Oldschool Spearfishing

[Amphibious]

or Spearfishing on the cheap! Went out spearfishing yesterday. As I;m currently working in saudi arabia my equipment selection is very slim. I have an OLD 2 prong polespear, a flimsy peice of crap, and some very very old Cressi gara fins. below is an hour's work in some nasty water. 88F water temp, 6ft deep and about 6ft of viz. hardly ideal, but these are my childhood spearing grounds and going back to using a cheap polespear again brought back many memories....

 

[Memo]

Brilliant catch willer! cant imagine what you can land with proper gear!

 

[Murat]

good old memories

 

[Adrian]

Not bad! Is that a sargo with a yellow tail? Can you tell us the names of the fish?

 

[Amphibious]

English/Arabic Names:

Small silver fish: "Gargofawn"
Black Banded Sea Bream: "Fasker"
Grouper: "Hamour"
Indian Flathead: ????

these are the usuall take for this reef. sometimes I'll just shoot Gargofawn all day, as there are 1000's there, they are very fast moving and they are great for target practice (quite nice table fare too). the viz was so bad I had to stick to whatever I could find under the rocks. The flathead was feeding on gargofawn in the sandflats between the reefs and I happened to get lucky and see his outline in the sand.

 

[Amphibious]

went out again a couple days ago, same kit, smae place, but the viz was quite a bit better.

 

[Oldsarge]

I'm jealous.

 

[tamoshee]

Excellent work Amphibious.
I'm particularly interested in the Grouper....... Does anone know the exact species?
This is one of the fish I spear on a semi-regular basis and Ive never been able to identify it definitvely...... My guess Epinephelus Malabaricus..?

Respect for the old-school approach!

 

[Shadowkiller]

This is one of the fish I spear on a semi-regular basis and Ive never been able to identify it definitvely...... My guess Epinephelus Malabaricus..?
!

Epinephelus coioides is my guess. Found in the Indo-Pacific. Also known as the Orange-spotted groper and Hamour maamooli.

Where exactly were these fish caught? Somewhere where they speak Arabic right? I finished working on E. coides and fuscogattus specimens on friday. We had over 200 of the little guys, all 2-3cm long, from a fish farm in Thailand! So very cute, so very dead, after swimming in formaldehyde... :hmm

oh, the malabar groper isn't found in the Red Sea.

 

[Amphibious]

Hamour is the Arabic name. although they call all the grouper species (all brown ones) in the gulf Hamour. I belive there are 3 species of large dark/brown grouper here. this one being the smallest.

 

[Alison]

Excellent work Amphibious.

Respect for the old-school approach!

I think we should all give it a go sometime! Really we could all learn something, even if it that it is easier with a gun

 

[tamoshee]

A picture of one of mine (and me) ..... I'm certain its the same species, this one 7.9kg, caught 3 -4 km up river from the sea, but in saline water, at about 6.0 metres depth, fast flowing water, India, April 10th, 2004.

 

[Amphibious]

VERY NICE!!!! I've shot them that big, but not often! wow! around here we rearly see them over 10kgs (in the deeper water) and off my beach a 4kg is very nice. I took this one from the same area in 1999, so far it;s the record for that reef (6kgs)

 

[Amphibious]

I think we should all give it a go sometime! Really we could all learn something, even if it that it is easier with a gun

Exactly how I feel, every now and then go back to the simple stuff, lets you work on the basics. even a small fish on a pole spear requires propper stalking and excellent shot placement to end up on the dinner table.

pole spears are just way to much fun too

 

[Shadowkiller]

Not suprised you get them up rivers, here in OZ we call them Estuary Cod. They are protected here in NSW (but not in QLD), so even if they made it this far south I'd only snap pics. Good to eat but!

Aus record is 198kg...

 

[tamoshee]

Hey Amphibious, we've got some way to go if we want to break the Australian record ..... 198Kg, if you ever manage to break this record, with your pole-spear, the drinks are on me !!!

Good luck,happy hunting

 

[Amphibious]

well then! if there is beer on the line!!!!!

I will have a look

 

[mishu1984]

3ashaw!! nice fish!
mumtaz!

hamour re usually 3 different species under the same name; orange-spotted grouper, brown-spotted grouper, and i forget the third. you can read all about it in fishbase.org

 

[anton]

Amphib,
They grow a bit bigger here. This one was taken in April by a friend in about 8 meters of water near shore in this region... 19KG He hit it but took > 10 trips to the surface to get it loose since it wedged itself in a cave right as he was hitting it.

 

[Amphibious]

Very nice! we have 100's off the beach - but I rarely see any over 2kgs. 2m deep and 34C water doesn't make for big fish. that would make one helluva BBQ! MMmm I was down near the border with Qatar couple weeks ago, should have turned left and kept on going never been...yet