Bass

Had a dive yesterday.

It was about 2 hours after high tide. - There was a bit of swell and chop on the surface. The intention was to give my camera a test run. I've recently bought a housing for it so need a few trips to find the best settings and to see what it can do. The conditions weren’t ideal. The swell had kicked things up a bit, allowing (I can never really judge) about 5 metres good visibility, but with plenty of suspended particulates.

I finned out slowly to a spot with some gullies between rocks and a good covering of kelp. First dive, I dropped down as quietly as I could, got to the bottom and grabbed hold of some kelp. (I’m still weighted quite conservatively – roughly neutrally buoyant at 10 metres, so at that depth I was starting to bob back up a little bit!)

Seconds after I arrived at the bottom, a school of bass came cruising in for a nose. The first few appeared from the gloom, followed by several more. I tried to keep as still as possible as they came to check me out, swimming to within arms reach. I rattled off a few pictures before I made my way back up for some air. As I started my ascent the bass moved off, clearly keeping a safe distance away now that I was moving.

After a bit of a breathe-up, I dropped back down again. A few seconds after I'd arrived, back they came! I tried the flash on a couple of shots – they seemed to like that, definitely redirecting their movements towards the camera after each flash.

The school moved off as I left for the surface and returned when I dropped back again. They did this for about 4 dives, then I guess they'd seen enough and disappeared.

In open water they were loosely packed in the school. They kept an almost equal distance away from each other, sometimes in a line until they arrived in front of me. There they tumbled over each other, almost in a ball, each investigating me in turn.

I am interested to determine how and where they move at each stage of the tide and how they feed. This school was in approx 8 metres of water, a good 50 metres or more from shore. They were each about 12 - 14 inches in length. I am aware that I am affecting their behaviour by being there. They were clearly interested in me, which was maybe distracting them from going about their business of feeding.

I have noticed before that if you move around, the bass are sometimes spooked. Lone bass especially. On a previous dive in the same location, I saw bass in schools like this lot, and lone bass of approximately the same size. It could be that they school, then break off and hunt independently, reforming the school later.

There were sandeel nearer the surface on this dive, but no bass activity around them.

My apologies for the quality of the shots. Need to test more of the camera settings and try to improve the focus on my target, still,..... considering the conditions, you can get an idea !.....