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help stalking fish
- Thread starterwillloomy
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
In order to answer this question, we need to have some background information. What are your diving capabilities? What is the environment that you are hunting in, blue water, ledges walls dropoffs, shallow reefs ect. And lastly what KIND of fish are you pursuing. The "correct" stalking method will differ depending upon your responses.
Okay, I have limited experience with hawaiian hunting but I can still offer some expertise. There is also a guy here on DB called "blaiz" who is a hawaiian, and would be more than happy to give you a few pointers I am sure. With shallow reefs and ledges, lets say 5-40 FOW (feet of water), and especially with the kind of water clarity you have out there in hawaii, you can surface spear, and divebomb a lot for these species. Parrots arnt the fastest swimmers, and both parrots and goats come in schools so you should have lots of oppertunities. When surface spearing and divebombing there are a couple major basic points. Dont dive right straight at a fish. Keep your profile as small as possible, swim quietly in the water, (if you can record yourself on camera you realize how much louder you are than you think), and one of my main strategies is: DONT BE ACTIVELY AGGRESSIVE. You will find that if you dive more as a casual observer, or as a large, dis-intrested fish, many other fish will disreguard you as well. Some will even be curious and approach you. Be quiet, stay small, and just concentrate on exploring. Shots will be offered to you as you spend time becomming one with the water. Get in touch with nature, and nature will get in touch with your spear.
Well... not quite hawaiian, but I did grow up here so more like and experienced ha'ole:blackeye
When I first started diving (with a three prong) I would make the mistake of trying to chase fish down. I did this for a long time too. Most of the guys I dove with did the same thing so I didnt really think I was doing anything wrong. Once and a while if you chased an uhu long enough he would hole up and I would get lucky. Other than that the only fish I would ever get would be menpachi, aweo'weo, aholehole, or anything else i was lucky enough to find in holes.
It wasnt until I started diving with real experienced guys that I learned how to truly stalk fish. As it turns out more than 90% of the fish I shoot now I hadnt even seen until I was on the bottom. The trick to diving in hawaii is not to chase fish but to let the fish come to YOU. (with the exception of diving holes and caves). Basically you want to spark a fishes interest.
I will find a spot that I think a fish would like, i.e. a sand patch in the middle of a reef, a channel in between coral ledges, deeper drop offs, archways, and cave openings. I then drop to the bottom as quiet and still as possible (longblades and proper weight are key), kind of like a sinking log. On the bottom (be sure to do a quick scan for any nearby wana or eels) I try to lay as flat and still as possible. For species like Mu or uku you want to try to completely hide your body. When they see you disappear into a hole, or low part of the reef they cant help but to come see what your doing.
Now you want to get the fish to come to you. You can implore many different techniques, some as silly as beeping your watch (which a buddy of mine swore brought fish to himrofl) I like to "dust" or throw silt or sand up into the water column over me, then i will usually try to find a small rock or piece of coral and scratch the reef with it. This is great for Uku, uhu, papio, all goats, and many more types of fish.
As weird as it sounds these are the techniques I have learned...
Dusting
Scratching
grunting
strumming gun bands
stroking the side of your gun or pole spear to make a squeaking sound.
throwing spoons (yes real kitchen spoons, the soup spoons work best)
I utilize this to see what might be in the area. From the surface I will toss my spoon and as it flashes and flutters down to the bottom you will be amazed as to what comes to check it out. Ive lost a spoon to a large uku who ate it and swam away, Ive also caught a tako who came and tried to grab my spoon.
Finally chumming works good too.
Another thing is eye contact. You want the fish to feel comfortable around you and staring at fish will often times make them keep there distance. This is the reason that many fish will actually approach you from behind (a good reason to try to scan 360 degrees). When you see a fish of interest try not to look at them until they are within range. Its easier said than done but you will learn that its an important tactic.
Anyway good luck, which island are you on?
Willloomy - Blaize is spot on. I do very little spearfishing - but quite a bit of freedive photography - which needs me to be within a meter or so esp with a wide angle lens. The waiting technique is most of what I use here. Some species also respond to the sight of an object dropping to the bottom - this generally works best if I allow them to see me descen and then fall in behind some object and wait.
