How To Get Close To The Fish!!!!

[mundial]

you mantioned a very big example!
the biggest they are they live in the upper water in marine harbur
or next, they have a deep smell of oil ( petrol :hungover )
so the better catch is the ones that have no more then 2ft or 3 lb

but in lakes you can find some big once but we cant spearfish in clearwater
so i guess it will be interesting to know where did you catch yours?
was it easy to shut ?

 

[Huw]

mundial....

The mullet that i shot was taken whilst on a hunt for seabass. As i was following a 2lb bass, two large mullet crused right past me, i took a shot and the 6.5lb fish was on my stringer about 30seconds later! I shot it about 200 meters off shore in a little bay in about 5meters of water. Viz was about 4 meters. The shot itself was easy as im sure it thought that i was after the bass (once again back to body language) and it was the first mullet that i had shot in that area as i usually let them swim on. I went back a few days later hoping to get some more, but the only one i saw swam off as fast as it could when it saw the gun ( i think it was my dinners friend! rofl ). I hae never seen mullet in completely freshwater here in the uk, although i saw a few in lake in france once or twice.

Well speak to you soon, and let me know if you get any monsters!

Huw

 

[jon penrith]

In my opinion I think the fish see the gun as an extension of you.If something is going to eat them it will face toward/swim toward them.This is particularly noticable when bluewater hunting when you dive on a shoal of fish.If you fin towards them they will frequently move away , but if you angle alongside or slightly away this is non agressive & the fish will generally come closer.
In shallow water I agree that the fish can be more afraid as they may have been shot at more,but it is also a fact that they can feel their escape is cut off.If you are in shallow water the fish are in the deeper water they feel that they can dash into the deep if needed so are generally more relaxed.
If doing aspetto/agachon then by becoming "part" of the bottom you appear less threatening.As I lie on the bottom if I see fish approaching from the side I find it good practice to "shrink" back as if afraid of the fish.This enables you to bring the gun around in their direction without appearing aggressive.
ll relaxed movements which are good freediving practice are seen as non aggressive by their nature.
I find mimetic suits etc also an advantage to break up your outline so you are not seen as a huge black shape on the bottom.This is only any good if the cammo matches that of the bottom where you fish.Obviously its not so important in bad viz or when hole fishing.
Jon
:martial

 

[Spearing Port A]

I spearfish in Texas. When in bluewater at a rig or at a rip, it is easier to get to the bigger fish by kind of ambushing them from underneath. when they see you coming up from beneath them, they will generally turn sideways to get a better look at you, giving you the better edge. An easy shot can be obtain rather quickly at about 2-4 m but it may take a few tries if the area is heavily fished or dived...
Cody

 

[mundial]

hi guys
everyfish have a special unique way to get

i like viz about 4 m it is fine for me to stay in a good place to ambush
last friday mornning i was diving in 7 m deep i put my self in between
to rocks waiting in aquato of 1 min i saw some sargo then passed me 3 amberjacks 3-4 kilo each the 2nd one was the lucky one:t
i shut him from 1.5 -2 m from the gun!!
but most important is to stay as quiet as you can going down quiet &
atying down quiet i thik this is important
the fish was with the current to get the little fish that eat against the
current
a spearo should know the way predetors eat to manage to get them on spear

as i was quiet i manage get even spigole (IT) or lubina (ES) un June !!

 

[Killer&Griller]

Spearing 101,

This might help you with your mindset on spearing. The primary reason that fish "react" to you when you are carrying a speargun or not is -------------- ------------"attraction/attention"!! If he has your "attention", he knows that you have signaled him out from everyone else and that is the reason that he is going to shy away. The last thing a fish wants is to attract the attention of something bigger than them for fear of being eaten. What a fish picks up on is your tells, movements, reactions, etc. You may not realize that you are giving him a "tell" like in poker, but you are. As soon as you look directly at him, "tell". If he moves left and you drop your left shoulder (like how a plane turns), "tell". As he is swimming away from you, he goes left, right, left, right, and do you know what you do? Left, Right, Left, Right just by how you kick your fins. The fish is testing you to see if you are focused on him!!! The reason that people tell you to relax is so you are not so "focused". This in turn doesn't give off "direct intention" vibes, which CLASS, is what?--------TELLS!!! As you have figured out, the list goes on and on. For fish that are a little larger and skiddish, come done from on top of them or try coming up from underneath. They will roll on their sides to get a good look at you and see what you are doing. STONED!! Always approach on a 45 degree angle when trying to "chase a fish down". Don't make eye contact until the last second. Watch him out of the corner of your eye while aiming your gun in his general direction until the last second. "STONED". If you are chasing a fish, he keeps going, start making a commotion by stirring up sand, banging on a rock, whatever. They will stop running and come back to see what is going on. Try chumming to take the edge off of the fish that you are after. A chum bag will bring in small fish, then bigger fish, you get the picture. When you shoot a couple of fish. save the guts and bones. put the guts in a pair of panty hose with a rock and a string. Put the bones in a burlap bag and send it down with weight. Drop it in the area you are going to dive and watch what comes around in under ten minutes. Want to bring in some bigger boys? Shoot a smaller fish behind the dorsal fin towards the tail. Let him flail around a bit, LUNCH BELL. I will take him off of my spear and let him go straight down below me, first big grouper that comes out to get him, STONED!! Good Luck

