Crystal Clear Spring 2011 - British Spearfishing Association

Transcription

Disclaimer: Spearfishing is potentially a dangerous sport and may subject you to many risks. Do not rely on information
obtained from the Crystal Clear magazine. The British Spearfishing Association does not accept any liability for injury
or death caused whilst spearfishing.
Contents
Editorial and Chairman’s Report .......................................................................................................1
British spearfishing team profile ...................................................................................................... 2
THE MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................................................................................2
THE TEAM ..........................................................................................................................................................................5
Letter from Ascension - Colin Chester ........................................................................................... 11
No Winder Required – James Thoburn...........................................................................................14
The Elusive Gilthead – Glenn Cooke ...............................................................................................16
Dive into the Builders Merchants – Eric Smith .............................................................................18
Fishing the Hannibal Banks – Garbhan Shanks ............................................................................20
Deeper, longer, safer, more stylish – Sam Kirby .........................................................................26
Be Wise – Accessorize! .....................................................................................................................28
Winter Pollack – Nick Collins ...........................................................................................................29
Club Chairmen’s Reports..................................................................................................................31
SUSSEX CLUB REPORT – ERIC SMITH ............................................................................................................................31
JERSEY CLUB REPORT – CHRIS ISAACS.........................................................................................................................31
SOUTHSEA CLUB REPORT – STEVE MULLINEAUX ........................................................................................................32
LIC CLUB REPORT - MIKE BRADSHAW ............................................................................................................................33
Upcoming Events................................................................................................................................34
2011 COMPETITIONS .....................................................................................................................................................34
EURO-AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – PENICHE...............................................................................................................39
LONDON INTERNATIONAL CLUB 2011 PAIRS COMPETITION........................................................................................40
BRITISH SPEARFISHING ASSOCIATION ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION .........................................................................42
................................................................................................................................................43
Inshore Trawling – Eric Smith. .........................................................................................................44
The Great Barracuda – Titus Bradley.............................................................................................46
Hindsight is a Wonderful Thing! .......................................................................................................48
Disclaimer: Spearfishing is potentially a dangerous sport and may subject you to many risks. Do not rely on information
obtained from the Crystal Clear magazine. The British Spearfishing Association does not accept any liability for injury
or death caused whilst spearfishing.
Editorial and Chairman’s Report
Editorial – James Thoburn
Another BSA AGM with many of the same faces as last year, but only the second I have attended. The
meeting has been reasonably intense. Dave Thomasson has been voted in as chairman taking over
from Dave Stevens and we are nearing the point where we can all get another drink and pour over the
gear Colin and Dan have brought for us to check-out and buy.
Then as per last year Eric Smith says he really would like it if someone could take over the editing of
the Crystal Clear Magazine for 2011. As usual we are all happy for Eric to keep doing it. Then Colin
Chester puts his own hand up and offers… my services!!
Anyway that was November 2010. Eric Smith has put in a tremendous amount of effort producing
these magazines over the years and he has given me loads of very welcome advice on how to get
articles, edit, and publish and which sponsors to talk to. So a big thanks to him for all his efforts in the
past. Also thanks to Penny Bird on her advice and reviews and everyone who has contributed to this
issue.
As Eric has said many times before – the magazine is only as good as the material you all contribute –
so please keep your dive reports, ideas for articles, recipes, ideas on equipment, rigging, reviews etc
coming in. Oh, and bear with me as I continue to badger you all for material for the Autumn 2010 issue
☺
– Dave Thomasson
I'm still not sure how it happened, but somehow you have ended up with me as Chairman. (luckily I
have a very capable Vice Chairman to make sure stuff actually gets done!)
A new development for this year is the members email list. Thanks to Steve for sorting this out. If you
send an email to britishspearfishing@southern-preservations.co.uk it will go to all paid up members
who have provided an email address. As well as providing an easy means to contact members for
renewals, competition changes etc, it is hoped that people will also use it for dive reports, asking
questions, looking for lifts etc.
It should be an interesting year in the Nationals, with only four, we have been able to space them well,
both in distance and time, to give a good spread of conditions. I have heard rumours of a certain south
coast diver vowing to lay off the pies and go for it this year, here’s hoping we get lucky with the
weather…
1
7. Which diving equipment do you use? Elios
Suits, Beauchat Guns and due to dodgy knees
open fins so that I can get them on easier.
British spearfishing team
profile
8. What type of boat do you use? Bombard Airo
Deck 13.5 inflatable with a 15 hp Mariner fourstroke.
The British team made big strides
forwards at the world spearfishing
championships in Croatia 2010
captured in the diary article written by Eric
Smith, the management and the competitors
themselves learnt a lot about what it takes to
compete at the highest level. One of the things
that interests me is the background of the
people who represent us in these competitions.
They agreed to reply to a short questionnaire;
hopefully you will find it interesting too:
9. What is your current profession? I retired
on Jan 31st and am now a ProSpearfisherman ☺.
Married to Andrea 40 years this Jan 2011 and
have two lovely daughters Catrine and Verity.
career? th in European Championship 1980
Portugal - both days beaten only by Jose
Amengual, three times World Champion,
Toschi, four times Italian Champion and John
Baptist Escapez, the World Champion.
The Management
Eric Smith
career? Losing several close friends whilst
diving.
13. Best tip you have been given/could pass
on to other divers? Two things: taking your
weight belt off and holding it in your hand
when you know you have pushed it to far;
the first thing that happens when you
black out is your grip relaxes
recognizing the signs from small fish that will
indicate that larger fish are in the area.
Many hours spent in the
gym, running every other night and squash
when younger but the best training for diving is
diving.
1. Your Age? 63 on March 1st 2011
I
started diving off Brighton seafront at the age
of 11.
15. Favourite seafood meal? Smoked Salmon,
White Bait, Scallops, Paella etc. etc. etc!!!!!!
3. The biggest fish you speared and the weight
of it? A conger of 66lbs a British record at the
time.
4. The weight and species of the fish that you
are most proud of spearing? Not quite what you
want but six Bass in six consecutive dives
between 16.5lbs and 10lbs
5. Which club do you dive for? Sussex Spearfishing Club (Life Member).
6. Your highest individual position at nationals
and, if you have come first then how many
times? British Champion four times.
2
I have kept the name alive by naming my diving
team the Amberjacks.
Alan Mills
#
and if you have come first then how many
times? !"#
national competitions but never finished higher
than 2nd in the overall Championship. uncle Maurice was a well known long distance
swimmer, a very good water polo player, and,
one of the first spearfishermen in the country. I
got a mask, snorkel and fins and he let me go
out with him. This resulted in me
making so much noise that all
the fish were frightened off,
but I saw enough to catch the
bug.
experiences were at Bovisand
Beach – on the east side of
Plymouth Sound. I must have been
about 13 at the time.
spearfishing and the opposition
was very good! I was competing
against the likes of Wally Pack,
Dave Heaphy, Pete Crawford,
Brian Carlson, Eric Smith and
Pete Hogan who were all
outstanding competitors$
Crawford, Brian Carlson and myself
had a stranglehold on the National
team Championship and must have
won it on 10 occasions.
!
and the weight of it?
1970’s I had a number of large
grouper and a big dentex in the
Med. I have taken similar sized
Kingfish in NZ, but to be honest
have never really been into
catching big fish.
$%
use? Rob Allen guns and Elios suits.
8. What type of boat do you use? A
Humber 4.3m assault RIB with a 40
hp. Mariner. A good, well built, no
nonsense boat.
&
fish that you are most proud of
spearing?
most satisfaction was the
grouper that Pete Crawford
and I worked hard to find and
catch in 25m
more of water.
Working with someone else can be
very satisfying.
teaching eight years
%
ago.
children? Married with one son.
11. What is the highlight of your
spearfishing career? I have been
involved in spearfishing long enough
to have had many highlights including
being a member of the only British
Team to win the European
Championship. Spending months in Spain
helping Wally Pack to 5th individual and the
team to 5th place in the Cadaques Worlds even
though I was not actually in the team! Managing
the British Team that finished 7th in Croatia
was another highlight. At one time it was not
unusual for a winning catch to consist of 50
Wrasse. I am proud of being the only diver to
win one of these comps without catching a
single Wrasse. On one occasion, Eric had
around 50 Wrasse in a comp at Portland Bill
but I beat him by less than 1% with a big catch
"
!
always dived for the local
Cornwall/Devon Club but the club
has changed its identity over the years. In the
early days of competitive spearfishing it was
the SCGB (The Spearfishing Club of Great
Britain) based first in Looe and then in
Plymouth. More recently, the Exe Club has
taken over as the only local club. As
teenagers, a group of about 10 likeminded boys got together to spearfish. We
called ourselves the Amberjacks. still in regular contact and are still diving in one
way or another. As the only one still competing,
3
of Bass, Mullet and Pollack. I repeated this at
Branscombe where on the first year I won with
a big catch of Wrasse and followed this up the
next year by winning with a catch of round fish.
cardiovascular fitness will do wonders for your
recovery rate between dives.
")meal? %'(
salad is hard to beat in my book!
2. What is the lowlight of your spearfishing
career?No lowlights, I have enjoyed every
minute.
'!(
on to other divers?
&%
reach the top in international competition and
get good results regularly like Carbonel for
instance. First of all learn to observe fish
behaviour. regularly do well because they are equally
at home in good viz and poor viz, calm
water and rough water, shallow diving and
diving deep, hole fishing and open water
fishing.
New Spearfishing Equipment Supplier – Crystal Vis DorsetLtd
Crystal Vis Dorset is the new incarnation of European Spearfishing Supplies
a wealth of diving experience behind us, so are confident we can help with any queries and
offer advice if it is needed. We are currently in the process of setting up a click and buy
website on which we also intend to have a gallery of the prisoners taken with our equipment!
Having recently acquired ESS, previously run by Colin Chester, we aim to continue providing
the same stock and also include some new lines. We are proud to be Rob Allen guns.
!
your spear guns and we will basically provide an MOT and service of your gear.
We have plenty of good ideas in the pipeline, and look forward to sharing these with you in the
next issue of the magazine – -up girl Amy!
* and dive safe.
Crystal Vis Dorset will be run by Joe Bowtell and Lucy Bradley – Joe has been diving
for many years with great enthusiasm and passion which has rewarded him with some great
results. He dives a lot locally around Portland, and has been blue water hunting in New
Zealand. Lucy is married to Titus Bradley (Featured later in this issue) she says “ We have
been married for 6 years and have lost many days to him spearfishing, lol. I understand
spearfishing is a way of life and everything else is peripheral ;o) I have been a keen observer
of the sport, and and our several visits to Ascension with Colin+,!
that the boys deliver!”
4
The Team
Kevin Daley
1. Your Age? 36
2. The place and year you started diving? some diving with my dad when I was about 12
or 13 and had a small 50cm speargun. We
didn’t get any fish but managed a few
perlemoen (abalone). Those are great
memories but it wasn’t until many years later
with some university friends that I really got
into spearfishing and finally got my first fish
with that little gun. Then came a turning point,
one of my mates bought a 70cm gun. Not
wanting to be outgunned, I bought a 100cm
and things went on from there... anyway, that
was Cape Town in 1996.
"
!*
International Club.
#
times?times British Champion.
$%
- Rob Allen, Wetsuit - Elios Sub, the
rest of my equipment is a mixture of various
other manufacturers.
'&
I don’t own a
boat, almost all of my diving is from the shore.
-!
9. What is your current profession? Mechanical
Engineer.
10. Are you married and do you have children?
Yes to Ivana and I have two children, Luka (five)
and Katya (two).
of it? Biggest reef fish was a 62kg Maori
Wrasse shot in the Coral Sea. Biggest
gamefish was a 36.8kg Spanish Mackerel (then
IBSRC World Record) shot near Durban in South
Africa.
career? +%'
',-&–
after a poor first day and a time penalty at the
start of day two, I think the highlight of my
spearfishing career was managing to rescue a
decent overall result (13th).
are most proud of spearing? 7.3kg Dentex shot in Croatia)
biggest fish, but the one I am most proud of
due to their wary nature.
career?'
