Why Spearfishing is an advanced Activity

[waterpirate]

IMO for the mid atlantic, a shorter uero rail gun is the only way to go. Long guns and blue water guns just do not work well here. The euro rail can sling a very thin galvanised or stainless shafy with incredible muzzle velocity compared to other guns. Your choice should be based on how you plan to hunt.
1. stalk open water on the wreck, uero rail
2. hole shooter, short stubby biller or equal.
That choice determines the gun as one does not do the other very well.
YMMV
Eric

 

[lowviz]

Thanks, Eric.

So now I'm thinking of a stubby Biller for either the SRI or IRI (inlets) and the occasional boat trip (when I know I'm going to be on a boat full of hunters and want to join in). No long shots, 15' absolute max.

If one were to buy once and be done, what would you suggest? (I know the OP will forgive this short hijack)

 

[danvolker]

In Palm Beach diving, we have so much 60 foot to 100 foot viz diving, that you can see and begin planning approach vectors long before ever pulling the trigger...The 50 to 60 inch guns always worked best for me, and one of the cool things about the Ultimate Guns Pat made, was the way the trigger handle was positioned closer to the rear third to middle of the length--more like a mid-engine car and the way it could be turned rapidly and controlled much like a very short gun...but distance shots were also very accurate. With that being said, even with the most powerful and fastest shooting guns, I think 15 feet is the outside of a good long shot....I would normally want to be inside 9 feet or even 6 feet( from end of barrel/spear) before pulling the trigger--because the fish "feel" the concussion of the thrown spear, and even the fastest spears don't fly like above ground bullets--the fish gets time to move a bit on shots 15 feet or longer.....so you can "lead" them, and sometimes this works if you understand the species well...and sometimes it doesn't

One of the other cool things about the big Ultimate guns, is that they have so much metal "mass" in them, the sharks actually feel the electromagnetic mass....any time I ever had bull sharks come in because of my shot, the gun was something they would feel and avoid--like waving a rolled newspaper at a dog. Litterally I NEVER would have to bump or smack a shark--they would feel the moving mass, and move out of the way...they did not want to be struck by it...
I remember being in the Hole in the Wall with Frank in the late 80's, with about 10 sharks in their with us, that Frank had made crazy mad...all I had was a tiny little popgun sized arbalete, with very little mass. Sharks coming in at me would almost completely ignore it--it was like waving a toothpick at them

All I am saying , is that if you dive where there is a very healthy ecosystem, and lots of big fish, there is going to be a shark component to your spearfishing...and injuring the shark with a spear or a powerhead is the ignorant solution--we are the ones that are interlopers and trespassers. The sharks are the real Sheriffs of the reef. Their job is keeping the balance. Anything I do if spearfishing is going to be something that will NOT injure any sharks

 

[lowviz]

Dan, thanks for your insights, enjoyed reading them.

As you know, things are a bit different here. My need (want) is for something that would be appropriate for poking in and out of holes made by boulders and weird cement pier things (see Manasquan inlet, NJ, USA) looking for a fish or two for dinner. That and a small bag of clams, I'm as happy as I get. No sharks, not even inshore. Only ever saw a few. All offshore, lots there. The water here is nutrient rich, green, and chock full of small to middle sized stuff. I don't need anything more than that.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Dan, thanks for your insights, enjoyed reading them.

As you know, things are a bit different here. My need (want) is for something that would be appropriate for poking in and out of holes made by boulders and weird cement pier things (see Manasquan inlet, NJ, USA) looking for a fish or two for dinner. That and a small bag of clams, I'm as happy as I get. No sharks, not even inshore. Only ever saw a few. All offshore, lots there. The water here is nutrient rich, green, and chock full of small to middle sized stuff. I don't need anything more than that.

This is something you should consider... a typical euro gun has a flopper shaft and the line is attached through a small hole at the very rear of the shaft. These two attributes are very important, yet it may not be so obvious to the casual observer.

