spearfishing seaford/brighton area, UK- help please.

[sniper nick]

I am visiting my Auntie in Seaford and would like to know if anyone activly spearfishes in this area or around the south east of England. I am from New Zealnd and have spent the last 3 weeks diving the Kwazulu-Natal coast in South Africa.

I saw two potential areas yestaday when I wandered down to the beach:

seaford heads
new haven harbour arm

water seemed cold, 16-17 degrees maybe, but will see what my D3 says.

what fish can expect to see in this area worth eating?

what depths and viz can I expect?

I can comfortalby spearfish to 70ft and am hanging out for a dive in this warm weather.

please call me on:
07817691980
01323894154

nick@upcurrent.co.nz

Thanks,

Nick

 

[tecdave]

Hey nick, Dave Harries here, (bought a pelaj slip tip off you in NZ to go off to Samoa!!!) Well am back home now (North Wales) went in yesterday and the viz was a solid 8m with 17deg water and a few fish, (tropical for us!!) so if you fancy a trip up to North wales there wil be a place to stay and hopefuly a feed of fish!! Sorry cant help about the south coast tho!
You must be loving this weather after the start of your winter in NZ, bit cold wasnt it!!

Take care and would be cool to show you our area.

Dave

 

[Spaniard]

Newhaven harbour arm (outside) I have speared many times. Many decent-sized bass but you'll need a torch as they love to 'hole' up. Be careful though because many anglers use the arm and I've had the odd 'discussion' with them before. If you're in before they get there it's OK. Plenty of mullet about, maybe the odd bream and early in the year lots of decent-size squid. There is a Sussex spearfishing club and they know all the good spots but I don't have any contact details for them; perhaps someone on the forum does? You will also find conger but leave them alone unless desperate to eat them as you can spend hours trying to retrieve one if you have no prior experience of them. Max depth at entrance is probably 12-15m, viz at this time of year should be 4-6m.

 

[sniper nick]

Hi Dave, well its a small world isn't it? yes it was very cold, we had the biggest dumping of Snow for 25 years the week I left which closed SH1 from Taupo to Wellington. SA winter was high 20's with 19-20 degree water.. best winter diving ive ever done!

ive read the diving in northwales is one of the best so I deffinatly look at coming over once i'm settled in and have sorted out some transport and how things work.

How did samoa go? any GT's?

Thanks for the heads up Spaniard, I will leave the conger's alone, I accidentaly speard one on saturday in SA when I shot a spotted rock cod and the eel was behind it on the burly cage. we had to carefully slide the cod up the spear to the mono which me buddy iki'd then unclip the mono and slide them both off, he was very pissed off having a spear through its tail and we kept our distance.

My cousin and I are biking into new haven today as I need to find some lead, I will ask at the dive shop about the sussex spearfishing club.

now what wetsuit should I be using?

ive got a 3mm smoothie and a 5mm nylon and a 2mm vest. 17 degrees boarderline between the 3 and 5mm, espeicaly if the sun goes out.

 

[dave]

either the 5mm, or 5mm jacket 3mm bottoms.
The local shop probably wont be able to help much (most uk shops are pretty anti spearing and know bugger all about it ) If you have transport, the best bet for meeting members of the Sussex club would be to come along to the National Competitions this weekend at Portland on Saturday (9am start, meet at 8) or ringstead on sunday (10am start) PM me if you need more info

cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk

 

[Spaniard]

Yes I second what Dave says about Dive shops; here in the UK MOST are anti-spearing and if not, they know nothing about it. As Dave says the national comps., if you can get there this weekend, would be a good chance to meet Sussex-based spearos as many of them fish the competitions.