&.
/'
could only see about halfway down my
speargun. (I should have kept that original
50cm popgun!)
given/could pass
'!
on to other divers? 5
on a shit set of the irons in the Solent. As he
approached to pick me up I thought 'just one
more dive'. I dived to the bottom and slowly
moved towards the ironwork, once in a good
position I waited. I sensed something coming
past my right eye, I didn’t move and a bass
swam straight over my gun, its tail was inches
from my face. It seemed like ages before it
drifted forward and I moved my gun up slightly
to shoot it through the gill plate. then had, the best bit was when I finally
got to the surface and showed Jim my
12.25lb bass
secret tricks in spearfishing. If anyone knows
any, please let me know! practice and perseverance in my opinion.
14. Training advice?
'
spearfishing training but try to dive as much as
possible during the season and try keep fit in
the gym throughout the year.
")
%(0
on the barbeque with salt and olive oil.
Keith Eayrs
1#
"
!
ing? I
started diving with Dave Bartlett when we both
went to school together, about 1974, diving
around the Portsmouth area.
been a member of the Southsea Club.
#
times? Not that good, I gave up spearfishing for
many years due to working away, I think early
in the late 70s I came 4th one year.
7. Which diving equipment do you use? I love
using Elios suits, but I mainly use Piccaso guns
and Rob Allen.
8. What type of boat do you use? I have a
Honda Wave with the inflatable floor, and an 18
hp with a four-stroke engine on it, very good on
fuel.
9. What is your current profession? I am
working as a marine superintendent on barges
and jack-up barges.
Yes, I have been married to Desiree for over
25 years and have a lovely daughter Ellen who
is 15 and keeps me on my toes.
11. What is the highlight of your spearfishing
career? The highlight of my spearfishing career
was going to Venezuela and fishing for my
country, and even though I only came 42nd out
of 68, I was pleased just to have gone and
fished.
of it? The biggest fish was a 50lb conger when
I was about 16.
career? Giving it up to work away to support
my family, but your family has to come first.
are most proud of spearing? The best fish I
have ever caught was when I had not done any
spearfishing for about five years as I was
working down the channel tunnel. I caught this
fish when I went and stayed at my mate Jim
Taplin’s house for a week. One day he put me
13. Best tip you have been given/could pass
on to other divers? If you ever do a
competition, don't get out early; stay in for the
6
&
%'/
&%
450lb Black Marlin
(&(
%
boingie at the end of my gun and swam off!!
chance of catching fish.
14. Training advice? When I was younger I used
to play under water hockey for Southsea, now I
am older my job keeps me fit.
My biggest fish was taken and landed off
Ascension Island. Last year 2009, I shot and
landed my biggest fish ever, a fin Tuna taken in very shallow water off
Georgetown.
15. Favourite seafood meal? Scallops, yum
yum!
are most proud of spearing?
e fish that
has stuck in my mind was my 33kg King
Mackerel speared off Park Rennie (south coast
SA) with my late dive buddy Eric Lilly and my
still fully functional brother from another mother
Gary Roche.
Colin Chester
2
started rod fishing at the age of four with my
dad, Ken, and my brother, Sean. This was the
start of a life long quest to seek out and
capture anything with fins and a tail! My dad
being a ski-boat angler was a bonus as this
meant we made regular trips to Zululand and
the fishing was wild in those days! We moved
from Gauteng to the Natal south coast when I
was 10 - I immediately put my head under the
water and haven't looked back since!
What a dive that was, big King Macs
everywhere! I kept it in my freezer for weeks!!!
"
!
*
+&(
As my Mom was a little wary of me playing
with a rubber powered speargun/3
own one until I was 13, but not for lack of
begging her relentlessly for years!
Until then, my best mate Ken and I made hand
held spears from wire coat hangers (seriously!)
and although these were a little fragile, with
only a tiny barb cut into the wire with a
hacksaw, we did manage to hand spear loads
of really small fish called pinkies! But we
wanted bigger and better!
After one really good shad season (the Natal
boys will know what this means) I managed to
get my hands on a 75 cm champion gun from a
local sports shop, Jimmy D'S, which I duly
tested on a few trees on the way home. Yeah,
this was the big time! To cut a long story short,
Ken and I got into the water at Chain Rocks,
Amanzimtoti and it wasn't long before I had a
ray on the end of my spear. Grabbing the spear
I received an almighty Zap and got a shock that
jolted the living $&%£ out of my arm!
#
times? This was 2010 when I came 3rd overall.
7. Which diving equipment do you use? I’m
open to using all types of equipment and do but
over the year and due to the fact that I am the
UK agent for Rob Allen gear I use RA stuff.
8. What type of boat do you use? Gary and I
have one of the new C-SKI 444 purpose built
spearfishing boats. It is a really good size boat,
ideal for three or four spearos.
The rest is history.
!
of it?
7
&4
&5/
!
Ignoblis, which weighed 32kg in
come gardener, come nurse, come cook,
come spearfishing equipment guy, come
spearo, come fisherman and so on and so
forth... Living the dream! Ya!
Mozambique.
Got lots really, but
I shot a 5kg Mero two years ago in a place
where they are dived for all the time. They
taste so good, it sticks out in my mind.
6
&
fathered four children!
For the sake of humanity I have had my
ability to reproduce removed, that’s right
you can all breathe a sigh of relief, Colin can no
longer breed! That was the funny part.
"
!Sussex.
#
I’m married to Janette Chester and have four
children, Blaine(19), Roxaine(21), Hannah Mae
(5/6) and little Grace Ella (2.5)
$%
times? 28
%9&:;
&/-technic or Magestic
fins, Omer mask and thanks to European
Spearfishing Supplies Rob Allen Carbon guns!!
career?
year’s world
Championships in Croatia. Representing
my country in front of the world was a
great honour indeed.
-!4m
inflatable.
9. What is your current profession? Commercial
fisherman.
career? /
day I dived in this year's World spearfishing
Champs and only having one fish count due to
the rest being ever so slightly under weight, the
good thing is I did not receive any penalties!
'!(
on to other divers?
shoal!
5
()
Get into the water and dive as much as
possible.
")
7
Getting married next year and have one son at
the moment, but would like more.
Cakes, and Amberjack sashimi, but really, I
love it all...!!
career? When my son and wife to be were
waving at me and shouting Dad as we came
back into the harbour in an international comp.
2!
career? Not going diving with Dave Barnard
anymore! [Dave passed away four years ago.]
started snorkelling and catching octopus
with a net when I was five in Ibiza.
Progressed to a three-pronged hand spear
when I was eight. I finally got a speargun
from a girl I met on holiday as a present when I
was 14.
'!(
Never think you know all
there is to know about spearfishing keep your
8
crayfish, line fishing, spearing or diving for lead
were always the way we made pocket money
when we were kids so it was pretty natural to
do it full time when I had the chance. After
college I dived for a living in Natal for a few
years, I then dived and fished for a living in
Mozambique for two more years before coming
to the UK.
mind open to everything. Try to be a part of,
and enjoy the environment you are in!!
14. Training advice? !
possible in as much tide as you can
handle. Or, if you can’t get in the water,
general fitness and a few 20 minute
breath-holding sessions a week
spearfishing video or two never hurts.
I've always preferred going to out of the way
locations that nobody else goes to - which is
why I spent a lot of time in Mozambique and
when I came to the UK I planned the first trip to
Ascension island in about 2005 - mostly just
because nobody else was going there at the
time.
")
+
&
myself down to one favourite. But I love Dogfish
in an oven dish covered with milk, knob of
butter, one Bay leaf, lemon zest and black
pepper for 20 minutes.
In keeping with this I did an overland trip from
London to Cape Town in 2006 and had a taste
of various remote locations along the west
coast of Africa a few years ago. I hope to go
back and do a few big trips to some of these
countries over the next few years.
<"
2. The place and year you started diving? recall a start as such - my brothers and I
learned to fish with 'dip-sticks' as soon as we
were old enough to hold one (basically a piece
of bamboo with a few meters of line tied to the
end and a piece of strip lead from a wine bottle
and a single hook - breaking mussels with a
stone for bait.)
!
of it? '&'
(%lin on
Ascension Island, but I lost it after an hour or
so, when I was let down by a dodgy drop-head,
biggest fish landed is still only a
47kg Tuna.
I began playing in the rock pools before I can
remember and then my brothers and I imitated
my dad by putting on his mask to look at the
fish. We learned to dive properly in the shallows
along Twini ledges and at Chain-Rocks, this
progressed to scratching around at low tide for
sinkers, and then for crayfish and so on.
are most proud of spearing? 3
I've had a few club records, and even a few
BSA records, but I think my favorites have to
be some of the fish I shot in Mozambique.
"
#
My two biggest Ignobilus Kingfish (GT’s) were
both 42 kg, but the one I enjoyed most was
shot inside a very deep cave near Xai-Xai in
Mozambique. I worked out how to fish a big
undercut under the shore ledge by entering
from a rock pool on the landward side of the
ledge - I had to take a big breath and wriggle
down a long tunnel, leaving my gun in there
between breaths. ilhouetted a
large kingfish where the tunnel opened up
about 10m down the cave. Don't try this at
home!
and even adapted our home made
catapults to shoot sharpened wire rods
which did get a few bream, In hindsight
they were probably more of a danger to
us
'
usually targeted.
When I was about 10 or 12 I first tried a proper
speargun that my uncle left in our garage,
though I only speared regularly from the age of
about 15.
Our family fished a lot and ate a lot of seafood,
so while my dad taught us to dive he was also
the chairman of the largest ski-boat club on the
south coast for many years, so we always had
boats and did a bit of everything. Diving for
"
!*+
#
times? 3
omps - not sure
9
'!(
how many though. Never won 1st place for the
year, though I have been part of the winning
national team a couple of times.
on to other divers? before you get in the water.
$%
14. Training advice? =
&(%
water.
&
variety of gear from time to time, though
mostly Rob Allen gear and other accessories
supplied by RA Europe.I love Elios suits - you
cant beat them for quality and value for money.
Some of the lighter European guns are nice for
small fish if you only need a pop-gun, but for
serious fish I only use RA spearguns as you just
cant beat the ruggedness and reliability.
")
%
- Simple chilli and garlic Scallops with pasta, or
Natal crayfish with garlic butter or really well
prepared fresh hand caught calamari in Cape
St Francis where my parents now live.
-! -Ski 444.
+
9. What is your current profession? National
Tech Services Manager.
Neither.
career? I've had many - from being
#
sharks while diving in the sardine run off
Natal <#
The early days of diving in Mozambique during
the cease-fire - before it became
commercialised. I remember shooting 7
different species of kingfish on one spot in less
than an hour. It’s been hard to beat since.
Above photo was taken in West Africa a few
years ago - three groupers and two bream shot
in under an hour - all within about 200 yards of
a big fishing village!
I only jumped in quickly to get myself some fish
to eat (I was travelling with my brother who
doesn't eat fish). $
saw were well over 20kg( far
the smallest ones that I could find, as I was
worried about not being able to get rid of any
big fish.
career? (
%/
anyone to dive with for 7 months while
travelling down through West Africa.
10
fish!"+./0!%,/
responded...then Titus screamed out; I thought
there must be a real situation developing, there
was!!
Letter from Ascension - Colin
Chester
There were about 50 Galapagos sharks eating
Piet's Wahoo! After this things got a little blurry
as Titus, Piet and Dirk shuffled for position to
try and get back onto the boat, when I looked
again all three of them were huddled in the
back port side corner still screaming.
>
%%2##!?
,
here in ASI, the Wahoo have been around in
abundance with all of us getting some nice fish
as well as losing a few to the taxman!
He he he.
front of the pier at Georgetown, it came past
me and I called out to Piet to come over and
blat it but it was soon out of range and we
thought he had missed his opportunity,
however a few minutes later it returned, trying
to eat his flasher, Piet put a solid shot in and
Looking behind the boat I saw loads of sharks
sniffing at Dirks fins as they were still
protruding over the back of the Transom, they
looked hungry.
