Alaska Freediving/Cod Hunting

[Gail_Berke]

Time to bump this thread in case there are any Alaska freedivers/spearos-wanna-be lurking in this forum. If there are, and you live in Anchorage, come on down to the Snow Goose Restaurant this Thursday at 5:30 pm for the monthly Alaska Freedivers get-together. We meet the second Thursday of each month.

 

[Amphibious]

if you guys know anyone hiring low time helipilots in the area, I'd be happy to come up and dive with you

 

[hteas]

Aphibious
There are plenty of places to choose from. The biggest are:
Air Logistics 907-248-3335
ERA Helicopters 907-550-8600
Evergreen Helicopters 907-257-1500

We'd be glad to have another diver in the group. One of ours is lost in the sands of Iraq until next year, and another is trading his F-15 for a desk job up in Fairbanks.

Howard

 

[Amphibious]

thanks, will have FAA conversions done by Dec. will give them a call

 

[redkoi]

Time to bump this again. It's late summer and I would like to know about any spearing reports from Alaska this summer. I'm very interested in putting together a trip for SE Alaska next June and I would love to hear some stories. Thanks.

John

 

[Polystigma]

You must spear the 300lb Pacific Halibut!

 

[Seacidal]

I've held off pulling the trigger on my spearfishing trip, as reports I received indicated conditions weren't shaping up for a good season. I'm glad I've held off, as many of the areas I plan on targeting are cold and showing poor conditions.
Still ready to go, but realistically expecting it'll be postponed.

 

[dan magone]

It is nice to hear of some other Alaska spearfishermen! I live in Dutch Harbor and have since 1979 I am a commercial diver as well as an avid freediver. I have experimented with all kinds of gear on my own out here for freediving and spearfishing and ended up with something that works.

Water temps run between 38 F and 50 F depending on time of year and whether you are in abay or in outside waters as well as depth. I have modified a drysuit for freediving but gave that experiment up and switched to wetsuits, a combination 7mm and 9mm suit for winter and a 7mm suit for summer.

The Black Rockfish is the easiest and most prolific fish to start out on they go 3 to 7 pounds. In clear water which is mostly in the winter you can use a long range gun something that can hit them out to 15 feet or so but the rest of the time it is more productive to hunt them in the rocks where they hide. In that situation I use a JBL Sawed off Woody Magnum with a reel and a big flashlight fastened to the side to see in the shadows. It is fun freediving to go down grab a rock, conserve your breath and slowly peak into the holes looking for the big ones.

In the summer I have been using a JBL Woody Magnum set up with breakaway gear and a homemade fiberglass covered urethane floatboard to hunt halibut. I now have a Steve Alexander 5/16th Magnum that I have used in tropical waters that I took out on clear days this year. Last June I landed a 75 pound Pacific Halibut I speared in 60 feet of water using SCUBA gear but since then I have been freediving exclusively with the intent of getting one in the record book. Unfortunatly my work has kept me too busy this year and in the 1/2 a dozen days I got to go out I did not see one worth shooting.

As far as Pacific Cod go I have shot quite a few on SCUBA but have not seen a good one yet on my freedives.

Anyway it is good to see someone else want to dive these waters and I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully getting some communication going with other freedivers here in Alaska.

Dan Magone

 

[hteas]

Dan,
Welcome to the Aalska group. I had hear rumors that you were freediving (Dix Roper report), but didn't realize you were doing it up here too.

I was on the Mystery Bay in 2001 for 2 weeks working for jacobs at Akutan. Nice boat, adn a great cook at that time. His motto was "eat large", and we did!

If you ever get to town let us know. Gail Berke said she had already written to you, so hopefully she sent you contacts here in town, as well as the link to the Alaska freedivers.

It's great to see the group growing: Southeast to the chain!!

Howard

There's also several divers from down in America that may be in touch with you about a trip out to "the edge of the earth" to hunt for halibut.

 

[dan magone]

Hello Howard,
All of my experience spearfishing has been in cold water except for this last March when my wife and I went to Panama. We made a couple of trips with Dix Roper (what a character) and some on our own and set a new precident by bringing frozen fish back to Dutch Harbor. This year Sue and I celebrate our 25 wedding anniversary and would like to go down again try to target some big yellowfin tuna.

Gail told me you get together on the 2nd thursday of each month at the Snow Goose restaurant, I will try to make it sometime. If someone wants to know something about halibut hunting out here they can give me a call likewise some day I would like to get some input about Ling Cod around the southern end of the Kenai Pennisula and elsewhere.

Have a great day,

Dan

 

[bigalaskakahuna]

Hi All,

New to freediving and spearfishing, I live in Sterling and hope to start this summer in Homer? Whittier, Seward. I will be going to Hawaii in March and hope to spend a couple weeks diving over there, I see there is a group that meets in Anchorage anyone on the Peninsula? I have fished (boat) outside Resurrection Bay and done well for black bass (rockfish) and LingCod in fairly shallow water, any one had any luck there? Any pointers, tips, safety items etc would be greatly appreciated. Hope to meet some time with Anchorage group.

 

[surinate]

Hey Guys,

I'm not from Alaska but just to the east in the Yukon. I've gone to Haines once and found some nice crabs freediving but this place has been hammered hard by overfishing. I might be heading to Valdez in August and if anyone else is in that area I wouldn't mind going for a few dives. The silvers should be in thick around middle August.

 

[hteas]

Surinate,
Boy, you really are isolated, even from us. Most of our diving is in Seward, Homer, or Whittier, with one member of the group (Alaska Freedivers) on Prince of Wales Island, down in southeast. I've been diving a few times in Valdez, but not in years. It's a long way from Anchorage. If you ever make it further west let us know. You can also go to Yahoo groups and look for AlaskaFreedivers if you want some outside contact, especially this time of year.
Howard

 

[surinate]

Hey Howard,
Some may look at it as isolated, I just look at it as my own private corner of the world to freedive in . Interaction is nice though, I'll look you guys up on AlaskaFreedivers, may the waters warm soon.
Nathan