Finland Spearfishing

[salaseivastajat]

Here's a video I pulled together for a spearfishing video competition.


I spearfish mostly in the lakes nearby although the Baltic Sea is brackish and has almost the same fish species as the lakes. This film was shot during the summer 2015 and these are my favorite catches. I fish while freediving only and prefer minimal equipment. Best sessions are those with only a mask and a polespear, aboriginal style... Only problem is that there are not many days warm enough for that here in Finland.

If you want to support my competition, go to the youtube page, press like and post a comment. The award is ranked based on views, likes and commemts, so even haters can help.

Check out my channel for more videos. Spearfishing, freediving and marine life encounters.
Salaseivästäjät Spearfishing

 

[100days-a-year]

Nice video.

 

[Sam Miller III]

One of the better spearfishing videos !
I congratulate you on your excellent work.
SDM

 

[salaseivastajat]

Thanks! Looks like the Mediterranean guys still dominate the scene there...

 

[Sam Miller III]

Most are modern late model tube sucking bubble blowers, matter of fact most resemble the diver on the right of my avatar.

One suggestion --a little show and tell about your weapon (s) and rigging..What gun (s) were you using ?

once again keep up the good work,

SDM

 

[salaseivastajat]

Well, you're right that the equipment gets quite draggy when you add up flashlight, buoy, floatline, watch, knives, stringer, camera and so on... At least its freediving, so no bubbles.

I've never taken pics of my gear so far, but maybe it's a good memory before loosing them... The video was shot with my old faithful 75 cm euro gun. I got it from Greece in 2009 and its still my main gun. I think the model is called Apnea Rayo. I've made some small modifications on it, including aftermarket reel, cressi comanche muzzle, flasher, breakaway rig, camera mount, loading butt, camo tape and trigger strengthening.

75 cm gun is good for the lakes, because there's almost never more than 5 meter visibility. I have single 16 mm rubbers with a 6 mm shaft. For shooting big northern pikes in the head I use a 7 mm shaft and add one more circular 16 mm rubber band, but I loose some accuracy with that setup.

Second gun is Omer Tempest 50 cm pneumatic, but I've had a lot of issues with it, leaking, safety mech, piston breaking. And only a couple fish caught. Its fixed now but haven't used it lately.

Polespears are my favorite, like already mentioned. My first polespear is 150 cm with a paralyzer tip. Its very effective on small fish, and most of all fast. Its possible to do multiple shots is you miss the first one... I would not go for fish bigger than 1 kg with this polespear.

The second polespear is self made from carbon fiber skiing poles. Total length is 230 cm and very powerful. It goes easily through a pikes head. I was a little embarrassed when I shot my first practise shot at a perch with this spear, because the small fish was split into two pieces.

Its not killing for fun, just food. Nothing is wasted, even small fish make good meals. My kids love smoked perch.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Darn cute children...I suspect like mine love to help and love to eat fish ! Now I have l female grand children who like to look like a tourist diver and have yet to shoot a fish.


A little about my Kalifornia long guns AKA "Bottom Scratchers" which I used for many years

I didn't build them ...but they were a DIY garage built gun..

My all time favorite spear gun is a "Bottom Scratcher." It was designed/developed in 1939 by Wally Potts and perfected by the Bottom Scratcher spear fishing club of San Diego, California. It is the original California long gun, constructed of by the joining of a simple tube SS handle containing a one piece trigger to a 1&1/4 inch dowel barrel, and a long balance bar that was either made of wood or SS.

In the very early days if spear fishing around 1950 Wally sold a Bottom Scratcher gun to Paul Hoss a member of the Dolphins spear fishing club which had won the very first spear fishing meet in Laguna Beach in the Summer of 1950. When he sold it to Paul who lived in a suburb of LA, Jack Prodanovich is reported to have said to Wally that "Selling a gun up north was like selling guns to the Yankees." And he was correct. Paul disassembled the gun did some modifications that improved the trigger pull and began producing a very close copy affectionately became known as the "Hoss gun" by the "Yankees" of Los Angeles and Orange County. The Hoss copy was cosmetically and functionally identical in every respect except for the Sturgil muzzle which was the muzzle of choice for all guns used by serious Yankee spear fishermen. The guns which were made by Wally and Paul were all custom made therefore no two were exactly identical. It was reported substantially less than 100 were made in a 30 plus year period by Wally and some where between 20 and 30 by Paul in about a 10 year period. Needless to say they were difficult to obtain and are now scarce and highly prised by those who own them, or collectors of diving memorabilia.

