Dangers of spearfishing on AIR. Help/advice needed

[mala]

i have no problems with you hunting your own food.


for shallow short dives the only problems you might have is with ear equalisation.
for longer dives the pesky nitrogen that is dissolved in your body may cause more severe damage -especially near the surface.

going down is easy
just come up slow.

cupcake.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Yes it is bad. Especially for a new diver. It is likely you don't have full control over your buouancy skills yet and shooting a big fish that drags you up on an inhale could conceivably kill you by rupturing a lung. Yoyo or saw tooth profiles are never good. Are you using a computer? Is it throwing alarms? There's a reason for that.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[BLoaf]

Kind of off topic, but I hear of people keeping a line of fish down with them and continue hunting... I suppose where you do this matters ( what kind of life is down there) but does anyone have experience doing this?

 

[jebsurf]

i have no problems with you hunting your own food.


for shallow short dives the only problems you might have is with ear equalisation.
for longer dives the pesky nitrogen that is dissolved in your body may cause more severe damage -especially near the surface.

going down is easy
just come up slow.

cupcake.

Gotcha Thanks.

Yes it is bad. Especially for a new diver. It is likely you don't have full control over your buouancy skills yet and shooting a big fish that drags you up on an inhale could conceivably kill you by rupturing a lung. Yoyo or saw tooth profiles are never good. Are you using a computer? Is it throwing alarms? There's a reason for that.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Great point! And yes I do. It's a mares air puck and it hasn't thrown any yet. But I guessing it will...?... I seen a YouTube vid of guys shooting AJ's and hanging on to a rig. I want one soooo bad I can taste it but I'm not going to risk my life over it

---------- Post added ----------

Kind of off topic, but I hear of people keeping a line of fish down with them and continue hunting... I suppose where you do this matters ( what kind of life is down there) but does anyone have experience doing this?

You talking about a fish clip...?... If so yes I keep one on me

 

[HD_0027]

Ok.... start off a little about myself. I WAS a freediving spearo until I got my PADI dive certs a couple weeks ago. I just wanted to see if there is anything different that I should know about spearing on air vs freediving. I have done it twice now(on air) and instead of acting like or thinking I know everything I just figured I would ask. Like prime example..... when spearing something big like a 80lb aj normally we would use a float rig.... but on air it don't seem like the best idea.....?... right? also I'm constantly chasing the moving fish....one min they will be at 15ft then push down to 50ft and then by the time I shoot one and fix what I have going on and put it on my stringer they are back at 15 ft again(up,down, up down,). Is it not the best idea to go up, down, up down again? I'm in the dark and these might seem like dumb questions but I seen a quote on here not too long ago that hit me... the one that says " in scuba it's NOT... what you don't know wont hurt ya...What you don't know in scuba will kill ya" . So that being said....fire away and thanks

Back to the original post...

I am not an expert or DIVE instructor so please only take this comment for what it is; a guy on a message board sharing his experiences...

I have been spearing on scuba for about 15 years now and find it a lot of fun, and challenging. While spearing on scuba; yes, you do have the advantage that the air gives you, however as you found out quickly, that advantage also becomes a disadvantage in that the noise can scare off your quarry or make it very skittish; resulting in you moving up and down in the water column hunting the fish. While this does not lend it self to a normal dive plan, it does make it essential to having a great dive computer to keep up with the dive plan and following it to the letter. Should your dive computer fail during the dive, then the thing I do is always end my dives for the day. There is no way for a backup computer to know what your previous dives have been during the day unless it has been with you on every dive.

The hardest thing when spearing on scuba is to maintain depth while fighting any fish, especially an 80# AJ. If possible find a reference point and keep a close eye on it. Also I have found it helpful that when fighting a big AJ is to rip out the gills. This will dispatch the fish much faster than most methods.

Good luck in your spearing!

Regards,

HD_0027

 

[jebsurf]

Back to the original post...

I am not an expert or DIVE instructor so please only take this comment for what it is; a guy on a message board sharing his experiences...

I have been spearing on scuba for about 15 years now and find it a lot of fun, and challenging. While spearing on scuba; yes, you do have the advantage that the air gives you, however as you found out quickly, that advantage also becomes a disadvantage in that the noise can scare off your quarry or make it very skittish; resulting in you moving up and down in the water column hunting the fish. While this does not lend it self to a normal dive plan, it does make it essential to having a great dive computer to keep up with the dive plan and following it to the letter. Should your dive computer fail during the dive, then the thing I do is always end my dives for the day. There is no way for a backup computer to know what your previous dives have been during the day unless it has been with you on every dive.

