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Jetski spearing.

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.

Skindiver

100 % H2O
Feb 5, 2002
267
40
118
I saw a program on TV last night about a bunch of fishermen that have banded together at Blythdale beach here in SA to trawl for fish from jetskis with great success.

I have also seen spearo's at Cape vidal SA spearing from a Jetski. It was a big momma jetski, a three seater yamaha i think.

I have considered sea kayaks but realise that i am not a paddler and if i have a problem out there, ie, bites, sick, weather, etc i will have to paddle back and your range is limited.
A boat was the obvious choice but you need at least some crew to launch it.
A Jetski could be the answer ( albeit costly and restricted to three ) Naturally you would not take superflous equipment and you launch fully suited with weightbelt on to save space.

I have anticipated not using a buoy but rather fastening the buoy line to the jetski, and leaving it unmanned and drifting with it.

Does anyone here do this ? What Jetski works well. Are they all suited to salt water operation ? Any special precautions to be taken in the sea regarding safety equipment ? Flares capsize bottles life jackets ?

Surely we can install fishfinders, gps, etc . Send us pictures of your setup if you do.

Skin.
 
Hiya skindiver

Theres been quite a bit written on fishing from jetski's. PM me your adress and i'll send you some copies of Ski-boat magazine with the aforemetioned articles.

Theres a couple of problems i see with jetski's. They're quite costly at the moment and you'd still be limited to 1nm at sea. Storage space is another consideration as you mentioned.

I own a 4.7m Gemini semi rigid, and am able to lauch and retrieve it alone. Another option would be those racing ducks (pencil ducks) with a 30hp motor (a 50hp if you mant to fly :D ). They're very light, boat and motor should weigh about 150kg's and quite cheap. Theres normally quite a few of them floating around. Dave Olufsen ski-vee's are excellent too. I've even seen guys with inflatable that the deflate and store in the cars boot.

Regards
miles
 
Great question Skindiver. I've been thinking along the same lines.
I am thinking of going with either a jetski, a jon boat (they're pretty reasonable around this area. usually cheaper than jetski's) or a kayayk(sp?). Man o man dive kayayk's are expensive. :waterwork
I'm particularly curious about using a ski as the float. Is this practical?
I'd be interested in any input that I can get on this subject.
 
I bought a couple of sit on top sea kayaks when I was in Tampa, and rigged them for fishing/diving.

Great boats, they are extremely stable and easy entry exit. I had them rigged for a baitcaster as well as two additional rodholders.

They are so easy to paddle you can become reasonably expert in a day. Really, easy to get in and out of. Front storage is big enough to put fish in a cooler bag and have room for your gun, fins etc. in an enclosed space so they don't get washed away in heavy surf.

Oh yeah one other cool thing about the kayak, they're very quiet and draw almost no water so you can sneak up on fish, it's crazy how close you can get without spooking them.
 
Quiet.

How important is quiet ? Fish chase lures behind noisy speeding fishing boats without much of an issue. ? How would you know if you have sneaked up on a fish from the top of a egg-beater ? I can appreciate that irregular banging amd clonking will chase fish but the steady growl of motors and propellors ?

I saw a nice platform today. Almost 4m long and 1,5m wide Waverunner a Yamaha SUV 135 hp. 94l fuel tank. Up to 4 seater. Should be able to field two or three spearo's off that quite nicely.

skin.
 
We were using the yaks for some inshore fishing more than chasing big fish. In that application we could get right up on tailing redfish (you knew you were right on em cause their tails were out of the water) without spooking them and cast right on them.

I think the guys in cali have had a lot of luck using yaks as platforms as well. When your manouvering in a kelp bed I would imagine a yak would be less likely to get caught up in the weeds? Plus their portable, (sits on the roof of my wrx), easy to maintain and cheaper than the motor on a decent boat.

At any rate i'm sure different conditions / fish require different approaches, individual milleage may vary...
 
I have seen guys in south england using the little one seater jet ski's to spear from, gun attached on sides, fully kitted up with fins under the seat. not sure how practical they are but people do use them. I have a 2 seater malibu sit on top kayak, its great with a few mods for dive purposes.. easy to paddle alone or with two and easy to launch etc. only down side is having two fully kitted spearo's makes it sit low in the water which can be hard work in anything but flat seas.. oh and paddling in a 2 piece 5mm suit has its own problems!!
 
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