We had a giggle, the guys said one minute
there were Wahoo everywhere; the next there
were sharks everywhere. I said ‘lets move a bit
shallower’ as we were in 70m just off the
outside of the ledge, we moved in to 45m and
started the drift again. Piet said he would be
top man. so I got in with Titus and Dirk. We
moved some way along seeing the usual shoals
of jacks and some nice rainbow runner. I lined
up and got a good one of about 7kg and the
sharks arrived right on time...
moved in trying to get my fish
.+pulled it up sharp with sharks still
trying to get at it even after I had it in my
landed it. Piet also had a nice tuna of 30kg, his
biggest so far.
Yesterday we drifted the Ariana ledge near Bird
Island, Titus was the first to scream out "got
one" placing a good shot on a nice Wahoo, Piet
responded almost immediately with another
good fish on the end of his spear. Wahoo everywhere!!!!'
different directions, with Titus landing his one
first...this was good for him for as I was placing
his fish in the hatch Piet screamed out "Colin.
The F*****g shark’s trying to eat my
I dived and got lined up on a tuna, shot and did
the same thing all over again...great fun.
hands!! I put it on the boat and before I could
reload I saw a Wahoo just to my right. With
sharks buzzing all around I knew it would
be a case of shoot and pull it in "if I hit it of
course" as fast as possible. I did hit it and the
boys responded in the usual way... like a
Mozambican in Soweto the Wahoo ran from the
angry, and, in this case hungry mob! My
bungee stretched taking the shock nicely. I
yanked the sucker back in towards me.
Looking back I could see Titus prodding off
sharks on all sides... Dirk was following me
with his camera and he got some great shots
of the event.
Dirk had one frame with 27 sharks in it...great
stuff!
We decided to move location and get a few
bugs, to complete our menu for dinner last
night, at the swim through (a lovely cave/arch
that houses some nice crays). Piet bagged a
beefy 18KG amberjack
before Titus did the same.
All in all, another great day on Ascension and to
top it all... as we arrived back at the mooring, a
shoal of bait fish had just been pushed in by an
array of game fish...
I landed the Wahoo and straight away looked
down through the mob to see a huge shoal of
yellow fin tuna below me, the sharks at this
stage had become predictable and as long as
you hauled your fish in real fast there was a
chance you could get it back or rather... get
most of it back.
We’re going back there today. Hope the sharks
have moved on.
Stay well.
Cheers,
Oh by the way...yes its still hot here...real
hot!
Cheers,
Colin.
12
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13
One of the best ways to coil a rope is in
the pattern of a figure eight – this results
in cleaner deployment
less likely to tangle up. You use your forearm
and wind the rope in a ‘figure of eight’ pattern
around your open hand and back around your
upper arm by your elbow.
No Winder Required – James
Thoburn
We all agree that a float is important to us
at sea3,!
users, to carry food and drink and spare kit,
and to be able to play fish especially where a
reel is not being used. However, it can be very
frustrating getting knots and tangles in your
float line especially as part of deploying your
float at the start of a fishing session. This may
not be such a big deal if you have one long
session where you only have to unwind your
float line once and can deal with any tangles
once. However, if you are trying lots of spots
as part of a boat dive or many drifts it can
become a real pain and you can be tempted to
not bother with a float. This is a mistake and
makes it very much harder for your fishing
buddies to see you in the water – let alone the
loony on the Jetski.
Each successive wind crosses the one before
so they can’t get muddled up.
So I took a very worthwhile lesson from a
couple of the guys I went fishing with recently
where we were constantly repeating drifts from
a boat. Many of you may find this very basic,
and now it seems obvious and second nature
to me – but it wasn’t a month ago.
Omer to hold my float line.
works fine it is pretty slow to deploy and the
line doesn’t come off the winder quick enough
for me and I need to physically unwind it from
the winder.
The method I was shown does really rely on
stiffer float line not the thin orange stuff, which
gets supplied with some floats and winders. I
am using the thick green 3-strand nylon float
line from Rob Allen, but any thicker nylon line or
rope would be fine. It also relies on you
When you have wound in all your line the next
trick is to quickly place a couple of half hitches
at either end of your float line ‘bundle’ – hard to
explain how easy this is so I added in a couple
of photos to illustrate.
using a winder.
Once secured at one end do the same with the
other free end of your float line to the opposite
end of the bundle.
First one hitch and then another to secure it.
When you come to use the float line again
just slip off the securing half hitches and
the line will unfurl in the water, usually
without knots or tangles.
No winder required!
Thanks to Glenn and Titus for the instruction.
The thoughts that were running through my
head were, did my contacts just say Pulpit
Rock or were they giving me the run-around.
Kevin and I discussed it at length on the way
home in the car and I decided to do some more
detective work and try and find out some more
about the fish habits of the Gilthead Bream.
The Elusive Gilthead – Glenn
Cooke
I did some detective work on where the
Elusive !
by line fishermen in the Portland area. I had a
couple of contacts that I used to call now and
again to get their catch reports, viz and tides in
that area. They told me one year that they were
catching good sized Gilthead Bream off the
point at Portland near to Pulpit Rock, but only
very early in the mornings. I decided to contact
my mate Kevin Daly and give him some info on
the stuff I had been hearing from the line
fishermen.
We looked at tides, weather reports, viz
reports from SCUBA divers and the best
structure to dive on and decided to do an early
dive. We arrived very early one morning and
got kitted up. The sun was just above the
horizon as we entered the water full of
anticipation, the tide was slack and the viz was
about four meters or so. I remember diving to
approx. 12m and just lying on top of a big rock
with hundreds of large Wrasse around me then
something silver caught my eye…a large shoal
of Mullet cruised in to take a look at me and
stayed around me for about 30 seconds. I
waited to see if any other species of fish were
around, there weren’t and I then pushed off the
bottom to go back to the surface. Many dives
later and I was starting to get cold, ignored shooting some large Bass and
Black Bream on some of my dives to wait
for the Golden one to appear
4!
,
I headed back to our entry point and caught up
with Kevin, he said on his very first dive he
thought he saw some Giltheads but wasn’t sure
and then the same as me ignored some lovely
Bass to wait for the elusive fish but never saw
them again.
So armed with some more information about
Gilthead Bream fish habits, more calls to my
contacts and then getting the right tides, we
decided to go for it again…. This time even
earlier in the morning than before. We arrived
about an hour before sunrise, it was cold
getting kitted up that time in the morning and
the car park was deserted except for a camper
van with occupants…we tried to keep as quiet
as possible as the last thing we wanted to do
was to disturb the camper van and draw
attention to ourselves.
As we entered the water it was still dark but
you could just see the sky brightening up over
the horizon as the sun was on its way…it was a
dawn glow. It was a strange feeling swimming
out to our respective dive spots, using
landmarks that were illuminated by lampposts
on the shore. I did a couple of shallow dives at
first to see if I could see anything, and I could
just about make out Wrasse and the structure
as my eyes slowly got accustomed to the
darkness underwater. " torches as we thought that his might
disturb the fish we were hunting.
my dive spot which was in about 14 meters
deep of water, the viz was about four to five
meters and the tide was running a bit, but not
too bad. I had a nice long breathe up and took
a dive and settled onto the bottom. Many fish
scattered at first as I came down and then
came back to look at me but I could only just
about make out shapes of fish, not species,
until my eyes got accustomed to the lack of
light. in close to the seabed. I wasn’t sure what
it was but then realised it was a Gilthead
Bream!
first and I moved the gun down to get a shot
+
5!
16
+
was the middle of the fish.
As soon as I hit the fish it went ballistic and was
twisting and turning on my spear line. The
spear had gone right through the fish. I swam
and grabbed the spear line in my left and right
hand with the fish in the middle still going wild.
and hit me square on the bridge of my
nose + stars. I tried to grab the fish and I managed to
get it trapped between my outer thigh and my
forearm, but it was still going mad. I was now
swimming to the surface trying to hold the fish
but it managed to get out of my grasp and tore
the seabed. #
gloom I spotted another Gilthead Bream.
this time I made sure of my shot and had him
on my stringer after that dive. He was about
5.5lbs and I reckon the one I lost was about
8lbs.
I took a few more dives and saw no more
Giltheads. The sun was now creeping up over
the horizon and the sky was brightening up. I
saw Kevin swimming back towards our entry
point. I caught up with him just as he was
getting out, and saw he also had a Gilthead
Bream.
Glenn and Kevin with a lovely pair of Gilthead Bream
off the spear line. In the process me on the waistline through two layers of
wetsuit!67
to me, he could see I had blood in my mask
and pointed it out to me...the fish had not only
ripped my wetsuit and cut my waistline but had
also given me a bloody nose before escaping!
My nose stopped bleeding after a few minutes
and I had calmed down, there were sun streaks
starting to light up the sky over the horizon. I
took another few breaths and dived down to
It was still pretty early as we both walked back
towards the car in the early morning light. It
was good to finally see some of these stunning
looking fish %!$
access to the same gear, Travis stock many
different gloves from £1.50 to £10.
Dive into the Builders
Merchants – Eric Smith
The insulation that is used all over the house
these days is called Celotex. This goes under
floors and in walls and lofts varying in thickness
from 25 mm to 150 mm. Being fully water
proof and very light it is easily worked with a
saw. I cut a V-shaped block and covered it with
gaffer tape. I fitted this in the front of my
inflatable to level the floor out and to house my
anchor bucket (Also bought from the shop).
I don’t know about you, but I hate being ripped
off. Every time I visit a ships chandlers or
specialist shop everything I want is three
times the price of the regular product.
Having just retired from the builder’s merchants
Travis Perkins I have noticed a tremendous
difference in the products on sale these days
e.g. being driven by the many new regulations
in health and safety and insulation.
Yello Phon is used under hard floors, fully
waterproof, very light, and, 10 mm thick. This
can be cut with scissors but is strong enough
to stop bass spines going through the inflatable
floors of most boats.
These sorts of odd bits can often be found in
skips having been disregarded by the builders.
The tape I used was designed to be used on
floors, and fully waterproof, but there are many
others in the merchants these days from
electrical to anti-skid all at a fraction of the
price charged in the chandlers.
Just take the simple glove. When diving hard
in the summer months my lighter gloves may
last two weeks before the fingers of the left
hand start wearing through leaving me with a
box of right hands at the end of the season. At
the start of 2010, I was issued with a new pair
of anti slip gloves by my company under health
and safety. I wore these for two months
handling blocks and bricks etc before they
needed replacing having lost their anti-slip
properties. Having no holes in them I used
them for diving, plenty warm enough for the
summer months giving a good feel to the gun
and other equipment and finished the year
looking as good as when they started. We have
now been issued with the same gloves but
thermal lined. These I have yet to try as a
diving glove but yet again very warm in the
freezing weather. I can only comment on the
stock that TP hold but all merchants have
Replacing the chain on my anchor last year
was also a low cost exercise with chain from
bath plug to towing strength all stocked by my
branch, along with nylon rope from 2mm to
15mm sold in various packs to 30mts.
Some of the modern glues are multi-purpose;
one that comes to mind is Stick o Flex! This
comes in a full size tube at a fraction of the
price of most inflatable glues. It looks much like
the silicon that goes around baths and can be
used for that purpose, after a trial on a small
piece of PVC boat material I used it to repair
two irritating holes in the bottom board of my
18
boat. They claim it can even be used under
water, anyway, it worked a treat sticking like
the preverbal S**t to the blanket.
Waterproof jackets and trousers in varying
thickness for early season diving; even
protective safety goggles as sun glasses or
light enhancing for dull days to keep the spray
out of your eyes on the rough days, all made
from tough plastic and at a very low price.
Fed up with a rusting boat trailer, and having
bought a new boat that did not fit it, I started
looking around for new materials to modify it.
Noticing that a fishing boat on the beach at
Worthing had used a yellow length of to protect the top edge where the net is pulled
over, I gave it a closer inspection. It proved to
be ideal, four inches diameter, and 10mm
thick. Acquiring two 4mt lengths through the
company and using the threaded bar and
nuts from the shop they were soon bent and
bolted together to make the perfect shape to
fit my boat. Another problem solved through
the builders merchants.
