Spearfishing

[Dixie Diving]

I think I would like to learn how to spearfish on scuba. I figured the way most people learn is by going with people that already know how to. I am kinda limited from that option since I know no one that spearfish. What do you think would be the best approach at me learning to spearfish? I'm in the Flori-bama area, are there any courses or seminars in this area that I could attend to learn more? Thanks for all of you guys help!

 

[Hetland]

Get about 25 dives under your belt (preferably Gulf dives). Then get together with other spearfishers, and watch, listen and learn. There's not much to spearfishing that could be considered rocket science, but shooting the wrong fish at the wrong time can kill you, and it's easy to run out of air or forget to check your gauges when you are occupied with hunting, or fighting a fish. The more time you have underwater, the better prepared you will be to deal with such issues.

Don't buy your gear until you try it out in the water. Some shops will let you shoot their guns in their pools, which was invaluable to me, and you can almost certainly find a diver willing to let you try their gun out on a trip (especially when snapper season's closed ). I will say that you should not consider a woody under 48" or a railgun under 39". If you go smaller, you will really limit yourself, and miss out on lots of good fish.

 

[imwright1985]

Get about 25 dives under your belt (preferably Gulf dives). Then get together with other spearfishers, and watch, listen and learn. There's not much to spearfishing that could be considered rocket science, but shooting the wrong fish at the wrong time can kill you, and it's easy to run out of air or forget to check your gauges when you are occupied with hunting, or fighting a fish. The more time you have underwater, the better prepared you will be to deal with such issues.

Don't buy your gear until you try it out in the water. Some shops will let you shoot their guns in their pools, which was invaluable to me, and you can almost certainly find a diver willing to let you try their gun out on a trip (especially when snapper season's closed ). I will say that you should not consider a woody under 48" or a railgun under 39". If you go smaller, you will really limit yourself, and miss out on lots of good fish.

you meen overall not shaft lenth. You should class spear guns based on shaft length you dont need a crazy one 38 is a great size for down here but you can always go bigger and just not load all the bands. Dont buy into all the Gimickey stuff like the bayonet, kill pad and all that that some guns offer (a dive knife can do all those same things. Get a fish stringer or a catch bag, run a trailing line to keep the dead fish away from you so your not swimming with chum hanging from your hip.

on scuba alot of people find the ones with a stock more comfortable then just a handle on the end. Pnumatic vs band is another decission. Bands are nice for cost of repair where pnumatic is nice because you just jam the shaft into the gun. Checking air frequently is a must, and trying to avoid getting tunneled vision if you start to chase after a fish is a must. I would also stress making sure you can pull all the bands back (I have a 3 band gun that when i constantly pull the 3rd band back i get burned out but can flip the front band and just use 2 if i start getting tired) which still works great on all the fish down here aslong as they arnt monsters

 

[Hetland]

you meen overall not shaft lenth. You should class spear guns based on shaft length you dont need a crazy one 38 is a great size for down here but you can always go bigger and just not load all the bands.

No. I mean shaft length. We're shooting big fish in the open out here, and you need both the power and the range of the larger guns. I'm in the Northern Gulf, and I think that's what the OP is asking about.

run a trailing line to keep the dead fish away from you so your not swimming with chum hanging from your hip.

Not good advice for this neighborhood. A bull or sandbar has no problem snacking on your catch if it's on a line. We have to hug our fish close to our bodies to keep from losing them. The sharks up here have learned that tethered fish = free meal.

We have had luck putting the fish in a catch bag, and burying it in the sand near the anchor, but that's only been tried once that I know of. The other option is to lift-bag your fish up, but that's a mixed result, maybe 50/50 chance of recovering your fish.

 

[Zieg]

We have had luck putting the fish in a catch bag, and burying it in the sand near the anchor, but that's only been tried once that I know of. The other option is to lift-bag your fish up, but that's a mixed result, maybe 50/50 chance of recovering your fish.

The guys I dive with use the lift-bag and haven't lost a fish. We're live boating and the boat tends to grab the bag pretty fast.

 

[Hetland]

The guys I dive with use the lift-bag and haven't lost a fish. We're live boating and the boat tends to grab the bag pretty fast.

Yes, it's when we can't get the fish quickly or we have a shark willing to get really close in that we tend to lose them off the bag (sometimes we get to keep the heads) We're also anchored more often than we are free.

I was pretty impressed with the bag-in-the-sand trick. We had a pretty big fella circling the wreck, and once we got the fish bagged and buried (under just the tiniest bit of sand) he left the scene. It doesn't seem like it would matter to a shark though Perhaps with some more experiments it will prove to be a useful tactic.

 

[kalik]

I was pretty impressed with the bag-in-the-sand trick. We had a pretty big fella circling the wreck, and once we got the fish bagged and buried (under just the tiniest bit of sand) he left the scene. It doesn't seem like it would matter to a shark though Perhaps with some more experiments it will prove to be a useful tactic.

I saw a fellow do that this summer out on a deep span. It seemed to work very well and he swears by it. I personally use the bag trick and run it up the anchor line, but each to his own. As long as the end result is fish in the cooler and everyone safely back on board.

 

[imwright1985]

Ohh i had a stringer strapped to me and got bumped by a bull a couple times (Scarry as heck) so i run a trailing line. I shoot a 46" shaft and havent seen too many guns bigger than mine that is why i was shocked. I dropped a 35lb gag grouper with i think a 32" shaft it depends alot on the band size and length too

 

[GROUPER321]

Well i would have to agree with Hetland, i started out with a biller 36teak, great for free diving and close up shots, but when it comes open water hunting you need a 48 none the less, due to some shots maybee around 8 to 12ft depending on how you rig your gun. I think the smallest gun is Recharges, 42 i think, i would also say, i would never let my fish drag, due to what happened to Mrxray in april, (i saw a brown truck ideling along the way, that day). I feel, if you know where their at, you can kind of keep them at bay, plus you have your gun to also keep them at a distance. The day we were on the Brass wreck i put the sand over the bag to get the bleeding to stop, worked but cant say its fix to the problem. But due try a gun out first, i would say a biller or a sea hornet, i have both and love them. Try ebay where i got mine real cheap, then get the best bands, biller or ocean rino, they have a coating on them and usually last alot longer. Good luck.

 

[Hetland]

Ohh i had a stringer strapped to me and got bumped by a bull a couple times (Scarry as heck) so i run a trailing line. I shoot a 46" shaft and havent seen too many guns bigger than mine that is why i was shocked. I dropped a 35lb gag grouper with i think a 32" shaft it depends alot on the band size and length too

I'm guessing you probably hunt close to structure (rocks, reefs, etc)?

Around here we're in 70ft-120ft of water and the fish (snapper at least) hold away from the structure. They are HEAVILY pressured by both hook & line and scuba fishers, so it takes some work to get in close to the fish. And it sounds like your sharks are trained a little different than ours too. Ours will come in close hoping we'll drop our fish, but back away a bit when we gang up on them and/or swim AT them. Once we relinquish ownership (either by tether, or by dropping stringers) they're not shy at all about taking a chomp.