South Devon Report 2006

[Spaniard]

I have fished Beer for years, taught one of the locals how to spear. I have swapped bass for crab/lobster with the local fishermen. There is no problem with spearing in Beer. If the people who earn their living from the sea, and in the most part have great respect for the sea, see people 'disrespecting' the sea you will have problems. If you do the tourist thing it doesn't go down well. I have spoken for hours about the sea and what's underneath it with the local fishermen who are only too keen to learn once they discover you are not just another d**k head from London.

 

[Jez]

Sick note from matron means diving is off at the mo', just getting over the flu :crutch

So anyway, fished at Long Quarry Point today with some feathers and pulled out one sandeel and two mackerel. At least there seem to be some fish about. Viz looked to be about 4m. Hoping to get in later in the week.

 

[Jez]

Dived Thurlstone today. I had planned to dive the Louis Sheid wreck but a bunch of scubies were diving that so I tried Thurlstone Rock to the south (see picture). Lovelly clear water, 6-8m viz. A very beautiful dive but not much in the way of fish. Saw a couple of wrasse, some sandeels, baby fish of uncertain type etc. Spent most of my time in the company of a flock of seagulls that took off from the rock and decided to poo on me now and then for fun :vangry

Saw one lonely pollack of just over a pound but managed to miss that (must have been the beer festival last night :yack ). Still, a nice day out rounded off with a nice cream tea.

 

[Mr. X]

I have fished Beer for years, taught one of the locals how to spear. I have swapped bass for crab/lobster with the local fishermen. There is no problem with spearing in Beer. If the people who earn their living from the sea, and in the most part have great respect for the sea, see people 'disrespecting' the sea you will have problems. If you do the tourist thing it doesn't go down well. I have spoken for hours about the sea and what's underneath it with the local fishermen who are only too keen to learn once they discover you are not just another d**k head from London.

Yes, I found the local fisherman were curious and helpful too -- I was a little surprised by that actually; it made my day really. The odd spearo will have little or no impact compared to the commercial bass pair trawlers fishing the breeding grounds (...been reading the Guernsey2006 thread).

One of my party did comment that the guy with the business seemed a bit of a whiner -- but, to be fair, he was friendly, helpful & from several of his other comments, he seemed accutely aware that they had only a small bay/limited resource with which to draw the punters in and make a living from (it was a quiet day). I can't feel too badly about a guy genuinely concerned about protecting his local environment.

It is a lovely spot. Parking can be a bit hit or miss (it was quiet when we were there though).

Jez, that looks like an interesting area of coastline. (Darn, forgot to have a cream tea -- did sample the cider though ).

 

[Jez]

Managed to get in yesterday in Torquay. Viz was 4-5m meters, not bad considering the easterly blow on Saturday. Plenty of pots out now, I didn't check for what but I did see a couple of cuttelfish bones floating in the bay.

Not much fish life yet, a few wrasse, not even any mullet (which have appeared in the harbour I hear).

Finished my dive by perforating my right ear drum:crutch . Ouch. There was no warning at all and it went as I was just ducking for another dive at only 1m depth. What's all that about? So, when I get round to seeing the doc I guess he'll tell me I'll be out of the water for a month or so. Anyone else suffered this misfortune? I just don't know why it went when I was so shallow. Super cheesed off about it:rcard

 

[Mr. X]

Sorry to hear that Jez. :crutch I'd go see a physician a.s.a.p.. [ http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/medical/burst_eardrum.htm ]

 

[Jez]

Oh crap! Have just seen the specialist and he has confirmed my suspicion, I have surfers ear in my right ear, pretty bad too.

He shoved a camera down each ear and showed me the difference. Not quite sure why one ear is so bad. Some kayakers say it can depend on which side you usually do your eskimo roll on. I haven't paddled for ages though and don't really buy this, if your head's under it's under.

So anyway, looking forward to a scan then having surgery courtesy of Black n Decker. On the plus side, I have to wait only two more weeks (following my perforation) before diving is an option, and the waiting times for surgery are probably months anyway. I might actually get to see a fish this season! Gonna be at least 2 months out of the water post surgery:crutch

I might have to resort to worm drowning all summer. pants. Somone post a report soon, I need cheering up!

 

[Mr. X]

Somone post a report soon, I need cheering up!

Your wish is my command! I just got back from E. Devon. Only time for a quick summary, will follow up with details later:

Weather: good & getting better.

Viz: fair, from 0.5m - 4m+ (on the same dive, in the same area!)
"Plankton bloom", or whatever it is, is messing up otherwise v. good viz. However, some areas are worse than others (bad: near shore, down current of weed beds; good: rocky areas). Perhaps just coincidence but I did an early morning dive today 5am-8am (it was light at 4.30am) & the bloom seemed to suddenly get worse when the sun suddenly started getting warm (perhaps behind cloud before that?). It was often possible to get good viz by diving under the top few feet or murk.