 

[spaghetti]

reel fishaholic, excellent post!
I totally agree on the point that you must never make a fish realize that you're targeting him or even watching him, and I appreciate much your tips: you made some good points in a clear language. I just disagree with the last part: using bait is a no-no in my country's spearfishing tradition. But if it's ok for you, I have nothing to argue.
Let's keep this thread up.

 

[Killer&Griller]

I didn't think about chumming being a no-no anywhere. I am assuming that it is a "ethics" think and not a law. Is that correct?

 

[deep thinker]

The stirring up of sand also immitates feeding fish, and as we all know the promise of food is a huge attraction to all fish so they will come in to see if there is a bite to spare and then as reel fishaholic put it so well, "STONED".
Also to add to chasing a fish down if the fish runs off to the left keep goin in the sma generall direction, but turn to its right, it will turn again trying to see what you are doing and where your going and if close enough profide you with a good shot. This also helps to slow them down so you can catch up and get within range so if the fish is out of range stay behind it but keep turning away from it till its curiosity gets the better of it.

 

[spaghetti]

I didn't think about chumming being a no-no anywhere. I am assuming that it is a "ethics" think and not a law. Is that correct?

No problem really if you do chumming while spearfishing. In my country we just don't do it, and we don't use flashers too, but I couldn't tell a good reason why.
Maybe it's just an idea of "loyalty" in our duel against the fish, but on the other hand many things we do (like hiding behind rocks, usign a torch to investigate holes, wearing camo suits) aren't much "loyal" to the fish.
I used the word "tradition", and probably that's it: chumming and flashers are considered a big no for our tradition, even if there's objectively nothing wrong with it, and it would help to get close to the fish.
The country you go, the culture you find. With no "right" and "wrong" universal distinction.

 

[mundial]

graet advice
THANKS

 

[Huw]

Mundial...

Not sure if you remeber the discussion we had on the last page back in March about mullet, but i finally uploaded a picture of my personal best thick lipped grey mullet and thought you may want a look .

I shot it whilst in about 3m of water, i was slowly swimming along side some rocks with a short green algae type weed growing on them, I had seen no fish for the whole dive, and was beginning to wonder if the fish hated the weed. My mind started wondering to other things, when i looked down and saw this beauty feeding off the weed. I was directly above it and the shot struck directly behind the head. I finished it off with the knife. I later on saw a large bass, but i was still so excited from the mullet that i messed up the shot :duh


Hope you are still watching this thread!

Huw.

 

[spaghetti]

Nice one, Huw: that's a big mullet and a well done catch. Fishes become more vulnerable while they're feeding or soon after having eaten, but you must be a clever diver (silent and "aquatic") to have reached so close without scaring it. Bravo.
In my opinion mullets are not an easy catch at all: they are intelligent and learn to stay away from spearos after they experience what the spear can do to their comrades. It partly depends on the location and on the "culture" of local mullets population.
For example, I have a favourite spot for mullets where I hunt since when I was age 20 (now I'm 38). There's a big school of mullets that, from noon to early afternoon, have the habit to gather in the shadow under a wooden floating dock. In the beginning, the group of fishes used to let me reach them with no alarm if I could swim silently enough: I just had to get there with no splashing and shoot the biggest one. The group took fright and scattered, but after five minutes they were all back to the previous area. The season after, they were again harmless, but they had learned to stay away for a longer time after the first shot. The following step: swimming silently was not enough anymore, I had to approach indirectly (not going straight towards them) in order to get close. Then again, I had to hide the speargun "soldier in arms" along my body (they fear the spear). Presently I must hide my whole figure behind something and wait for one of them who didn't notice my presence to pass by: soon as they see me, they run away like rockets.

But...waitaminute...Is it you in the pic, Huw? I thought you were a boy, but if it's you there, you're kindly requested to sign in for the DB bikini contest!

