Why Spearfishing is an advanced Activity

[Rick Murchison]

Nope. The majority are eaten, but quite a few get left dead on the bottom. The thought process is that it will teach local predators that Lionfish are a food source. I don't think it's working.

*Something* will eat 'em no matter what. Just kill 'em.

Rick

---------- Post added December 19th, 2014 at 08:39 AM ----------

Second fish: 25-28 lb Amberjack- kicked my butt.

This is precisely why, when I hit 60, I decided to quit shooting anything that will serve more than 4 for dinner
Rick

 

[Water Boy76]

My only taboo on UW hunting is that I'm not (as in never, ever) buddying up with someone carrying a speargun. Sling? Fine, no prob. Done it a lot of times. Speargun? You go without me, thank you very much.

You should be fine then because spearo's dive alone. Probably for reason's other than yours, but that's OK.

I understand that some divers have a problem with spearfishing and anything I say won't change their mind. But Spearfishing helps to grow the sport of diving and has become very popular over the last decade. Many people I know only dive with spearguns and wouldn't dive otherwise. They respect the resource and only target selected species.
Freediving has exploded in popularity with the younger generation and most of them eventually get certified.

 

[tomfcrist]

*Something* will eat 'em no matter what. Just kill 'em.

Rick

I don't buy it. If you are going to shoot lionfish, you need to either consume it yourself or give it to a buddy that likes to eat it.

There are plenty of non native nuisance animals in the woods where I live. You can rest assured that if I went out and just shot feral hogs or nutria rats and left them lying ion the woods to rot, the moral majority of America would find that unacceptable. Yes the coyotes and bears would eat them, but that's not the point. Don't kill things just because you can...kill them to eat.

Regardless of where lionfish came from, they are a permanent transplant into our environment....they are NOT going away. All we can do is try to control their population in divable waters. I'm sure you spend enough time outside of recreational range to realize that there are a crapload of BIG lionfish down there, and there just aren't enough tech spearos to get them all.

 

[danvolker]

My only taboo on UW hunting is that I'm not (as in never, ever) buddying up with someone carrying a speargun. Sling? Fine, no prob. Done it a lot of times. Speargun? You go without me, thank you very much.

You can follow a buddy team where one or more have a speargun...often they will "develop" some interesting photo or video of "larger marine life"
At the same time, if you see that a spearfisherman is pointing his gun at buddies, like a clueless yuppie pointing a handgun at another person without realizing how stupid this is.....then you will know never to be near them in the water again....There are many spearfisherman that are very careful NEVER to point their guns at any buddies or divers, and that have great peripherol awareness of who or what is around them, in total 3D. That is an ability that makes a spearfisherman good. It also makes them safer.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Regardless of where lionfish came from, they are a permanent transplant into our environment....they are NOT going away. All we can do is try to control their population in divable waters. I'm sure you spend enough time outside of recreational range to realize that there are a crapload of BIG lionfish down there, and there just aren't enough tech spearos to get them all.

Hey, maybe you got something there, deep tech spearfishing for lionfish....the new big thing.
I'll have to dust off my tech gear and head to FL.
Or maybe just get on someone's boat and go shoot up a bagfull of LF.
Free Freedom plate to the first guy who takes me out on his boat plus gas money.

 

[tomfcrist]

Hey, maybe you got something there, deep tech spearfishing for lionfish....the new big thing..

Its not new...lots of folks do it.

I'll have to dust off my tech gear and head to FL..

Skip Florida and hit the deep wrecks in NC. The lionfish there are ridiculous in size...and abundance.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

So, have you read Helldiver's Rodeo?????

 

[danvolker]

Hey, maybe you got something there, deep tech spearfishing for lionfish....the new big thing.
I'll have to dust off my tech gear and head to FL.
Or maybe just get on someone's boat and go shoot up a bagfull of LF.
Free Freedom plate to the first guy who takes me out on his boat plus gas money.

[video=youtube_share;T0Q_XggliLw]http://youtu.be/T0Q_XggliLw[/video]
My buddies at Triton Subs have shown Sandra and me tons of videos from 500 feet to 1200 feet where lionfish are densely spread all over the deep reefs....
This Triton sub shot has Sandra and our buddy Ben, on a shallow 100 foot deep area, just before they did a 3000 foot drop off a nearby wall ( Bahamas).

Great Lionfish hunting on the huge 270 foot patch reef tracts off of Palm Beach, Pompano and Lauderdale...and great hunting on all the wrecks here in the same depths.
Lauderdale/Pompano has the best deep wrecks, though they are dived a lot more than many deep wrecks off of Palm beach, so relative good for Lionfish maybe worth trying both

 

[djtimmy77]

You can follow a buddy team where one or more have a speargun...often they will "develop" some interesting photo or video of "larger marine life"
At the same time, if you see that a spearfisherman is pointing his gun at buddies, like a clueless yuppie pointing a handgun at another person without realizing how stupid this is.....then you will know never to be near them in the water again....There are many spearfisherman that are very careful NEVER to point their guns at any buddies or divers, and that have great peripherol awareness of who or what is around them, in total 3D. That is an ability that makes a spearfisherman good. It also makes them safer.

The clueless yuppie analogy sweeping other divers with their "muzzle" is the most common occurrence if you dive regularly on the commercial dive boats in SFL. Pretty much the standard in my opinion.

The good spearfishermen with good awareness generally dive private boats or get completely separate drops and you never see them underwater. Likely because they know their odds of seeing a shootable fish in the overfished SFL environment are very low hanging with the crowd.

 

[tomfcrist]

So, have you read Helldiver's Rodeo?????

I prefer not to dive while hammered and stoned, but those dudes pull some massive fish.