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Originally Posted by Blesum
Hi Bill,
Thank you for the informative replies. The person who set up my float system/gun came strongly recommended by several local spearos. Mark over at James Joseph near the San Diego Airport. He seems to know his stuff and said the system he put together for me would be good enough for up to 40 pound Yellowtails.
Seeing that I landed a 50 pound White Sea Bass on a cheap coffee grinder of a reel with old 20 pound mono last May, I figure this set up should be fine for any WSB's I might run across. How many pounds is the world record WSB anyhow?
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A tad over 80 pounds.
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So let me get this straight - For serious kelp hunting, just run a straight float line with maybe a tiny float at one end? Then when a big fish is shot (breakaway system or no?) one just waits until the end of the line comes screaming by, and grab onto that for a ride? I'd be pretty nervous of losing my gun/spear/line doing that.
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So what alternative do you have (other than a reel)? Actually, you don't have to wait for the end of the line to be in your hand. You can try to put on pressure early and make the fish turn and tie up. That often works, but if you don't have a good shot, it can also tear the fish off.
As I said, if you are diving in coastal kelp conditions now, I guess you can get away with a big float because there is almost no kelp. But summer before last, there were still thick matts of kelp, and I guarantee that you would have been unable to use a float.
Take a look at this photo taken at Clemente. Do you think you could dive under that stuff and tow a float behind you? The bed where I took my avatar right off the south end of town was thicker than that summer before last before the red tide cut off the light and wiped it out.
The conditions now along the coast are not typical, and Clemente and Catalina still have beds that would prevent your using a float.
But enjoy it as long as you can. I'll frankly be glad when conditions are back to where I can't use one.
Just in case you think I'm some sort of nut case who is the only one with this attitude, take a look at this link.
http://www.freediver.net/freedivelis...teseabass.html
Scroll down to the article by Skip Hellen, the white sea bass record holder and notice his recommendation for a float line. That fish wasn't a fluke. Every year he gets a lot of very large white sea bass, and I think he knows what he is doing.
Also notice the next article by Richard Yoon in which he says he doesn't use a float.
