I went for a night dive last night to the usual spot. Got there at 10pm and it was still a bit too light, so I unpacked the gear and looked at the view for a while til it got darker. It was the second time out with the polespear, so I had to adjust the technique of loading it with a torch on the other hand. Not easy.
Normal practice is to dive down, cock the spear, wait, shoot fish, then surface.
At night I found it to go something like this:
Cocking the spear underwater, it makes noise as it slides against the torch handle thats on the opposite hand, so now:-
Cock spear on the surface, dive down, find fish and get CLOSE.
It does however, play havoc with your grip strength after a couple of hours.
After a few missed shots, I finally nailed a Pollock, and boy, did he know about it! It just stopped him dead in the water, and you could hear the "whack" when it hit. The weight of the polespear really walloped him.
After that it was pitch black and time to hunt for flatties. I stabbed the first flounder with the pole. The second was a bit skittish, so I shot at him, and "whack", on the spear. Bloody thing is devestating! After getting two more flounders, I headed in, and seeing two eyes sticking out of the sand went to investigate. First Turbot of the year was on the stringer.
Not a bad result for the second time out with the pole. Its still really hard work, mostly holding the pole cocked and stalking fish. I didn't miss the gun at all, in fact I got three shots off during one breathhold. Not having to reload a spear, pull back rubbers and re-rig line was three things less to worry about at night.