This might sound like an advert for my old firm
(I still have shares in the company) but most
builders merchants sell the same gear
sometimes under different trade names and
quite often it is better for the jobs I needed to
do than what I could buy at the chandlers and
for a fraction of the price.
DKB
Underwater Sports Supplies
Tel:07515105729
Email: daniel.bailey103@ntlworld
Web: dkbunderwatersports.co.uk
19
the hundreds under the dolphins. I sat at 10
meters down with hundreds of medium sized
Fishing the Hannibal Banks –
20 kilo tuna streaming past me, waiting for the
Garbhan Shanks
big one. Eventually I ran out of air and as I hit
the surface I watched a 90/100kg Tuna
swim under me
.
I was based on Coiba Island for a week in early
didn't do any of the normal tricks of swimming
February 2010 over the new moon period with
underneath the shoal or at the back. John shot
a spearfishing friend, John Betchold, who is
one 20 kilo tuna (although we said only go for
based in California. Every day we would travel
the big ones - he couldn't resist!)
40 miles out to sea on a local panga to fish
Saw quite a few sea snakes. The tuna then kept
in and around the Hannibal banks and the
deep for the rest of the day. I would see the
surrounding islands. This area is very remote
dolphins, dive to their depth at about 15
and there is an abundance of marine life and
meters, but the tuna would then be way
schools of thousands of yellow fin tuna. The
beneath that in the murk layer. You could not
main aim of the trip
see the tuna from
was ultimately to
the surface.
shoot and land 100
Lots of bonito
kilo plus tuna.
smashing the
surface, which
attracted a lot of
Day 1
bird action. Stopped
Mixed weather, but
for lunch and dived
it settled down
"La Roca" - saw lots
towards lunch.
of fish in front of the
Fished outside of
reef facing the
Jicarita
current - jacks, small
and Jicaron. Lots
snapper and of fish about, birds
my first rooster
constantly working
fish
the rising baitfish,
on my flasher. I had
tuna boiling around
wanted to shoot one
baitfish on the
but was then told
surface, with large
they were not good
and small tuna
eating, so didn't
jumping out of the
take the shot.
water. I landed a
Chased dolphins for
20 and 45kg
the rest of the
tuna, and John
afternoon but tuna
30 and 55kg
were elusive. Some
John's last tuna
glimpses of tuna at
took ages to land,
depth but they were
John Betchold
so drove home in
passing through
the dark, captain navigating by compass. The
quickly so no fish taken. We had had torrential
phosphorescence glowing in the wake of the
rain all night so we wondered whether that had
boat was mesmerizing to watch.
affected the tuna - the sun burnt through the
clouds by late afternoon, leaving us with our
first blue skies, so we are hoping Day three
Day 2
would be good - off to Montosa.
28c water temp. Fishing south west of Jicarita
in the morning, a couple of big tuna shoals, in
20
Day 3
Dived reef west of Montosa. Huge shoals of
jacks and a shoal of several hundred
snapper, which from the surface I
originally thought was reef! Mullet snapper
with dog snapper underneath. Dived to 19
meters with decent sized dog snapper
underneath at about 25 meters. Took a shot
and missed. John missed a small Wahoo. No
Cabera snapper or grouper seen, nor any
amberjack which was a disappointment. As the
park zone is now better policed, all the local
fisherman seemed to be forced out of the park
and were therefore fishing west of Montosa, so
they have probably impacted on the amberjack.
Saw lots of turtles.
Dived off rock NE tip of Montosa, but only
small fish. Afternoon tuna hunting off Montosa,
we found the dolphin and John shot a tuna
underneath the dolphin, but it tore off. Found
the shoal again, I plugged an 80kg tuna
through the tail mid-body behind the anal
fin. Couldn't swim properly, couldn't dive, so
swam on surface. I soon pulled the fish in, and
it was hanging upside down looking pretty
dead, so I clipped the shooting line direct to my
tuna board in order that I could swim down and
stick a knife through it's brain. I would have
usually doubled up with the spare gun in the
boat, but the boat was off near John, and I was
impatient to get the fish in the cooler. Suddenly
it came back to life found one last spurt to dive
for the depths. It pulled my tuna board under,
went ballistic thrashing around, but as there
was no bungee to absorb the pull, as I had
clipped the steel shooting line to my board, the
slip tip cable just sawed eventually through the
back of the fish and it tore off. Gutted, but all
my fault for rushing things! I wanted to get the
fish in the boat ASAP, so instead of letting the
fish run and tire itself out I rushed it. It was
because when I plugged it, two seconds later
and absolute bus swam through, so I wanted to
catch up with that shoal which had some
monster tuna in it. The rest of the afternoon
we followed a super pod of several
hundred dolphin, but we never saw any tuna
beneath them, so either the tuna were staying
deep or the dolphins were just socializing. Slow
day, hoping tomorrow will be better!
Day 4
Went straight to Hannibal Bank, but four Pesca
Panama boats on it jigging over the reef, and
no sign of surface activity so we moved to the
"Roca" reef off Jicaron. Out of interest, Tom
one of the marlin boat captains said that
Hannibal Bank (gps mark 14) was 122 ft at it's
shallowest, but you can sometimes see the
shoals of jacks from the surface. This is pretty
impressive as that means there is likely to be
60 ft of fish above the reef, as under the jacks
you usually have mullet snapper and then under
that closest to the reef you have the dog
snapper. That is thousands and thousands of
fish....We decided we needed to get some fish
on the boat rather than religiously holding out
for the "monster" prize fish. I swapped my
wooden tuna gun for my 1.3 carbon Rob Allen,
which is deadly accurate. First dive down in
front of the reef facing the current I got an
estimated 35kg plus amberjack. John also
got himself his biggest amberjack of a similar
size. I then got a dog snapper on my second
dive. On the second drift over the reef (the
front end of it had most of the fish with large
shoals of jacks and snapper hanging around) I
noticed a lot more sharks including two
bull sharks. Further into the drift I shot a huge
dog snapper, but my rob Allen spear bounced
off it's hard head with a couple of big scales
coming off, I was out of breath and this big fish
was hanging out at the back, quite rightly wary
of me. I took a desperation shot, if only I had
been one foot closer! I soon shot another
snapper and grabbed the line and forced him
off the reef so he couldn't reef himself, as apart
from the fact that we were diving in a strong
current, I didn't want the sharks to get to him.
Sure enough one of the bull sharks showed up,
I remember grabbing my ankle to make sure
the green light was definitely on, on my shark
shield, which it was, before then quickly pulling
up the snapper to just under my fins within the
protection of the electrical force field. The
shark came straight at me, hit the force
field, did a u-turn and disappeared off
completely. Good to see it worked! I called the
boat over, and when I jumped on, we saw it
kicking off out at sea west of Jicaron with birds
21
down to 2000 meters). This made sense as
apparently the tuna caught in the last couple of
days had lots of squid in them. Anyway, I don't
think I have ever spent so much time
interacting with literally hundreds of dolphins,
but alas, apart from some very fleeting
glimpses in the very deep murk, we didn't see
the tuna surface again. We had to head back
before it got dark. Quite frustrating as John and
I knew that it was about to all go off, there was
so much activity in the area, and a massive
shoal of tuna would have exploded at the
surface at some stage. Last dive of the day, we
were dropped in on a pile of birds diving for
bait, but once under the water we realized it
was only a school of bonito. see this shoal of over 1000 bonito circle
around us, joined by about 40 yellow fin
tuna8
!,
9
speaking to the locals tonight reckons tuna
were operating around Hannibal banks, so it
looks like we will try that tomorrow. Coiba
seems finally to have woken up, as the fishing
had been slow, so hopefully the final day will be
good. As I write this report, the wind seems to
be suddenly blowing hard, after a sunny flat
calm day, so hopefully this won't affect things.
and dolphin
Garv with a beautiful Amberjack
operating on the surface. We rushed over, I
barely had time to change my Rob Allen to my
wooden tuna gun on the float system, before
the water boiled with tuna smashing a bait
ball on the surface. With tuna jumping out of
the water all over the place, we jumped in and
on my first down I plugged a 40 kilo tuna which
this time I let run off and allowed the bungees
to tire it out. I stuck a second shot in it and
then safely got it in the boat. A good
Amberjack, two Snapper and a Tuna all in the
space of 45 minutes. It felt good to be back
into the fish!! After two days of abstaining and
holding out for just "monster" fish.
Having got the shooting urge out of my system,
we agreed to only shoot "bus" tuna from now
on. We spent the rest of the afternoon following
a mass of birds and dolphin west and SW of
Jicarita, where it was kicking off. First dive I
had hundreds of tuna file past me, but no
huge ones so left them. Another down I saw I
reckon a 90 kilo tuna aboutsixmeters into the
murk layer. I tried to fin hard to catch up with
him from above, but he was moving off at the
same pace, going in and out of vision, like a
plane going through clouds - I knew the shot
was too long, and that I'd need to impact it
hard to secure a holding shot through so much
meat, so I left it and saved my shot. After that
we spent pretty much two hours free swimming
open ocean around this whole area, with packs
of dolphin constantly cruising through. Every
time I'd dive down under the dolphins hoping to
find the tuna, but they had obviously gone deep
(at this drop off we're hovering over a ledge
%
)
.!
,.
temperature up to 29C, water nice and blue.
Went straight to Jicaron, lots of birds and
dolphins in the area. Loading our guns in the
water we could see loads of blue scales
suspended in the water so we knew a bait ball
had recently been smashed by the tuna. We
chased the dolphins and eventually found a
boil on the surface with tuna jumping out of the
water hitting the small fry. Both John and I
dived down simultaneously, I could see the tuna
running under the dolphin pod, a large tuna
passed under, but by the time I got to the right
shooting depth at about 12 meters, just into
the murk layer, he was out of range, so I waited
suspended, and a couple of group of about six 50kg tuna cruised
through.+
through it's back quarter. By now I was
pompously shooting all my tuna mid body
through the tail, firstly to guarantee the slip tip
22
r side
of the fish so as to make it as secure as
possible, and secondly these shots are often
really effective as it incapacitates the tuna and
prevents it from swimming properly. This fish
once shot couldn't dive so it swam side ways
and started to circle on the surface thrashing
around. I, now at the surface, could now see
my steel cable shooting line swinging round at
me. Not a good situation to be in! I managed to
flip over the line and push it way from my fins,
but it did catch the rubbers on my gun, which
was towed off with my floats. Eventually I
caught up with my rig, retrieved my gun, called
the boat over, grabbed my 1.3 Rob Allen and
doubled up. With my fish safely in the boat, we
caught up with &
for a while, letting his bungees tire the fish
without rushing the retrieval :
think the shot was secure. I eventually dived
down and drove a second spear through its
head. It was a nice 75 kilo tuna, and sure
enough, the slip tip was just hanging on under
the skin, so John was a lucky man. This was
the second time John and I had both shot and
landed tuna on the same dive down.
