JDP

Oh send me some cloud cover please!!!...at least he has some shade from the trees.

Really you need to put a few on your face to see how they feel. Don't put the strap around your head when testing them, simply hold it over your face and breath in through you nose to see if it sucks comfortably to your face without air seeping in from anywhere. Masks with very soft silicon surrounds are the most comfortable and a black surround helps you concentrate better in the direction you are facing. Be aware of masks with hard plastic bridges above your nose and lower forehead as these can squeeze on your head when you go down from pressure. Masks with reflective coating to stop fish seeing your eyes can help but trying to hunt without being seen as a threat works equally well. New masks often have a coating of silicon on the inside of the tempered glass that some people use a lighter to quickly burn away, others will rub the inside of the mask with toothpaste to remove this coating. I believe the coating gets there from the production of the glass and cooling process. Once this has been removed there are several little bottles of anti-fog liquids on the market but Ive always found a couple of drops of the yellow Johnson baby shampoo works best. When I put a few drops in with a little bit of water I rub it around then leave it upside down to dry. Before getting into the water spit in the masks then rinse in sea water and the mask should stay fog free for a few weeks before needing the shampoo again. The yellow shampoo is a no tears shampoo for baby and kids etc but it also works inside motor bike helmets and plastic swim goggles etc, it will also stop bathroom mirrors steaming up. When you go under water the mask will squeeze to your face which you compensate for by simply exhaling slightly from your nose. If your mask lets a bit of water in you simply tilt your head slightly back, support the bridge of the mask with one hand and exhale a little more which force the water out of the bottom of the mask. Most spear fishers spit the snorkel from their mouths as they dive down for a couple of reasons. Firstly any bits of air you release from your mouth or air simply holding in the curve of the snorkel can release just as you are about to take a shot and spook a fish. Snorkels just like masks need to be very soft comfortable silicon if you plan spending time in the water. Flexible soft snorkels and the most commonly used by spear fishers. Another reason for removing the snorkel from your mouth while underwater is when you surface you don't have to blow the snorkel clear of water to get your first inhale of air. There are lots of breathing exercise lessons on social media but for the average person its very unlikely you will get to a stage of blackouts or sambas, people who get to that point have often trained to resist all the body functions that make us want to head up for air. By simply diving to what feels comfortable its very unlikely anything will go wrong. Things that can be a problem is swimming into a gill net, if this does happen (its happened three times for me in the UK) make sure you have a knife capable of hacking through it and don't panic. You should still be able to surface if tangled in a net. Kelp can sometimes become a bit restrictive if you've been lying in it ready to ambush fish, again don't panic just work your way out of it. If you haven't pushed to your limits and something goes wrong you should have time to calmly work it out. Make sure you can confidently rig the speargun line out of the water over and over and then practice doing it in the water over and over in calm conditions. You soon learn that unloading the rubbers before getting back into a boat or onto land is far better than shooting the gun off and having to re-set the shaft line again. I will often not load the rubbers until I see fish, which is easier for us as we can see them from some distance most of the time. I would rather poke cranky sharks off with an unloaded gun, if you poke one with a loaded gun and accidentally fire the trigger you may lose the gun or at least wreck the shaft. If you get into it more seriously you can have a spare shaft rigged and ready to go if you have issues such as a bent shaft or sticky flopper etc. Its not just shooting the fish you have to consider but what's behind the fish also, hitting into rocks should be avoided as much as possible. A shaft that gets stuck into marine growth under ledges can often be removed by getting special tool to allow youth twist the shaft from the back of the spear on the flat section that fits into the trigger mechanism (a small old spanner to fit will do the same). This first mask is the kind I like using, the second often push into my head around the frame.

Same here, boat missing with three onboard as well as few sharks attacks and deaths over the last week. Also an experienced spear fisher went missing close to my place about 4 days ago, at a location another was killed by sharks before. Its gone very sharky in our area over the last few years. Also this week three were washed from the rocks in big seas resulting in three deaths.

