Keem Bay, Achill 10.9.2016

Headed out in dodgy enough conditions, very fresh westerly that turned south west and decided to try Keem Bay for only the second time this year.

Talked to the lady in the tea wagon and she said our spearfishing fiends have not been around for a month, so we duly scrambled down to the rocks on the extreme right hand side (facing the sea) over the low water tide rocks and out. Set up with two mackerel filled traces, one out on the sand and another closer to the rocks...

And waited. Watched a seal play with the people in the surf - never seen that before, quite remarkable - and thankfully he disappeared half an hour later. Got a lot of twitchy small bites but the wind was playing havoc. Eventually hit one and brought in a massive brown edible crab. Size of a large dinner plate, pincers to match. Cathal looked at me, said, Crab mmmm, so we popped it into a bag. It's in the freezer now, a quick and calm death, and so long as we cook him this week, he should be mmmm.

More twitchy bites but nothing. Tried float fishing some scrags of salmon in around the rocks hoping the triggerfish might put in an appearance but it was very rough and the wind was blowing the float all over the place... nothing doing.

Finally found some weight on the road out on the sand again, and lo and behold, yet another massive brown edible crab - which sadly escaped just before the rocks. Weather deteriorated, some nasty squalls dropped in over the mountain ensuring the rocks were super slippy... At some point the penny dropped that I had the tides all wrong and the damn thing was going out again. Between that, the weather and the total lack of fish, we decided to call it a day after about four hours.

Keem Bay - nice to look at but very sadly it is now fished out. Two strings of pots in the bay now, where there used to be only one.

Not even a wrasse or a slug to be had...

Its not just the spearmen - its netted to death - no comps held on it anymore

Terrible to see such beautiful places destroyed. Who exactly is netting these places.... Is it Local boats? People after pot bait?

"Keem Bay - nice to look at but very sadly it is now fished out." Sounds a bit like Little Killary? A shame to see another famous mark go this way, I got my first turbot and tub gurnard on that beach years ago, had a few good days boat fishing nearby too, has that gone the same way?

I don't see how a spear fisher would have much more of an effect than an angler.
I doubt you could blame them for the poor fishing at Keem.

I don't see how a spear fisher would have much more of an effect than an angler.
I doubt you could blame them for the poor fishing at Keem.

Not many C&R spear fishers around

Yeah, but they can be a lot more selective about what they take.

Ye all the big fish

Yeah, but they can be a lot more selective about what they take.

Unfortunately on the one occasion I met the spearmen in question, there each had a string of 4/5 small wrasse (none over 2lbs) so they weren't being selective...

I've seen plenty of anglers take all the big fish and all the small fish.
I'd hazard a guess that there are a lot more irresponsible anglers in Ireland than there are irresponsible spear fishers.

The vast majority of anglers do not take everything they catch be it big or small. The people that do take everything are not anglers they are twats that only appear when the sun is shining...fair weather ''anglers'' Spear fishing has no place in salt water or fresh water in my opinion!

Extremely netted and exploited on a fronts. Heard of monster turbot (by Irish standards) years ago.. Very sad

The vast majority of anglers do not take everything they catch be it big or small. The people that do take everything are not anglers they are twats that only appear when the sun is shining...fair weather ''anglers'' Spear fishing has no place in salt water or fresh water in my opinion!

As far as I'm aware it's not allowed in freshwater and I've never heard of anyone doing it in freshwater.
I don't see the problem with it in saltwater though, it's a lot more selective than angling, also, a reasonable proportion of what we return as anglers is going to die and that's something I struggle with to be honest.
Banning something because you don't like it is a rocky road to go down.
The same rules on bags and size limits apply to spear fishing as angling so what's the problem?
If you want to ban spear fishing because of all the fish they take then surely the same would have to apply to angling yes?
If someone is taking loads of small fish then they should be educated on the need to allow smaller fish to reach breeding age to maintain a healthy population. It doesn't really matter if those fish are taken with a spear or a hook.

I agree with bogwopit on the legality of spear fishing and the need for education.

The only issue is that its a bit delicate to come up to a guy with a spear gun and suggest that he should be more selective... some people don't want to learn.

That applies to anglers too.. I recall seeing anglers with specimen badges prominently displayed on their hats taking a slew of 6 inch codling off Greystones beach and they were all Dubs like me and made the excuse that they were for the cat... You don't need to travel to find village idiots.

If the bay is being netted to extinction levels, then a call to the Fisheries people is well in order. * coughs *

ah here

ah here

Lets all agree to disagree
Why don't we implement a catch and release system for anglers and spearfisherman...oh wait...
I'm personally a conservationist and return everything so I hate to see fish being killed be it in salt water or fresh water.

Some interesting reading....

http://oar.marine.ie/bitstream/10793/30 ... d%2009.pdf

The spearfishers don't wipe out fish stocks per say.
It's a strong possibility the fish see them as a new predator in the water and simply clear the fek off out of it.

The spearfishers don't wipe out fish stocks per say.
It's a strong possibility the fish see them as a new predator in the water and simply clear the fek off out of it.

I've watched a good few spear fishing vids on yootoob, the fish couldn't care less about the spear fisher most of the time. The majority of fish just carry on about their business, the rest seem to come over to the spear fisher for a look.
So no, I don't think your theory holds water either to be honest.
I'm sure we're all of the opinion that a seal in the vicinity of where we're fish can have a detrimental effect on the fishing (not always though), well a seal is a lot more effective as a predator than a spear fisher, however, it doesn't mean that a mark is spoiled long term just because a seal made a visit.
A resident seal could make a difference I would have thought though and any time I've visited Keem there's been at least one seal about.

The spearfishers don't wipe out fish stocks per say.
It's a strong possibility the fish see them as a new predator in the water and simply clear the fek off out of it.

I've watched a good few spear fishing vids on yootoob, the fish couldn't care less about the spear fisher most of the time. The majority of fish just carry on about their business, the rest seem to come over to the spear fisher for a look.
So no, I don't think your theory holds water either to be honest.
I'm sure we're all of the opinion that a seal in the vicinity of where we're fish can have a detrimental effect on the fishing (not always though), well a seal is a lot more effective as a predator than a spear fisher, however, it doesn't mean that a mark is spoiled long term just because a seal made a visit.
A resident seal could make a difference I would have thought though and any time I've visited Keem there's been at least one seal about.

We're all entitled to our opinion and since you've watched loads of videos on youtube i bow to your superior wisdom.