My Horror Story...What's yours?

[deep thinker]

Here we allways dive with the stringer on the float and the float connected to the gun not the body, this serves more than one purpose.
1- It keeps the fish away from you for tax man reasons.
2- If you shoot something big that runs with your spear you dont have to hang on to your gun, you can just let go and play the fish with the float line keeping it off the bottom.
3- This one applies nicely in your mentioned situation, you can use the gun as a marker. Drop it at the last hole you searched, go up for air and come back down to your last position following the line...

Ive never seen morays here but Ive seen whites and hammerheads in the 5m+ size and a rays as big as a tractor tyre...

[armandozx]

Nice hey steel, look if you want an Idea for a stringer I saw this video yesterday, even though it's in español you can do it just by looking at it. It's way better than a stringer and in my opinion way better than your idea of the wee wacker material !

YouTube - pequeños bricos y consejos...

it's the 2nd item he presents totally bad ass I would consider this when I go hit the reefs and open waters of Miami.

This dude also has some other video's that are very informative like how to mount blades on the foot pockets and gun mods.

[settingsteel]

Hey Armandoz thats a pretty good vid, lots of 411...thanks for sharing!

[Mr. X]

Good video, what helpful chap. Nice back scratcher too - something to do with crabs/lobbies?

The stringer: a quick release knot in a cuttable cord, with a removeable clip...very good. You might be able to find a clip that is easier to unclip in a hurry.

Wrist loops, even bungee, are a little controversial - as I found out when I asked about them last year. Personally, I would think a thin bungee or rubber band that you can break would be reasonably safe compromise -- but others would probably disagree.

[jtkwest]

i wouldnt wear a stringer while freediving in the keys, ur crazy if you do that here.what about a tube with a black plastic insert to put your fish in? instead of a float? i like someone in the boat, ideally, to come over, but then again we do what we gotta do.i pretty much put the fish in the boat one by one , more exercise, less danger, though. the shallow reefs out by Boca Grande, all the way to marquesas are FULL of Tax Collectors!!this is great spearing but stringers are almost laughable alltogether out there.we hit a spot, drop on some coral heads, pop what we can find and move on, especially in the gulf of mexico side,(key west sits in the juxtapositioin of gulf of mexico and atlantic ocean) so we can go south to blue waters of atlantic ocean, :reef is seven miles, then "bar" then ledge then gulf stream:11 miles ;blue water but in the winter when the wind blows, we go west into the gulf side and hit shallow wrecks and coral "gardens" in shallow,(15ft) depth and still have decent vis,(20ft plus, is good in gulf)even in the wind, but the problem is, in the gulf is FULL of bull sharks. plus lemons and alot of nurses, too, and they know what spearguns are or something because once they show up you gotta go somewhere else! bulls are just not to be trusted. not by me anyway.i got a powehead for this season.

[settingsteel]

I hear'ya man, often when diving in the keys we use the boat tow, hop & drop method (hopping from reef to reef, dropping on fish we see while being towed behing the boat) in this case we hand the fish over to the Cappy...the keys always have TC, so the "chuck the fish in the boat" method is the way to go!
I in the last few hunts have tried the "fish on my float" deal, and sadly must say I hate it, the step of pulling my line over to string the fish is a guaranteed tangle/nuisance...so Ima gonna try the speed stringing method next this may very well be "the keeper"...of course I'm working on a DIY one

[jtkwest]

anyone ever tried one of those floats that you can throw your fish in and blood stays inside?seems like a good idea, i thought i had invented the idea but dammit, someone already invented one,(probably before i was born)seems like it would even be easier to deal with than a stringer?no?

[Marwan]

I believe its really more to do with the fish struggling than blood. Seems sharks are attracted by the vibration of a speared fish, and that sets the, off, the smell of blood later is picked up as the shark approaches and basically allows it to zoom in on the catch.. if you kill your fish immediately after you catch it, should reduce the shark attraction factor quite considerably and vice versa...

[settingsteel]

Originally Posted by Marwan

I believe its really more to do with the fish struggling than blood. Seems sharks are attracted by the vibration of a speared fish, and that sets the, off, the smell of blood later is picked up as the shark approaches and basically allows it to zoom in on the catch.. if you kill your fish immediately after you catch it, should reduce the shark attraction factor quite considerably and vice versa...

I agree in particular situations though (as in the Keys as an example) I think the sharks "know" when they identify a spearo, that food is just a bite away...or else how would you explain , we dive in, are hunting (no fish yet) and out of nowhere bam a couple of sharks pop up this has happened more than once while in the keys

[jtkwest]

Originally Posted by settingsteel

I agree in particular situations though (as in the Keys as an example) I think the sharks "know" when they identify a spearo, that food is just a bite away...or else how would you explain , we dive in, are hunting (no fish yet) and out of nowhere bam a couple of sharks pop up this has happened more than once while in the keys

yes yes, been there........ cudas can be annoying too. ever had a 4ft , 30 pound cuda take an interest in ya? they hang around and around...... making me nervous. i aim my gun at his head , wishing i was rich enough to cut the line and put one through that gill plate. and they just watch as if daring you. in my younger days i succumbed to the temptation and shot a fat one once and came THIS close to losing my gear altogether. i ended up wrapped around a piling of Kato bridge in Jupiter while we were exceeding the bag limit of "striped ocean bass" ,(i think they are called ,or something like that) around 1992. good times. scared the crap out of me though, at the time. anyone ever had a cuda take a REAL run at you? i have had my fish taken few times, mostly if you keep them close they seem to espect 'property rights' kinda, sorta, but it is an uneasy peace.. i think different areas sharks actions vary from place to place, we know they very from SPECIES to species, but the way the activity of the sharks is , here , seems unlike what most people experience. i suspect, it is a tropical, thing. when i first moved to the keys, 4 years ago,(from West palm beach area) i was talking to a new buddy, and we were discussing going spearing the next day and somehow the subject of wearing a stringer, came up,(common in west palm beach area as far as i know) i suggested the idea of a float with a stringer on it as an option. He starts laughing and informs me that 'the nurse and lemon sharks will eat , not only your fish within minutes, but they will chew on and ruin your stringer and then come looking to you.sliding and bumping. this can put even the best, shark identification skills to the test, and make you doubt yourself. the nurse sharks are obvious, but lemons are grey and up to 12ft, and they do bite,supposedly.Anyway he was right stringers are out for the keys mostly. scuba divers use them here but never free divers. has anyone else encountered this? i have only ever dove in florida, so dont have much comparison.maybe the shallow reefs breed a paticularly ill tempered variety of shark? at least we dont have "ill tempered sea bass" that tormented austin powers. that would realy suck ...."you will notice, Austin Powers the sharks all have laser beams attached to their foreheads", dr. E ....

[settingsteel]

So I made a speed loader and the results...suxed...old habits die hard, so now I'm contemplating, switching back (with mono) or perhaps tying to my float

[armandozx]

I'm still planning mines out! not a speed stringer though! mostly what I saw that guy do in his video but with mono or maybe not now that if with a light rope you can slide all the fish out ! only problem is keeping the float some what still so the current doesn't take it away.