The hardest thing when spearing on scuba is to maintain depth while fighting any fish, especially an 80# AJ. If possible find a reference point and keep a close eye on it. Also I have found it helpful that when fighting a big AJ is to rip out the gills. This will dispatch the fish much faster than most methods.

Good luck in your spearing!

Regards,

HD_0027

Thanks. Yeah I think(please correct me if I'm wrong) but my air puck will do the job. But great info so far. I'm taking it all in.

 

[mala]

Back to the original post...

I am not an expert or DIVE instructor so please only take this comment for what it is; a guy on a message board sharing his experiences...

I have been spearing on scuba for about 15 years now and find it a lot of fun, and challenging. While spearing on scuba; yes, you do have the advantage that the air gives you, however as you found out quickly, that advantage also becomes a disadvantage in that the noise can scare off your quarry or make it very skittish; resulting in you moving up and down in the water column hunting the fish. While this does not lend it self to a normal dive plan, it does make it essential to having a great dive computer to keep up with the dive plan and following it to the letter. Should your dive computer fail during the dive, then the thing I do is always end my dives for the day. There is no way for a backup computer to know what your previous dives have been during the day unless it has been with you on every dive.

The hardest thing when spearing on scuba is to maintain depth while fighting any fish, especially an 80# AJ. If possible find a reference point and keep a close eye on it. Also I have found it helpful that when fighting a big AJ is to rip out the gills. This will dispatch the fish much faster than most methods.

Good luck in your spearing!

Regards,

HD_0027

i liked the bit about the back-up computer not going diving with yiou.

 

[RickyF]

Jebsurf,
I live in the same area you do and spear on Scuba. Here are a few things to consider.
1. The viz pretty much sucks which means that buddy procedures are difficult or impossible especially when spearing. Are you ready and equiped for "solo" diving? That is pretty much what you will be doing.
2. Amberjacks are called "reef donkey's" for a reason. If not stoned, they will take you for the ride of your life. If spearing them, use a reel and keep a sharp knife handy! LOL I spearo recently died in Florida when he got wrapped up by one.
3. Spearing at the Bay bridge or Chesapeake Light tower and reef are not difficult dives, but the Triangle reefs are 100'+ dives. Make sure your task loading is not so high, you neglect to watch your air and bottom time.

Best of luck and I hope to see you out there!!

 

[HD_0027]

Kind of off topic, but I hear of people keeping a line of fish down with them and continue hunting... I suppose where you do this matters ( what kind of life is down there) but does anyone have experience doing this?

Are you talking about using a stringer while hunting? If so, it depends on location, species of fish, etc. But yes, I use a stringer quite frequently when hunting Gag grouper and Red Snapper.

 

[jebsurf]

Jebsurf,
I live in the same area you do and spear on Scuba. Here are a few things to consider.
1. The viz pretty much sucks which means that buddy procedures are difficult or impossible especially when spearing. Are you ready and equiped for "solo" diving? That is pretty much what you will be doing.
2. Amberjacks are called "reef donkey's" for a reason. If not stoned, they will take you for the ride of your life. If spearing them, use a reel and keep a sharp knife handy! LOL I spearo recently died in Florida when he got wrapped up by one.
3. Spearing at the Bay bridge or Chesapeake Light tower and reef are not difficult dives, but the Triangle reefs are 100'+ dives. Make sure your task loading is not so high, you neglect to watch your air and bottom time.

Best of luck and I hope to see you out there!!

Awesome info. Yeah I'm sort of set up for solo. I mean I have a pony tank and whatnot but have yet to use it or even to hook it up( needs hydro). My friend is just breaking out of his shell and getting back into air. The viz does suck but if you can break the thermocline from what I have seen it opens up to 20 ft or so. I can deal with that...... Its the 10ft or less stuff that I don't like. I'm really looking forward to diving the tower reef. I'm kind of nervous since I have never been on it and like you say about the viz..(can be REALLY crappy). I see these guys( Spearfishing 70lb Amberjack, Barracuda, Cobia, Snapper in Gulf Oil Rigs Louisiana Scuba - YouTube ) hanging on to the rig and then shooting them. I dunno. I don't mean to brag but I'm pretty sure I can pull off and kill shot on one. It seems like they let you get pretty close. But I know to plan for the worst and hope for the best. But yeah once again thanks for the info as you can relate to what I'm talking about since you are from the area.