Interestingly I've found most of the species here are more nervous about the camera lens than a speargun. Sometimes just tilting the lens will send them off - even with no direct sun. There are also times when I can directly approach certain fish.
Usually I'll come from their front quadrant - because a six o clock approach sets them off. I'll dive with minimum movement and keep my profile small and toward them - then settle on the bottom and crawl up - usually with one hand out of site under my belly.
Many of the fish here seem freaked out by independent body part movement - an off-movement of a hand, or even a finger, can send them into the blue.
When tracking fish, which I have to do often because of shutter delay on my point and shoot camera, I try to harmonize movement so my body moves as a single unit relative to the fish. Polespear ranges are pretty close to good photo ranges so I think we're working in the same realm that way.
You've got a great 3-prong community out there and I'm sure you'll find excellent advice locally.
If you check the videos on my site I think the one in the upper right has a couple of different approach strategies - not the best illustration but a rough idea.
PS-also - on repetitive dives to the same area; behind mindful how you come up off the bottom - not freaking out the locals can actually draw them in over a series of dives.
Interestingly I've found most of the species here are more nervous about the camera lens than a speargun. Sometimes just tilting the lens will send them off - even with no direct sun. There are also times when I can directly approach certain fish.
Usually I'll come from their front quadrant - because a six o clock approach sets them off. I'll dive with minimum movement and keep my profile small and toward them - then settle on the bottom and crawl up - usually with one hand out of site under my belly.
Many of the fish here seem freaked out by independent body part movement - an off-movement of a hand, or even a finger, can send them into the blue.
When tracking fish, which I have to do often because of shutter delay on my point and shoot camera, I try to harmonize movement so my body moves as a single unit relative to the fish. Polespear ranges are pretty close to good photo ranges so I think we're working in the same realm that way.
You've got a great 3-prong community out there and I'm sure you'll find excellent advice locally.
If you check the videos on my site I think the one in the upper right has a couple of different approach strategies - not the best illustration but a rough idea.
PS-also - on repetitive dives to the same area; behind mindful how you come up off the bottom - not freaking out the locals can actually draw them in over a series of dives.
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All good points here from Fleshy, Blaiz and Fondueset.
Blaiz gave you a brief, perfect description of the hunting style we europeans call "Aspetto", which simply means "waiting". That's the most productive technique and I wish you to learn it successfully, but at the same time I feel somehow I must warn you about the risks.
Now the problem with "waiting" for fish to come close, is that it might require a long, sometimes very long breath hold time, exposing you to the risk of blackout, especially for newbies who lack both a stealthy ambush technique and a good breath hold capability.
While you're waiting and waiting, and you feel you're running out of oxygen but those damn fish don't bother to come by, you will try to resist and might say to yourself: "five more seconds, five more seconds, come on, five more seconds then I give up".
Till suddenly your brain decides that the air is really out, and it turns off all your non-vital functions such as moving your arms and legs. Some rescue diver will find you still there on the day after, or months after you will be washed on some beach, dead as can be.
My suggestion, provided if it might work or not with hawaiian fish and hawaian bottoms, is a different technique called "agguato", which practically means to take fishes by surprise.
You may alternate agguato'ss with brief aspetto's (the waiting) till you improve your skills for longer aspetto's.
Here it rolls:
The fundamentals of AGGUATO:
You have to dive to the bottom BEFORE seeing the fish, and then after, once you're down on the bottom you start to look for them.
Dive very silently belly-crawling on the bottom, with minimal fin strokes or no fin strokes at all, using your free hand to grab rocks and kelp to help the crawling.
Swim large silent loops around kelp bushes and rocks, stopping every little while to have a look around, and every while TURN, make a curve around the rocks and bushes trying to take by SURPRISE the eventual fish being behind the obstacle.
If they're there at range, aim and shoot. If they're too far, lay very flat on the bottom, still covered behind something, and wait hoping they will come closer, using the tricks that Blaiz suggested.
If you scare them, they will disperse far away, but don't lose hope: most of reef fish are curious and territorial, and many times they will just swim a large loop around and then get back to you, for investigating about you.