Known through out the spear fishing fraternity as the "California long gun" and on occasion the "Long Tom," they were made for long shots at big fish in then the clear unpolluted waters of SoCal.

I was fortunate to have ended up with two. My own personal custom gun and a friend's who after being chased out of the water by a shark decided that spear fishing was not for him, so he sold it to me a half what a bare unrigged new one costs -$20.00.

My guns measure 7 foot 9 inches plus the point which can have many configurations and lengths adding as much as a foot if the Prodanovich point impact aka power head was used. It has a sling pull of 4 foot 8 inches and the 5/16 diameter SS arrow rides on the first rails to be installed on a spear gun. It has a balance bar that extends approximately 15 inches behind the trigger mechanism.

It was made during the era of the kettle cured rubber. I can't recall when surgical rubber for spear gun slings became popular but I think in the mid 1950s. I used 28 or less inches of surgical tubing for power when it became popular and readily available. I do vividly recall the first time I test fired it at Ships Rock off Catalina using the then new surgical slings...the arabelete type slide ring exploded totally disintegrated ! The arrow went flying in to the blue water never to be seen again by man--or at least me...so slide rings from aerospace material was custom made. A number of years later Joe La Monica who developed the Voit/ Mares/JBL gun began producing a very strong SS slide ring which I modified and converted my guns to use.

My first and my favorite gun has a custom (aka home made) "San Diego" style "dump pack" constructed from a piece of SS sheet, a SS Piano hinge, several lengths of WW 11 webbing and a SS rod as the release pin. The dump pack contained 200 feet of yellow 1/8 Polypropylene line fan folded into small bunches secured by two pieces of a bicycle inner tube (they won't rot) terminating with a small WW11 water purification bag modified into an automatic Co2 inflation float. It has a 15 inch SS balance bar

Gun number two is equipped with a huge six inch "Riffes Reel," produced and marketed about 40 years ago by a now defunct San Diego company by the name of Aquacraft. The reel holds about a jillione miles of hard lay tuna trolling nylon line. I can not recall how much it holds and I have never been reeled there fore cannot accurately state with any reasonable amount of certainty the amount of line on the Riffe's reel but it is a lot! It originally came equipped with a 15 inch balance bar, which the former owner trimmed to eight inches. I found this too short and extended it to it's original length of 15 inches by the addition of a piece of 1 &1/4 wood dowel.

Do I still use the guns? Heck no, especially when one Bottom Scratcher/Hoss gun sold on E bay several years ago for $2500.00 plus dollars.

I have several custom wood guns I made about 30 or more years ago that I currently use, but another story for another time.

But-- I still have wonderful memories of the Bottom Scratcher and years gone by.

SDM

 

[Sam Miller III]

Darn cute children...I suspect like mine love to help and love to eat fish ! Now I have l female grand children who like to look like a tourist diver and have yet to shoot a fish.


A little about my Kalifornia long guns AKA "Bottom Scratchers" which I used for many years

I didn't build them ...but they were a DIY garage built gun..

My all time favorite spear gun is a "Bottom Scratcher." It was designed/developed in 1939 by Wally Potts and perfected by the Bottom Scratcher spear fishing club of San Diego, California. It is the original California long gun, constructed of by the joining of a simple tube SS handle containing a one piece trigger to a 1&1/4 inch dowel barrel, and a long balance bar that was either made of wood or SS.

