Eel Hunting..

[Shadowkiller]

Originally posted by Murat
Well boys... i don't want to be rude but i hope you don't shoot fishes that sleeping motionless at the bottom in the night.

Not any different to shooting, say, Groper sitting in their caves?

[Stevie T]

Sorry Murat, I meant I fish with Rod and Line at night, not a spear.

As for Pekka, the reason he is going at night is because the Congers are mainly active then.

But I do agree that its not sporting to shoot a fish that is simply resting on the bottom, or is it sporting when you have dived to say 20-30m to reach the fish????????????

[Murat]

Shadow mate actually there is HUGE difference in med sea.

During day time Groupers hiding in theirs caves so its challangeing to find one. But generally predators are more active at night ( i don't know if its hold for grouper also) on the other hand, during day time fishes stays in deep waters but in night they comes to shore for sleeping or hunting. In here you have to be good freediver to find big grouper. Most of the top speros in here and other parts of the europe likes to hunt groupers coz they are challanging to find. You both have to dive deep and do it many times to look all necessary holes. Sometimes i lucky enough to saw medium sized groupers but if it holed up you will have hard time to find it in its complex cave. I saw the grouper enter the hole, i dived before it but couldn't able to find it generally rock formations are too complex here, amny rooms and connections.Even if you spot it in the cave it may not give you a right shoot opportunity. You have to shoot to its head to be able to land it othervise it opens gilplates and stuck in the cave. So in here grouper hunrting is not just shooting fish sitting in the cave. Imagine some divers doing it 30+ mters....

What about oz?? What grouper hunting like there?

Take care, bye ....

[Murat]

Stevie,

In my opinion shooting defensless fish is not sporting. But if the fish stays in 20-30 meter of water and you are doing freedive its not that much defensless but i preffer not to shoot sleepy fish.

[Shadowkiller]

Murat: Have you ever been night diving? Apart from it being dark and the fish being hard to spot you will find that there is a lot of activity going on. A lot of predators hunt at night.

Very little difference in searching for fish with a torch or shooting them in caves. Either way the diver has an advantage, compared to say daylight reef hunting of fish that don't hole up in caves.

[Murat]

I never been have night hunting. Its illegal here and have high bounty. But i know some people whoes doing it and they tells me what its all about. They are using high capacity car battery and huge lights so they won't have any problems to spot the fish.

In here Dentex is the premium and HARDEST to catch fish for most euro spero. But i know some speros who has less experiance than me catching full freezer of dentex while night hunting. I didn't even see those fish during day time i am sure they didn't see either.

[Shadowkiller]

I'm sure Pekka won't be using floodlights from Wembley Stadium. It makes freediving a pain.

[Murat]

[Pekka]

No worries I am not killing sleeping beauties.. I'll just spook them away..
Last night was a disaster though.. got sea-sick... and didn't shoot a single fish or eel or anything..
another time then.. hope to learn how to chatch those gonger eels..

Pekka

[shaneshac]

I caught a 9 kilo conger yesterday.

Took ages to kill it as it was thrashing around like a lunatic. Eating it for dinner tonight MMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

[Pekka]

shaneshac

9kilo Conger.. Whooa.. that must have been a quite a fight.. I can only remember fighting a bit with a big bass.. and I don't think that was more than couple of kilos..
Did you put it on your stringer or what did you do with it once you had shot it? did it bend your spear?

[Pekka]

and actually.. what is so unfair about hunting sleeping fish? I haven't shot any yet, but the logic doesn't really work.. why would it be any different to shoot sleeping fish than one awake? specially if you are hunting for food.. I am sure it is not too easy as it is pitch black and you with your little lamp..
so is it just unfair to kill fish while they sleep, or is there some other reason for not hunting at night for sleeping fish?

Safe diving and hunting
Pekka

[Murat]

Simple....

Sleeping fish can't see you and doesn't run away....

In here people don't use small torch for night hunting. Its funny to hunt with small torch at night. People using here car battery and floodlights and spot lights... I don't know "how" but they are doing it..

[shaneshac]

Pekka, the conger did put up a real fight.I shot it in the head and had to keep swimming backward to avoid it wrapping around the shaft and bending it. I had to grab it by the neck and make a quick cut to the spinal cord before if stopped thrashing. My buddy had his buoy and we hanged it on his stringer.

[ickledevil]

Hi all.. just caught this thread and thought id say hi, Pekka i have an intreseting and successful story about getting a conger.. and Stevie T it came from weymouth... i wont say where, but if you know i friend of mine from there (Titus Bradly) you will know where Anyway it was late evening and the dive site required some serious stealth work so humming the theme to james bond away we went...a few drops around a favorite site produced some crabs and a lobster when we succeded where others had failed.. this site has some holes into which small things.. in theory could swim to the cave behind and stay.. growing bigger... until know we couldnt get at the caves, but we found a way this evening, after a couple of short dives a head appeared.. a large head.. with large eyes.. a spear was put through it.. followed swiflty by a second. Now the fight was on, it took countless dives and too much time but we emerged triumphant with a 50lb!!! conger! Great fun.. hard work, great eating but i wouldnt do it again and i wouldnt do it alone! It trashed our gear and wiped us out.. and as for coming home on the bus! well this came home with its head out the window of a fiesta!