Hunting Technique

[andrsn]

flashers

RC,

thanks for the shared experience/experiences

i'll share a few techniques of my own. you might get a kick out of them.

my favorite tool is a knife and a spoon. just simple ones from your local diner. for mid-water species, i opt for the spoon and will chuck one, while at the suface, towards an out of range fish. the falling, flashing object is irrisistable and most all come in for a close look. dive, aim, lead, and fire! for bottom species, i'll whip out one of the table knives. i'll bend it to a degree(which determines how fast it will sink) and let it drop to the floor. most grouper and snapper will at least stop in their tracks and take a peek. sometimes this is all you need to get off that long shot.

as far as using flashers, we love them. sometimes it seems a little unfair, but when it's slow, there's no better tool. we'll use a flasher for both drifting and when we anchor. when we anchor, we'll most always burley up the water with a fresh fish. both of these tactics will most definitely bring in more than you can bargain for. it's just not much fun when you can't get the sharks to leave your spot alone.

safe hunting everyone,
anderson

ps. vince!... i'm a fort lauderdale native. how long are you going to be there? keep me posted, i know alot about the area, especially off the coast. could even tell you which bars will hold your best selection of friendly women!

 

[SASpearo]

Float system

This is my float system .... took liberties from a lot of other people's ideas, especially Terry Maas - he started it all .....

First of all, excuse the graphics - I'm a programmer not an artist.

This is my main float system for deep water / big fish. It's a little complicated, but easy to operate, store, clean etc etc.

I use an old bodyboard / boogieboard to make the float itself. It's two pieces of about 50cm long by 30cm wide that I fibreglass over. I cut it using a heated wire (just a piece of wire chucked in the fire) and also make the hole for the bolt and hinges with the same wire. It gives a fairly straight cut, and is fairly neat as well. It just smells like crap.

Once it's cut to size and shaped, I just run one layer of fibreglass over it. This isn't really nessecary, but I prefer to do it this way - I can paint on it etc etc. If you don't want to fibreglass it, you'll have to use two BIG washers on either side of the board for the ring bolt.

The line itself is made up of 12mm Latex tubing and parachute cord / braided dacron line. This is the interesting part of the excersise ...

You're gonna need 2 times more line than tubing - and everything's gotta go inside. I have a couple of these lines made up, 10m, 20m 30m etc, and as I've made up snap clips on both sides they're easy to swap out for different dives. Wat you do, is find a vacuum cleaner with about a 2 - 3 Monica suction power (that's quite strong), some cotton wool and some fishing line. You tie a small ball of cotton wool to the end of the fishing line and push it into one side of the tubing. Apply the vacuum cleaner to the other end and Viola ! string goes through. Of course the tubing's gotta be straight, etc etc. Took me some time to get this right the first time, let me tell you !

Once the fishing line is in the tube, just tie the cord to one end and pull it through. When it gets to the other side, tie a knot in the tubing and the line, making sure that the line cannot slip back into the tube. Then, tie the knotted end to a tree / car / ex girlfriend whatever really, and streeeeetch the tube until all the line is inside. Now tie a knot on that side as well and all the chord should be safely tucked in. Unstretch the tubing and stopper the ends. I've tried several things to do that, but the best seems to be two washers and some fibreglass resin .... see picture. You'll have to tie a stopper line around the resin to get it to shape and to stop the plug from slipping out. Make sure you've got a good loop of line outside the tube to attach clips to.

The hinges are simple as well. Drill two holes in each board where the hinges should be, and loop a piece of the Latex tubing through them. Secure with a knot / crimp whatever, and a nice Voila ! once again, a nice rubbery hinge.

OK. So this is how it's supposed to work .... The line gets attached to your spear. Wether or not you do this with a three way setup to your gun as well is up to you. Personall, I've got my gun on a surfing leash and my float line directly to my spear. No connection between gun and spear. The line goes through the ring bolt (it's outside diameter is bigger than the ring, so that it'll take some pressure to get pulled through) and the terminates in a knot on one of the floats. The excess line gets put in the bag on the back float, and as it's needed (to play a fish or dive deeper) it gets pulled through the ringbolt - as the line stretches so it gets thinner, and gets pulled through.

Whew. What an explanation. Now, the reason why I use this system is quite simple. Besides making me money (I make these up for other people) It serves a lot of purposes.
1.) The line does not get tight quickly as with a normal static line. This means less spear rip - outs.
2.) The line feeds itself when diving / playing a fish. No need to attend it when it's going out.
3.) When playing a fish, you can lie on the back half of the float and pull the line through the ring bolt and into the bag.
4.) The line itself floats - because it's sealed on both sides. This means no more tangled lines in Kelp. It's also quite easy to see where it's tangled if it does get tangled
5.) The float is large enough to carry spares - flashers, water, etc etc.
6.) You can fold it up (with the rubber hinges) and put it in a small car's boot.
7.) You can make the float as big as you want. Or as small. The line can be changed easily. If you want to extend the line, add monofilament to the spear side.
8.) The line on the inside stops the tubing from stretching too much, and also servers as a backup in case the tubing goes.

