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Sea bass hunting : advice (UK)

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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losing fish..

All of the above and.. what I have ended up doing now that I have lost enough fishes during my career as a spearo is that before you take your bass off the spear, but it into your stringer.. sounds strange, but believe me fishes are the toughest things alive to kill.. I mean excluding bad reputation, but anyhow. Stick your fish into a stringer before taking the spear out..

I lost one beauty even after I had stabbed it with my knife, twisted its neck and what not.. it still found enough fight to swim away.. I felt so stupid.. but learned my lesson..

Oh and the bass, when you let go of your gun, the bass will stop at the bottom propably in a place difficult to reach..Murphys law.. then you should go after it with both hands, try not to get too badly stung when grabbing it..

I stick my finger under the gill plates and out the other side, keeps the fish in place ok..

Good luck hunting and I will try to get some pictures some time in future, but for now only stories..

Pekka
 
Hey - cheers for the advice - had a good look for it but didn't see it. So I went back the next day and shot a similar sized one near the same place.

This time I grabbed the spear, looped the gun band over an arm and grabbed the fish with the other hand through the gills, stabbed it and then stringered it AND bagged it before taking the spear out.

Overkill, but at least it went home with me.

Don't worry Shane - ever since my blackout in a pool a month or two ago I take things very safely. Don't even go near my limits in the sea and certainly not solo. Also it's nice to go out without a speargun and play with the wrasse. We don't have dentex here nor AJ as far as I am aware - but you just keep them coming ! (But someone else does need to break your phot supremacy ! Might post some photos of some wrasse [alive and under the sea naturally])

Might be some more bass action over the weekend - happy times for all.

Ed
 
I am interested in what kind of stringers are the most popular.
I started with an Iki spike type(push through and toggle) and after having fish mysteriously disappear moved to the safety pin type (no fish lost yet).The only advantage to the spike type is that you can kill the fish with it if you don't wear a knife, and possibly if you don't have a float you can string the fish around your waist.
I personally don't like to leave chunks of bait as I worry about a seal or porbeagle taking part of my ass if it decides to take the fish.
so what do other spearos use?
 
Ive got a 12" bit of 9mm steel bar with one end ground(?) to a point and a couple of holes drilled in it with a 2' length of 6mm nylon cord through it, tied to my float, its not pretty but it does the job ;)
 
Got a 60cm bass on Saturday - down about 7metres just on the sand/weed break. Nice weight but more than the kitchen scales so not sure how heavy.

Anyway - finally landed a nice sized one !

Ed
 
Congratulations! thats a nice fish.

How do you cook bass?
I gill and gut mine finely chop some dried shiitake mushrooms and ginger cut some small gashes in the side of the fish and sprinkle the mushroom/ginger mix inside and on top of the fish wrap in foil and bake.
I have found Bass better cold, almost like salmon.
I would love to hear some more recipes for these fish.

Enjoy it portinfer
 
Congratulations on that fish Ed.

60cm sounds to be between 4.5 and 6 kilos depending on the tickness of the fish.

With regards the recipe, with fresh fish like that, the les you do the better.

I wrap mine in foil with olive-oil salt and pepper and shove it into the oven.

Try putting some green on red pesto in too mmmmmmmmmmm

When you have cuaght a number of bass and are not sure what to do with them, boil one and flake it. Mix it with mayo and boiled potatos and then dress as a salad lettuce onion etc

Beats tuna everytime :p
 
You cant beat bass ceviche. Fillet and skin the bass, then slice the fillet into thin strips. Mix with lemon and lime juice, garlic, red chilli, finely chopped onion and coriander leaf, leave in the fridge for a couple of hours then eat. The acid in the juice "cooks" the fish, but leaves it very firm
cheers
 
Here is Pekkas bass.
We smoked this bugger, tasted good.
 

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Cheers guys - yes, it tasted pretty good - cooked in foil - 220 C for about 30 mins - low in the oven (not a very hot oven so you might want to try 180 or something, hey I ain't Jamie Oliver !)

