??? help

[okamotoa]

first of im glad i found this site. ok now i need a little help i basicly a newbe 2 this and i need some advice/help. i bought a band powered gun about a year ago. and from reading ur post i think its euro style. but other than that dont know much about it. it feels farly easy to pull back but im 18 and farly built i guess. and im useing it to try and take carp out of some ponds where we own a cabin and its a compition. typicly you can swim to within 5-12 ft of them befor they spook. avrage fish is 20 lbs and i finally got my aim right on one last year but the spear just bounced off like nothing. when i go 2 my cabin this weekend il bring home my speargun so i can tell you guys wat it is and if its totally wrong gun and not gona work or wat. and also just so u guys know i got a limit on the lenth of my cord attacted to gun and spear and for some reason mebraska limited it to 20 feet... :vangry :naughty

any help or advice on this would be great

... altough last year me and a friend won the compition by 2 carp and we caught them by bowfishing 4-5 ft hand spears or hand i actually caught 2 this way:king

 

[CBeast-->]

Oka, welcome brother........nice size carp huh? 20lbs!? Friggin awesome......sounds like a couple of things might be messin up ur day - do u have one band or two on the gun? How long is the gun? And do u recall the last time the band/bands were changed? Also, could be the size of the shaft. If you are, as I suspect, using a single band on a say a short 6mm shaft, it'll be a dificult time stoning a 20lb fish....u could go up to a 6.5mm and two bands - passing through the fish like nothing......let me know man!


*The Beast*

 

[okamotoa]

it is a 2 band gun and my shot was about 8 feet last year but it jsut bounced off his side ill bring home my gun and give u the measurments this weekend

 

[CBeast-->]

Sounds like a plan.....are there fairly large sized freshwater fish up there? Aside from Carp, that is?

 

[okamotoa]

yeah we got some northern pike and flat and chanal cats pike avrage bout 10 lb and cats 2-50 lb. if i leave the lakes got a bunch of drum and gar it the 5-15 range.

 

[okamotoa]

also got a question about another fish, there are 3 huge carp in this pond. 3 summers ago i shot one bowfishing and he took off like most do but when i grabed my line to pull him back in it snapped right about a foot from my hand and thank god 4 gloves that day but the line that broke was 75 lb braided nylon. now i still see the same 3 huge ones but one has a big scar on his back any advice of getting this one id like to use the speargun instead. also the next day i swithed my line from 75lb to 160lb.

 

[Whopperhead]

okamotoa- A couple things that we do here in Wisconsin when we shoot carp: We use a Float (required by law) with dive Flag and a Float line. I connect the float line to the speargun, so when I shoot carp and they take off it can pull the float around and tire itself out. Then I dive down after it. Grab it by the gills, put it on my stringer that is on my float - then take the spear out, and use my knife to "brain" it.

I'm guessing if the carp is 8 feet away and the spear bounces off- the speargun is not powerfull enough. Good opertunity to buy a new one.

 

[okamotoa]

we nebraksan's aint allowed to do that our line has to be attached to the gun unless im missing something on how to do that, also we are only allowed 20ft from gun to spear and i do know that aint much line...:rcard

 

[Whopperhead]

That's plenty of line- actually- But we connect a FLOAT LINE to the butt of our Gun and the float line is 25' and is then connected to a float. This is one of our videos- you can see the float connected to the FLOAT LINE and then that is attached to the Gun- Then the Gun has it's own line connected to the spear.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYm86r9l4N4]YouTube - Golden Lake[/ame]

 

[okamotoa]

ok so ill start looking for float lines. is there a cheap way of making one or buying one im a student and will be paying my self through colage, so money is an issue for me. also iv read a little on this bunge thing where exactly would i put one if i got one and would it help me? also you said that you just fallowed them around on the float after you shot some of the bigger ones so if i shot one of 3 huge ones in our pond i should just let go of the gun and fallow him around until he tired out?

 

[Whopperhead]

yeah- If I shoot a big one- I grab the float line or float and let the fish drag me too and when it stops swimming- i follow the line down to it. I read the Nebraska Regs for Underwater Spearfishing: Dude! you can shoot game fish! That's awesome. It said the line from the spear to the gun cannot be longer than 20' - which is weird, but ok- I think you said that too.

I don't know if there are any dive shops around- but they might have some inexpensive float line. you also need a float & Flag.

 

[okamotoa]

yea in lincoln bout an hour away its in the basement of the building that my grandma works in the instructor used to give lessons out of my grandmas pool too untel she moved... ill go ask them its also where i bought the gun its called husker divers
huskerdivers.com

 

[blaiz]

Wow, I never thought that you guys had any good diving in middle america but that looks pretty friggen fun. I assume you not eating the carp so do you shoot them because of some sort of invasive species controll? or is it just for fun?

As far as float lines its pretty easy to make one. Go to your local hardware store and buy 20 to 30 ' (it doesnt look as if you need anything longer than that.) of clear tubing (like the stuff used in fish tanks) about 3/8" or 9/16" thick. Run some 250lb monofilament through the tubing,

The easiest way I found to do this is start with electritians pull string and tie a piece of plastic bag to one end, use a shop-vac to suck it through, sometimes baby powder helps to lube the tube, and tie the mono to the pull line and pull it through. Attach a large barrel swivel to each end(make sure the swivel is wide enough to "plug" the end of the tubing, make sure to seal the ends with a silicone caulking. and in short you have a homeade float line. THis site has some great threads about homeade float lines, I suggest you check out the gear forum for some great tips and instructions.

diving for carp huh?rofl

 

[Whopperhead]

yeah- they are invasive. Destroying the habitat for game fish. Some parts of WI will pay you per carp that you get out of the water.

 

[okamotoa]

yea same here and also there is this restraunt in omaha that will buy them from us if we call them in advance if we pull them out of a sand pit

 

[okamotoa]

ok guys i got those pics of my gun now an i was wrong iv only got 1 band on it but i can put another. its a sporasub 55. the line is 165 lb braided nylon the two black pieces where it touches the shaft is where it rubs and frays really bad and i put black heat shrink on it last time and its lasted a little longer.

 

[okamotoa]

and the rest of the photos if you need another of something let me know

 

[blaiz]

and the rest of the photos if you need another of something let me know

You might want to try using monofilament for your shooting line. You would just loop it througn the hole closest to the tip of your shaft. A lot of people use 400lb mono, I personally use 250. Its thinner and has less drag in the water. I have wrapped it up numerous times on the reef and it holds up pretty well. Plus if it does frey its easy to change(crimps and a crimper)

Also I cant really tell but it doesnt look like you have a shock line "bungee" on your shooting line. This helps by giving the fish a little play at the end of your line and reducing the amount of "tear offs". They are really easy to make and there are a number of how-to threads about them. If i find one I will send you the link.

Nice looking gun. Do you think you need the power of a second band? Im not positive but with the closed muzzle I dont think you can put a second band on it.

Another piece of advice, If you think your going to not be using your gun for a while, take your rubber off, but it in a ziploc bag with a little baby powder and put it in the fridge, or freezer. They will stay in good shape like this and wont rott as fast.

 

[Whopperhead]

I would probably change out the line connected to the spear with mono- but I would consider getting a different gun for Carp. That would be a good gun for Panfish and other Game fish that you are lucky enough to shoot. For Carp you're going to want more POWER. Longer Gun, more bands.

 

[blaiz]

These carp sound like a pretty gnarly fish:martialI kinda want to come check this out. Slay some monster carp! I dont know about the 2 ft viso though!