Sussex Diving

[eric aqua]

Dived to the east of Brighton on 3rd Nov the wind has been out of the N / NE here for weeks with 20ft viz most days, we have had a few days of ground swell but that only knocked out the inshore viz for a while. I had a bit of a lucky break on Saturday, shooting a 3-kilo bass with a single point in a very tight dark slot, I struggled to retrieve my spear only to find another 3-kilo bass on from the same shot. On the cod front we have been catching them for the last 6 weeks but only up to 6 lbs with one of our lads rumored to have taken one of 17lbs but with no one seeing the evidence we will have to put it down to another one of his tall stories. We fished Bognor on Sunday, the water temperature has dropped from a high of 17% to 12% in the last few days with a big reduction in fish almost overnight, still I saw a couple of spooky bass 4 kilo + with several fish of 2 kilos being caught. We spoke to a local fisherman, who showed us his catch; every one of his fish had a big bite out of it from a seal that has been causing havoc in the area for the last week, no wonder the fish were on edge. Trosky gave the pout record a nudge on the same dive taking one of 1.2 kilos.

 

[sunfish]

Nice luck shot with the bass Eric.
Are the cod in the open when you find them or are they in holes?
What are the pouts like to eat? For some reason I've never thought to try them. I often see them while diving, and I've caught and released loads while boat angling. I'm guessing they'll taste something like whiting or pollack maybe?

 

[jwells1989]

hey eric aqua, well done on the bass, no wonder you struggled getting your spear back.
how far out did you go to get the cod, i have dived a bit this last week and seen nothing but flatfish, pout and small pollack. i have tried out under the brighton piers and along rottingdean way and the east arm of the marina.
where did you spear the 3 kilo bass.

 

[eric aqua]

Pouting are very good to eat, as long as they are big enough but must be eaten fresh within 24 hrs. The codling, 9 so far have come off 3 different wrecks in 30 to 50ft of water up to 3.5 miles out and the bass came from under the chalk cliffs east of Brighton.
The marks are *********? Fortyfive years of swimming! We have also been catching Trigger fish up to 5 lbs these are really good eating once you get the skin off.

 

[foxfish]

Hey Eric nice to see you posting again.
Pout are good to eat but i would prefer to eat or at least prepare within hours of capture as they become very difficult to handle after a few hours. Pout are very soft fleshed but very delicate & interesting to eat.
A 5lb trigger!!! Wow that is a biggie

 

[eric aqua]

The Trigger was out of a shoal of several hundred most of them big it will be interesting to see if they start becoming a problem in our waters. They are ferocious feeders and have been seen rolling lobsters over to get at their eggs. Another unusual fish that I shot two weeks ago in 10ft of water was a Starry Smoothhound of 15lbs. I left it in the garage for two hours whilest sorting somthing out when I came back to it the smell of amonia was overpowering, there must be a way of bleeding the smell out of them.

 

[foxfish]

Eric you can treat the bigger dogfish varieties in the same way as ray & conger, once caught the fish is best skinned then allowed to rest in the fridge. Unusually these types of fish that excrete waste products through their skin (ammonia) are best left for two or thee days in the fridge to allow any ammonia to disperse out from the underlying flesh. I say unusually because most fish are best eaten fresh but smooth-hounds are an exception.
Now triggers are one of the invading fish that are actually becoming common enough to target as a food fish. They are very nice to eat very often described as "chicken of the sea"
By the way that was a big starry!

 

[jwells1989]

wow a starry smoothhound, i have caught them on the rod, but never seen them whilst diving. i have never eaten them what did it taste like.

 

[Mr. X]

The Trigger was out of a shoal of several hundred most of them big it will be interesting to see if they start becoming a problem in our waters. They are ferocious feeders and have been seen rolling lobsters over to get at their eggs. Another unusual fish that I shot two weeks ago in 10ft of water was a Starry Smoothhound of 15lbs. I left it in the garage for two hours whilest sorting somthing out when I came back to it the smell of amonia was overpowering, there must be a way of bleeding the smell out of them.

Now that might worry me -- as the only thing I know about Triggers is that they are related to pirhana, so seeing several hundred would seem like it might be a bad thing. Good, another voracious but tasty invading species -- always good to hunt those (see the thread on American Signal Crayfish & Chinese Mitten crabs). Let me be possibly the first to say, they also carry pirhana fish plague (I just made that up, but the papers usually add something about the invading species carrying some sort of plague).

 

[foxfish]

Now that is an interesting observation Mrx because last summer one of our visiting Italian friends had a scary experience under similar circumstances while surrounded by the salt water pirhana!
He said he felt very intimidated buy a large shoal of triggers.

 

[jwells1989]

i remember once when i was spearfishing i came across a shoal of about 25 trigger fish and they all turned to face me and started comng towards me when i approached, i sort of got a bit out numbered and went, haha

i can see what your freind means foxfish, it was very intimidating,

 

[devondave]

hey guys whats with two threads ? can't we nominate just one for 2008 , the other areas set up a new thread with 2008 in the title , i know that makes three but if we all agree on the one , well easy life an all that . What do we all think ? oh Happy New Year and good hunting to everyone .

 

[jwells1989]

i think thats a good idea, i find it annoying aswell, would make life easier and keep all the posts together.
whos gonna set it up, nominate some one otherwise we will all start making one then we will be in a right pickle.