We followed the dolphin pod, which was
probably over 150 strong, and dived on it
constantly, but most of the time the Tuna were
nowhere to be seen as they had dived deep. I
interacted with a lot of dolphins and you pick
up things from their behavior, for example, if
they had noses pointing to the depths, you
knew they were simply tracking the tuna with
sonar as they were deep, so you know there is
not much point wasting air. I could also tell the
difference between tuna and dolphin poo, which
was another important tool in knowing that the
tuna had moved up to the surface again. I saw
the dolphins cruise through underneath me, so I
dived down to their depth - they swam off, so I
waited for about 30 seconds, looking into the
murk, doing 360 degree sweeps of the blue
water, but saw nothing. I returned to the
surface and as I took my first breath, I suddenly
saw this huge yellow sickle popping out of the
murk, I bombed dived to see a 150 kg+
lone tuna pass through, but the time I got
down to shooting depth, he had already passed
out of range. Gutted! If he had cruised through
10 seconds earlier I could have practically
point blanked him. That was the biggest tuna I
have seen at Coiba. Motivated by this sight I
continued to chase the dolphins desperately
wanting a big tuna. Sometimes I would see
nothing, sometimes I would hit nice schools of
hundreds of tuna, often at depth, but there
were none over 50 kilos. An impressive sight
all the same. Whilst breathing up on the
surface a bull dolphin fish circled me, so
he got whacked without hesitation. Great
tasting fish, and a bonus as that was my
biggest dolphin fish to date. I then found a
floating tree trunk out at sea, which had
thousands of small fish sheltering around it. I
dived it a couple of times but found no pelagic
around. I bet that would have got smashed at
some stage that day as there was so much
tuna activity in the area. Anyway we went back
to chasing the birds and dolphins - I dived on
one pod of dolphins, saw nothing so dived
deeper to 18 meters, where I saw some big
tuna swimming beneath me but already moving
off. I wanted one so bad and sprinted
underwater at them to get in range, but they
were conscious of me so the faster I swam,
they matched it with the same speed. Realizing
I wouldn't get to them I saved my shot and
returned to the surface, which seemed a
very long journey with my lungs burning
for air. I had to take several minutes to
recover on the surface, completely knackered.
The boat came over asking if the tuna had
ripped off as they saw my float rushing off for a
while. Nope that was just me sprinting
underwater I told them! Tired out, I decided to
do one more dive before packing up all our
gear as it was the end of the trip. The captain
dropped me off on a big pod of dolphins, I
immediately dived down on top of them, and
when I got level with them I saw a big tuna
underneath, I pushed down deeper, and saw a
whole pack of (finally) big tuna. I plugged the
closest one to me - I knew they were all big,
and didn't want to duff the shot by trying to
spot and track the biggest one, as I could have
ended up with nothing. This fish dived deep and
dragged down floats and all. A good sign. It
towed me around for 40 minutes before I
was able to pull it up close enough to
an 80 kilo fish - moving up the scales slowly but
surely!
secure a second shot through the head.
The slip tip was solidly in the fish so there was
no danger of it getting away. Safely in the boat
I was rewarded with an 80 kilo tuna, so job
done. I didn't get my 100 kilo + tuna which I
was holding out for, but I was really happy with
trip, after fivedays of hard diving
in someserious heat, my body is broken
and my ears were about to give up on me,
so ready to come home
;
Garv and John with two fine Yellow Fin Tuna
24
25
scuba suit. If you can’t find an off-the-peg
model that fits you well, get your suit tailormade. It doesn’t cost that much more and is
well worth the investment.
Deeper, longer, safer, more
stylish – Sam Kirby
Fins should also fit well without the need for fin
retainers or huge socks. Get a full foot fin that
doesn’t have buckles or boots (just a thin sock)
.
so that all the power from your kick goes
style than shooting them, however over the last
straight into the fin without dissipating through
few years I’ve found I’ve been able to help quite
straps and buckles. You can get started with
a few spearos with their technique,
scuba or snorkelling fins but you’ll soon want
performance and most importantly, safety – so
something more powerful. Specialist freediving
I was happy to be asked to contribute a few
fins are made out of plastic, fibre glass or
articles to Crystal Clear.
carbon fibre. For the UK’s rocky shores, fibre
glass is
People
Freediving can be dangerous and should never be attempted without
probably the
come to me
formal training, for which a magazine article is no substitute. Find out
best option if
for a
more about courses on www.learntofreedive.com
you can afford
freedive
Always dive with a competent buddy.
them as carbon
course for
fins can be fragile, but there are plenty of good
lots of reasons. Some want to win
plastic ones around too. Expect to spend at
competitions, some want to spend longer with
least £80 on a set of fins.
the friendly sealife, some want to challenge
their fears. '
You will also need a rubber weightbelt, mask
breath for longer, dive deeper and spend
and snorkel. A rubber rather than webbing belt
more time underwater – and if you can
will allow you to breathe more easily, and not
improve any of those, you are going to get
slip when your wetsuit compresses as you dive
better at spearfishing
deeper. Wear your weights on your hips rather
stuff, you’d need to get some personal tuition
than around your waist, so you can breathe all
on a proper course, but over the next few
the way down to your abdomen without it
issues, I’ll pass on a few ideas that could really
restricting you. If you’re a guy and don’t have
help you until you get the chance to get some
much in the way of hips, you might want to
more formal education. To start with, we’re
consider a weight harness. "
going to look at equipment.
choose for your weight configuration,
(Freedive Instructor with Saltfree Divers
and FreediveCornwall)
$
make sure you can dump it in a hurry<
practice doing that (in water shallow enough to
get it back, obviously!).
'!
going to immediately increase your breath hold
time, make you more relaxed and help you
move through the water more gracefully and
quietly. In the UK, this means that you need a
5mm wetsuit, ideally one designed for
spearfishing or freediving. The best suits
consist of either high legged trousers or a long
john, and a jacket with an integrated hood and
no zips that does up between your legs in a
“beaver tail”. These suits are a pain to put on
(you might need a flask of hot soapy water and
a swim hat if you have long hair), but they will
keep you much warmer and allow you to move
much more freely than a standard surf or
Your mask should be low volume so you don’t
waste air equalising it, but for spearing, you’ll
also need a good field of vision. Try it on
before you buy it and make sure it fits your
face without leaking. (If you’re buying online,
find a friend’s mask that fits you and order the
same model).
[Snorkels for spearos are very personal but
typically you will use a straight through type
without a valve. The valve types tend to be
more cumbersome and noisy. – JT]
If you’re going to spend a lot of time in the
water, then you will probably also want some
kind of dive computer or depth/timing device.
When we move on to talk about safety in my
next article, you’ll see how important it is to
know how deep you have been diving, how long
you’ve been down there and how long you’ve
been on the surface in between dives. Having
some kind of control over that info can help
prevent both decompression sickness and
problems due to lack of oxygen to the brain. If
you can’t afford a computer, at least get a
waterproof watch with a timer, and find out
from someone how deep the site you are
visiting is. [Lots of people tend to use the
Suunto dive computers e.g. D3/4 here – JT]
you’ve given yourself a chance to get used to
it. Yes, the new fins might seem to heavy or
stiff but don’t put them on Ebay until you’ve
hammered them in the pool a bit, or at least
taken them into the sea a few times....
Finally you’ll need a float or surface platform of
some kind. The main things to consider here
are that it should be highly visible to idiots in
powerboats. Its main function is to stop you
getting run over. You also need to be able to
tow it.
Sam
So – your gear is sorted, and that will help your
performance a lot on its own. In the next
edition, we’ll take a look at safety, explaining
the risks of breath holding in the water, the
physiology behind them – and what you can do
to make sure you cut those risks as much as
possible.
Have fun and dive safe.
I’m not going to talk about guns or other fishkilling kit because a) I’m a peace loving
freediver and b) there are people much better
qualified....
Once you have your kit, look after it and it will
look after you. If you chuck a wet wetsuit in a
drybag and leave it there, it will quickly start to
crack up and go tough. Rinse it out in fresh
water and hang it up somewhere to dry. If you
want it to be easy to put on next time, maybe
put some talcum powder around the cuffs and
neck. Basically get the salt off everything,
especially your dive computer as it can corrode
the contacts pretty quickly and let stuff dry
naturally.
Sam Kirby teaches freedive courses for all sorts of people. Competitive freedivers are catered for at her
Chepstow club, Saltfree Divers, which teaches all the AIDA competitive discipline and courses from beginner up
to instructor. Freedive Cornwall, based in Falmouth, courses concentrate more on giving you the skills to spend
more time getting closer to the fish in a marine environment – whether you want to shoot them with a gun or
camera. For more details visit: www.saltfreedivers.com or www.freedivecornwall.com or call Sam on 07973
783528, e: sam@saltfreedivers.com.
Take some time to get used to any new kit, and
it’s probably best not to upgrade or change it
all at once. Wearing an unfamiliar suit, mask or
fins can increase your stress levels in the water
and will cut down your dive times until you’re
feeling comfortable. This is also a good
reason not to dismiss a new piece of kit until
27
Be Wise – Accessorize!
External catheters can either be self adhesive
or non adhesive. The advantage of a self
adhesive catheter is it is more secure.
Downside is they can only be used once so
your cost is greater. Non adhesive catheters
can be used for a few dives but are prone to
popping off occasionally, especially when
getting in or out of boats. However, if you do
experience a blowout, you are no worse off
than you were before.
Tired of returning from a long days diving
smelling like the urinal at your local
boozer?
One practical solution is to use an external
catheter, or what is otherwise affectionately
called a Pee Kit.
These are cheap and easy to use and differ
from a “pisette” in that they are not sewn into
the wetsuit and are therefore useful for
smoothskin wetsuits.
A “snug” fit is necessary for a nonadhesive catheter so don’t be shy to go
one size down (just don’t tell your friends).
External catheters can easily be sourced
online. Installation is easy and a length of clear
PVC pipe can be inserted into the outlet of the
catheter as a drain. The only modification
needed for the suit is a small hole in the
pants. This should be reinforced with a ring of
neoprene, which also helps prevent ingress of
cold water (a jet of cold water on the jewels
every time you kick can ruin a dive!) The PVC
pipe therefore comes out of the hole in the
pants and is long enough so that the end pokes
out from under the wetsuit jacket.
(
)
reinforced hole for Pee Pipe (a
selection of roll-on Catheters aswell)
=elling
of lavender and honeydew from the soap you
used to put on the suit!
shouldn't even bother going down over the cliff
and wasting our time. James had other ideas.
To him it looked fine and he needed to get
some time in the water to prepare himself for
his trip with Colin to ASI.
Winter Pollack – Nick Collins
Sunday mornings this time of year usually finds
me out with the dog, ferrets, and nets. We had,
had a long spell of offshore winds in the
Plymouth area keeping the sea flat and calm
for well over a week. I had heard good viz
reports as well. January 30th 2011 was one of
those rare winter days that I couldn't resist
getting in, even though while driving to the
destination the air temp was reading -2c in the
car.
We did get in, James stayed in a lot longer than
me. I had over indulged on the drink and food
over Christmas making diving very hard. With
only a meter viz and no fish I was out and up
that cliff, changed and drinking soup before
James arrived back. He didn't see much other
than Wrasse small Pollack and lots of sand
eels. [JT – He tells me it’s the same place, but
there were definitely no nudists and even less
fish ☺]
I got some strange looks while changing into
my 5mm suit at the side of the road from the
Sunday rambler brigade. From the car to the
small beach at the bottom of the cliff is about a
10 to 15 minute walk. the field to the top of the cliff was frozen
solid.
was sheltered from the wind with the winter sun
and no clouds making it a lot more pleasant a
walk down than I had expected.
close through the summer months.+
.
is probably the best time to dive it when all the
big Pollack come in to spawn. It wasn't a big
tide today but the conditions were right. On a
bigger tide the tide races through the deep
narrow gullies and this is where the Pollack are
found, though not in large numbers.
The rock pools at the top of the beach were
frozen over. I took my trainers and light coat
off and hid them in the bracken out of sight.
Getting in is always the worst part of the dive,
my face and hands, where I had holes in my
gloves, were stinging with pain. That soon
disappeared when the awesome sight of
crystal clear viz kicked in. I made my way out
to the end of the reef passing over some great
ground. There was still plenty of kelp around
with big sandy patches in between. It’s the sort
of place that in the summer you would expect
to see bass on. I was surprised to see so many
sand eels around still. At the end of the reef it
starts to drop off deep, here is where two,
deep, narrow gullies run. This is where the
Pollack are normally found hiding in the
kelp ready to ambush their prey.
The beach is very small with only two people
sat making the most of the winter sun. summer it’s a nudist beach, this couple
were fully clothed today.