Missed: bass 3lb-ish? Swimming over small clearing of light bottom straight into weed. It saw me. I was quick, but he was quicker. The spear went were it was aimed but he was gone. Then ... it returned over the clearing :head while I recovered my spear (guess I should have heeded forum suggestions to let them go, drop & await their curious nature:duh ).

Hit: 2.3lb ballan wrasse (what can I say, I passed up several Wrasse but this one bolted like a bass...in truth, from a quick glimpse I would prob. have thought 60% chance wrasse rather than bass but no time for major thought process). Viz was only ok, a little murkey/dim.

Other fish/wildlife:

Saw one small bass - too small to hunt, it bolted under a boulder but I was able to make multiple dives to get a good look at it. Maybe 12-14" and < 1lb(?) -- it'd make a poor meal for one. Didn't have my torch unfortunately.

Saw lots of hand-size fish. Hard to tell what they all were in the bloom, many appeared to be small wrasse (not ballan). A couple of bigger Wrasse, maybe 2-3lb ballans. Fry/bait fish/minnow(?) & what I think were sand eels (bigger, maybe 6-7" long & shiney, mirror blue & transparent).

Lots more spider crabs than I saw at Easter, may be 30 in 3 dives (about 7-8 hours) - main-shell palm size on most. An edible crab which seemed small to me but probably just legal for the 14cm limit I now find - with a claw missing! Fewer star fish but a couple of really big ones (maybe a foot across?).

Kayaking: Very good. More later on the kayak thread.

 

[Mr. X]

knife story

One strange thing:

I took my knife out to finish off the Wrasse but found it unnecessary as it was stoned (shot must have hit the spine, just behind the gill cover). I dropped or put down my dive knife in the process. I forgot all about it as I swam off, by the time I realised I could only roughly estimate the location & was unable to find it. The knife had a mono lanyard but it tore right through the sheath - probably as I swam off.

Returned today, tried swimming over the same area (far fewer fish today) but with so much weed it was like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Gave up looking & started concentrating on hunting -- but very few fish about. Decided to abandon the area & try the other side of the bay. As I swam off towards my (different) entry point I looked around and there was my knife, glinting in the sun, resting on a rock shelf under about 5" of water! Just where I shot the fish -- which turned out to be much closer to shore than I recalled. Lucky.

 

[portinfer]

A mate of mine is on his 5th knife He kills a fish then in the excitement forgets about the knife ... he asked me to find the cheapest ones and buy him a job lot

Jez - Hope the ear works out.... sounds bad (no pun intended.)

Ed

 

[Mr. X]

...He kills a fish then in the excitement forgets about the knife ... he asked me to find the cheapest ones and buy him a job lot
...

Yeah, that's me. I bought a couple of economy spearo knives (which I really like) when I saw them for a good price (about about £7, would have bought 3 but the postage suddenly jumps up). They are quite widely available and work well with the RA limpet sheath. If this becomes a habit I may follow Spearo Dave's suggestion & switch to kitchen knives (Tesco steak knives 5 or 6 for £5 ).

Fortunately, I have several dive knives & always bring a spare along. I am starting to accumulate spares of most items now.

 

[Jez]

Thanks for the report Mr X, it did cheer me up.

Hoping to go down to the pool tonight and road test my ear at 2meters. The conditions this weekend are just perfect for a session at Budleigh. Lost track of time and it has been six weeks this Sunday since perforating my right ear drum (and may be able to dive according to Doc). Subject to my pool session I may give Budleigh a shot tomorrow if anyone's up for it (I'll let you know if I'm able to go).

 

[Jez]

Wow, check this fishing report from torbayfishing.com

It has been some time since i was in torquay so did an all dayer at the pier, 10am to 10pm. There were a few mackies around just before i got there and then i only had one garfish until 8:30 pm when the mackerel spontaneously appeared and just as quickly disappeared. OK..thats the boring bit out of the way....at about 6 pm i noticed a large fish, over 1 meter long cruising up and down the pier wall near the bottom, at low tide i say it was about 10 feet down. Everyone on the pier was trying to work out what it was...by its shape it could only be a salmon or sea trout. Anyway...i was trying to lure it with a sandeel when it suddenly accelerated away from the pier wall right in front of me, headed straight for the surface and leapted out of the water. This fish was only ten feet away from me when airborne and the only fish i know that looks like that is a TUNA!!!!! i thought perhaps a spanish mackerel but it looked like the bonito tuna and was at least 15lb in weight if not more. Anyway, vlad, who also posts on here had coming running down the pier because he thought i had hooked it , telling me that he had seen this fish all afternoon and was trying to work out what it was, i felt stoopid to say it was a tuna but before i get the chance vlad says " i think this is bonito like the ones we get in bulgaria" ok....2 guys both think this was a tuna!!!! TUNA AT PRINCESS PIER??!!>>>>WHATEVER NEXT!!!!