One of my first guns was a Rob Allen similar to those, they are very popular guns around the world and should be fine. A couple of things I notice which is more to do with UK fish species is that the spear shaft is thin, thin shafts are fast but often lack the punch on bigger fish. Shafts can be changed if you find you bend or damage one, or simply want to go a bit heavier in gauge. The bands are 16mm, which are pretty powerful bands and would be a bit hard to load at first for some people trying to learn technique. I normally remove the original bands on guns and drop down to 14mm or 13.5. The formulas for spear rubbers and lengths are commonly found online, a smaller diameter delivers the power more progressively without flexing a smaller diameter shaft which in all improves accuracy. The way those guns are setup Im sure is for the UK market, which should be a great starting point and the price looks very reasonable. Choosing the right length gun might be something you could look into on UK spear forum or look up clubs etc. Just like rod and line fishing you can end up with many guns for different fish. On a comp my daughter would use a gun of 90cm to 110cm over here in clear water. Often shorter guns are used in dirty water where you get close to fish and the longer guns are for longer shots and bigger fish. We tend to use shafts of 7mm diameter up into 8+ to punch through bigger fish. The nature of the steel with Rob Allen guns means they will rust a little if you don't clean your gear after using in saltwater, so rinse off and use a light lube to keep it good. Also check out Rob Allen video's on straightening a shaft and tuning the flopper. The flopper needs to open and stay open after the shot, often its good to head into a shop for a bit of advice first but there are plenty of video's online. Re-rigging rubbers or mono after a while can either be at a store or once again check out YouTube!!! Finns or flippers as you call them are easy to make mistakes with. I bought some cressi long fins that were very stiff which were extremely hard on my ancles and the stiffness of the blades meant I couldn't use them efficiently. Go with a soft to medium action even if you consider yourself a strong swimmer, many come as seperate blades to the foot pockets, get something comfortable and don't go by price alone. Without doubt the most popular fins for spearing are DiverR fins but I bought some far cheaper mako fins which have been very good. I have a few friends who bought the mako fins https://www.makospearguns.com who have been very happy with them. The mako wetsuits were what we started off with two. Cressi would most likely be the most common your side of the pond but there are many brands, I would go more by the colour and price you like as most are good. Dive floats or dive flags on your boat are a good thing to use. When underwater boat traffic noise carry's great distances, so you will often know when a boat is near, unless its sailing!!! With anything you buy, gloves, fins, suit etc etc the more comfortable you feel in it the more relaxed you will be underwater, this will reflect on your depth time and how fish react to you.

Yes Ive seen a fair few of his videos, pretty certain he's friends with my daughter, though only social media friends. He explains very well (no weird accent).

After showing a bit of interest in the underwater world of filming and spearing I thought you might like this Andy135. This is a young Ozy lad who's living over there at the moment. Even though some don't approve of spearing, the underwater content is very good and can help any boat or shore angler get more of an insight in the fish they hunt over shallow water.

All day my computer has been having a will of its own!!!!...if its not already bad enough being a bad speller, this thing keeps adding several words or changing words well after Ive gone past!!!! maybe time for a restart .

That was just across the water from where I kept one of my boats, never considered it much of a tidal race, yes the current pushed along quite quickly causing a few big eddy's but nothing my little 12ft boat at the time couldn't handle. If anything there was a faster run of water at the front of Fort Victoria but again not enough to cause chop. The Needles will cause bad chop, which good the windows out of my cabin once and split the transom (18ft boat).

Sometimes we rave tidal races at the end of our street!!!!!...driving through them is slightly different to being in the boat.

A bit like our bar crossing only a little more predictable. Our often narrow channels to open ocean are tide dependant ,that fast running tidal flow often from large estuaries cause their own chop, mix this with ocean swell, cross winds and sea chop and they soon become extremely dangerous. Running them is a case of once committed there's no turning back for the risk of getting rolled side on. Depending on the wave size and whether you are running with our against it greatly determins how you control speed and trim. Plenty of power is important here but also using to much power can soon land you in trouble. Some of these waves when running against the tide are virtually not moving, they just hold as pressure waves you either have to drop over or move around as you have other waves coming at you from different angles (reaction time needs to be quick on our bar crossing). Using trim to help reduce the chance of burying the the bow or reducing the boat from porpoiseing over waves is important. Also make sure everything onboard is secure, you don't want things sliding about distracting you and effecting stability. Kill switch is often good to be attached to your leg (not wrist as your hands need to work fast at the wheel at times). Crew should be prepared and wearing pfd's just incase. The tidal races I used to encounter around the needles and St Catherins were relatively short and more predictable but even those have caught me out in the past, which was more to do with the poor hull designs in my price range bait then. Deep V hulls with plenty of weight and power in the built eat up such conditions but unfortunately these were only in the likes of ribs (still pretty much the same back there). Depending on the wave sizes and angled approach like in this image bellow will greatly help. The large cat my daughter often skippers copped a wave over the top crossing our local bar last week ripping off the clears and almost washing the kipper from the flybridge last week, my daughter was driving the smaller boat that day!!!

