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My return to spearfishing.

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.

Bill McIntyre

San Clemente, CA
Staff member
Forum Mentor
Jan 27, 2005
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I've been out 6 months with surgery on both shoulders, but I had a very fortunate comeback this week.

I hope its not disrespectful to cross post, but I'd hate to have to start over.

[ame="http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=45591"]Jeff's hail Mary gut shot kills 65 pound gravid female - Spearboard Spearfishing Community[/ame]
 
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Splendid. I'm quite sure it's bigger than the biggest I've ever caught. But, hmm, how can I say....I'm still young! ;-)
Forgive my ignorance, what species is that fish?
 
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Splendid. I'm quite sure it's bigger than the biggest I've ever caught. But, hmm, how can I say....I'm still young! ;-)
Forgive my ignorance, what species is that fish?

Those are white sea bass, a member of the croaker family.

I do recommend scanning the entire thread just to see the various photographs, but if you want to get to the story, I finally told it in post #84 on page #6.
 
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Below it's a copy-paste from Bill's story I was impressed by: shows me that we european spearos have a lot to learn from americans. Slip tip, co2 cylinders, the spare float on your belt are all things that we don't use over here. I can tell that most of my buddies, friends and clubmates have never heard about those things.
From Bill's story:
<<Finally the fish seemed to have tied up. I was praying that it wasn't on the bottom, which was probably at 50 to 60 feet, because after 5 months out of the water, I am hardly in shape to be down there in low vis trying to deal with it, but at least I knew there was always Willie for a backup. I kept tension on the line and dove to cut some kelp a couple of times until it seemed that I was finally straight over the fish. I put on some pressure and got some line back until it finally came to a halt. I took my Riffe double popper float off my belt and orally inflated it to attach to the reel line and keep tension on while I dove. I could have used one of the CO2 cylinders, but I wanted to save them in case I ended up having to dive and put the float on the slip tip cable to help me get the fish out.

About that time, Jeff had jumped into the water and showed up to help, so I felt a lot more secure. He held the line at the surface while I tried to calm down and breath up. When I dove, I was delighted to find that the fish was not all that deep, and I was able to brain it and bring it up all in one dive. I attached the float to the slip tip cable, then detached the shooting line from the reel line, and Jeff went off and found the gun and reeled the line back on before we set out for the boat. I sure was glad I had given myself that pep talk and gone back in the water for that last try.
>>
 
Bill,

Congratulations. I see now that I have no excuse for not diving since last summer.

Some great fishing results lately in the area. The closest I've ever gotten to WSB is John H's freezer.

Jim
 
i wish you good and fast recovery bill, and i didnot mean to upset you about my <marketing victim article> everybody has his opinions,ideas, good and bad experience. but i am not tring to be speargun seller . i drive transport truck and the spearfishing is my hobby the last 24 years to the point ... no more than that
 
Below it's a copy-paste from Bill's story I was impressed by: shows me that we european spearos have a lot to learn from americans. Slip tip, co2 cylinders, the spare float on your belt are all things that we don't use over here. I can tell that most of my buddies, friends and clubmates have never heard about those things.

The float use may be more specific to our thick kelp, and not all that useful to you guys in the Med, but I have had a lot of use for it here.

Our white sea bass go wrap the line up in the kelp, often in poor visibility. We have to dive down and cut kelp to bring the fish up, and often its quite involved and laborious. If a fish is at my depth limit, its very difficult to be working down there, severely negatively buoyant in a thick wetsuit. The float I use has two 16 gram CO2 cartridges so that it can inflate at depth, and a vent valve that lets the expanding excess gas escape as it ascends.

Often I can brain the fish, detach the shooting line from the reel line or float line, attach the float to the slip cable, pull both toggles, and the float will pull the shooting line out of the kelp and bring the fish to the surface. If it doesn't quite pull the shooting line through, at least it pulls the fish up until it brings the line taut, and then I can see what kelp needs to be cut to free the fish.

Of course it has other uses as mentioned in that story. I can inflate it and attach it to the gun to make it easy to find in the kelp. I can attach it to the reel line or float line to keep upward force on the line while I go down to see what is going on. And as mentioned in that story, after I get the fish up, I can attach it to the slip tip cable to float the fish at the surface while I go find my gun and reel all the line back onto the reel.

I guess I should say that its not universally used here in California, but it seem to be catching on, particularly among guys who have dived from my boat and seen it.

I like this thing so much that I should be on commission, but unfortunately I'm not.
 

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I saw your fish over on the other board and was going to comment there, but seeing as how you're here, please accept my congratulations. For many that would be cause to hang it up but knowing how we are, now you're screwed to go get a bigger one.

I had occasion to use the float last week in Baja to help with a pargo that was liking his situation. I had to clip the float to the shooting wire, detach the gun/reel and go back to the boat for a tank. The float held the wire taught, made the line easy to work with as it was held taut and once free, made the reurn trip pretty smooth. I hope to have an opportunity to do the same a couple times in June down your way.
 
Magnificant fish Bill. Hope your shoulders are healing (look ok in the photo!) -- did you tear your rotator cuffs hauling the huge fish around? That float system really is pretty fancy. Did you design it yourself or buy it?
 
Magnificant fish Bill. Hope your shoulders are healing (look ok in the photo!) -- did you tear your rotator cuffs hauling the huge fish around? That float system really is pretty fancy. Did you design it yourself or buy it?

I'm not quite sure how my shoulders got the way they were, but the therapist thinks a lifetime of heavy weight lifting probably contributed. Both had big bone spurs impinging on the rotator cuffs and one had the biceps tendon hanging on by a few threads of scar tissue, so it had to be cut back and attached to a titanium anchor in the head of my humerus.

That photo is deceiving in that I'm leaning way back and sliding the fish up my body. The shoulders are no where close to being able to hold that fish up yet. I even had my buddies cocking the gun and helping get the weight belt on.

The float is made by Riffe. His normal utility float sold in dive shops has just one 16 gram CO2 cylinder, which will fully inflate it only if you are on the surface. This one adds a second cylinder and a relief valve to vent off the excess gas as it ascends.

I bought it a few years ago, but since then Carter Lift Bags has come out with a similar product

http://www.carterbag.com/spearfish.html

that is cheaper and has more lift- 38 grams vs. 32 grams for the Riffe)

It doesn't have a clip, but its easy and cheap to add one.
 
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