Spearfishing in France
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Diving
Forum Name: Spearo's Corner
Forum Description: Free-divers & spearos chat about their sport
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=88269
Printed Date: 30 May 2026 at 6:16am
Topic: Spearfishing in France
Posted By: saltie
Subject: Spearfishing in France
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 3:53pm
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I am moving to France in mid March, wondering if it is worth taking my gear over??
Has anyone from this forum spent time in the water over that way? or know of a french equivalent to this site?
Any info would be appreciated
Cheers guys
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Replies:
Posted By: Cris
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 4:12pm
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There's a great spearfishing scene in France, you won't find the numbers of fish you get here in NZ, and you'll almost certainly need a boat to get to the good marks, best in the summer months for sea bass, couple of videos here to get you started to show you the sort of ground: http://mizalo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=47&Itemid=104" rel="nofollow - http://mizalo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=47&Itemid=104 you'll get some good info from here (with a translation engine): http://www.chassesousmarine.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.chassesousmarine.com/ And you may also get some info from some of the other euro chaps over here: http://www.medfish.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=71429f4503781402ba6af4860a9b1925" rel="nofollow - http://www.medfish.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=71429f4503781402ba6af4860a9b1925 |
Posted By: jvins
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 4:27pm
| Where in France are u going? Im from there, could point you to some spot. |
Posted By: saltie
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 6:24pm
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Cheers pneumo, awesome resource. I'm off to Antibes jvins, any pointers in the right direction from there would be great |
Posted By: kolt45
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 7:13pm
| I would argue the best diving within French terrior will be Corsica - north of Bastia is very good for dentex in the weed, les Iles Sanguinaires near Ajaccio are very good for a wide variety of species - best accessed by boat, but if you're a seasoned swimmer and have all day, you can do it by shore. Don't underestimate snooping the shallows for big sar around the tip of the islands. Calví had very good numbers of fish, but I found them to be very spooky and deep. |
Posted By: random
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 7:31pm
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whack loads of mullet around antibes. not much else. Good history, loads of yachties and loose women. Have a beer at the blue lady for me
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Posted By: kolt45
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 7:43pm
| I saw the biggest dorade of my entire trip about 50 metres offshore of the main beach in Nice, and that includes lots of dives in the marine park in Cadaqués, Spain, so don't underestimate what you can find if you keep your eyes open. There was also a stunner brazilian lass... |
Posted By: shiraz
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 9:46pm
| 2nd the bit about the Blue Lady! Some very good restaurants & bars in Antibes. Enjoy! |
Posted By: jvins
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2013 at 9:47pm
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Done mostly the atlantic coast, im from brittany. Everytime i was in the mediteranean we tried to spear the very shallow water, i mean 50cm to a meter, very very early on the morning. Dont use your fins to move around, use your hands and use all the cover u can find. Shot some dentex ( denti in french) and seabass (loup) and sar like that. Good fun. And put extra weight as well, heaps. hope that help.
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Posted By: mozz
Date Posted: 19 Feb 2013 at 2:28pm
| Sausage rolls at the blue lady on a saturday morning remind me of home. Cap d Antibes has some great terrain, I even shot a couple of JD's there but mostly shot mullet. If you get onto a boat with a good captain (I presume thats why you are moving there) he might let you use the tender to head offshore and look for Bluefin schools |
Posted By: Oli
Date Posted: 19 Feb 2013 at 3:39pm
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The problem with France is, it's full of Frenchies... More seriously, a lot of spearfishing to do there, as long as you don't expect the hauls we get here. And the fish being MUCH more wary, it is a great opportunity to refine those skills :) Agree with Kolt, great spearfishing in Corsica is if you can get there and not get blasted. Mozz, there is a complete ban on bluefins in the Meditarranean at the moment, with regular checks by police in marinas/ports in Corsica, so I'd be careful... Having said that looks as though the population might have rebounded amazingly quickly and they have been in plague proportion offshore Corsica |
Posted By: saltie
Date Posted: 19 Feb 2013 at 7:30pm
| Thought the med was totally fished out and I was going to have to hang up the fins for a while, getting pretty excited again, cheers for the useful info guys |
Posted By: fish food
Date Posted: 19 Feb 2013 at 9:32pm
That's a little nugget of info. That'd be fun. |
jvins wrote:Posted By: Nick.
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2013 at 10:15am
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+1 for Corse The grouper are prohibited as well. as Kolt said you can swim to Iles Sanguinaires, but boat is much easier. When diving the pinicles offshore abit, make sure you have someone watch you, its very very easy to get carried away and end up 30m+ in the clear viz of 30m+ |
Posted By: kolt45
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2013 at 12:10pm
| It's also very easy to get sleepy when you can see dentex that look like they are 10 metres away and flittering toward you, when in fact they are 25 metres away and you have no chance. |
Posted By: mozz
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2013 at 1:34pm
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Oli? when did the ban come into play. the local fishing shop told us where to find them last year and i saw them being commercially fished off Naples as well. We were heading back to Nice after a Drop off in Naples and plowed straight through the middle of a school that would have been the size of 2 rugby fields. Saw some real big ones in the straights of Gib
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Posted By: fleo
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2013 at 9:29pm
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Hi, As I'm french from the south and spearo too, most of what the boys said here it's true. It's still lot of fish over there and u'll be surprised of some of the haul get shot overthere. But like people say, u need skills, and perfect knowledge of the coast, and a bit of luck too. All the area arround antibe is nice and clear water, also mean really spooky fish and hard to get, deep too, over 20m or really shallow. Corsica is awsome, but hard too if you don't know where to go or no boat. For the bluefin there is a ban since 2008,you can fish it but release straight and don't put it on bord. I wouldnt play with that as the fine is extremly high.. more than 20 000eur.. and u loose ur boat too. So since the ban we saw them quite often even on shore dive, and that quite impressive when something of 2m cruise in front of you.. The most effective method will be what we call "agachons", mean stay on the bottom with no movement and at the right place, for couple of min. Snooping could also be efficient in shallow and dirty water. After good luck for find someone who will tell you some spot as everything is kind of "secret spot".. |
Posted By: Oli
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2013 at 4:26pm
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Yep exactly what Fleo says re. bluefin ban. Another thing I used to do there but is not that productive here is shoot fish in caves/holes (chasse a trou). You need a very short (60cm) and somewhat under-powered gun (so you don't destroy your shaft every time) for that but it can get you a few good fish like sars. Don't expect to see crays though :) Geez this forum is crawling with Frenchies, what is the immigration service doing?
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Posted By: random
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2013 at 8:48pm
The only time I saw sunday morning at the Blue lady was still going from sat night :-) The bonus about being in Antibes is that you're in the middle of europe, with cheap trains and flights to everywhere. £28 to Bristol. Hire car for £30/day and a two hour drive. you're smashing fish in the UK. Or go up to scotland and smash the scallops. Jump a burner down to Africa or the west coast of portugal. you're there. Just gotta make it happen. Its easy to just sit around and do the local diving thing, but the rewards for going a bit further are deffo worth it.
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