He must be talking about the locals, not us Poms out here!!!!!......as for cricket, never watched a minute of it. It was a warm 40'c which was spent at a local pub beer garden listening to my youngest sing. As for fishing out here, yes it can be fantastic but to rock up and start fishing and expect great catches is very unlikely. Unlike any of the fishing I did in the UK, here you really have to know your species and their habits, its a vast coast so local knowledge is vital.

This was the one I put in and out of the rib (which is posted in the boating section). I made the video for another member on the other site as it was easier to explain. It held a good 10-15 mackerel for marlin fishing but you don't want to overcrowd some sorts of live bait. Any bait that is bleeding or not looking 100% should not be put in a tank as it will quickly effect all baits. Any handling should be minimal.

Silly question but why not use a transoms mount, these don't have to stay in the water, you can use an adjustable sliding transom mount where you simple drop the transducer to the correct depth each trip. Even all the charter boats on moorings tend to go for transoms mounted transducers over here.

That will only work if its against the bottom skin, they won't send and receive a signal through air or a foam filled deck.

You could cut through the top skin and put an inspection hatch where the transducer is to be fixed and run the lead under the floor to bring up under the helm. This could prove difficult is the hull is foam filled,

Can't you clean it and give it a coat of something like Yam lube (Yamaha silicon spray).

What you can do that way is simply use a decent pair of split ring pliers to remove the jig rather than have hooks on all the jigs, that way the same assist hook stays on the main line and saves re-tying.

From 60g up to 1kg jigs all of mine are single hooks at the top of the jig. When tying the jig to your main line, depending which side of the ring you tie your main line can make a difference in hooking fish, especially on the retrieve pull. I never tie off a split ring and only join to the solid rings, the reason being is strength. In these two images you will note that in one the hook turns in towards the lure and the other turns out. It's obvious that the turned in hook will miss some bites and a simple case of having the assist hook cord on the left or right hand side of the mainline knot is all that's needed to correct this. It's amazing how many people I fish with miss this simple little thing, some I don't tell!!!!! By the way this is a cheap samaki jig in 150g that come rigged for about £5, with one side coloured and the other luminous, these are the jigs I lend out on my boat rather than hand out expensive jigs.

It doesn't look like it's holding much in the way of fish having zoomed in close. I wouldn't of dropped a line on it that day. Some tweaking in the settings would help. It's a very shallow wreck, sounds like it would be worth freediving for lost gear.

The marlin are going well again for my daughter with another 4 caught and released today.

Yes you need to use weigh, but not to much that you sink like a rock. At the surface you should be buoyant so your head is above water without kicking. The deeper you go you reach a point that you will be neutrally buoyant which is normally somewhere around 5-10m for me. If your target species is normally in 5m you will want to add or remove weights so that you can hold at that depth easily. Do everything in stages, don't rush out and try to get buoyancy, breathing and shooting all together at once as you will have to much to try and get your head around. Get to know the species a little first by interacting with them, many are quite curious by us we'd things in the water. I prefer the rubber weight belts with the quick release buckle. Get used to using the belt on the right hand side to release, this is something that's trained in scuba diving so other divers can quickly and easily release anyone belt in an emergency without fumbling around finding which way its clipped. There are weight vests also which are good if you have lower back issues, these also seem to help in heading down. Even though we have belts and vests we tend to use the belts most, with most of the weight positioned behind you. With most of the weight on the belt behind you this helps keep you slightly tilted back at the surface, which is good if you like breathing!!!! The rubber belts are more expensive but they tend to stay where you put them and the weights don't slide about once you have the belt on. As you get to do deeper dives you find that the cheap webbing belts can slip as you and your suit compress, this can often end with the weights slipping on your side or front, which will through your mental calmness out of whack. Getting the good gear instantly puts you at a huge advantage. Breathing is a whole science for free diving but generally you can do the same time down there without gulping in a big lung full before heading down. I find I often don't take a breath at all before heading under, this helps if I want to get down quicker or lie on the bottom (no balloon of air in my lungs pulling to the surface). Obviously not taking a breath wouldn't be for a long deep dive but for a shallow one no problem. If you are sitting watching tv and experiment with a gentle breath hold at the end of a breath compared to the beginning of a breath, there's virtually no difference in the time you can hold that breath. When you take a huge breath and try that same breath hold you almost instantly feel uncomfortable and want to start letting it out, you certainly don't feel comfortable. This is where people think you have to be young and fit to dive, where yes you do but not the fitness most people imagine, its more about mental fitness and relaxation, obviously a combination of physical and mental fitness is a winner.