Oh the flag. It's a screw in car antenna - one of those thingies with the "spring" in the middle. And any type of flag really - Alpha, red , white, plague, pirate .... whatever.

Happy huntin all ....

 

[shorty]

After reading this thread and "Speargun Rigging", I am thinking of redoing my setup. Just a few questions though.

Where can I get parachute cord/braided dacron line? Military Surplus?
How much does it cost?
I was looking at a Riffe 25' bungee but it was $75. Parachute cord sounds really good. All other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
shorty

 

[SASpearo]

Line

Well, parachute chord is just a name for the type of chord. And braided Dacron is a type of fishing line that's actually braided. Good tackle shops sell it. The parachute chord (sometimes called accessory chord) can be found in most rock climbing shops ...

Otherwise just use a DECENT monofilament nylon line with a HIGH breaking strength. Remember that this line will be sealed inside the tube, iow airtight / watertight etc. You can also make your end loops out of something else - like cable etc. Just make sure the joins are GOOD .......

All the puctuation is 'cause I've broken one of these lines before .... +- 60kg yellowfin Tunny just broke a perfectly good 50 meter line ..... bloody expensive excersize ....
Lost spear: $10
Lost line: $30
Educational purposes of my swearing afterwards: Priceless ....

 

[freediver48]

Hi,

Actual parachute cord is constructed of nylon. It has a stranded core and a woven mantle, just like climbing rope, this makes it very stretchy. The design with a highly stretchy cover requires nylon. Dacron does not stretch much at all, so if you want stretch use chute cord, it is also more available and much cheaper. I use 1200lb test halibut line, which does not stretch much at all and encase it in plastic tube. The rest of the construction process is the same as SaSpearo's except that I seal the ends with hot glue.
I hope that this helps. Chute cord is available is most outdoor stores, cheap.

Best wishes,

Doug

 

[andrsn]

señor kitto

guys,
check out Bill Kitto's site when you get a chance. he has quite a bit of DIY(do it yourself) info on alot of rigs.

safe hunting,
anderson

 

[SASpearo]

Floatline

I was just wondering about the hot glue idea ...... Do you reckon it would work in Latex tubing ??

I've just finished getting my feeder chord (fishing line) through two new lines - a 10m (30ft) and a 30m (90ft) - both Latex, and I've managed to get my gritty little hands on some decent Para chord for a change. I almost burnt out the office vacuum cleaner as well

Today's my official last day at work ... of for three and a half weeks of nothing but some spearing action, freediving fun and Bundaberg on the beach .... talk about getting my karma restored .....

Have a great festive (silly) season all !!!

Smelly feet!!

Riaan C

 

[freediver48]

Hi SaSpearo,

The hot glue works better than latex seal in plastic tube according to my tests, but I do not know about latex tube, why not try a bit. Like Kitto suggests, I use shrink wrap over the tube and swivel and had a problem with seals until using the hot glue.

Sounds like a great break!

Doug

 

[SASpearo]

Rigging

Hi all ! Hope you had as great a season as me .... Man ! What a holiday.

I tried a couple of new ideas on my rigging - some of them from the forum, some of them from other spearos I met over the holidays ...

I tried the hot glue idea in Latex tubing - it works like a dream ! Ten times better than silicon sealer ....

What I did is this: I used a cable wishbone with the cable crimped into a loop, the two knobbies in line with each other. Then I attached the inner line to the one end of the wishbone (inside of the knobbie thingie) and slipped the whole thing into the tube. To do this I applied some KY jelly (Don't ask! ) to the tube and it just slipped in. I used a 11mm Latex tube for the line and parachute chord for the inner line. So, I had a nicely crimped and bound cable end on either side of my line ! I sealed the ends with a hot glue gun (Tested on a piece of offcut first) and let it cool. I bound the latex with some fishing line on the outside right after inserting the glue, so that it squeezed the glue all around the knobbie thingies.

It looked pretty impressive, and it was watertight / airtight. I put a bit of shrinkwrap around the bound bit and shrinked it. Heeeee haaaa ..... ver professional look ! Some tuna clips on the cable and away we go !

I tried a new Tuna rig as well .... a 30m bungie line attached to a break away on my gun on one end, and a 5l float on the other end. Then a FAT piece of mono about 20m long to another float (this one had a small netting pouch attached to it to coil the line into - the moment you pulled the first float underwater it came out) and this seconf float attached to another bungie of 10m attached to another float. Worked like a charm !!! I had one fish (37kg yellowfin Tunny) take the whole rig under water - with me hanging onto the last float ! Took me 25 minutes to land the mother. Photo's should be developed soon - will post them !

