What To Do If You Bite Off More Than You Can Chew?

[Blesum]

I'm a beginner. I'm a bit nervous out there especially when I make it a ways offshore into the kelp forrests in North County of San Diego, California. Deep water (for me) and can't see much. For some reason I CANNOT stop playing the Jaws theme in my head.

Today while I was crawling across the bottom of a kelp forrest in 1-6' visiblity, a seal burst through the kelp right in front of my gun and in surprise/terror I nearly squeezed the trigger. Very glad I was able to cancel out that reaction in time.

Just wondering what the best thing to do if I had indeed shot it, or a large shark? No flames please - just trying to learn the best/safest thing to do in case it ever happens. The options I can think of are:

1) Try to unclip the shooting line and let it swim away (yeah right, like I'd be able to do something like that with such a large animal) with the spear. Perhaps just cut the shooting line.

2) Let everything go, swim back ashore.

3) Hold on to the bottom and the gun and hope it tears off of the spear before your arms pop out of their sockets.

4) Let go, grab the buoy at the surface and go for a ride until:
A: Animal tires out, then try to get close to the gun to unclip/cut the shooting line
B: Animal tires out, try to put animal out of misery with knife, retrive spear, swim animal ashore/leave behind
C: Flag down passing boat and try to pull up the mess from the safety of a boat.

Other options? What's best?

-Blesum

 

[IB Boyd]

Keep your finger NEXT TO the trigger until you get used to things bursting out of the gloom. There are a lot of things at La Jolla you dont want to spear and will swim up to you including-
1) people 2) seals 3) broomtail/blacks. If you see a white seabass, chances are it will be cruising slow, and you will have plenty of time to put you finger on the trigger and aim slow and carefull. Good target ID is of paramount importance-no flame, just telling it like it is.
I had a bad experience with a sealion in mexico, you dont want to get tangled up with one AT ALL.

 

[Blesum]

Glad to see that at least somebody's willing to touch this thread. I now hunt with my finger off of the trigger.

Still wondering what the best course of action would be should somebody shoot a seal or a large shark.

Any takers?

-Blesum

 

[SpeerO]

Draw ur knife and cut the shooting line.. worst case senario!

Zane...

 

[miles]

Hiya

You won't be able to cut your shooting line, as a large seal or shark will simply rip your gun from your hands.

Seals are EXTREMELY damgerous. They love swimming with a diver and even mimicking his every move, but be warned!! When they become aggressive, they'll do more damage than a dog on land!! They have HUGE teeth and aren't afraid to use them. Should you in-advertantly shoot one, a couple of things can happen. Depending on the power of your gun, it's highly UNLIKELY that you'd penetrate far enough into the shark or seal for the barb to engage. Unless of course, you're very, very close or have a extremely powerful gun. If it doesn't penetrate deep enough, the spear will simply fall out. The shark or seal will either flee, OR, turn around and become very aggressive. Should the barb toggle, your gun will be lost.

With both seals and sharks, a jab with a sharp spear is quite sufficient to deter them. Shooting them with your speargun would be an ABSOLUTE LAST resort!!

Regards
miles

 

[SpeerO]

Ok thats scary... hehe!!

 

[IB Boyd]

Hiya

You won't be able to cut your shooting line, as a large seal or shark will simply rip your gun from your hands.

Seals are EXTREMELY damgerous. With both seals and sharks, a jab with a sharp spear is quite sufficient to deter them. Shooting them with your speargun would be an ABSOLUTE LAST resort!!

Regards
miles

I think everything miles said here is really good advice.....but hear this story out. I have hesitated to print it out before because its not a happy story, but here goes. I was diving off the Coronado Island in Mexico a couple years ago, and encounterd several very feisty sealions. they were just a nuisance at first, and I tried to ignore them, but they got increasingly more agressive, circling me charging, jaws snapping. this was getitng worriesome, so I started to head for the boat, diving en route. As I came up from the bottom on one drop, a pretty good sized one came charging up from below, jaws wide open. I put my gun (RA 120) between him and me, hoping he would vear off. He did, but he bumped the tip in so doing, as he did this, he flinched and swung his lower torso...right onto my floper/tip. This REALY SUCKED. We were both on the surface on by this point, me trying to yank my spear out, him snapping and spinning us both in a big circle of red water....then things got worse. the spear mecanism failed due to all the preasure on it. The gun fired, well,it wasnt a good ending. somehow,I avoided a bite, but the lion didnt survive the encounter. pretty crapy deal for all involved. another spearfishermen in our club had a similar encounter trying to fend one of with a sliptip equiped gun in the same area. Moral of the story...dont poke a sealion or seal. They are soft and fatty,and your spear will penitrate. It a bitter leason to learn, as I like hate to hurt anything Im not going to eat. I felt very badly about it. Punch them hit them do what you have to do to avoid a bite...but dont poke em

 

[Blesum]

Good to know! I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try to punch one of them with my fist underwater though.

-Blesum

 

[foxfish]

IB that is quite a story, you have my sympathy. It must of been awful to spear such a creature. However I am interested to know how the sea lion died, you implied the spear was in his lower torso? Did the spear kill it straight out, did it snap your line, how did the other seals react? Did you have to report this to anyone? Are sea loins a protected species? Sorry to bring back bad memories but I am as interested to know what happens as Blesum when you accidentally spear a seal?
Blesum I think you you should be cautious about meeting large creatures in bad vis but if you are nervous, perhaps you should wait for better conditions until you become more at one with the sea. Where I live a lot of spearos fish at night in arrears where sharks are known to frequent! There has never been a shark incident over here but I simply dont want to meet one in the dark, so I dont go!

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Boyd- that is an interesting story, and it must have felt shitty to have speared the sea lion. The sea lions at the Coronados must extra feisty, as I have never even been able to poke one that was after a speared fish. They always seem to be able to stay just out of range.

 

[Mullins]

I think your average speargun would have more than enough grunt to penetrate a seal or sealion. Being mammals they're probably less resilient than fish too - hit a lung and they'd be history. Likewise a major bloodvessel.

They're also a lot smarter than fish so I'd expect them to identify the problem ('hey, that bugger just shot me!!') and try to do something about it ('well, take this ya scrawny rubber-coated biped') rather than just trying desperately to swim away as fish do ('Hurts. Must flee'). Can't be a good scene when a big male sealion gets snappy...

The fur seals down here steal fish now and again, but they seldom get aggressive. Mostly just buzz you once or twice then leave you alone.

So did you fry a couple of sealion steaks up anyway, Boyd? I've heard whale meat tastes pretty average but that may just be exaggeration from those trying to stop whaling.

 

[Polystigma]

It would just be more easy and safe for everyone to just not dive areas densely populated with seals.

1. You would probably be avoiding the sharks, since they like to hang around seal and seal colonies.

2. If you shot a fish, you do not have to worry about the seal stealing it.

3. No worrying about you injuring the seal or it injuring you.

 

[foxfish]

I thought we might of lost you Poly, how is your fishing going?
I guess the ansaw is seals, sharks etc frequent the areas that hold the same fish we want!

 

[Polystigma]

I thought we might of lost you Poly, how is your fishing going?
I guess the ansaw is seals, sharks etc frequent the areas that hold the same fish we want!

No, still alive and kickin, for now.
Spearing has been poor to decent. Shot a 10lb (weighed on my handscale) bonita last weekend and that was my best fish of the season. Did alot of diving, with very little to show for it. Need to practice more...

Not always true on the seal/fish part. There are plenty of areas where you can find alot of fish and little to no seals.