New- Pole Spear Questions

[Nassau Hunter]

Ok, so I shoot a nice sized fish with my polespear, does he swim away with my spear? Should I let go of the thing or shoot from real close and try to keep a grip on the shaft? Should I tie something to the shaft? How do I kill the fish? And once I've got him on my stringer where do I put him?

Also I'll be swimming back 1 mile to the beach as I can't afford a boat. Will sharks harrass me with my catch?

New in Nassau... Please help!

 

[AB Diver]

Well you shouldn't let go of your pole spear unless you want to loose it. I don't know why you were thinking of letting it go? maybe getting extra range out of it? but if that pole spear gets to the point of the shaft leaving your grip it probably doesn't have the power left to kill a descent sized fish. But you won't be shooting really large fish anyway with a pole spear. It just isn't a good idea because the likelyhood of them wiggleing off the spear tip is too great. If you are hunting in around rocks and are shooting bottom dwelling fish then you might be able to shoot the fish and then grab the shaft and push down to pin them against the rock and then recover them that way. But other than that leave the BIG fish alone.

I would suggest getting a boogie board and making a stringer that attaches to it to secure your fish to. And if possible try to keep them on the top and out of the water. I don't know what kind of sharks you have there but if they are even semi agressive you won't have anything but heads left on your stringer by the time that you get to the shore.

So with that said, I kill my fish with a knife. I just cut them in the gills and it bleeds out the fish (it kills them and improves the quality of the meat) but if you have a lot of sharks in the area it may not be a good idea because you WILL get harassed. I don't know much about sharks bothering me because I have never seen one while diving! But we only have Great Whites around here and well you know what they say, "you never see the one that gets ya".

 

[Nassau Hunter]

Good ideas, thanks! I got a float that will be big enough for small fish, and to put on top of like you suggest, I was thinking of that. I think sharks will harass me because there's lots here and the operators run shark dives :duh ... my feelings on those: [ame]http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?p=545066#post545066[/ame]

So you don't think I should go for anything big? I'm a big guy it seems like I could handle a big fish... how big is too big?

 

[AB Diver]

Well I didn't say that you shouldn't go for big fish, but deffinitely don't under estimate them. They are stronger than you think and when using a pole spear you are one on one with the fish and under water I will gaurantee that a big one is stronger than you are. But he has a hole with a stick through his side so it sort of levels the playing field.

I would defineitely use a VERY SHARP aerodynamic spear tip with a plole spear to get the most penetration that you can. One of the single barb points should be sufficient. Just be sure that it is sharp and streamlined. Because with a stif pole on the end of the tip it has a better chance of working it's way out if the point didn't penetrate through the fish because you will be holding the end and there is no flexibility between you and the fish therefore when the fish jerks it will most likely rip a little bit of flesh at a time and if he does it enough it will just tear the tip out of it's body. A speargun has a rope and a bunge cord between the spear tip and the gun so it gives a little bit so when the fish jerks around, it doesn't rip the fish up it just gives and then springs back more gently. Penetration will be your biggest problem with shooting the larger fish.

GOOD LUCK! and have fun. It sounds like you will do fine.

 

[Erik]

I've never used one, but I've played with them.
If it were me, I'd make sure the spear was tied to a float line, just like my gun. Maybe tied to the bungee?
I hate losing stuff
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[Nassau Hunter]

Ok I went out this morning to check out the water. I didn't bring my spear cause the wind was blowing hard and the conditions were generally bad- for the Bahamas. I found a nice reef and swam around it but only saw a baracuda and lots of smaller stuff. Tomorrow I'll hopefully take the spear and get out to the wall.

The Seadoo VS Supercharged got me there nicely. The problem was it takes 2 hands to drive, and I've got the float line and pole spear... I'm still perfecting the setup. The idea is to leave it positively bouyant and clip it to the float when I get somewhere I like, then tie off the float to a rock and dive around there. I just don't want to trash the reef with the hook and line, so hopefully there'll be a nice dead chunk or something. I'd hate to lose my float and seadoo 1 mile out in a boated area.