In the very early days if spear fishing around 1950 Wally sold a Bottom Scratcher gun to Paul Hoss a member of the Dolphins spear fishing club which had won the very first spear fishing meet in Laguna Beach in the Summer of 1950. When he sold it to Paul who lived in a suburb of LA, Jack Prodanovich is reported to have said to Wally that "Selling a gun up north was like selling guns to the Yankees." And he was correct. Paul disassembled the gun did some modifications that improved the trigger pull and began producing a very close copy affectionately became known as the "Hoss gun" by the "Yankees" of Los Angeles and Orange County. The Hoss copy was cosmetically and functionally identical in every respect except for the Sturgil muzzle which was the muzzle of choice for all guns used by serious Yankee spear fishermen. The guns which were made by Wally and Paul were all custom made therefore no two were exactly identical. It was reported substantially less than 100 were made in a 30 plus year period by Wally and some where between 20 and 30 by Paul in about a 10 year period. Needless to say they were difficult to obtain and are now scarce and highly prised by those who own them, or collectors of diving memorabilia.

Known through out the spear fishing fraternity as the "California long gun" and on occasion the "Long Tom," they were made for long shots at big fish in then the clear unpolluted waters of SoCal.

I was fortunate to have ended up with two. My own personal custom gun and a friend's who after being chased out of the water by a shark decided that spear fishing was not for him, so he sold it to me a half what a bare unrigged new one costs -$20.00.

My guns measure 7 foot 9 inches plus the point which can have many configurations and lengths adding as much as a foot if the Prodanovich point impact aka power head was used. It has a sling pull of 4 foot 8 inches and the 5/16 diameter SS arrow rides on the first rails to be installed on a spear gun. It has a balance bar that extends approximately 15 inches behind the trigger mechanism.

It was made during the era of the kettle cured rubber. I can't recall when surgical rubber for spear gun slings became popular but I think in the mid 1950s. I used 28 or less inches of surgical tubing for power when it became popular and readily available. I do vividly recall the first time I test fired it at Ships Rock off Catalina using the then new surgical slings...the arabelete type slide ring exploded totally disintegrated ! The arrow went flying in to the blue water never to be seen again by man--or at least me...so slide rings from aerospace material was custom made. A number of years later Joe La Monica who developed the Voit/ Mares/JBL gun began producing a very strong SS slide ring which I modified and converted my guns to use.

My first and my favorite gun has a custom (aka home made) "San Diego" style "dump pack" constructed from a piece of SS sheet, a SS Piano hinge, several lengths of WW 11 webbing and a SS rod as the release pin. The dump pack contained 200 feet of yellow 1/8 Polypropylene line fan folded into small bunches secured by two pieces of a bicycle inner tube (they won't rot) terminating with a small WW11 water purification bag modified into an automatic Co2 inflation float. It has a 15 inch SS balance bar

Gun number two is equipped with a huge six inch "Riffes Reel," produced and marketed about 40 years ago by a now defunct San Diego company by the name of Aquacraft. The reel holds about a jillione miles of hard lay tuna trolling nylon line. I can not recall how much it holds and I have never been reeled there fore cannot accurately state with any reasonable amount of certainty the amount of line on the Riffe's reel but it is a lot! It originally came equipped with a 15 inch balance bar, which the former owner trimmed to eight inches. I found this too short and extended it to it's original length of 15 inches by the addition of a piece of 1 &1/4 wood dowel.

Do I still use the guns? Heck no, especially when one Bottom Scratcher/Hoss gun sold on E bay several years ago for $2500.00 plus dollars.

I have several custom wood guns I made about 30 or more years ago that I currently use, but another story for another time.

But-- I still have wonderful memories of the Bottom Scratcher and years gone by.

SDM

 

[salaseivastajat]

Wow! That's a lot of speargun history, even without mentioning the catches made with them!

 

[Sam Miller III]

Go to "Passings" "Art Pender; King of Sling " for my personal best and a little about me...
Our Motto was "if you can lift it. it is bait, If you can't lift it, it is a FISH"
The fish were from long ago.....In the genesis of spear fishing.

I will be visiting my daughter soon, she is married to a Fin named "Tackinen." Yes there are Fins in Kalifornia !

SDM