So it's been a while since I last posted here, but I must say I did fairly well when I went on my trip. With the advice here and personally from some SB'ers in Cozumel (it was the Invasion, KevinHoward, FirstDive205, ScubaJenny, and TexasTorpedo helped me a bunch!!), I killed roughly about 25 lion fish. I didn't like the AcuSpear - at least not with the single tip - so I bought a brand new tri-tip sling type off of ScubaJenny, which was MUCH better! The fish kept falling off the single tip... I must have shot one fish 15 times times before he finally got nestled into his unreachable hiding spot. Never lost one with the tri-tip!
Anyway, I mostly just used my shears to cut off the spines - and if it was a real big one, I'd make some cuts into it's head first too. I'd leave them on the spear until I either A. found something to feed it to, or B. found another one to kill. I let an eel take one off the spear, cut a few up in front of a lobster or crab, gave some to anemone, and simply just discarded a few. Watching one of the guides feed a splendid toadfish was really neat - reminded me of the game hungry hungry hippos, haha! To get them off the spear, it was pretty easy to just push them off with the shears, rub them in the sand or against a rock, or give the spear a couple good 'swings'.
One kill was pretty cool, I drilled a knife through it's head at the top of the pyramid in front of Hotel Cozumel, while 'floating on one knee' like it was some sort of sacrifice, haha. That was the only time I used a knife (dive buddy handed it to me), and I thought it was much easier to kill the fish with the knife rather than shears. Towards the end of the trip, a few of us went out of the park and kept all our kills - the DM put all the catches on a stringer. We got some lobsters and crabs on that dive too, which was a TON of fun... and it was even better taking them to a cool little restaraunt by the beach and having them cooked up and made into fajitas!! 4 divers fed 9 people like kings that day!
I definitely got the itch now, I can't wait to kill some more!!
Oh, and without mentioning names but to share a funny story... let's just say it's not wise to go caveman style and club a lion fish in the head with a conch shell... hahahahahaha!!!! With some persistence, it will work, but be ready to deal with the pain for a while!