Lizard Point Hunting tour 2005

[Pekka]

For those who read our story from norway know.. one week diving and diving and nothing but diving for a week.. fish and bigger fish aiming to get some.. This year me and my brother Tuomo are going to target Lizard Point here in UK, the most southern point of England mainland! We hace camera and plenty of space on memory card.. the only thing that we dont know if we have is the internet, so reports might be few during the hunting, but after the trip we'll give our verdict to the area under and above water for you to read and hopefully admire too a little.. anyone coming that way please feel wolcome to come and join us..

Soon to post the first pictures of our fishing tour 2005..

Good hunting to you all.

Pekka

 

[samdive]

Hey Pekka

My family live down there - when are you going? I can't hunt but I can take photos and would love to join you for a day or so

Sam

 

[Pekka]

We are going to stay in the YHA on Lizard point.. I am not exactly sure where there it is, but I got told we cant miss it.. I'll pm you my mobile, so if you want to come give me a buzz so I can look out for you there.. would love to have some comppany of locals, as I have heard that the local fishermen are not the most welcoming for freedivers or spearos..

Pekka

 

[Pekka]

Day 1

First day at lizard day was clear and water was fine.. everything was great.. our Hostel was right on the point se only walking distance to the water.. we packed all of our stuff into one bag (jumppa kassi) "the powe bag" one brought it to the beach and the other took it back up.. needless to say it was HEAVY, specially as the "beach" looked like oneway entry at some places we took ourselves into water..
The first day was fairly poor in diving/fishing as we were greeted by the local seals.. they took care of our hunting plan and came much too close for comfort.. (touching my longfins!) but what can you do these fellas were much bigger than either one of us and their aspetto times were about ten times better than ours! We took some photos videos and retreated from water with our guns and all of our limbs attached!
that night we hoped that the seals would no longer be our guests for our hunting fest..
There were some bass around and some pollack and wrasse, viz was great about 10-20meters (thats 30-60feet)

here are some pictures from that day..
safe diving, more reports coming as soon as I have time..

Pekka

 

[Pekka]

day 2 at lizard

second day at lizard was early start with good viz and sun shine! we took off about 7am and were in water about 7:30 cool morning dive saw some fish including some Mackerel and mullet. among these there was huge shoal of Bass that circled me a while.. long enough for me to nail one. there was very little action after the initial fish and most of the day we spent swimming in search of an other bass..

the days second dive was at Mullion Cove little to the west from the lizard point, where our base camp was, it was an other clear viz dive with some good hunting places. I did nail one Bass from the surface, but as the spear was buried deep into the sand the fish managed to pull against it and rip free.. I felt terrible, but it was the only good sized fish I saw on the dive there.. I found the place as I thought of it from three years ago. we used the same entry point from the rocks and had our gear there in the sun. It was very nice and sunny day all and all. and we had our first ok sized bass in the bag. 1,4Kg not that great, but good eating after some time on the BBQ the next day.

safe diving to all

Pekka

 

[Pekka]

day3 at lizard

well bass was good eating, but ended up being the only one speared that trip, it was loads of clear water and pollack around to aim for fun, but shooting them is not really a sport, so we ended up doing loads of aspettos waiting for our fish to show up but nothing.. we both did see some Mackerel go by, but again either too far or just too quickly.. no images of mackerel was taken.. but loads of other things floating in the water.. as you can see.
all and all, we got a crab which we boiled for dinner and one English lady wanted a fresh pollack.. ok I got one for her, filet it for her and later on we ended up eating half of it with some pepper sugar and cheese..
And about the crab.. wow the shell is hard.. I tell y'all it was war agains some tough dead already cooked crab..and did the german family eating in the background laugh as we battled the crab with our fork and knife! Later we found out that one should have used a hammer to crush the claws..oh well, one learns through mistakes.. so here goes the pictures of our third day at lizard point.. I concentrated on filming than shooting fish after a while..

safe diving to you all

Pekka

 

[Pekka]

the day after that.. the weather turned against us, windy and clowdy and rainy and all but inviting when little tiredness crept in.. not as bad as last year in Norway though, temperature stayed over 20 and some sun was visible from time to time.. that morning we had our first sleep in.. till 10 I think, and we joined the "crowds" in the morning for breakfast...also the English bubble blowers who were there to "dry" after being on the scilly isles for a week.. and saying to us that spearfishing must be illegal.. after that we kept away from them from that on, not wanting to get the police around to chek our doings out.. not that we were doing anything illegal to start with.. :|

finally we headed on the easter side of the peninsula and went diving, needless to say the water felt cold, and the fish we saw were pollack and wrasse, but after some time floating around I spotted a triggerfish and changed my gun to camera nd snapped pictures of it.. that was basically the best part of the dive then.. we did go diving in the evening at lizard again, but saw nothing worth shooting..
Viz was constantly good, no less than 4meters, even when the waves were fairly big.. I dont konw if we were at the wrong spot that day.. be it that or not, we had some good diving, aspetto times extended to the better side of 1:20 bottom time and it was good.. we had more time to work on our skills on devilstick.. juggling thing, and we ended up learning how to throw it around fairly well, and I broke one of the handsticks in the process..
by this time we had been diving for 5 days in a row for about 3 dives a day! we were getting tired and two dives was all we could do with comfort.. and the next day dive was going to be our last one..