First the floppered shaft. This means that there is no screw on tip. The Biller gun (with a line slider/line stop) uses a threaded tip. This is a definite weakness at the threaded end. If you blast point blank into something hard like steel or granite of a jetty, you are quite likely to snap the base of the threaded end of the shaft off. This ruins the shaft and often the tip if the threaded end is buried into the tip.

A floppered shaft is stronger because the flopper is attached by a pin via a hole drilled in the shaft itself. Elimination of the threaded end makes for a more abuse resistant shaft. Also, the flopper will make a smaller hole in the fish than a threaded tip which has a larger diameter than the shaft. A smaller hole means better penetration and less chance for the tip to pull out.

So for shooting in holes, this type of floppered shaft is better. You will need to sharpen it with a file or on some concrete after blasting rocks, but it is tough to destroy them.

Also, the line attachment method: Biller versus a euro gun... In my opinion, this is a VERY significant advantage provided by the euro shaft. The line attachment at the rear hole allows the line to trail the shaft and provides less drag and less sideways pull on the shaft than a slider which routes the line at a 90 degree angle to the shaft. However, for shooting in a hole, accuracy and a little drag is NOT really an issue.

What is an issue for hole hunting and especially when shooting into wrecks is the shaft retrieval problem. The Biller gun or any gun which uses a slider is VERY easy to get caught in the hole making the shaft unretrievable. The reason for this is that after the shot, the fish will run back in the hole or struggle. Your goal after shooting the shaft in the hole is to IMMEDIATELY throw the gun backwards under your elbow and away from the hole, then grab the shooting line and pull hand over hand as fast as possible. You want to YANK the fish out super fast before he has a chance to run behind some kind of obstruction. If he gets the shaft behind an obstruction and you pull on the shaft with a slider, the shaft will turn SIDEWAYS.

This turn to a sideways position is caused by the slider pulling on the shaft from a position about 6 inches from the rear of the shaft (where the slider stop is located). This causes the shaft to turn and now you are pulling on the shaft in a T- position. This is how a slip tip deploys in a fish and the absolute wrong thing to happen in a hole. You can not push with a string and if you can not take your tank off and crawl in and reach the shaft and move it with your hand, then the shaft and fish are lost.

However, with a euro shaft, things are MUCH different. You follow the same procedure: shoot, throw gun and yank on line ASAP, BUT with the line attached to the REAR of the shaft, there is NO opportunity for the shaft to "toggle" or by pulled like a T... and be jammed. You can just pull the shaft backwards in the exact same tragectory which it went into the hole. When you are shooting in a wreck with complex pieces of steel bars and debris hanging around, the benefit of being able to pull the shaft out in the direction it went in allows you to get the shaft out ALMOST every time.

There are so many shots I would not take with a gun with a slider, that I now take with a euro shaft. I used shafts with sliders for about 25 years before I saw the light.

A 60 or 70 cm euro gun is what I would use for shooting into holes with low visibility. You can probably get by with a single band.

 

[lowviz]

...//... If you blast point blank into something hard like steel or granite of a jetty, you are quite likely to snap the base of the threaded end of the shaft off. ...//...

Yes, I'll be constantly blasting into Delaware bluestone (granite). Thanks, guys. Much appreciated!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Yes, I'll be constantly blasting into Delaware bluestone (granite). Thanks, guys. Much appreciated!

The limestone of natural rock, reef etc. of Florida is MUCH more forgiving than super hard materials like thick steel and granite. I snapped off quite a few shaft ends hunting flounder in Maine with a speargun.

 

[tomfcrist]

You hunted flounder with a gun, that was your first mistake.

 

[lowviz]

Yes, one can occasionally catch them napping with the same screwdriver one uses for anchoring in current...

 

[danvolker]

Dumpster has already posted videos testifying to his skill for killing Flounder with no more than his dive knife...might have been nicer of him to post this to the hunting forum( rather than posting it to the BHB Thread, where all the divers commune with the petting zoo creatures, and spearing or killing is quite horrifying to them)....but in any event, Flounders are easy prey for a good spearo, compared to cobia or even Gag Groupers.

My personal favorite would be large hog snappers, but there are so few left I feel to guilty to go after them anymore---in the 80's and 90's, I couldn't get enough of them