Sussex National Meadfoot.

[eric aqua]

Due to happenings beyond our control Talland Bay can not be used on the 20th for a competition so we will be using Meadfoot for the Sussex Club National, this has been done to tie in with the Exeter clubs National the following day at Sandy Bay.

SUSSEX NATIONAL COMPETITION MEADFOOT


Venue Meadfoot
Date Sat September 20th

Meeting Place Meadfoot Car Park. 9am.
All competitors will have to pay their own car parking fees.

Start & Finish Car Park Perimeter
Comp Area. East Point Hopes Nose to 200 yds from Harbour Arm West
Briefing 9.45am
Start 10.00am.
Finish 16.00pm.
Entry Fee £10 (Seniors Juniors Free)
Fish As per National Rules (Dog Fish, Congers and Wrasse Excluded)
Contact eric.aquaman@btinternet.com



History

This area has not been used for a main venue for several years, when last used as a back up area in bad viz, the winning catches where 15 + fish with good mixed bags. If it is a fair weather day the boat traffic will be heavy so stay alert. The Sussex Club will need all the help it can get on the day, so lets not be negative and all pull together on this one for the good of spearfishing.

 

[eric aqua]

Sussex Comp Meadfoot Beach (Torquay)

The Sussex National as we informed you two weeks ago has been transferred to Meadfoot in Devon to be part of a double weekend with the Exeter Club. The weather has been good to us and we have a window of opportunity to dive at the fishiest time of year. If we are not happy with the conditions on the day, the comp will be moved to a southwest facing coast (30ft+ Viz) and be fished from 12.00 to 17.00. Hope to see you all there, if you know some one who is not on the computer please spread the word.

 

[eric aqua]

Sussex National Competition (Meadfoot Devon)

Many thanks to the BSA members that helped to run the Sussex Competition at Meadfoot in Devon at the weekend. As we said in a previous post this was done to offset the bad weather this year and catch up on cancelled dates with the Exeter club holding their comp on the Sunday.
This was the first time for several years that Meadfoot had been used for a main event it proved to be a very fishy area with the winner D. O'Callaghan catching 24 fish from around Thatcher Rock an area not usually associated with big catches. His teammate 16-year-old Mat Hill (one of the most promising youngster for several years) caught 23 fish to take third place and best Junior. Second spot went to Kevin Daly of the London club with a mixed catch of twenty fish that included a grey mullet over 5 lbs and a Red Mullet of nearly a kilo. The divers that made the Herculean effort to swim to the Ore Stone, the furthest island out with a cross tide of 1.5 knots missed out, as this normally fishy spot did not produce the bass and Pollack of other years. Dave Pearce of the Southsea club felt a bit rough with an ear infection so decided to fish within 800 yards of the start in 10ft of water and surprised many by pulling out 18 fish including a 6 lb bass. Heaviest round fish of the day a mullet of just over 6lbs went to Paul (Araldite) Smith of the Wessex Club. Heaviest flat a fine Plaice of 5lbs.was caught by Mick Veal.
Many thanks to Dave Bailey for dragging his boat down from Southsea and Alan Mills of The Plymouth Club for manning it all day. Last but not least Verity Smith for producing the excellent trophies.

Exeter National (Bigbury Devon)

Despite already having fished 6 hours the previous day all the divers turned up to fish this area that had not been fished for ten years. Vizibility on the day was over 20 ft but the catches were expected to be small as this is not usually a fishy area. Kevin Daly, who had never dived the area before, decided to fish the east side of Burgh Island where deep kelp covered rocks and gullies tumble down to 40 ft. His catch of 21 mixed fish with several Pollack and Bass over 6lbs wiped the opposition away reducing second placeman Steve Mullineaux who’s catch included a 6lb bass to 60%. Kevin’s bottom times on both days where timed at almost 4 mins. Yet again many thanks to the Boatmen for their excellent coverage of the dive and Dave O'Callaghan for his organizational skills that helped it all run smoothly.

 

[Mr. X]

Great reports Eric, some super catches and impressive diving feats. I had no idea they caught so many fish in competitions. I must admit, that volume concerns me - although one trawler [like the Spanish trawler off illegally fishing off Beesands & Slapton this Summer] would no doubt take far more fish in an hour or less, and with little or no discrimination. [Surprised Matt let you take all those fish from his "backyard"].

Meadfoot Ariel view​

 

[eric aqua]

If Mat can restrict the wine woman and song he could be British Champion within the next few years.

 

[KWM]

As a point of intrest, a couple of years ago whilst working with the Sussex Sea Fisheries committe to develope the code of conduct in Sussex for spearfishing, we added up the total weight of fish caught in a season during all the comps it came to 1 tonne.

Kev

 

[Mr. X]

As a point of intrest, a couple of years ago whilst working with the Sussex Sea Fisheries committe to develope the code of conduct in Sussex for spearfishing, we added up the total weight of fish caught in a season during all the comps it came to 1 tonne.

Kev

That sounded like quite a lot to me until I Googled: trawler tonne fish, and came up with this story:
UK fishermen blame EU quotas as they discard five tonnes of endangered fish | Environment | guardian.co.uk
5 tonnes *discarded* in one incident, on one day from one trawler. I've met people who've eaten the fish caught in BSAC competition.

 

[eric aqua]

Thanks for that info, awful footage but typical we have a club member who is fishing professionally and due to the cod ban in our area has to put them all back. Being a spearfisherman and restaurant owner, he finds it heartbreaking to waste fish like this and has spent several hours holding cod up to 15 lbs in the tide until they can swim away but most are dead. I feel in these hard economic times these fish could be given away to good causes. I have the figures for the BSA competitions last year and a full breakdown will be available in the next edition of Crystal Clear magazine, but I can tell you that 0.6 ton of fish was caught in the comps and due to a measuring system on the guns very few undersized fish were bought to the scales,