Big Pollack catch

South Devon, Summer 2001

It was Friday night and as usually I was expecting a call from Mike to decide our next diving venue for the following day. The weather forecast was good so we decided to go a bit further than usually and dive a little island in South Devon (picture below). Spanish member Juan also joined us.

The following day, after 3 ½ hours driving from London, we arrived in South Devon at about 9am and eventually put up our gear and shore dived at around 9.30 am. The sea was flat calm and there was a bit of current coming from the West. Mike and I headed for the island, nearly 1 mile away, while Juan dived the East side of the beach where we entered the water.

After a very long swim Mike and I finally reached the island… The visibility was good, over 6-7 metres, and we immediately shot a few bass who were hiding in the kelp or free swimming in the open water. I then reached the offshore point of the island and did an agachon in about 14 metres of depth. As I was lying in the kelp, parallel to the coast, I saw a nice Pollack swimming towards me. I stood still, he gained more confidence and came closer. He was however a bit far and had no intention to come closer… As I run out of breath I decided to give it a go, stretched my arm as far as possible and shot the fish with my Cressi 90 with 16mm rubbers. The spear hit him just behind the brain but with my surprise did not go through… The Pollack went ballistic and after a few seconds got free from the spear. Fortunately the shot damaged his brain and I noticed he could not swim fast nor fully coordinated. He nonetheless disappeared in the deeper water… I was very disappointed, especially for miscalculating the real size of the fish: he was much bigger and much farer than what I expected. Actually, he was a really nice Pollack!

I didn’t give up and decided to anchor my float on the spot and then look for the fish with a series of dives all around the area following concentric circles of increasing diameter. The trick worked and after 20 minutes I finally spotted a gold spark in the deep kelp. The fish was nearly dead but I speared it again to avoid any surprise. He was 6.8 kg (15 lbs).

Paolo