2006 my first successful hunt

[skidivefish]

Ive been a member here for almost 2 years,
ive enjoyed learning and being inspired by all the great storytellers here. heres the story of my first successful hunt.
I live in long island n.y. , finding visibility past 5 feet is a real challenge inshore, so many days its just practice dropping down and looking 3/4 of the way down my 90 cm
sporasub untill it fades to a green blur. once in a while it opens up towards 10-12 feet of vis,
on these days i feel energized and its psychologically easier to dive longer/deeper.
June 23 2006, i arrive at my fav site, a large bay that is connected to fire island inlet. on the north side of the bay is a deep channel running over 1.5 miles along the shore to the inlet. i was excited to see the vis was a solid 12 feet, so alone{i kno, i kno}, i jumped into the running outgoing current for the mile long free ride. after about 20 mins i was feeling relaxed and in the zone, my dive times were 1 min 15 seconds,good for me. the depth varied from 10 to 25 feet deep. As i dove down for the 12th time i felt something"fishy" about the area, i was drifting silently when out of the green appeared a solo striped bass, my heart raced but i stayed motionless, a few seconds later the rest of the school filled into view, id guess there were 30 or so medium striped bass swarming around me.the urge for air forced me to leave the bottom and i was sure that was the last id see of these beauties. Breathing up for a painstakingly long 2 mins i relaxed my heartrate and dropped back down...same situation below!!!, my position drifting along the bottom enabled me to turn slightly left/right and still maintain a foward drift, i waited untill i was sure i had a legal sized fish in my sights,lungs burning i aimed and took a 9 foot shot, the fish glinted and sped away,waiting for my line to come tight i realized that the shot only glanced the fish and the spear never penetrated.Disapointed and exhausted i used my boogie board to relax on and regroup. a prayer to neptune for good fortune and 3 dives later , im in the school again.this time i wait longer for a closer shot, a beautiful 17 pound striped bass presents itself broadside not 6 feet away,the shot drives through the fish lateral line just behind the gill plate MY FIRST FISH. thanks to all you guys/girls here for sharing your trade secrets, you proved a 43 year old dog can be taught new tricks. lol
regards Sebastian

 

[josedesucre]

Congratulations Sebastian. Your story is so full of excitement and emotion that it is really contagious. I can honestly say that I feel it with you. So you are not only a good spearfisherman now, but a good storyteller also. I hope you will share with us many other future adventures. I have to confess that many times I feel miserable for the poor visibility and other negative conditions that I suffer most of the time in the midatlantic area, but your story made me realize that there are others facing still more difficulties. Congratulations again and good luck in your future "sorties".

 

[bluecape]

Hey Sebastian

Great story, I remember posting the story of my first fish on DB, and I will never forget that day of hitting the surface with your first 'hit' on the end of your spear!
Hope you spearfishing career is long and safe buddy!

Allow me to tell you about an incident which happened to me in my first days of spearing, something that made a big impact on me.
I was diving on a spot in False Bay, with a buddy who is an experienced spearo, and as I got to the bottom, a big Red Roman, a resident fish in the area, swam from under the reef, and literally swam up to me at speed, possibly used to Scuba Divers. It stopped right in front of me, literally on my spear tip, and hung around me, almost excited.

I could not pull the trigger.

When I reached the surface, my buddy asked" Why did'nt you shoot the thing"? I explained what had happened, and said I just didnt have the heart to pull the trigger, as it had not been a hunt by any means. My buddy smiled, and offered me his hand of congratulations. ( Which surprised me??) He then said " Now you are a real spearo".

I never forgot that incident, and it instilled in me an ethos to which I still hunt today.

Good luck!

Jeff

 

[spearo_nick]

i like that story bluescape good on you

 

[vjanda]

I once shot a moray eal. After I regreted it and felt quite bad as it was a beautiful creature about 5foot long. It didn't taste nice either. Since then I stick to fish and the odd octopus for the salad. If ever I come across a big moray I will take a small fish off my line and feed it. Karma n all that
Stay safe

 

[atom10]

Congratulations to your successful hunt.

_______________
Free Hunting Catalogs - Hunting Catalogs and Hunting Brochures for free download

 

[Old Man Dave]

Well done that man. Good catch and good story.

I was in New York last year but only sightseeing not diving. Didn't look like there was much vis.

Watched a programme on TV recently where Paul Young was rod fishing for stripers off the north east coast as part of the Angling series Road Trip USA. Think it was Rhode Island or somewhere and he was fishing from a boat but really close inshore and shallow rocky ground. Vis looked quite good and he caught loads of fish to over 20lb. Thought it looked very similar to hunting our european bass, except the stripers are bigger. Made me keen to have a go but 4000 miles each way is a bit too much for a round trip.

Maybe another time.

Good hunting.

Dave

 

[deep thinker]

Cool story mate, your first kill is always exciting. My first was a good sized black tail. It was hiding underneath a rock daring me to try and shoot it after I missed it twice, so I turned swam away and came back 5mins later it was still there, I dropped to the bottom and peered under the rock just in time to see the tail fin lazily swooping back to its hiding place, stuck my gun in and bam, big smile and nice dinner that evening

 

[azapa]

Great stories. I am in the same beginners phase, although I guess I have it real good: abundant fish and clear water. I also have a real "feel" for the fish and really pick my targets. We have a rock fish here called "doradilla" they are very abundant end not to skittish, they are also in shallower waters, and to boot, taste good! I soon learned not to go for these guys, and take the deeper/more skittish ones "rollizo" is excellent, and "villagay" better. The thrill is the hunt, not just getting out fish. I also make a rule to clean and feed my family everything that I take out. No giving away to those who won't appreciate. Best luck on your new adventures..

