can i spear fish in fresh water (in Alabama)

[the reef scuba shop]

yes, but you need a spearfishing permit less than 10 bucks..and a fresh water fishing permit and you have to shoot "trash fish"
cats,gars ect.in florada you can shoot um all ....if for personal consuption..Yes bass!!!

You need a dive flag and I warn you snake bight under water...

 

[BNow0707]

But in florida no freshwater fishing and no public beach crossings with a speargun or polespear.

dannieh42 Where did you find that about private waters? All i can find from the Alabama DCNR webiste is:

The spearing of commercial or nongame fish solely for the purpose of sport in all waters of this state,
both fresh and salt, shall be lawful; provided, that the person engaged in the act of spearing shall be completely
submerged. "Commercial or nongame fish" as used in this article shall be limited to those freshwater fish
designated as such by the department of conservation and natural resources and all species of saltwater fish.
"Spearing" as used in this article shall be limited to the use of a spear or similar instrument that is held in
the hand of the person using same and the use of a weapon, other than a firearm, which propels or forces a
projectile, arrow or similar device therefrom to which a wire, rope, line, cord or other means of recovering
the propelled projectile, arrow or similar device is attached and is secured to the weapon or to the person
using the weapon.

 

[jorgie]

I'm diving fresh water lakes in Southeastern WI these days, I wonder what the rules are up here. I wonder where I could find out, Vis has been decent on my lake lately, spear fishing would be fun. How about the Great Lakes?

 

[BNow0707]

jorgie- This is a link to the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources 2008-2009 Spearfishing Guidelines . It should have all the information you need on Wisonsin.

As for the Great Lakes it appears that it depends on several things such as:

• state from which spearing will be done
• species of fish to be speared
• which of the great lakes
• time of year
• ETC.

Your best bet would be to go to the indiviual Dept of Natural Resources or other similar website for that particular state and look up their regulations.

 

[perdidochas]

yes, but you need a spearfishing permit less than 10 bucks..and a fresh water fishing permit and you have to shoot "trash fish"
cats,gars ect.in florada you can shoot um all ....if for personal consuption..Yes bass!!!

You need a dive flag and I warn you snake bight under water...

You are absolutely wrong about spearfishing in freshwater in Florida. It is illegal to have a speargun in freshwater in Florida. The only thing you can have are manually operated spears and you can't use those while swimming (or snorkeling or scubadiving). In addition, you can only spear non-game species in freshwater. Game species in Florida are: black bass, crappie, bluegill, redear sunfish, warmouth, redbreast sunfish, spotted sunfish, flier, mud sunfish, longear sunfish, shadow bass, peacock bass, white bass, striped bass and sunshine bass.

Arkansas is the only state I've heard of that allows spearfishing of game fish in freshwater.

 

[BNow0707]

The only thing you can have are manually operated spears and you can't use those while swimming (or snorkeling or scubadiving). In addition, you can only spear non-game species in freshwater.

So you can use a manually operated spear which i assume means just a pole and tip and no bands. Correct? My other question is how can you spear the non game fish if you not in the water swimming or diving?

 

[perdidochas]

So you can use a manually operated spear which i assume means just a pole and tip and no bands. Correct? My other question is how can you spear the non game fish if you not in the water swimming or diving?

You can only spear fish in freshwater from a point that your feet are either on a boat, land or the bottom of the water. The way the regs read, spearing fish is allowed in freshwater. Spearfishing is not. Spearing fish is doing so when your feet are on a solid surface