On a bed of onions with Guernsey butter and a few fennel seeds and olive oil - or fresh fennel if you can get it but not too much - also some chopped herbs - again not too much.

At least that's what we did and then tried to fit it in the oven, went in eventually.

Out tonight hopefully for some more bass - went to another location this weekend but only saw alot of mullet ... dont shoot them as I dont like to eat them - but a friend shot a wrasse.... have to pick who you go with carefully. I tried to explain the difference between wrasse and bass..... wont be going with him again.
Ed
 
Went out last night and saw bass on evey dive but didnt grt any as they always approached from behind regardless of whether i was facing the sand or rock !
Tricky fish.

Out tonight to try again...
 
First Day back diving after shortening my finger a little...
Plenty of bass and big schools of mullet around, water clearing a little after a massive storm in the weekend, saw these bass hanging around a school of mullet and picked em off one by one.
Fat fish big strips of white fat inside the cavity must be feeding up in preparation for spawning/winter.
anyway thanks to all the recipe ideas. I am getting hungry just thinking about tomorrows dinner!!
 

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Thanks portinfer
As I type the Bass resides in the oven, wrapped in tinfoil and ganished with black pepper , lemon, salt and olive oil.
Pekka and tuomo's idea about smoked bass sounds good also might have to try that once the smoker project is fired up.
certainly seems to ba a lot of bass and mullet here at the moment.
I found the fish much more wary today 2 mullet and a red mullet graced the stringer today, Rob however did a 5 card trick:Bass, Pollock, Trigger. Red Mullet and a couple of Flounder.
Breathhold seemed to be key today 1.20 seemed to be what you need before the fish relax.
 
Yes Huan - I think you are about right with the breathe hold. Most of the bass appear after about one minute and then slink in, after about 1 min 20 they get within range.

I've been between 4m and 8m for most of mine - dont want to go deeper for safety. Likewise for time - I dont go over 2mins down. At that depth that is just before the first contraction so well within limits (depending on how you feel etc - listen to the body).

With dry statics I get to around 3mins before contractions so consider that a max of 2mins down at these depths is relatively "safe". Any comments on that ?

Oh, that's with a minimum surface time of 2mins and depending on how I feel. Normal session is one hour - too cold after that. Sea is 17C to 18C.

Well - another session beckons later this afternoon.

Ed
 
Well took the Totemsub Pelagos 100 out for another try yesterday afternoon and got a 4 and a half pound bass of 61cm (at about 5m deep after 1:15 mins aspetto for those liking stats...).

Just in time for my dad's birthday meal on tuesday.

What happens when you freeze and then defrost bass ? Not that I have, but curious. Does bass freeze well for the short term ? How long can it be stored in the fridge ?

Ed
 
Hi Ed,

We have frozen Bass and Mullet quite often and I always reckon the frozen Bass simply tastes like fresh Mullet, i.e. It loses the melt in the mouth smoothness that seems to make it better tasting that the mullet. Otherwise I reckon there is not much to choose between a nice open water frsh Mullet and a Bass anyway.

John
 
On teh Aspetto.

Do you mean that you go down to 4 to 8meters depth and then hang about to wait for the Bass to come out of hiding, or do you see them before you go down?

Also do you weight up enough that you are completlyt neutral, as I think I still don't have enough weights!!

John
 
I find that most of my Bass are taken in 8m or less frequently much less and usually after a one minute breathhold, however depending on the wariness of the fish it can be as long as 1:30.
For me that is the upper limit of what I consider safe.
I find that with Mullet and large Pollock, if you remain immobile for long enough they will come closer...and closer. I guess that the fishes natural curiosity/wariness is connected to the size of the fish.
Small mullet will frequently blast in take a quick peek, turn and blast off while the big guys will wait and see if anything happens to the young.
I use a Sporasub Baudrier(Harness) of 7 kg and find that I have to hold on to kelp/rocks to remain at depth.I would have to use 8-10kg to be properly weighted at Bass depths ,but frequently I will head out to 12-16m and the extra weight is just not needed at these depths.
 
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