies,pain in the arse they are

 

[bobdonny]

fab photos Feargus! Sounds class diving those rigs...
some fab conditions down here the next few days.... Low wind and swell and 14secs between waves.... Gotta get in a few dives and fix boat engine.

 

[climbingperch]

Last year I raised the prospect of good Bass being available in Dublin, its not easy though........ bad vis, access, and seals to name a few problems . Anyway I've been trying lots of places with a view to cutting down on travel time for diving, less driving= more diving.
With that in mind I went to check a south spot yesterday evening all looked good on the way down swell was low and vis looked resonable. But after getting in it was actually very patchy going from 3m max to 1m in a few meters. I decided to stick with it and try a few gullys running from kelp to sand in very shallow water. I settled in to wait at the mouth of one after a few mins I saw a big tail turn back up the gully I thought I must have spooked it but I waited. Slowly a large head appeared and I pulled the trigger , the shaft entered the fishes eye and came out just below the pectoral on the other side. All hell then proceeded to break loose but luckily I was so close and with new bands I had punched the shaft right through the fish. It still took a good ten minutes to get him in killed, untangled and on the stringer.

The swell was getting up now I tried one or two other gullys and saw a few more fish but none as big. I only realised how big the bass was when I got out of the water. It weighed 9lb 4oz a PB for me and had a totally empty stomach if it was full who knows !! anyway a great dive Happy Out ! It wouldn't fit in my weighing bowl :martial

 

[sunfish]

That's a cracking fish by anybody's standards! Have some rep.
Those vis conditions you describe are exactly what we like for bassing here. The fish seem less spooky and seem to sit tighter.

Amended to say sorry, I can't give you rep 'til I spread it around.

 

[sunfish]

Dirkjan and I dived a local spot yesterday, swimming out to a reef then back across to low cliffs and so back in to the beach again. We had a beautiful swim in great conditions, taking two nice "table sized" bass each (4 to 4.5lbs) and Dirk took a couple of small pollack to fry. One of the bass had a tail in it's mouth. When I pulled the tail out came a 30cm mackeral with the head end already digesting.
On the swim back along the rocky cliff bottom I disturbed a couple of gilthead bream and got a perfect line up, only to find the safety catch on.:waterwork
I don't normally use a safety catch but if two of us are swimming close to each other in weed or bad vis I sometimes slip it on.
The water was alive with sandeels and fish feeding on them. Get in while it's good lads.

 

[Fitzy_1982]

Nice one Neal, well done!

I bet you haven't washed your hands since you caught that fish

 

[bobdonny]

Savage Neal!! Well done Sunfish and Dirk!!
Small pollock? Dirk I think you chastised me about that before...something about goldfish

I was planning a dive yesterday myself... but ended up stripping down the carbs from my outboard and boiling the lot in lemon juice (to clean not eat)...
Started at 11am and finished at 9pm, should be good today but we had savage rainfall this morning.... so maybe not.

Shame about the Bream Dave.... your hunt continues

 

[NZRegan]

It weighed 9lb 4oz a PB for me and had a totally empty stomach if it was full who knows !! anyway a great dive Happy Out ! It wouldn't fit in my weighing bowl :martial

Champion fish, Neal! Awesome stuff :blackeye

 

[dirkjan]

Savage Neal!! Well done Sunfish and Dirk!!
Small pollock? Dirk I think you chastised me about that before...something about goldfish

I was planning a dive yesterday myself... but ended up stripping down the carbs from my outboard and boiling the lot in lemon juice (to clean not eat)...
Started at 11am and finished at 9pm, should be good today but we had savage rainfall this morning.... so maybe not.