+>
The place looked so different from the
summer, with most of the kelp gone on the
exposed part of the reef. It’s not deep diving
here, nothing over 10mtrs. With each dive I
was getting colder and colder, the D3 was
reading 7cer than the
sand eels I started to wish I had gone out with
Eve. James and his family were staying close
by in a holiday cottage. I had agreed to meet
up with James over the Christmas period and
go for a dive with him. It wasn't the best of
days to go for a dive. We had a bit of a swell
and very little viz. I tried to put James off
making up all kinds of excuses as to why we
29
.+
end of the last gully now and this was a place I
recognised. I have had big Pollack here in the
summer. I dropped down in to the gully to a
ledge where I can lie and look into the main
gully. They lie tight to the side here and I have
had them come up in front of me so close I
couldn't fire. As I dropped down to the first
gully a Pollack was lying in the kelp on the
ledge I usually lie on. *to move off,
my reactions were so slow and it seemed
to take forever to get a shot off.+
him down through the top of his head pinning
him to a rock at very short range. He started to
thrash around but I was soon on him and had
my fingers in his gills with a good holding grip
on him. I quickly dispatched him and put him on
the stringer. I did a couple more dives but was
happy with this one nice fat winter Pollack.
I made my way back to shore, by now the tide
had come in a fair way making the exit a lot
easier. I didn't hang about, my jacket and
trainers were on and I was off up that cliff path.
I can usually go up it with no stops but the cold
weather took its toll on me, I had to stop three
times. That and every Sunday rambler I met
asking me the story of the Pollack and
questioning my sanity about diving on a frosty
day like today made the trip up the cliff twice
as long as the trip down.
Pollack was spot on 10lbs, not a long
fish but very fat and fullof roe.
Last season our club dives were all but nonexistent. The national dives and back-up dates
clogged up the clubs calendars. The weather
seems to have been so bad the last few years
that the club members just want to do their
own thing on the rare good days. This coming
season with only four nationals and hopefully
better weather we hope to see resurgence in
the clubs including ours. We intended to give
Bognor a rest this year for our national but two
other clubs jumped in to hold their nationals
there. This is not a problem and will give our
club the opportunity to fish in their favourite
spot without the pressure of organizing. We
have put in for a comp at Saltdean under the
chalk cliffs. This area has been rested from
nationals for the last twenty years so it could
be interesting to see what comes out if the
national committee see fit to give us a comp
this year.
Club Chairmen’s Reports
Sussex Club report – Eric Smith
Our club celebrated its fortieth year last
season and has had many successful
members through its ranks over the
years.+
$?-?
the club had as many as 56 divers entering
competitions, but in recent years the numbers
have fallen away to a hard core of ten divers.
We have lost four divers over the years in
spearfishing accidents, mainly due to shallow
water blackouts - all young guys competing
against themselves on diving holidays in the
Med. This can rip the heart out of a club, but
we have kept going more as a group of friends
diving together or against our neighbours
Southsea. We still have competitive national divers in Martin, Lee
and Sean@A
.
just about to come on the scene. He caught his
first bass last season.
The club in the last few years has been at the
forefront of negotiations with the Sussex
Fisheries to draw up a voluntary code for
spearfishing. We also negotiated with Europe
regarding the recent threats to spearfishing in
the UK.
Some of our best fish last season were a Plaice
- 7lbs to Eric, 14.5lbs Bass to Lee and a catch
of 14 cod, nine up to 14lbs to Julian and Tony.
+
$
best specimen is not always landed by a highranking diver. We have a wide choice of
different ground to dive but the strong currents
are always a challenge. The dive venues are
selected to appeal to divers of all abilities. We
also support Club Apnea which holds purely
social dives. This is the perfect environment for
total newcomers to learn the basics.
Jersey Club Report – Chris
Isaacs
B12
!
opportunity for local spearfishermen to improve
their skills and compete alongside the top
divers in the Island who are only too keen to
pass on the knowledge and skills that have
taken years to attain. Annual Prizes are
awarded for many achievements. A best
specimen award is given at each dive based on
a percentage of the set specimen weight. The
31
Nowadays we travel to places like Selsey,
Bognor Regis, Isle of Wight or even go west to
find clear water.
SouthSea Club Report – Steve
Mullineaux
Southsea also holds the claim to inventing
the game of Octopush which is underwater
free-diving hockey played in swimming
pools, now a worldwide sport, after a few
lads in the early sixties started knocking a lead
weight around with their snorkels to keep fit in
the winter months. Unfortunately I believe this
has denied the BSA team of good athletes over
the years due to their first commitment to
hockey. We are holding our National this year
at Bognor Regis.
112
!
clubs in the country, with a long history in the
sport with many past national champions in our
ranks. +
supporters of the BSA National team
the committee over the years and have four
members on the committee at present. We are
a family orientated club and over the past years
have kidnapped the national junior trophy. In
the early days many members dived the Solent
which was much fishier and had less shipping in
those days.
Graham and Steve with the kids and a new looking inflatable
The social events hosted by Colin were
memorable where we had brilliant food fresh
from the sea.
LIC Club report - Mike Bradshaw
*!ories of the
The fish reports circulated from all parts of the
globe, which kept us all informed within the
club.
last season:
<
A great result!
Paolo’s tremendous contribution as secretary
really made a difference to the year.
We had three LIC members and one previous
member in the squad competing in Croatia –
we are very proud of all concerned.
"
Gary’s British record Gilthead. I still don't
understand why it had RN stamped on it?
club and seeing our club become bigger
and better each year.
'
!
l our
members, no politicking just great fun to spend
time with like minded individuals at comps,
events and trips, contact from members all
across the globe, its a great club to belong to
and be part of, roll on 2011.
Fabio’s personal best 16.5lbBass at
Bognor - a wonderful catch.
!!A
Competition at Weymouth with 03. Well done
guys. What a brilliant event to set the standard
for interesting and exciting new formats, which
people enjoy competing in! The best-attended
event of the year.
#
#+,'
Waters – A beautiful 7.2kg Cod caught in Kingmere
33
Upcoming Events
2011 Competitions
'1
>
2
-$".#
Venue: Ringstead Bay
C3th June with backup of 10th July
/$&#
Venue: Le Braye, St.Ouens Bay
C3 th July (no backup date)
3. Southsea Club
Venue: Bognor Regis (shore dive)
th
st
Date: 7 August with backup of 21 August
0$1.#
Venue: Talland Bay
C3th September with backup of 1st October
Non BSA National Competitions:
1. LIC Pairs Competition
Venue: Weigh in at Portland
th
th
Date: 9 July with backup of 16 July
2. Euro-African Championships
Venue: Peniche, Portugal
th
th
Date: 15 -18 September
3. National Boat Competition
Venue: Ringstead Bay
th
th
Date: 9 October with backup of 16 October
34
Wessex BSA National Competition 2011
Location – Ringstead Bay
th
th
Date – 12 June 2011 – Back up date – 10 July 2011
1 10:00
Finish – 16:00
Weigh in – 16:30
Prize giving – Will follow the weigh in
Area – Bats Gap (to the East), Redcliff point (to the West)
Fish – As per national rules
Boats – two Safety boats will patrol the area
About
Always a very open competition, with the winning catch coming from a different location
each year….Over 10 different species caught over the last couple of seasons
35
SOUTHSEA NATIONAL COMPETITION
Bognor Regis 2011
History
'
!
fishing holes on the many reefs that
wander out to sea, this is where the big
Bass can be found resting up. Having
said that, this time of year can be very
fickle, some years the reef will be full
of Mullet, and or, Pollack other years
the reef can be hard work where a
simple decision of swimming out or
staying in on the inner ground can
prove to be crucial in gaining a good
result. Many top divers believe this
venue to be one of the fairest places to
compete and on the day anyone can catch a good Bass.
3 (
'@
$',DC
Green' junction of Marine Drive West and Silverston Ave
Start and Finish
From the Green
Competition Area
East Felpham Buoy to the West Barn Rocks
Briefing
8.45am.
Start
9.00am.
Finish
15.00pm.
Entry Fee
Senior £15
Contact
Graham Worley 07771897634
Fish
Fish As per National Rules, Bass 45cm: No Wrasse or Congers.
Junior and O.A.P. Free
Competitors must not swim inside of the yellow buoys east of the pier.
Watch out for boats, including yachts, there are launch ramps and sailing clubs in the area.
36
y BSA National Competition 2011
Location – Talland Bay
th
Date – 24 September
Start/ finish area - Talland Bay Beach Cafe carpark
Start – 10:00
Finish – 16:00
Weigh in – 16:30
Area – Hannafore Point Beacon to Larrick
Fish – As per national rules: no wrasse, no dogfish
Entry £15, juniors/OAPs free
Contact Dave Thomasson 07887 907383 dave@spearo.co.uk
About
!
,.!
coastal walks. Expect large Bass and Pollack to make an appearance with potential for flatfish and Red
Mullet out over the sand. Currents are not too strong and diving doesn’t have to be too hard.
Competition was won last year by Colin Chester following up the rear of the main group of divers who
raced on ahead out to the deeper water. Lots of nice ground to cover – very kelpy, but a large
expanse of sand in the centre of the bay.
Jersey BSA National Competition 2011
Location – !4+$5!
C– 67
th
July
1- 78967 )- -%967
E- -6967
Fish : As per National Rules (No wrasse or Dogfish); Plaice , Brill , Turbot and Sole 36cm;
Bass 45cm; Pollack 38cm
FG
'
!
location, with the competition area extending from
Corbiere to L'Etacq. The vast kelp reef extending
the whole length of the bay is dissected by
numerous gutters and open sandy areas where
Flatfish and rays can be found.
The sandy gutters near the beach gradually
become gravel and stone as you move out deeper.
At this point, the kelp gives way to finer, low
growing weed which is not so attractive to the free
swimming fish species but the deeper water often
holds more rays and bottom species.
Pollack will be found around all reefs, especially
around any isolated heads that rises steeply from
a sandy bottom. At slack water they prefer water
over 15 feet deep and will be found loosely
scattered around most deeper reefs. They will
begin to shoal up as the tide turns and some will
then move much closer toward the shore .
Divers at spots all over the bay will see shoals of
good sized mullet. A slow moving or static shoal
found near the cover of reefs should result in a
good catch. In calm and sunny conditions, mullet
will cautiously move right up into the shallows at
L'Etacq and La Pulente, providing a challenge for
the shallow water stalker.
Good size bass will be found all over the bay. On
the dropping tide and around slack water, many
will be or resting in the sandy gutters and among
the kelp reefs. Like the pollack, they prefer to rest
in water over 15 feet deep. Some bass will remain
well offshore until the tide turns, when they will
quickly move onto the heads around the outer
edges of the reefs. More bass will often be seen as the tide rises, including right up in the shallows,
where they will be alert and not easy to approach.
Euro-African Championships – PENICHE
Alan Mills and Eric Smith (UK Management Team)
CALLING ALL BSA MEMBERS – YOUR TEAM NEEDS YOUR HELP!
Thankfully, commonsense has prevailed and this year the Euro-African Championship will not be held in
Algeria as seemed likely. This is clearly a sensible decision in light of the current unrest in North Africa.
The Portuguese Federation have come forward to stage the Championship in Peniche – north of Lisbon
th
th
from 15 - 18 . September.
If you finished in the Top 20 (see the results on the BSA website) over the last two seasons, Eric and I
will be keeping you up to date with the information as we receive it. Thanks to the spacing of our
domestic competitions, anyone who goes will have the opportunity to spend time in Peniche before the
event without affecting their chances in our Nationals.
At this early stage, no decisions have been taken about team selection but the aim will be to finalise
the Team as early as possible so that they can crack on with their arrangements.
Well, we need information, and we need help from you!
Do you know anything about Peniche and it’s diving? Eric and I would love to hear from you. You may
have a magazine article or have come across something on the Web perhaps?
Do you know anyone with a boat down there? We already have one offer but would prefer to have
several boats at our disposal.
Have you any other way that you can help? If so, please get in touch.
Finally, you are more than welcome to come along and support the Team – you will enjoy the
experience. If you decide to come, bring your dive gear and help with the scouting!
London International Club 2011 Pairs Competition
Good day,
The London International Club would like to invite you to the 2011 Pairs Competition in
Portland (Dorset – UK) on Saturday 9th July 2011. Back up date: Sat 16th July 2011.