This time they're more likely to come at range, because their initial fear of your vibrations will be methabolized and they'll feel more self assured.
Of course, waiting for them to come back might require a long breath hold. If it's too much, just surface very silently, ventilate for as long as necessary, then go back down very silently to the place you were at before. If you're lucky, the fish are coming back to the same place. It happens sometimes.
Fish in schools
It's very difficult to hunt fish when in schools/groups, because schools always have a sort of sentinel alarm system: if you scare one, you scare them all.
Once they get nervous, they start swimming faster and you will certainly get jammed by all those fishes dispersing around, and you will loose precious time trying to make a decision on WHICH ONE to shoot among the lot.
So the best thing, even if they are dozens, is to focus on ONE single fish, track him calmly until he comes at range, and never change target, unless your first target fish disappears.
Shooting:
If they come in schools or even small groups or pairs, NEVER target the first one of the row: if you aim to him and he detects you, he'll get nervous. And, for being the first one in front of the row, he will immediately scare all the others following from behind because they will all see or feel him accelerating.
If the fish come towards you frontally, don't wait for him to turn on a side, but shoot him straight to his face.
Take care,
Spago
thanks for all the help every one. but ha'ole means happy haole means white person.
i tried out a few of every ones tips and came home with a nice sized uhu (parot fish) thanks
Well if we are getting techinical, haole doesnt mean white person:blackeye it means "one with out the breath" breath meaning breath of Hawaii. When Hawaiians would great each other they would breath on one anothers face as a sign of aloha and welcome. When white man came they didnt do this custom and so the hawaiians dubbed them haole. I apologize for the misspelling.
Congrats on the Uhu!
Well done my boy!!!:friday
PS: good on you white men didn't breath on your face, that may smell horrible after days of navigation :yack
And btw uhus are not easy to shoot. It sounds like you were doing everything correct! Good job, were you using a 3-prong or a gun? My first fish speared was an uhu (a big one that I was able to get holed up) and I shot it with a 3-prong but my spear didnt even pierce the skin, just knocked it out. As I was bringing it up to the float to string it, I let go of it for a split second and my buddy came up (with his JBL speargun) thought it was getting away and blew a huge hole right in the middle of the meat. If you know anything about JBLs they arnt good for much more than blowing large holes in fish.
All very good tips...try not to make quick movements with your head and use peripheral vision as much as possible...try never to take quick glances at your target....think "fish is friend, I like fish, does fish like me"....a silly truth, fish's lateral line picks up a spearo's "hunter mode" so turn it off...you see this phenomenem often with predetorial fish like cuda's...and finally do the dust cloud dance. throw heaps of sand all around you till cloud covers your entire body, then slooowllly crawl out with your hands, you'd be surprised all the curious visitors that will come in....if shooting at schools pick one and focus, if a buddy is on top in boat have him chunk and just focus on the chunk sinking
The snorkel thing isnt only for not spooking fish but a safety factor too. If you were to experience a BO while under water the snorkel will only funnel water straight down your throat. Taking it out will stop this from happening and give you a better chance to recover from a BO (that is of course if you have a good dive buddy....thats #1)
Please forgive my somewhat off topic question.
I'm in a similar situation in that I spear parrotfish and goatfish in shallow reefs. (btw - thanks for the tips, can't wait to try them!) Anyway, I have gotten lucky and have gotten a few parrotfish. I don't know if it's that I am a crappy cook or if it is the meat, but after grilling it up, I found myself choking down the meal instead of enjoying it.
Can anyone suggest some good recipes or suggest some books, websites, etc. with good recipies for reef fish/parrotfish?
Thanks!
-LFM
I'm in a similar situation in that I spear parrotfish and goatfish in shallow reefs. (btw - thanks for the tips, can't wait to try them!) Anyway, I have gotten lucky and have gotten a few parrotfish. I don't know if it's that I am a crappy cook or if it is the meat, but after grilling it up, I found myself choking down the meal instead of enjoying it.
Can anyone suggest some good recipes or suggest some books, websites, etc. with good recipies for reef fish/parrotfish?
Thanks!
-LFM