A few fish reports…
Early August: Devon, Rame head and the James Eagan lane (Wreck in Plymouth Sound) saw myself and Dave Thomasson diving this area with good results, large bass up to 11lbs (big for Devon) lying in the Kelp. Fishing the gullies for big bass is very exiting. I dive down and cruise just about 1 m above the gully scanning the gaps in the kelp forrest below, you have to be very quiet and have you gun ready to fire(twitching finger) you will normally(if the bass are relaxing during the slack) see the silver, blue fish shinning in the sun through the kelp, it helps a lot if the sun is high above you and the kelp should be still or almost not moving. Dave and i ended up with 9 good fish in 30 minutes hunting like this. So if you see the first one or two in the kelp you can be sure there will be more just keep on looking around. Hope im not telling anybody how to suck eggs, just thought it might be interesting.
Andy said he tried this method last week and saw a few fish but he also saw a big shoal of bass in the same area, now if you see a large shoal of relaxed free swimming bass and the approach you lie very still on the surface until they get within range then line up on the 1st fish and fire… FROM THE SURFACE try not to dive down on a shoal of bass when they are schooling below you, you will send them swimming for the MED! I have used this method many times and without fail they always stay until you dive through them to the bottom, make no mistake they will come back and check you out 2 even 3 times and you will get a few fish but eventually they will $!@* off!.
Nicky Collins has mastered this method of shooting from the top and uses it very regularly and with great success while hunting bass off the coast of Devon and Cornwall.
Paul Maxwell, John Gersda( Springbok Spearo from South Africa) and I dived the week after that around Plymouth and looe we had a fantastic catch of fish including one lovely Bream. Looe island was working well and we saw lots of fish both in the front off the point as well as in the bay on the east side. If anyone dives looe generally the better side is the east side on top of the kelp. We saw no seal that day which was strange….no seals….plenty bass!
John from SA now has a different view on Spearfishing in the UK!
Dave T also had his new Personal best, a bass of 11lbs the second PB this year for Dave.
