First Spearfishing Trip

[CuzzA]

First spearfishing drift dive trip today. 30 fsw, 15 miles out, Temp 73, Seas 3-4, blowing 15 knots, viz was amazing, excellent bottom structure, tons of fish.

My first dive was awesome, knocked off the first time jitters by shooting some nice hogs and feeling confident. Second dive, not as great. My goal was grouper. First shot on a nice gag. Missed. Not sure how the hell I missed as I had him clean in my sight. I've read and heard if you're too close the shaft may rise on you. Perhaps that's what happened here. Second shot on another gag and my flopper gets wedged under some rock below the sand. I'm fighting like hell to free my shaft without bending it, my line starts to become tangled around me, the fish is now on the line. I look out of the corner of my eye and a fat Goliath grouper rolls up on me. At this point I'm pissed, but never lose my composure. I release my line and lost the fish. I say screw it and abandon the shaft and end the dive figuring the shaft is gone forever. Later I learned a good technique from another guy on the boat is to lock the shaft back in the gun to give you some leverage and something to grap on to. The last diver on the boat comes up with just one fish on his stringer and one of the guys starts to raz him a little for not coming up with more and he says, "Well, I did manage to break off this spear!" I say, " no ****, that's my spear!" He broke the tip off but otherwise it looks straight and repairable. One thing I've learned is I really want to make the transition to freeshafting and I think that broken shaft will become my first spare freeshaft.

Anyway, talk about addicting. I'm not sure there's much better than hunting while diving and it was great to finally dive and have some great top to bottom viz.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Nice haul of fish...But you ditched a grouper on a line because a jewfish was there? Makes you wonder what you would do when the grouper wraps you up in line and then a shark comes in?

Why not just grab the fish, kill it, kick the jew fish and THEN disconnect the shooting line?

It's kinda funny how quickly you can get into trouble when spearfishing - even in 30 ft of water.

 

[CuzzA]

No, not because of the jewfish, because the line was tangled around me, my reg and even somehow tied itself into a knot. The presence of the jewfish simply changed my focus from shaft to line. In hindsight, I should have released the line, strung the fish, stowed the line and then worked on the shaft. Instead I focused on the shaft for too long, approximately 10 minutes. At this point I watched the Jew roll in from the blue and park about 10 feet under a nice ledge to my rear and watch me. He would occasionally poke his head out to have a look at me. His presence didn't make me nervous, but I knew at anytime he could make an attempt to go after either the fish on the shaft or one I had on my stringer. That's when I decided to focus on the fish and line and abandon the shaft.

Nevertheless, It was an excellent trip for a newbie and I learned a lot. I chalk the stuck shaft up to a lesson as I knew a stuck shaft was a possibility; however, I had not researched what to do if the shaft became stuck, now I know. What does piss me off is I was being cautious to not shoot into any rock and only the sand, yet my shaft still found the rock under the sand.

 

[Water Boy76]

Glad you had fun and you did well on fish. 15 miles for a 30fsw dive. Wow pretty shallow up that way.

If your already loosing shafts line shafting no harm in trying freeshafting. For your shaft to get that embedded after penetrating a grouper your gun in probably overpowered. Also, I don't suggest you re-engage your shaft into gun to try and release a stuck shaft. You risk breaking your muzzle, track, or trigger mech. Shafts are cheap I consider them disposable. Spearguns are not.

Goliaths and sharks are just part of the equation when spearfishing and you'll learn to manage them. Always thinking about our dive's and what you could have differently will make you better over time. Some learn faster than others - I'm in the remedial class

 

[CuzzA]

Thanks WaterBoy. Yes, the guys I went out with launch from Pasco County so it requires some distance to get into decent depth as you go further up the central west coast of Florida. Basically the rule of thumb is 1 mile equals two feet.

I have an Ocean Rhino RX5. Definitely a big gun and despite only using one band from an average distance (two shaft lengths) it still stuck pretty good. I think it was a bit of bad luck as the flopper was able to open in a void inside the rock.

Good point about potentially damaging the muzzle. No doubt I will lose some more shafts, but I think I'm going to really focus on freeshafting. That line seems a little dangerous and my safety trumps a $50 shaft every time.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

LOL, the old flopper deployed after going through a rock trick.. I've seen that a few times.

If it is a single flopper, you push it forward and then twist and keep trying, then Plan B is to grab it and slam it in and out, swearing and consuming a lot of air, as you (most likely) will fail to rip the flopper off the shaft, after that, you move to Plan C, which is grab the shaft and twist and bend and swing it in a conical arc.. why.. i don't know.. it just feels good to take your frustrations out on the shaft... if you should get it out - it will be so bent as to be unusable, but you can always make up a great story about an epic battle with a huge grouper and a shark or something...Anything is better than coming up without all your gear.

 

[CuzzA]

Yeah, I was trying not to bend it and it never occured to me until talking to the diver who later broke it off said, "If you bend it to hell all is not lost as you turn it into a stringer." :lightbulb:

Haha, good point about making up a better story. The GoPro footage would make me a liar though.

So here are the lessons and tips I learned on this trip.

1) Always take care of the fish first.

2) Don't abandon a stuck shaft as it can be repurposed regardless of the condition and will break off at the flopper hole.

3) Paint the butt of your gun safety orange/yellow as this can be almost as effective as an SMB. Due to the surface conditions many times we had to deploy SMB's and one diver had to use his whistle one time. However, another diver had some bright yellow on the butt of his gun and never had to deploy as he was spotted easily every time by his gun.

4) It's true, gags really are very skiddish. Be ready to shoot the moment you descend.

5) Best sport ever.

---------- Post added October 28th, 2015 at 07:01 AM ----------

Oh yeah,

6) If given the opportunity, be the first guy down as you'll likely be the one to surface with a full stringer with less effort and ground to cover.