Safe diving to all


Pekka

Pictures, trigger fish from the eastern side of the peninsula, Tuomo coming up from our evening dive and wrasse hiding under a rock at very low water.

 

[Pekka]

Last day diving

the last day was our last dive of the trip.. the last dive.. at lizard point, we entered water close to Lions Den and waited untill local seal cleared away before taking into water and exploring the bay again.. Tuomo spotted some bass, but tied wishbone gave away and that made us two men in water with one working gun.. I gave mine to Tuomo and concentrated on filming.. but nothing that spectacular showed up.. it was fairly unsuprising dive..
Tuomo saw some bass, but at very low water and had some problems nailing them.. well we were ready to hit the road and think of our next years dive trip.. perhaps Med, perhaps Africa.. we are not decided good suggestions will be considered and appreciated.. I will try to "upgrade" my T20 into a gun with 2 rubbers.. and a reel for some serious fishing next summer.. Tuomo, I have no idea he always has his own ideas of a perfect hunting equipment and gear, but we both agree, warmer is better, bigger is better.. and I think deeper is more challenging.. I only dove to about 15m at lizard and after looking at the marine charts it seemed that deeper water would require a boat.

Safe diving to you all

Pekka

Pictures, car suitable for cornish roads, local fish (pollack) and lizard point water and rocky beach.

 

[Huan]

Nice pics and story Pekka.
Come to SW Ireland similar to Lizard but less self-rightous annoying scubassholes and deeper water 20m+ straight off the shore.

 

[grahamfoster]

Looks like you had a good time - shame you didin't see more bass - I think I'll be headin down to Lizard at some point next week when I'm down in Cornwall. Triggers are very tasty by the way - just no challenge to shoot!
I was once told by an extremely self rightous scuba diver that spearing was illegal. He was utterly convinced - I had to point out that BSAC club rules aren't actually 'The Law'. :duh

 

[Amphibious]

looks like you guys had a blast! nice fish

 

[Ntrik]

Great trip and fotos dude. The car rules!

 

[samdive]

thanks for posting those Pekka - looks like you had a great time. I have dived around 500 times off the lizard and never seen a trigger or a seal so feel lucky!

S

 

[Pekka]

Thanks guys.. we did have a good time and perhaps got into fairly good condition after such a intensive diving.. Now back at work I am trying to dream of our next trip..to perhaps to Cyprus.. Ntrik?

Seal and trigger fish.. I guess it was fine.. I did concentrate more on the photo side of things the longer the trip went.. But soon I'll be right back at Budleigh for some serious fishing..

I am posting more pictures.. (one a day) to Gallery

Pekka

 

[Jez]

Hi Pekka :wave

Don't know if you got my pm recently. Nice report and photos, gets me in the mood to get in the water.

I've got all my kit now, my back is better (but not totally fixed) and have been doing some light diving at Branscombe down to about 10m to get used to my kit (came right down on a dogfish which must have been 3ft long at one point! Let him go though, not sure how he'd taste).

Let me know if you want to meet and dive at Budleigh any time soon. I suspect all this rain we're in for will mess up the visibility but I may be off down to Torquay at the weekend (no rivers to ruin vis, just depends on the wind).

Jez

 

[tuomo]

Thanks for the story bro'. Great trip and we had a blast, but fishing wasn't that great.
Lots of pollack but not as big as the ones in Norway last year.
Next year deeper water and more fish, other than pollack. Any suggestions are welcome.

Tuomo

 

[glowworm]

Great story and pictures boys.Can't wait to see where you go next.I have been wondering if there is anywhere in europe that can be spearfished in febuary,march or april for a long weekend just to break up the winter months.

 

[Pekka]

Try gibraltar.. or head to Malta.. I saw some interesting scenes there, like large baitball at -2m... by that time I was sea sick and it was getting dark.. I had just seen the old tanker at -27m and spent some time sitting on its deck.. I was there only to freedive some two years ago. very nice even at winter time.. but take your 5,5mm or 7mm suit with..

Pekka

 

[glowworm]

Thanks for the advice pekka i will look into it.Where's the best place to check up on rules and regulations for spearfishing in those areas.Don't want to go anywhere and break laws.

 

[Pekka]

Ask from MaltaSpearo.. should be hanging around here somewhere, I met him when I went. top bloke.. they had some strange rules in Malta, but now they are part of EU might have changed the rules?
Gibraltar..again ask form Shane.. he should know something about Gibraltar rules..

Pekka