Spearfishing at Kafkanas island in Greece

[AndrianBLUE]

Hi guys.
Here is another video of my spearfishing adventures!
Kafkanas is a very small island in Greece. It is located in near Chalkidiki.
We captured a few grey mullets and we had a great day!
Unfortunately I lost the chance to capture footage of a huge stingray that approached me because I run out of battery...
I hope I have the chance another time.


Dive Safe!

 

[baliste]

OK OK..
ne bouge pas la tête quand tu tournes ... c'est mauvais

et vous faites la pêche sous-marine avec un fusil à éléphant !!! juste pour les mulets ou des sparidés !!! vous attendiez du thon avec 5 mètres d'eau ???

but nice view with clear water...

 

[AndrianBLUE]

I do not speak this language (French?) my friend.

 

[baliste]

I do not speak this language (French?) my friend.

Sorry my Dear, (my english language is low !!)

OK OK ..
don't move your head when you turn ... it's bad ! pictures are jumping each second

and you are fishing with an elephant gun !!! NO ?? and I'm looking just for mulets or sparidae !!! you expected tuna with 5 meters of deepth ???

but very nice view with this clear water ...
Sincerely
Good Luck

 

[baliste]

Sorry my Dear, (my english language is low !!)

OK OK ..
don't move your head when you are filming ... it's bad ! pictures are jumping each second

And you are fishing with an elephant gun !!! NO ?? I'm looking just for some mulets or sparidae !!! you expected tuna with 5 meters of deepth ???

but very nice view and shoot with this clear water ...
Sincerely
Good Luck

 

[AndrianBLUE]

Sorry my Dear, (my english language is low !!)

OK OK ..
don't move your head when you turn ... it's bad ! pictures are jumping each second

and you are fishing with an elephant gun !!! NO ?? and I'm looking just for mulets or sparidae !!! you expected tuna with 5 meters of deepth ???

but very nice view with this clear water ...
Sincerely
Good Luck

Ok
I move my head around because fish can come from any direction so I need to check around.
I wouldn't consider it an elephant gun. It is an invert roller with 100cm load length, 7mm 1.3m shaft and 3x18mm bands. I spearfish up to 20m deep mainly with ambush technique and here in Greece fish are very suspicious and don't come close easily so a lot of times the shots will be long so I use this gun to have a little longer range. Tunas are forbidden here in Greece but if I was gonna hunt tunas I would definitely hold a bigger gun.

 

[Leander]

here in Greece fish are very suspicious and don't come close easily so a lot of times the shots will be long

Fish notice when they get in your range the same way as you can sense whether that street dog has good or bad intentions. I notice when I swim around with my puny little lionfish spear that everything comes close to me, while when I'm wielding the speargun, everything stays far away from me. In both situations they stay just outside my range.

 

[DiveHacker]

The suspicious fish sentiments are very interesting.

Forget fish "learning". That does not happen. What happens is, and this makes all the sense in the world and corroborates people'e reports, is heavily fished areas quickly get populated with fish that are very wary because they are the only ones that survive... kinda like dogs in India that understand cars will kill them.

So, fish staying just out of range would be a behavior trait that was selected for based on all the fishing. If, for whatever reason, you are a fish and you prefer to stay 5 or 6 meters from the hairless apes, you will be one of the few to pass on your fish genes and make more wary offspring.

When people go much deeper than average, they generally report the fish to be less wary. Makes perfect sense, as it is a more "natural" population of wary and not so wary fish. People often attribute this to the fish not being accustomed to divers (they have not learned), but that is not why they behave that way. I go off subject easy on interesting topics.

 

[Leander]

Of course. Same for the bigger fish as their cautiousness is what kept them alive.

But I notice the difference, with the same fish, even during the same dive. The moment I put my speargun to the float the whole situation down there becomes more relaxed. Fish have all those sensors for a reason. You might still not be able to cuddle a mormally very skittish fish, but in my experience the difference is huge.
But here's the thing. If your showed intention is a false one and you're not a good actor, then your eyes, heartbeat and tensing movement when the fish comes close will still spook them. This has nothing to do with learning, and all to do with a very basic threat assessment, which every animal does.

As for learning... There were a few lionfish that got off my pole spear and then became really hard to hunt. One I even had to properly ambush. If that's not learning behaviour then what is? With lionfish I noticed this more than with other fish, because if you miss a normal fish it will run away and never come back. Lionfish otoh are extremely territorial. Even an attack that did damage to them doesn't make them leave the area.

 

[AndrianBLUE]

The suspicious fish sentiments are very interesting.

Forget fish "learning". That does not happen. What happens is, and this makes all the sense in the world and corroborates people'e reports, is heavily fished areas quickly get populated with fish that are very wary because they are the only ones that survive... kinda like dogs in India that understand cars will kill them.

So, fish staying just out of range would be a behavior trait that was selected for based on all the fishing. If, for whatever reason, you are a fish and you prefer to stay 5 or 6 meters from the hairless apes, you will be one of the few to pass on your fish genes and make more wary offspring.

When people go much deeper than average, they generally report the fish to be less wary. Makes perfect sense, as it is a more "natural" population of wary and not so wary fish. People often attribute this to the fish not being accustomed to divers (they have not learned), but that is not why they behave that way. I go off subject easy on interesting topics.

Yes I totally agree.
Our areas are heavily fished so the less afraid fish are caught very easily. The ones that survive are the more suspicious. If you don't spearfish in heavily fished areas I think it is hard to understand. I have had spearfishing days that I didn't shoot even once for like 4-5 hours in the water.

 

[Leander]

Yes I totally agree.
Our areas are heavily fished so the less afraid fish are caught very easily. The ones that survive are the more suspicious. If you don't spearfish in heavily fished areas I think it is hard to understand. I have had spearfishing days that I didn't shoot even once for like 4-5 hours in the water.

South crete is one of the most overfished areas of the Med; the fish are really cautious here. But that just sets a base, it doesn't mean that your behavious doesn't influence the fish. You never had fish sneak up on you while you were doing something else?

 

[AndrianBLUE]

South crete is one of the most overfished areas of the Med; the fish are really cautious here. But that just sets a base, it doesn't mean that your behavious doesn't influence the fish. You never had fish sneak up on you while you were doing something else?

I have come for holiday in Crete last year. I saw considerably more fish than I have seen in the areas in Chalkidiki that I spearfish. I was in the north side of the Crete though. I have no idea what south side is like.
I had those fish sneak up on me last year!!!!


I still dream about that moment!

 

[Leander]

Oh man that's beautiful!
I had such a moment a few months ago, but I didn't have my gun with me. Never happened again since then.

Chalkidiki is probably more fished than Crete indeed, being so close to a major city. Here on South Crete the advantage/disadvantage is that the villages are far in-between, and there's no road going directly along the coast. With people being lazy this means that all the areas accessible by car are without any fish, but if you're willing to swim/boat/hike for a few kilometres then you can find places with relatively lots of fish. Here at Komos, which is accessible by car, there's not even a parrotfish to be found anymore and we're not even 2/3s through the holiday season.

 

[AndrianBLUE]

Yeah... Same thing here. It is hard to find fish in accessible areas in Chalkidiki. If you have a boat I believe you can find places with more fish. At least the most guys I know that regularly catch worthy fish around here, have boats. I plan to get a boat some time in the future, maybe in a couple of years!

 

[Leander]

Good plan, you get a boat and I come visit!
I'm jealous on those liveaboard sailboats, but when I see how much time and money goes into maintenance then I'm quite happy with my bicycle! It's still a beautiful dream though...

 

[AndrianBLUE]

When you visit we go hunt suspicious fish together!!