 

[daveduvet]

as a newbi sat waiting for the UK summer to begin, looking at my newly aquired gear, it is great to read about your first fish! I hope it won't be long before I have my own story to tell! Here is a question to you guys- how many times did you go fishing before your first fish??

 

[azapa]

you'll hate this but its true: one of my best hunts, including first fish, was my first day out. Probably on the 4th shot.... Beginners luck if ever I heard it. Since then I have got steadily worse.. Last weekend came back tired and empty handed - wife threatening to thaw out supermarket salmon......what an insult.... Lets see what happens this weekend....

TIP: don't under load/charge your spear gun on first outing because your trying to get a feel of it, use max. power to help quick kills even on "iffy" shots. I used too lower power for a while, and the spear would not penetrate further than the spine on "center of mass" shots. It must penetrate and break the spine for a good kill..

 

[romek]

Nice post skidivefish!

I had a similar experience to bluecape with a yellowbelly rock cod and now unless its an visually abundant reef fish or acceptable in a competition I will stick to game fish.

My first kill was a harder or mullet. I spent quite allot of time shooting these in small shoals in the shallows (from 10cm up 1m in length depending on where you are), they made great eating on braai's as is or dried (locally called bokkoms).

I think the practice has helped me with yellowtails - trying to master 2 with one shot - have done this once so far

 

[greendiver]

Good start mate!!!:friday

 

[Seal]

I remeber my first succes speardive. I had been diving for 5 days seeing absolutely nothing! And then all of a sudden I saw and shot my first flounder, and since then I have allways seen fish. It's wierd some times.

 

[calicojack]

Congrats - both the hunt and the story. Wish I could hunt stripers 0 it's illeagal here in California........

 

[covert]

you'll hate this but its true: one of my best hunts, including first fish, was my first day out. Probably on the 4th shot.... Beginners luck if ever I heard it. Since then I have got steadily worse.. Last weekend came back tired and empty handed - wife threatening to thaw out supermarket salmon......what an insult.... Lets see what happens this weekend....

TIP: don't under load/charge your spear gun on first outing because your trying to get a feel of it, use max. power to help quick kills even on "iffy" shots. I used too lower power for a while, and the spear would not penetrate further than the spine on "center of mass" shots. It must penetrate and break the spine for a good kill..

I think many of us here felt like you at some stage or another. A bit of beginners luck and then nothing......... Dont worry matey it only gets better. I personally experianced the same thing on my first 4 dives i couldnt even find the fish let alone shoot them. I then started diving for the pleasure of just being underwater. And slowly i grew more confident in that environment, I started noticing movement easier, was allot more relaxed. I started to get confident enough to properly track the fish taking my time. And bam bam bam on my 6th hunt i got 2 nice Romans, 1 Yellowtail, and 3 Gallies (romans and galjoen) are resident fish here in SA. And it just got better from there. I then stopped diving for along time and only recently got back into it again. And guess what its not like riding a bike. I made the same mistakes, and currently im doing as many shore dives as possible to rebuild my confidence under water. And its working. I can now comfortably spend 3 hours in cold water. I am comfortable with my gear and diving to depths of between 10-18m. And my aiming is getting allot better.

So chin up bands down and spike yourself a big one for the pot. And remember if the shooting isnt succesful just make sure you enjoy the dive.

 

[matesz H2O]

hey guys im new to this site and started reading a bunch of threads and finally decided to register. i have been diving for a good year now off and on off the cliffs of corona del mar. at first i was just diving for the fun of just being one with the fish. then one day i saw some guys come down and use a pole spear and it got me interested in that so i bought a polespear and started using that. one of my most memorable experiences with polespear fishing was an encounter with a sheep head.

so i dove down and sat at the bottom for a while. just waiting for something to swim by, this was probably about the 5th dive of the day. so im sitting there trying to fins something big enough to catch. im on my way back up and i see something move. i wasnt sure what it was cuz i have never seen anything like it. but i soon figure out it was a really good sized male sheephead. im bad at aproximating weight but it looked about 2 feet long. so i started slowly swimming after it trying just to stalk it. to my luck it notices and starts to swim away remember i had a polespear whos distance is maybe 3 feet. so i didnt have much luck with getting it right there. i keep swimming faster now in hope that it forgets im there haha. just hoping. so i start swimming faster and faster. and right when i think im gonna pass out cuz of lack of air i let go of the pole but miss. i get to the surface and tell my friends about it. i dont even know how long i was under but it felt like forever.

i have had many dives since then but not as memorable. the last time actually i went out and saw a sting ray and wanted to get that but wasnt sure if i could with the california law. and the fact that i only had a pole spear and was scared it would drag me out to sea if i didnt get the head shot. that say day later on though i saw a leopard shark and didnt know if i could catch that either. and was scared of the fact that it was a shark and didnt know ow their temperment was or anything. so i let it go. didnt get lucky at all that day. didnt spot anything big enough to catch.

but i just bought a spear gun and i cant wait to go out and hunt. i got a tatoo almost 2 weeks ago and cant go in water for another week. that and i need a band or two for my gun. if anyone has a reliable source let me know. im so ready for my first hunt with a gun. i cant wait. i have been reading up on these threads and its making me more anxouse.

well i hope you liked those stories. good luck to everyone on their futur hunts.

 

[azapa]

Hey Matesz,

Welcome to the forum, you'll learn a lot here.

Regarding deciding which fish to shoot. Answer these four YES, and SHOOT:
- is it legal?
- will I eat it?
- is it sporting?
- is it a fair size for its species?

Otherwise, or if you're not sure, DON'T SHOOT!:t

Best of luck on your hunting....