Are you talking guns or suit upgrade ? Suits are best in two piece without any zips (commonly called farmer John style) and made from Yamamoto neoprene (which is actually made from limestone. These suits are extremely soft and stretchy and virtually eliminate any water getting inside them. This means you can use thinner suits in colder water and feel very comfortable in them. Being comfortable is all part of getting your mind into the relaxed state to increase breath holds, which also means less weight to assist the correct buoyancy. These suits normally need lubrication to put on, which I make up myself and keep in tomato sauce squeezy bottles. If you head down this path I can give you a good cheap formula for making lots of lube. Long supple fins greatly improve the effort getting down with just a few long gentle kicks. Snorkel and masks with soft silicone mouth pieces and mask surrounds all help to make you feel comfortable and relaxed. if you don't feel totally comfortable your dives will be short and messy and scare fish away. The snorkel is simply for breathing at the surface, when you go under spit the snorkel out so it has no air inside it as even a couple of bubbles from it can spoke a fish as you are lining a shot. There are heaps of guns that would suit you but something in the 90cm is a good all round size. As a general rule longer guns are used in clean water where you need more range or target bigger fish. Guns with a rail that the spear shaft runs along are considered most accurate, these can be found in wood, plastic, aluminium and carbon. We have several different makes but have to admit the European Riffe guns are what we tend to like the most. Most Riffe guns are wooden, which obviously makes them heavier than carbon etc but the weight gives several advantages for hunting. Firstly even though they are heavier they are also well balanced to hold underwater and the weight reduces recoil (kick) and eakesthe gun quieter to shoot. Carbon, aluminium etc can be quicker to move around on fast fish but I would still opt for the heavier Riffe, in saying that I do have a small carbon cressi gun that is fantastic but part of that is because Ive set it up with light rubbers. Most guns are set up with heavy powerful bands which I find a little hard to load so I drop the bands down to around 14.5mm and shorter than the originals the guns come with. These shorter thinner bands give a longer more progressive pull on the spear giving a smoother shot. When you start looking into the many different makes of spear rubbers you soon realise there is as much into choosing these as there is in lines for rod and line fishing. Target practice is very important, so start off in shallow water with a few targets to get your eye tuned into the gun. Shoot from under the target, straight on and above over and over until you become confident shooting and loading in the water. Always unload the gun when not in the water, we tend to unload by pulling the rubbers back out of the ridges on the spear shaft and not shooting it off into the water. Old plastic bottles with a weight attached on a string and a small amount of air in them will keep them up off the bottom to shoot at. Try shoot fish from an angle where rocks aren't behind the fish or the shaft can get bent. Make sure the spear flopper opens correctly and stays open or fish fish will pull off the shaft (look on YouTube at Rob Allen spear flopper tuning and shaft straightening ). The store in Spain has a fair amount of gear on offer https://www.scubastore.com/scuba-diving?info=cW5NL2NQM1J0a0hlTmswOHpXa0VGbVRnSTBaM29ZVXJHNWE3Z1BNT2JKZFpjK1U1ZU5aVWFTNHduVXZJVXNiSGxvS0Qyci9BWCthbWc2SmJEcjc4eVFtQ082YnFxZE9yeHllMytnYnFxUm9VM3RZWkpuRDlsRzlSSTlCOThPQ1RVcUIyL0NGMHJjQU9TREFxVkR5Tmp3PT0=

Don't the manufacturers state what weight the hull is ? Carrying 4 plastic jerry cans isn't to much of an issue.

50mph from a 115 would be pretty amazing, the hull must be pretty flat with very little v and also very light. My boat is the same length and maxes out at 34kt with a 140 and a clean trailered hull.

Another couple of marlin today tagged and released, with a few dolphin fish kept. It isn't actually that common for people to keep the marlin but mako is far more commonly taken home. I have to say the marlin steak she bought home was some of the best fish Ive eaten for a while. Towards the end of the summer season we get the bigger billfish turn up, which are rarely taken by anyone even in the billfish tournament which attracts around 80-100+ boats. On the spearfishing front, I started spearing myself in the UK and there are still clubs running in the UK and very good venues there for the sport. The skill level is so much more than line fishing and not necessarily fitness as many good spearfishers here are overweight and elderly. It's a whole different level of mind control, relaxation and fighting the urge to breath. Fish need to be hunted in a way they don't think they are being hunted and the freediver needs to know and understand the target species behaviour and habits. Most of the better fish are found at 15m -20m or deeper, which means you don't have long once down there to get all parts together for a clean shot.