Living near some very large lakes with excellent variety of fish, it is a bummer that all game fish (anything worth getting) is off limits to spearfishing. I'm in a situation where I might try and take advantage of some gray areas, what are some practical ways to dive and fish while not using a spear? Carrying a fishing pole to depth is not practical and perhaps hazardous but perhaps a simplified form of pole and lure/bait could be used. Perhaps some form of line attached to the buoy. I have found little fish love chasing lures I find here and there while diving but never tried it with a big one.
As long as the grey is still legal, I’d say go for it. Without knowing your regs or the intention behind them I would venture a guess and say it would probably be fine - but please do check as thoroughly as you can on that matter, too.
Years ago, while snorkeling in Thailand, I actually saw a local fisherman do this. He was angling on the reef with a hand line on a simple spool whilst being in the water with a mask on. He could drop the lure right on top of his target fish and since his fave seemed to be a fairly small fish and it was fairly shallow not having a reel wasn’t an issue.
I remember being quite impressed with how simple, yet successful it was.
I, too, would think a rod would complicate matters. Even a pole so I would go even simpler. In the Philippines I’ve seen local fishermen take fairly big fish on hand line only and that happens in many, mostly, less developed places all over the world. Even some yachties cruising opt for a simple spool on a bungee.
So, I think that’s what I would do, too - go simple with a spool and hand line. Perhaps with a float nearby that I could secure the spool too if something really big struck. My thinking is that having the spool permanently hooked up to the float might impede the use of the spool.
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