The competition is open to all spearfishermen. Competitors shall dive in pairs and can dive wherever they choose in the UK,
from boat or shore. There is no meeting prior to the competition but competitors must be at the weigh-in in Portland by 4pm
at O’Three.
A barbeque kindly sponsored by O’Three will be
held after the weigh-in and is open to all
competitors as well as friends and family.
Valid species are Bass, Pollack, Cod, Mullet (all
species), Black Bream, Flatfish (all species except
Skate and Rays). Each team (pair) weighs in their
biggest specimen for each of the six categories.
Prizes are awarded for the heaviest fish of each
category and for the biggest crustacean.
The Pairs Competition is a great opportunity to promote spearfishing in the UK, encourage
quality and diversity of catches and have fun. If you plan to dive Portland Bill please mind the
strong tides.
Sponsorships and prizes include top quality gear from
O’Three, Rob Allen UK, Spearo UK, Ocean Sports and
others.
Registration:
pairscomp@yahoo.com
Questions:
elis : 07876 500745 or James Thoburn : 07771 826048
Hope to see you there!
London International Club
www.spearfishing.org.uk
LONDON INTERNATIONAL CLUB
2011 PAIRS COMPETITION INFORMATION
RULES
•
Valid species: Bass, Pollack, Cod, Mullet (all species), Black Bream, Flatfish (all species except Skate and Rays)
•
Each team (pair) weighs in their biggest specimen for each of the six categories (therefore max six fish per team will be
weighed in)
•
Prizes are awarded for the heaviest fish of each category.
In addition, the winning specimen weighed in for each of the six categories gets awarded 100%. All other fish are awarded a
percentage of the weight of the winning specimen for that category. The overall prize goes to the team with the highest
combined percentage from all six categories. A separate prize will also be given for the biggest crustacean.
The winning team will also be awarded the Roy Barwick trophy at the British Spearfishing Association annual dinner dance in
November 2011.
Catches are subject to the same minimum fish sizes as per the British Spearfishing Association rules: e.g. Bass (45 cm),
Pollack (36 cm), Cod (36 cm), Mullet (36 cm), Black Bream (28 cm), Flounder/Plaice (28 cm). See
www.underwaterfishing.co.uk for more info.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Location: Portland, Dorset. O’Three have kindly made available their premises at Osprey Quay, Portland, Dorset, DT5 1BL.
th
th
Time and Date: 4pm on 9 July 2011
her is 16 July.
Competitors shall dive in pairs and can dive wherever they choose in the UK, from boat or shore. There is no meeting prior to
the competition but competitors must be at the weigh-in by 4pm.
A barbeque kindly sponsored by O’Three will be held after the weigh-in, and is open to all competitors as well as
friends/family. Food and soft drinks will be provided and is included in the entry fee (see below). Fish weighed in will be filleted
and donated to a local charity.
ENTRY FEES
Entry fee per pair: £30 (this includes the cost of the barbeque for the two competitors)
Additional attendees at the barbeque: £10 per person
th
All entry fees must be received by30 June 2011
: SPONSORS
We have some excellent prizes, including top spearfishing gear, sponsored by:
•
O’Three and Sean Webb (www.othree.co.uk)
•
Rob Allen UK and Colin Chester (www.roballen.co.za)
•
Spearo UK and Dave Thomasson (www.spearo.co.uk)
•
London International Club (www.spearfishing.org.uk)
•
Ocean Sports (www.ocean-sports.co.uk)
BRITISH SPEARFISHING ASSOCIATION Annual Subscription
9
Dan Bailey,
BSA Membership,
30 Highgate Road,
Copnor,
Portsmouth PO3 5AS.
19Daniel.bailey103@ntlworld.com
Member Name:__________________ Float Number (If existing Member):________
Address:
Email Address:
Contact Numbers:
Membership Options:
Full (Wet) Member fee:
£30
Junior Member fee:
£15
Associate (Dry) Member Fee: £10
DECLARATION and DISCLAIMER
I hereby declare that the information above is accurate and that I agree to abide by the Rules and
codes laid down by the B.S.A. I understand that spearfishing, snorkeling and free-diving are all
activities that involve an element of risk. In signing this application form, I accept all responsibility and
all liability for my own safety.
Please sign this form to confirm that you will comply with the BSA Rules, Codes and Constitution
MEMBERS SIGNATURE………………………………………………
Date of Birth:……………..
DATE………………………..
Please send signed/completed form together with cheque made payable to:
“B.S.A”
- address at top right of this form.
Alternatively – email me for electronic banking/standing order details.
42
Recipes
Crab Linguine in Garlic, Chilli
and Lemon – Channel 4
Lobster Linguine -Fabio
Pizzoccheri
Put some Italian olive oil
in a large pot with
garlic, chillies and fresh
basil leaves.
2. When the garlic turns to
golden add fresh cherry
tomatoes cut in halves
and some salt.
3. After five minutes add a
fresh lobster. If it is still
alive I often put it for a few minutes in the
freezer so it doesn’t suffer.
4. Cover with a top and let it cook for 5-7 min
in its own steam. Turn it and cook for
another 5-7 min. (I am assuming a 1kg
lobster).
5. If the sauce is too low, you can add some
white wine or gin.
6. When the lobster is cooked turn the gas off,
let it cool a bit and then clean it and put in
the sauce all the good meat, including that
from the lobster’s legs.
7. In the meantime put a large pot and boil
some water for the pasta (2-3 l). Add salt.
8. When the water boils add the linguine
(100/150g per person roughly). Stir them
after a couple of minutes so they don’t stick
to the pot.
9. After exactly 9 minutes take the Linguine
out and continue to cook them for two
minutes (not more) in the other pot with the
sauce.
10. Serve them and enjoy! The taste is
delicious.
5.
6.
7.
8.
1. 100ml olive oil
2. 1 medium-hot red
chilli, deseeded
and finely chopped
3. 1 fat garlic clove,
finely
chopped.
4. 3 pared strips of
lemon zest, finely chopped.
450g linguine.
2 tbsp lemon juice, plus lemon wedges to
serve.
225g freshly cooked white crab meat.
2 tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley.
Method
into a small pan and put over a gentle heat
until it begins to sizzle. Remove from the
heat and set aside.
2. Bring a large saucepan of well-salted water
to the boil. Add the linguine and cook for 89 minutes, or until al dente. Drain well and
set aside.
3. Tip the chilli and lemon mixture into the pan
the pasta was in, and then add the lemon
juice and season. Heat until sizzling, then
add the linguine and crab meat to the pan
and toss gently over a medium heat to
warm the crab through.
4. Add the parsley, season, and serve
immediately with lemon wedges.
43
Coincidently or not, the great gale of 1987
washed more on to the beaches than normal.
Alot with the anchor rocks still attached. This
just happened to be the time that the trawlers
started pairing up in our area and towing
endlessly up and down off Worthing just as the
kelp needed time to recover leaving it a barren
dessert as it is to this day.
Inshore Trawling – Eric
Smith.
the Air Force in 1956. He was one of the early
pioneers of diving and spearfishing in the
Sussex area. Apart from his many stories of
large Plaice and Sole caught off the ends of the
breakwaters along the waterfront at Brighton,
the information he told us about well known
local marks, stands out
the most. College Rocks
off Shoreham in the early
sixties was pinnacles standing
some 15ft off the
bottom in 35ft of water
honeycombed with
holes and ledges
harbouring everything
from large Bass to
lobsters and congers
On his last dive on them
in 1989 they had been reduced to a pile of
rubble eight foot high with no holes big enough
to hold a fish this he put down to constant
trawler action over the intervening years. His
last words to me a few days before he passed
away, two years ago, had been about the pair
trawlers that he watched for most of the
summer zigzagging along the front at Brighton
from a mile out to the end of the groynes. He
knew, as an old timer, that most fish bred in
this small zone and he could not understand
why the fishermen were smashing up the
habitat for future generations.
To show what the trawlers can really do! We
had been diving an old wreck off Shoreham
called the Billy Boy this has been marked up
under several different
names Billy, Billy Boy, Billy
Bee and the Bee wreck and
can be traced right back to
1856 in the local museum. It
consisted of two rows of oneton blocks. Eight on the
bottom and five resting on
the top; this left a stack 12ft
high on a flat bottom a long
way from any other
obstruction, the perfect spot.
!#
found shoaling around this high spot on
most slack water lows congers lying in the holes between the blocks.
Returning to it early one spring we were
shocked to find a trawl not only stuck on it but
it had pulled the whole top layer off and
dumped it on the sea bed. It never fished the
same again. Another mark lost to
indiscriminate inshore trawling.
April 17th 2005 Bognor. A dive which sticks in
the memory. We had suffered quite a few dives
that year in the cold water of early spring with
few fish and bad viz, this was the first day that
the water felt warmer and with the viz at twenty
foot it held a lot of promise. "
Bream quite quickly spotting their moon
beds dug into the chalk from the surface.
I know that kelp can be affected in its growth
by rising temperatures but in the first twenty
years of my diving career huge beds covered
the bottom up to one and a half miles out off
Worthing in West Sussex. These beds had been
a source of fertiliser for local farmers who used
to come down and fill their carts after a big
gale from the vast rafts of weed left on the
beaches by the dropping tides. These beds
were a huge nursery for all the fish that breed
inshore, and I had many a lobster as they
worked their way through the kelp stalks.
were doing the digging fanning the bottom to
create the hollows and the bigger fish moving
in to lay their eggs or fight over the right to.
Undulated Rays were lying around the outskirts
of the beds feeding on the worms and other
small crustaceans disturbed by the bream,
along with vast shoals of Pollack up to two
kilos drifting above the scene. As we lay
We followed after the trawlers that were now
some two miles ahead finding many small Bass
of about 200 grams floating half dead on the
surface having popped out of the now full nets.
I cannot be sure if it was the same trawlers but
a pair were caught and fined the following year
£10.000 having been found with 14 tons of
undersize Bass and Bream in their catch.
Rumour has it that the skipper made over
£80.000 that spring and the fine was just a
drop in the ocean for him.
nosing around us !
shoals some weighing in at eight pounds.
!
each and two Bream of over two kilos and left
feeling good at seeing the sea so alive with fish
and with intensions of returning a week later on
better tides to take some specimen fish.
April 24th 2005. The sea was calm and we had
started at first light under the old adage that
the early diver catches the fish. As we pulled
The
the
[Sadly I had it confirmed by Sussex fisheries that the Bream fishery has no limit
wreck of
boat
on
the
amount
that
may
be
taken,
and
they
have
no
benchmark
to
measure
the
up
whether the stock is being over exploited - JT]
Indiana
onto
is a large
the
local wreck in twenty five feet of water. It has
been a perfect spot for Bream fishing over the
seen towing out to sea at an angle along
years with the beds sometimes going down
side the main reef less than a mile out.
tide for 150 yards either side of the ship with
"
#$
the fish protected by the bulk from the
scene of total devastation could be seen below
trawlers. This all changed over the last few
us in the crystal clear water, no fish could be
years with more sophisticated GPS sounders.
seen in our field of vision. The Bream beds so
The trawlers now tow right up the side of the
prolific the week before were wrecked, the
wreck sometimes touching the plates.
edges of the beautifully dug pits had been
Needless to say no more Bream or the fish that
dragged down and large boulders had been
follow the shoals.
dumped into the middle of them.
Torn weed lay about the bottom and all that
remained were a few very small Bream trying
to rebuild their nests.
&
)
close to my heart - I think that nothing
should be towed within ten miles of the
shore especially in the months of March,
April and May. The trawlers are killing a
whole ecosystem with their greed.
over the wreck was significant and rapidly there
were about 10-15 of the beasts in view. First
in the water, and uncomfortable as the pack eyed me
up.
ou
silently, just below and behind. Cogs turning!
Mark Labocetta who knew the spot well,
advised against shooting one just now.
Obviously he was more aware of the
consequences of shooting one than I was at the
time!
The American divers took a few drops and hit a
couple of smallish amberjacks and mackerel
tuna. The GBs absolutely devastated any fish
they shot, charging in and ripping them into
pieces much faster than a
shark would. There was no
hesitation or circling, they
just come straight in and
start chomping. #
‘scissor fish’ by the local
charter skippers, they
were cutting 20lb fish
apart like they were
sardines.