Shame about the Bream Dave.... your hunt continues

Not exactly goldfish,........small for Dave's standard, perfect for me,.....big enough to feed my 3 kids + 2 cousins. You know me I don't hunt for trophies Buddy!
Just off the reef there was lots and lots of fish about but I didn't see to many Dave sized pollack, one or two fine big wrasse, but I think they are better left alone. A few nice looking dogfish and Dave saw a big Conger. It was great fining around in somewhat clear water with some sunshine filtering thru.
My right ear was playing up at around 10 meters and was finding it hard to clear. The wind picked up somewhat in the late afternoon and it made it a little choppy, but it was the nicest day out in a long time this summer!
On our swim back from the reef we swam along the shoreline where vis was not great in places but held up in the weeds was the world of big Bass and plenty of mullet. Again I took 2 "table sized Bass" and left the big mama's for the prosperity of their families......when we came ashore seeing the Mackerel tail sticking out of the Basses mouth was the funniest thing ever, after a young kid on the beach telling him there was no mackerel about this year!
Dave's hunt continues, I was close behind him but didn't see the elusive Gilthead!!! he's probably out there as we speak, swimming the length and breath of the West Cork coast,....there was talk of heading out at first light but he left me sleep in, probably headed out on his own like the lone hunter we have come to hear of in legend. I hope to God he gets one this year.......safety on :waterwork......Note I was behind him. Jesus you'd swear he's a green horn!

 

[Derekn]

Well done Neal...lovely bass, Its great to have a good location close to home. Any flounder about there?

 

[bobdonny]

good man Dirk

Conger are great things free swimming!

 

[climbingperch]

Thanks everyone.
No flounder in that spot Derek small Pollack, Wrasse and some Mullet its mostly weed and reef only very small patches of sand but I'll keep an eye out. Hmm... the low vis more Bass as Sunfish said is true for here anyway I was in the same spot around this time last year and it was crystal 10m easily swam for over two hours and never saw a thing !!! Hope you get them Bream Sunfish what kind of ground do you find them over?? Yes I have washed my hands Fitzy But my new Leather palmed gloves are a fecker to get the smell of fish off anyone got any ideas ??

 

[plbenza]

Ahhh...fantastic Neal!! That´s a seabass!

 

[johnnybuoy]

Bass??? In Dublin???? What's going on??? Well done Neal! I totally agree with dave about the viz. Best bass days are 2-4M viz.

 

[fcallagy]

Cracking evening last night went and explored a cave at raughly yesterday evening. The sea was calm so I could enter it for the first time. Its a series of overhangs rather a proper cave which was good as I left the torch in the van. Really eerie and surreal, the ground outside it loos very good as well but vis was only 2m and only saw a med pollock on my travels. Was up early this morning and diving mermaids cove which is on the opther side of Mullaghmore bay missed the rocks so ended up on the sand training for a bit, vis was 5-6m and the sunshine hurt my eyes on resurfacing. hard to beat.

 

[Derekn]

Went out for a dive this evening on the low tide, when I got there I seen a kayaker splashing away in my favourite spot so I decided to try a little further up the beach. The viz was terrible when I got in and I could barely see the end of the spear but it cleared to around 2-4m the further out I got and water temp was a balmy 16C. After an hour I had made my way back up to where I wanted to try and the kayaker had moved on.
I seen quiet a few small bass schooling and mixing in with shoals of mullet but I held out hoping to find a lone big bass hiding in the weed, I managed a few shots but they fell just short of the mark...its amazing how .2mm of a larger diam spear can slow it down. Anyway I managed to get up close and personal with this one that was hiding in the weed, he weighed in at just under 3lb.

 

[bobdonny]

From an angling site Sea Angling Ireland | Shore Angling and Boat Fishing in Ireland from a discussion about why there is a lack of fish currently on the south coast.

lads...my buddy had seven fish he didn't enter due to size...

ok heres another problem i see with Bass numbers..

I caught some l@ngers spear fishing one of my marks...

Guy on his own sitting in his red rib gutting six Bass...then i confronted him (he said they were pollock...i started laughing..he got some fright as i was only fifty yards from him down a cliff mark)..he then motored off straight away, around the corner (another great mark) where he picked up his buddy then on again and picked up another..
i followed them to a local harbour where i got the reg and reported them...they had three fish boxes but i didn't want them to see my car as its often parked up on quite roads so i didn't go down to look.
these guys were in bunmahon the next day...silver merc vito van (kite surfing lessons on the side and on the front)--they're from dungarvan
all i can say is greedy wankers...
those marks haven't fished well at all this year..
watch out for them on calm clear days...they could ruin your marks too...
I'm sure some people know them on here...i found out who they were...i'll meet them again..and I'll be ready

 

[dirkjan]

once there was none now there is two.?......spearfishingireland.ie, and spearfishing.ie (irish spearfishing center) inclusive its own forum but no links to deeperblue or freediveireland.?????