Anyone else get up to mischief this season ?

Regards,
R

 

[andrsn]

might cross paths..

vince,

i'm heading down the middle of february and also some time in march. we're camping down at knight's key just north of the 7 mile bridge to do some spearfishing for 4 days. i'm basing out of lauderdale, so keep me posted on your plans.

how many years illegal are you? when i'm diving, i'm never in the mood to go out, i'm that exhausted. plus, i'm still holding out for a mermaid.

for a note on this thread, my technique has been changed. i'm lighter now(with lead) which is great for deep hunting, but when i get into the shallower areas i have to add(minus on the safety side) or else i scare everything off just trying to get down. (&boogie!) so, i'm trying to weigh the options here. hmmmm?

what are you guys diving w/ as far as lead goes?


anderson

 

[icarus pacific]

hey Anderson!

I just got a message from the Denny's in Ft. Lauderdale that they need their spoons back! :naughty

Seriously though, if you take the sparkle thing one step further, maybe if you wore a colander on your head, the fish'd really be intrigued and would come that much closer! Or maybe if you wrapped your studly self in aluminum foil? Gotta work!! rofl

Course I can't guarantee that the local and tanned lovelys would understand...

BTW Took the Island out the other day and launched a few at some unsuspecting kelp to get used to the thing. Aquiles was right, this thing's a MBZ to my old gun! I'm going to be in Santa Barbara this spring and summer- let's hook up and slay some sea bass.

 

[crazyfrenchmen]

Variable weight

Hi,
a friend of mine use a 10 pounder tied to his floater when hunting in shallow water, so he get to the bottom faster but dont have as much weigth to bring up. This is also usefull as an anchor for your float.

 

[SASpearo]

Weights

I use different sets of weights for different conditions ....

Light weights (around 4kg's) or no weights for normal diving
Heavy weights (around 8kg's) for shallow dives (less than 8 meters)
Medium weights (6kg's) when cave / hole diving - belt with slap buckle (you slap it and it comes off) It's also got the weights integrated into the belt - nothing sticks out.

Dare I say it ..... I use "Negative Dive" techniques to get down with less weight ..... just lose some air and sink like a rock. Sure bottom time and equalizing is affected, but hey, it works.

Regds,
Riaan

 

[andrsn]

geeze!

i thought this thread was too old to get responses!

sven, don't threaten me with a good time! end of spring and summer are completely open. i've yet to try my new omer 5mm super stretch, so SBarb sounds like a weiner for testing!

the weight off the float sounds interesting. it may complicate some things though. i think i might try that off my boat. i guess you couldn't really consider that cheating. it would be a good way to get down 90' w/o using energy.

i think for normal hunting, i'm just going to have to get some more weights that are easily added/removed so i can keep my stealthyness. i'm just going to have to make sure my buddy is keeping a more watchful eye on me.

thanks for the words guys, and riaan... stop molesting those white sharks down there, you might upset some of the animal rights activist people

~anderson

 

[Erik]

Re: geeze!

Originally posted by andrsn
i thought this thread was too old to get responses!

i've yet to try my new omer 5mm super stretch, so SBarb sounds like a weiner for testing!


Anderson, would you mind telling us about the new OMER suit? First thoughts, cost, service from where you got it? I like OMER stuff, and am interested. Maybe start a thread in Freedive Equipment?
Chers buddy,
Erik Y.

 

[Wishbone]

Archery practice

I am surprised you guys don't use the "dead bottles" training technique.

You just throw different sized shampoo bottles (or any plastic bottles) in the sea and shoot! The bottles are light enough to immitate a moving target.

You can also use that to test fire a new speargun or to get used to it...

Just don't forget to pick the bottles back on the boat when you're done!

I personally always do that the day before a competition when shooting fish in the zone is forbidden.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

[SASpearo]

Important Info

Hi all,

An important note on the posts by me in the beginning of this thread:

A lot of the information I've posted here regarding Hunting technique is information I've downloaded from the internet over the past couple of years. I've experimented, researched and found that most of these make sense and have helped me hunt more efficiently.

I've spoken to the person who originally wrote most of the material, and have aggreed to put up this notice.

The website where it all started can be found at www.spearfish.org

Many thanks to Ivan for supplying me and the many other divers out there with this info.

Regards,
Riaan C

 

[fuzz]

Don't know exactly how I came across this ancient thread, but found it very interesting, insightful, and informative. Indubitably!

Bumping it because I found it so intriguing... hope newer members as well as some of you veterans that already read it can get something out of this

 

[fuzz]

I just noticed who has the picture of the month from the site SASpearo listed:

www.spearfish.org



:hmm

 

[andrsn]