 

[spearheads]

no he had a sex change just so he could enter the compertition rofl

 

[Fondueset]

Spaghetti - your mullet sound like my Lake trout - except no-one spears them - I only try to get photographs. They come in when the water is very cold - about 40-45 F but they don't like to see you arrive. So You have to wait until they are not looking to dive. Then It's best if you place yourself where they cannot see you from too far away - but still far enough that they are not startled. Then you wait motionless. If they show up and see you from close enough and far enough they will turn away - then the biggest one's might come in close if they happen to feel like it and you absolutely make no moves they don't like - also you must allready have the camera up - they seem to think it's a big eye and it freaks them out if they see it come up. Some time after all that you have to breathe and they move to a different area if they see you surface. Lake trout live to be 45 years old some times - and I think a few remember me from last year.

 

[Huw]

But...waitaminute...Is it you in the pic, Huw? I thought you were a boy, but if it's you there, you're kindly requested to sign in for the DB bikini contest!

AHAHAH rofl. No thats a good friend of mine in the picture - not me - i am a guy. But i can enter the bikini contest anyway if you like (a terrible joke) ?


Its a cool story about you and your mullet... there is a similar place at one of my dive spots... there is a long line of large floats across a bay to keep boats away, and there is one particular shoal that love to hang around there. This season (in the same way as yours did) they became much more wary than last year, so i have taken to diving down, and approaching them from below. However i always seem to take the largest, and so by the end of the year only the smaller are left... but at least i know that they are out there at the moment growing for me next year !

Mind you i have a little project that i do each year to replace (or speed up the growth of) the population... i have been meaning to tell you all about it for a long while really.

About 5 or 6 years ago at the end of August as a little project and hobby I bought a large fish tank, i then went down to the beach at a low tide and gathered up some weed covered rocks, and shells and sand and stuff. I then set it all up in the tank - like a scaled down replica of a reef. Then i filled it up with sea water and left it to settle for a few days. Then on the next spring low tide i went down to the rockpools with a net and a bucket with an air pump. I caught about 12 tiny tiny mullet (about 2cm long) and, two edible crabs, some small shrimps (to keep the tank tidy), one small wrasse (5-6cm) and a bunch of other stuff. I then kept them over the winter, untill about july and fed them 3 times a day daily. When it reached the end of July, the mullet were about 10 -12cm long, and i took them all down to the professional aquarium (where i work) and placed them in a huge tank. After another two years in there they had grown to over 2lbs in weight and well over 45 cms. I then released them back to the place where i had first captured them.


I had so much fun doing it and watching them all grow, that I do it every year now. And if anyone thinks that it is morally wrong - if you saw their tanks, and could speak the language of mullet, i am sure that they would tell you what a fantastic three years they had (free food accomodation... and no predators!!!).

I like to think that perhaps some of the mullet that i see during my time in the water, are indeed some of the little fry that i raised. Mind you give it a few years and they will be at the size where i only see them whilst looking down the barrel of my gun rofl.

Cheers,
Huw.

 

[spaghetti]

Two amazing stories, Huw and Fondueset.
For me what Huw did is morally right because he did ity with local resident fish: good to help nature to keep the stocks. It's freaking surprising that you made it DIY keeping them all alive in a tank till that size. Compliments: that's great really!
As for lake trouts, the new thing for me is that fishes can be scared not only by spears, but also by camera lenses. For sure it makes sense if they get it for a big eye, as they are scared or disturbed by our own eyes too (thats' why people keep the eyes semi-closed while hunting with the aspetto technique.
On Michigan trouts again, if the point of the thread is: "how to get close to the fish?" then good for us if it often happens that they get close to us by their own will, for curiosity* or just because they do not recognize us as a predator presence. I didn't know this habit in trouts: it's more common in saltwater fish.

* tips: releasing a bubble of air from your mouth seems to work with bass (and also clapping the water surface), while sound signals like "clop-clop" or "goo-goo" work better with sargo, gilthead and dentex. But gilthead and dentex are the shyest or smartest fish: they don't come easily close to investigate you). I've been told that metal sounds ("tin-tin" with knife or speartip against rocks, works to attract carps and tench. Any experience?)

 

[spearheads]

What i do is run my fingers up the rubbers it makes a high pitch goooo type noise ,you need gloves to do this well. Saves using air to make a noise in your throat.

Also on sand stir it up then move away the bass and mullet come and have a look as they thick you have found a tasty snack.

 

[Huw]

Two amazing stories, Huw and Fondueset.
For me what Huw did is morally right because he did ity with local resident fish: good to help nature to keep the stocks. It's freaking surprising that you made it DIY keeping them all alive in a tank till that size. Compliments: that's great really!

Thank you spaghetti! By the way, the tank that they lived in for the last 2 years was huge maybe 6m long 2m deep and 4m wide. Just thought i would clear that up.

By-the-way fondueset i loved reading you post. I always wish that i could get into underwater photography too!!

Huw.

 

[foxfish]

That is a big tank Huw, I assume this is at your work place?