That's it, I'm off Tuna hunting today:martial

 

[Mr. X]

Wow, check this fishing report from torbayfishing.com
... TUNA AT PRINCESS PIER??!!>>>>WHATEVER NEXT!!!![/I]

That's it, I'm off Tuna hunting today:martial

Excellent!rofl Last week I jokenly suggested that Miles should scare a few Tuna our way...mean time Tuna are being spotted in Donegal & Torbay! Precious. I can only begin to imagine what would have passed through my mind if I had encountered Tuna last week! rofl

Weather & winds are looking fantastic this weekend...unfortunately I will probably not be going to the coast (...then again there is tomorrow. Tuna :hmm better get the breakaway rig set up! ).

 

[Jez]

Had a quick dip at Budleigh this morning, saw one spider crab. Bit murky but do-able. The ear seems fine but I've slightly buggered my sinuses again somehow ascending from 6m. I haven't had a cold for weeks, can't understand it:head Am I doing something wrong on ascention?

Will leave it for another week. Conditions were gorgeous really but had to abort the dive before really twatting myself again.

 

[Mr. X]

Jez, perhaps you have inflammed sinuses? Mine were inflammed (post-flu) at Easter -- soon realised when ascending (ouch). It cleared up by itself.

Don't know if you get hayfever or allergies but the pollen count was very high last Tuesday (& possibly the rest of the week). It is quite high today too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/pollen/

 

[Jez]

Dived Budleigh this morning. Nice day out with sun, little wind, decent viz etc.

Managed a few warm up dives to check the sinuses were ok. They were thank goodness (well for an hour anyway) so carried on out to the reef. Its back into life again with small pollack, wrasse etc all coming to say hello. Saw a few shoals of decent sized mullet but none came close enough. Dived right on top of what might have been a large solitary bass but it scooted off before I could id it.

Ah hour in and I had trouble again (!!!) on ascending from about 5-6m. Couldn't reverse equalize and am now in a bit of pain again as all my top left side teeth are aching. Managed to bring the drugs to the beach this time though so got some down me pronto but they're a bit slow kicking in. I'm not sure if its a sign of improvement being able to dive for an hour before rogering my sinuses as compared with 20 mins two weeks ago?? Maybe just lucky (sort of)?

Anyhow, going for a CT scan on my melon at the end of July to check out my 'surfers ear' prior to surgery. Maybe they could see what the f@*! is wrong with my sinuses too.:head

 

[Mr. X]

Sorry to hear that Jez. Probably coincidence but pollen has been very high this week. Good luck with the CT scan. (Good to hear that fish are about).

 

[spearheads]

Wow, check this fishing report from torbayfishing.com

It has been some time since i was in torquay so did an all dayer at the pier, 10am to 10pm. There were a few mackies around just before i got there and then i only had one garfish until 8:30 pm when the mackerel spontaneously appeared and just as quickly disappeared. OK..thats the boring bit out of the way....at about 6 pm i noticed a large fish, over 1 meter long cruising up and down the pier wall near the bottom, at low tide i say it was about 10 feet down. Everyone on the pier was trying to work out what it was...by its shape it could only be a salmon or sea trout. Anyway...i was trying to lure it with a sandeel when it suddenly accelerated away from the pier wall right in front of me, headed straight for the surface and leapted out of the water. This fish was only ten feet away from me when airborne and the only fish i know that looks like that is a TUNA!!!!! i thought perhaps a spanish mackerel but it looked like the bonito tuna and was at least 15lb in weight if not more. Anyway, vlad, who also posts on here had coming running down the pier because he thought i had hooked it , telling me that he had seen this fish all afternoon and was trying to work out what it was, i felt stoopid to say it was a tuna but before i get the chance vlad says " i think this is bonito like the ones we get in bulgaria" ok....2 guys both think this was a tuna!!!! TUNA AT PRINCESS PIER??!!>>>>WHATEVER NEXT!!!!

That's it, I'm off Tuna hunting today:martial

princess pier is just down the road to me i might give it a go :t .Aslo jez have dived torquay again yet because hopes nose is doing great loads of scollaps right in close to the shore and shoals of bass and mullet up to 8 pounds but watch out the seal steals you fish of your stringer.

 

[Doc]

Intrigued by your sinus problem ascending. I suspect its the mucous membrane in the sinus slightly swollen and occluding the exit hole into the nose. It act like a one way valve then lets air in but not out. OUCH!!!!
Describe it to your gp, but first try some simple non drowsy hayfever tabs or spray such as beconase. may just reduce the swelling enough.DONT use sudafed or sinutabs they dry up the mucous making it thick and sticky.Ever tried sucking honey though a straw??thats the effect.