The Great Barracuda – Titus
Bradley
Like many divers I have a bit of a hitlist of
species, and, misguided as I am, the
Great Barracuda was on it.
!
which are generally ill-tempered and malevolent
looking creatures, but usually not particularly
large.
!
unpleasantness to
another level%
absolutely no sense of
humour and massive teeth.
As I write this I ask myself
‘why on earth did I want to
catch one of these?’
Probably because I had, at
the time I hunted one
(2005), never read the
tales of the woe they have
visited on fellow spearos!
My first sight of a Great
Barracuda was over a
WW2 wreck about 20
miles off Cape Haterras,
USA. This viz was BAD.
The US divers were rattled. '
so watched and learned
(not to shoot fish in the
presence of GB!).
Exasperated, Mark shouted
over ‘Actually shoot one!!!’
No speared fish came
through the menacing GB
pack. I saw a huge dark
back below me, eyeing me
and no doubt hoping I would
shoot something else for it
to eat. Slowly I dived down to intercept, and it
was fairly indifferent to my approach (come
much closer and I’ll bite your face off). I lined
up the Riffe Bluewater, which I was using
for the first time. The 12.5mm spear blasted
out and struck the fish with a good holding, but
non-lethal hit. The GB streaked off just like a
Wahoo, but running along the surface rather
than down deep.
Excitement turned to alarm as the bungee float
line began to arc round on the surface and it
was very clear that the big fish had ceased
running and was actually coming back to
'
through and they were
distinctly uncomfortable
in the 15m viz and
heavy swell. To me this was GOOD viz!
&
gloom below at 90m) and a long, mean shape
came into view below me. ‘Wahoo here!’ I
shouted.
But this Wahoo, despite being about the right
size and shape had massive teeth... and the
classic black spots on its flanks; a Great
Barracuda. These things are evil looking fish,
and eye you with ill-disguised interest as they
move past you. You can see the cogs turning
behind those eyes as they try to work out
whether they can eat you. The number of GB
Having carefully played the fish to the surface, I
finally had my hand in the gills. The fish was
hanging down between my legs as I prepared
to kill it with my drawn knife. All of a sudden
Mark collided with me, using his speargun
to bash away an enormous GB that had
come up unseen between my legs to get
the tuna! Fortunately it scooted off in search of
an easier meal, but a cheap vasectomy was
definitely on the cards for a minute.
The other predator of note I ran into on that trip
was the bull shark. One of these rose right into
the group of five of us (who were in a wide
circle debating whether to continue
spearfishing given that the GB were destroying
the catch). Shark shields were basic
equipment where I was diving, and the other
four divers as well as myself were wearing
them. It was an amazing sight to watch a
500lb plus bullshark coming straight up in
an aggressive manner before getting the
combined good news from five shields.
Needless to say it bolted for the seabed like a
scalded cat. Sadly the shields don’t work on
the GB!
My advice then for anyone wanting to hunt a GB
is firstly don’t; the wounds they can inflict are
horrific, and secondly, if you must hunt one,
make sure you use breakaway or have a
second gun to hand. Oh, and thirdly, shoot to
stone it!!!
Good Hunting!
Titus
attack. Out of the misty green water came
a pretty shocking sight; the open mouth of
a charging GB, full of oversized teeth and
speeding back towards what it had rightly
identified as the creature responsible for
spearing it. Thankfully I was using a breakaway
rig so still had the very heavy and substantial
Riffe gun in my hands. Instinctively I brought
the gun up to defend myself and smashed the
gun into the snout of the charging fish.
Stunned by the blow (the modified Riffe gun
weighs 30lbs) the dazed fish bolted off downtide and away from me.
Fortunately the exertions, the blow and the
spear hit now caught up with the GB and it went
belly up, allowing for an uneventful recovery.
Interestingly the other GB showed no interest in
attacking it. On the boat afterwards, on
inspecting the teeth, I realised how reckless it
is to shoot this fish, especially as there are so
many documented accounts of them coming
back and carving up divers.
My second run-in with GB on the same trip
came on a dive a few days later, off a rig. We
were hunting amberjack and scored several
good fish over 50lb in the cooler green water
below the 17m thermocline. As the tide
turned, gamefish showed, with some elusive
Wahoo up current of the rig. All of a sudden,
Tuna were amongst the baitfish. I dived down
and shot a Blackfin Tuna of about 50lbs.
47
Hindsight is a Wonderful
Thing!
Safety Chain – Jon Penrith
When towing your boat ALWAYS make sure
there is a safety chain attached between trailer
and tow hitch (even though its not law on an unbraked trailer). This is a good idea to prevent it
coming off and overtaking you, to finally have a
head on collision with an oncoming car. Then,
bursting into flames, engulfing the car
and melting your boat before finally
singeing an old lady driver’s hair as she
rolls out of the burning car. Its also a good
idea not to tow with a full tank of fuel in the
boat.
Kill Switch – Scott Wilson
The wife and I decided to take the Dory out for
its maiden voyage a few summers back. As we
left Brixham harbour I opened up the throttle
and we set off in the direction of Paignton.
The story doing the rounds is that we hit a
rogue wave and I lost control....... the truth is I
leaned forward to see how the wife was doing,
let go of the tiller arm in the process and the
outboard pulled to the right. I grabbed the tiller
and pulled it to the left and in doing so caused
the boat to throw me and the wife out!
With no kill switch installed on the
outboard the boat went apeshit! It came
straight at us, I had enough time to put my
arms out and push the boat away but it still
managed to run over the wife's leg.
Now just to keep the record straight - the tow
hitch was on but the bolts securing it sheared
off after hitting a hole in the road, so it wasn’t
through negligence, it was just....an accident.
An accident, which could have, possibly been
avoided by the use of a safety chain. I had just
bought the boat and trailer together and it was
only the second time out. I had ordered a
safety chain, it just hadn’t arrived.
One of the local fireman was out in his boat
with his kids and saw everything. He came over
and plucked us out of
the sea, phoned the
coastguard and the ILB
was launched to
retrieve my boat. The
emergency services
arrived at the slipway
to give us the once
over and give me a
bollocking. Then the
RNLI turned up and
gave me a roasting.
Floatline in Caves – Jon Penrith
I was spearfishing in Brazil and swam into a
narrow cave having seen a good grouper enter
it. I was using a pretty crap buoyant line, which
tangled very easily.
;
properly from the injuries on her leg I had
to go back to Brixham coastguard to pick my
boat up and got another roasting. Two weeks
later the gearbox on the outboard stuck in gear
and I landed up hitting the Mewstone. I got rid
of the boat a few months later and went for a
nice stable zodiac sib - with a kill switch!!
I had too much line out and was in shallow
water. The surge pushed the line into the hole
as I entered it causing a spider web effect of
line. As I tried to reverse out I was trapped
in the passage by the web of line tangled
across the entrance with insufficient room
to turn around.
I’ve never been allowed to forget that day.
The father in-law even mentioned it in our
wedding speech!
It took a while to get out and had me worried
for a bit.
48
"The conditions off the Bill were really choppy
and I'm not sure they should have been out
there in that."
I don’t use this kind of line anymore and am
always sure to either unclip the line before
going into places like this or if using a drop
weight I leave it outside and also to have the
line set at roughly the right length for the depth
I am fishing at. This is common sense and a
stupid mistake looking back on it.
Skipper Paul Whittall of the Offshore Rebel also
came to the rescue.
He said: "It was lucky we were in the area really
and it was only because we were the last ones
out on a five day trip that we happened to be
there.
Lobster divers rescued off Portland Bill
(Extract from the Dorset Echo: By Laura
Kitching and Miriam Phillips 7:50am Saturday
19th September 2009)
‘ THREE lobster divers were rescued by
passing fishermen off Portland Bill after their
boat capsized and left them stranded.
The Portland coastguard helicopter and the
Weymouth lifeboat were scrambled after a man
at Portland Bill spotted the divers overboard
and called 999 at 3.30pm yesterday.
A mayday signal put out on the maritime
emergency channel alerted two local fishing
vessels, Revolution and Offshore Rebel, which
arrived to rescue the divers.
"The guys were really grateful that everybody
arrived and helped them out.
The divers, who were found 1km off of the Bill,
between Pulpit Rock and the Obelisk, stayed in
the water and righted the boat with assistance
of the fishermen before the lifeboat took them
back to Castletown in Portland.
"At the end of the day they wouldn't have been
able to stay in the water because their dinghy
was capsized and their engine was flooded so
they needed to be taken to shore."
A spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard
Agency said: "The helicopter was first on
scene and the winchman went to the
divers but they didn't want to be winched
up."
Nick Gould, of the Portland Bill coastguard
team attended.
He said: "It was a little boat with a big engine
so it was a bit top heavy, a wave knocked the
side of the boat and it tipped.
The boat Revolution hauled them on board and
they then set about bailing out the rib.
"They had caught a couple of fish and a
nice size lobster but that disappeared
over the side when the lid came off their
freezer box."
"The three casualties were taken on board the
lifeboat and transported back to Castletown
and I believe they were safe and well."
Skipper of the Revolution Josh Simmonds told
how the drama unfolded.
hospital treatment. ey didn't want to talk
about the accident.’
He said: "When we arrived we saw their small
overturned dive boat and three people in the
water.
"Their engine had flooded and their stuff was
floating around everywhere.
49
One of the fishing boats managed to find some
of our gear floating in the sea and returned it to
us but we still lost quite a bit of spearfishing
stuff. The fish box was still full of fish but the
large lobster (8-9lb) Gary had, was gone from
the front hatch of the boat. We lost
spearguns, fins, GPS, hatch cover, mask
and snorkels and a few small items.
Das Boat – The account from Glenn Cooke
(
#
Gary were in the water while I was driving
the boat.)$
Pulpit Rock with floats and I noticed that there
were about four fishing boats coming from the
west side of the bill towards us. I positioned the
boat, even though the steering was difficult –
Colin had informed me that the steering
needing looking at, nice one Colin - with
alpha/dive flag between the floats and the
fishing boats as they came past us to let them
know there were divers in the water. .
thing I know I am in the water after being
thrown from the boat. I was thrown over
the stern by a swell that must have
flooded the boat. I came to the surface
the boat had capsized. I called to Gary and
Colin to come back as I was now sitting on the
hull of the boat. They swam over and we tried
to pull the boat over and nearly succeeded only
to find the Coastguard helicopter over the top
of us and the winch man in the water next to us
asking if we were ok, we replied we were ok
and he said the lifeboat was on its way and
went back up to the helicopter. By this time the
four fishing boats were all around us and we
also discovered that the anchor in the
boat was snagged on the seabed and that
is why we could not get the boat righted.
Gary cut the anchor line, we then got the boat
right side up and started to bale out the water
as the lifeboat arrived. They loaded us onto the
lifeboat after we attached a towing line to the
boat.
The weather was good with just a few large
swells (1-1.5m) coming through now and again.
The tide was slack and pushing us towards
Chesil, very slowly.
The boat was loaded with spearfishing gear
and SCUBA gear (2 sets in the large hatch), fish
box half full and various other items.
I have driven this boat many times and Garbhan
Shanks and myself went to North West Ireland
for 10 days, driving this boat in all kinds of
weather. The only thing that was different on
the day was it was a different engine and there
wasTsets of SCUBA gear on board and the
steering wasn’t working correctly. Garv and I
used a two stroke 40hp whereas there is now
40hp four stroke which is heavier and was
fitted slightly higher on the transom than the
previous engine. The boat was far too top
heavy and Gary informed me that he had
nearly capsized it recently and he wanted to
sell the boat and get an inflatable RIB - thanks
Gary for telling me after the event!
Just as a warning to other boat users even with an experienced boat crew
things can go wrong in an instant. You
don’t get a chance to reach for a radio or
other safety gear!
50

Crystal Clear Spring 2011 - British Spearfishing Association

Transcription

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