Lionfish Tube - Looking for Suggestions....

[glubash]

Hello All! I trolled around a bit in the DIY forum, but didn't see much on these things so I thought that it would be best to put it where the experience is...

I put this Lionfish tube together a couple of months ago but haven't had a chance to test it out yet. Since I would like for it to be successful on the first time out, if anyone has suggestions on how to improve the tube, I'm all ears. I plan on using a pole spear with a paralyzer tip.

As you can see from the pictures, I started with a water cooler bottle, drilled a 1.5" hole in the bottom, and made some cuts up from there to make it easy in but not out. I then cut the top where the bottle tapered in and slid that down to allow access in the boat to dump the buggers in the cooler. The bungees keep the top held firmly in place when diving and the bottle has a built-in handle. I expect them to eventually rust out but they are cheap to replace. So far, cost of the project is about $2 (for the bungees - the bottle was free) and maybe an hour to build the first time. To build another one, it would probably take 20-30 minutes.

Future Improvements: I plan to add a lanyard and maybe a pole spear holder on the side.

Opinions welcome,
Thanks!

 

[Wookie]

You are planning on whacking a lot of lionfish!!! I have a buddy at FFWC who uses a 16" long piece of 2" PVC pipe with a cap at one end and a flexible cover at the other with slots like your end. He jams the lionfish in the end and shoves it to the capped end, then pills his pole spear back out. Yours is a great design but awfully big. First, I think you are going to fight with the lid and the bungees. Then, the lionfish will swim around in the bottle. The hole is so big some of those little boogers will get their spines out of it and jab you right where the sun don't shine, or some other obnoxious place. The good side is if you end up in a mess of lionfish, you'll be eating pretty for a long time to come.

Good luck and be safe....