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South Devon 2020

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Got a week in salcombe coming up soon and will hopefully be out hunting bass.

Is the estuary mouth area a bass nursery and no fishing allowed? came across an old post on here mentioning it.

anyone got any recommendations of goodshore diving bass spots? I’m guessing the little nooks and coves in the coastline (especially anything protected from the west) will be good?
 
Tried looking for accommodation in Devon at the weekend. Almost all have no availability this month (found 2 in Plymouth itself, we usually go out in the sticks) and most are booked for the rest of the year and well into next year. Barring further lockdowns, UK holiday accommodation could be in for a bumper couple of years.
 
Thanks Stuart! I will take look at that in the future. We've yet to explore around Plymouth properly - did visit the awesome aquarium though -and I recently discovered that an old climbing pal lives there now.

I hadn't thought of AirBandB (duh!), thanks for that. I hope you're not offended but we found another place in the sticks closer to where we have stayed in the past (South Hams though) and a bit nearer the coast than we usually manage. It was the only slot this month in the area we were most interested in.

All being well, we're going to Devon!
 
A quick boat dive yesterday produced a couple of nice fish.
Both taken about 10m down on the side of a reef wall.
8AC49362-8CA4-4D67-A436-746A807FF782.jpeg
 
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That's a really deep bodied pollack. Do you know how much it weighed?
 
He was a little fatty. Weighed in at 1.95kg.
Not massive, but I got a couple of decent fillets off it.
 
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Where are you staying in Devon MrX? The viz is pretty good down here at the moment, 6-7m inshore away from the river mouths.
 
Sounds good :) but things may change before we get down there (I've PM'd you details using the Forum's conversation feature). We're staying closer to the east coast this time - there was not much choice but happy enough with location. We plan to visit the west side too, if the weather is calm, to spear, and if weather rough, to boogie board. We'll try to avoid crowds though.

I plan to pack books and walking boots too, in case it buckets down all week! It's only happened to us once in August thankfully.
 
Does anyone know venerable forum member @johndory Hunter ? Wondered if he still spears in this area. Looks like he dropped off the forum.
 
Got into to Devon today. It's good to be back :)

Unexpectedly passed Spearfishing.co.uk today - their store sign is still up, door open - the shop is still selling goods for the infirm. Pity not open for spear gear.

Weather not good today, forecast looks awful for tomorrow - v. windy. Wed/Thursday look ok if we can find somewhere that didn't get too stirred up. Will just need to make the best of challenging conditions. Forecast next week looks very promising, just as we go home! :D

I found some good maps and put together a list of possible spots to spear. Some new locations and some old ones. Fingers crossed.
 
Managed to squeeze some boogie boarding in - in the sun too:) - between bouts of high winds, powerful gusts and horizontal rain earlier this morning and early this evening.

The wind blew over a small tree at our accommodation and a rose bush lashed my face, owch.

Hoping to dive tomorrow. Visibility likely to be poor but fingers crossed. 60cm speargun? 75?
 
Disaster then redemption today. Forgot my fins, both pairs :eek:. Made a half hearted attempt to spear without them but it was pretty hopeless, as expected. Visibility was also less than 1m :(

Called up spearfishingstore.co.uk, whose bricks and mortar store is now closed. They very kindly allowed me to pick up some fins there - god bless them (y) Thanks guys. Phew! They saved my bacon :)

So I now have some Apnea short spearing fins (the only fins my size left on the website - although looks like they have the long version in my size in stock too). The Apnea fins look really good although they fit v. big, esp round the heel. My 44-46 is probably closer to 46-47. Close enough though with socks :)

Also got some Apnea camo gloves. They fit snug for size, which is good as they only have XL and XXL left. My hands are large but XL is a very good, snug fit
Real nice gloves, better than I expected from the photo and price.

Roads and beaches very busy today, especially this afternoon. We opted to leave early as the hoards descended. Not much social distancing and not many face masks :(
 
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Weather better today. Did a few hours of boogie boardiing, then later in the afternoon, some spearfishing. I didn't catch anything but saw a few fish. Took a few shots but missed, including one that seemed to be an easy, sure thing shot!

I was trying a lot of new gear, which probably didn't help. I quite like the new, short Apnea fins, although I did miss a little oomph. Removing a clip-on weight from my belt helped getting back to the surface as I was a little overweighted.

The new Apnea gloves worked very well, the XL thumbs were a little long for my L hands but otherwise "fit like a glove". The wrists are longer than necessary and the Velcro webbing wrist straps unnecessary but they were warmer than my 2mm Beuchat stretch gloves and the reinforced palm is good.

Visibility was just over a metre at first, just about spearable, so used my new 60cm speargun. Missed a straight down shot and later a slightly upward shot at a mullet I'd left it too late, having lost confidence in my accuracy with the new speargun and tried to get too close. Visibility improved to 2m in places. The double-wrap then tangled. So I switched to my XXV 75, that felt better. Missed a difficult shot but then missed an "easy" shot at a curious Pollock. I usually have a 18-20mm band on this speargun but recently switched it to 15mm, perhaps just not used to it. The visibility opened up to almost 3m for a short while at one spot. I was wishing I had my XXV 90 with me. :D
 
Conditions for Saturday (tomorrow) and Sunday look very promising. If you can bear the bank holiday traffic and crowds.
 
Conditions were indeed much better over weekend. The flat side switched from east to west Sunday, should have checked GB Wind map. Saw 2 or 3 spearos at Bigbury-on-Sea. Best conditions and most fish seen yesterday, Monday, made up for the rest of the week.

Got several fish in the end including 2 big, chubby mullet. All speared on my Omer XXV 90, which worked well in both poor and reasonably good visibility.

Didn't try the 95 roller speargun, visibility didn't call for it. Changed double wrap on my ST60 to a single wrap.
 
Hi folks,

Realise we are coming into winter now, but I've just moved over from Ireland to Plymouth and am looking for dive buddies in the area, either for spearfishing or freediving. I have all my kit over and can travel. If anyone if planning on getting out over the next few weeks I would be keen to meet up somewhere, both for safety and as I don't know the usual spots around here. Let me know if anyone is around.

Thanks,
Eoin
 
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