Fish on Belt...yay or nay

In my area there is low risk of attacks by anything. If it's just a couple of fish and we're not going deep then it's okay but if it's a big fish, we go to the boat. Nice thread.

i am in the other camp as I am always either diving with my support float or my bigger support float (kayak) and I keep my fish either hanging off the float or in the kayak hatch. I have always used an insulated bag ontop of the float, but just switched to a homemade stringer hanging in the water...I have not had any curious toothies come and tax me yet and the fish seem to stay fresher and bleed out better when they remain in the water since a big heavy ice and sea water filled cooler is not available to me

Flip em into the boat or stuff em in a bag on the way back to the boat. Every place I get to go has things with teeth. Besides, after a couple of days spearing without a freshwater shower, I smell pleasant enough before I hug my fish. No need to rub anything else on.

I'm a firm believer in rushing nothing while diving (except killing a large pelagic as it wraps your lines into a birdnest around your neck). Hence I always use a stringer on a float with about 40 meters of line for playing the big ones. This is not really necessary i suppose with smaller fish but after a few pretty intense shark encounters I like to keep my catch away from me. Although this doesnt always do the trick. After killing a rather large blood filled kingfish the other day I was covered in slime and guts and even though the fish was in the boat I was quickly sniffed out by a rather large shark. A nine foot bronze whaler charged me 5 times and if i hadnt continuously stabbed him in the face with my rob allen he would have wrappped his fish mincers around my torso. I also dont like having anything on my body that creates drag and flaps against my legs. If you hate dragging in 40 m of line to get to your stringer just decide on what will be your deepest probable depth and set your line accordingly. The few tugs I've had on my line leaving only fish heads behind were proof of concept enough for me. ALthough not everyone has to base their tactics on western australian and NZ shark abundance
I'm a Canadian traveling and learning to spearfish in Aus and NZ and was just wondering what the shark situation is off western canada? I am woefully ignorant of conditions near my own home as I didnt start diving until I went to aus. I mean to correct this!

I keep my catch on my float kui (stringer on float). I used to dive a lot with a belt kui but due to the frequency of the tax collector visits lately Ive opted out of it. Its kind of a bummer too because when I dive I usually anchor my float and a lot of times I will drift aways away from the float while stalking fish. If we get into a pile of fish it sucks to have to swim back to the float to string my catch.

Now I kind of use both methods. Ill keep a belt kui on me for just those occasions but after a while transfer the fish to the float.

Dont know if its been said yet but I hope for those of you who are using belt kuis, be sure to use mono. Save the steel for your float.

For me, depends on the situation.
Smaller fish while hunting very close close inshore, stringer.
Deeper water, further from shore, stringer on float.
Under any circumstances, if I take a quality fish, I will return to the rocks/boat immediately with it.
Sharks are always about where I dive, though thankfully most are only 4-5 foot whalers, which I am less concerned about than the super-abundant carpet sharks which have become almost aggressive........possibly because a ban on their ability to be taken by recreational spear/line fishers has led to a considerable increase in their numbers in the area I hunt.
IMHO, if you know or suspect there may be a shark presence where you hunt, you need to take appropriate measures, or be prepared to suffer the consequences.
Cheers, sorry for the rant............

Blaiz,
I thought you would not like stringing a unicorn or(kale right?)
on your belt!There spines hurt! Same with the Mu's and monpachi ha!

I really hear it from my boat men that they like me with a float,because they cant see me.
I also believe that the speed stringer is the best way to string them on a float my reasons are, 1 it is much faster to do! 2 if you string the fish gill's first and then out the mouth the fish are strung streamlined and when they pile up(hopefully) they glide with much less resistance compared to a separate stringer an a float.

I always kill my fish before I string them with shaft or knife.
I love diving with no float and a reel,I just have to sneak my fish on my buddies floats.:naughtyrofl

Coral Sniper said:

Blaiz,
I thought you would not like stringing a unicorn or(kale right?)
on your belt!There spines hurt! Same with the Mu's and monpachi ha!

Click to expand...

Hah, luckily I hate KALA but you are right. Some of my buddies that I dive with shoot them and are always complaining about getting knifed. You are right about the mu though. Ive been jabbed many a time by mu. The problem is that when you have a mu on your belt the other ones seem to want to come in closer to you. Kinda weird but it works pretty well.

when im scuba diving i carry my fish on a stringer but when im free diving i put my fish on a stringer attacheds to my float