Spearfishing

[Soloist]

99% of the lionfish I've speared (50+ and counting) have been shot with a 60" speargun.

Great! Personally clipping a small poll spear to your harness while carrying a speargun seems much more practical. Lionfish are the quintessential sitting duck, so a poll spear is extremely quick, effective and easy. Not worth the possibility of damaging a spear tip on a rock or ripping through coral and sponges to me. Then you have to get the fish off the spear and reload the gun. Time and effort. Guess I’m lazy! However, if this works for you I stand corrected. Cheers.

 

[Johnoly]

99% of the lionfish I've speared (50+ and counting) have been shot with a 60" speargun.

My teammate catches his sometimes with his lobster looper and I've backhand slapped a few close ones to stun&bag them, so not much surprises me with lionfish (I've seen nets, slurpguns, J-hooks, PPD's, knives, muck sticks, & even fins used)

But just for grins,,,,2 questions :
1) On the 60" gun, are you shooting them or stabbing them ie; no trigger pull ?
2) If shooting,,,
.........A) How many bands are loaded on that 60" gun when you shoot them?
.........B) How far back from the LF are you when pulling the trigger?

 

[grey2112]

Reading this thread makes me realize

Great! Personally clipping a small poll spear to your harness while carrying a speargun seems much more practical. Lionfish are the quintessential sitting duck, so a poll spear is extremely quick, effective and easy. Not worth the possibility of damaging a spear tip on a rock or ripping through coral and sponges to me. Then you have to get the fish off the spear and reload the gun. Time and effort. Guess I’m lazy! However, if this works for you I stand corrected. Cheers.

In our area (west coast off New Port Richey in less than 100 feet of water) we rarely encounter more than 1-2 lions at a time. If we had hundreds of them like up in the Panhandle I'd carry a pole spear and Lion-tamer/Zookeeper. I used to carry a small pole spear attached to my speargun, but honestly it was a PITA and got in the way the 99% of the time I was shooting fish and not Lions.

 

[grey2112]

My teammate catches his sometimes with his lobster looper and I've backhand slapped a few close ones to stun&bag them, so not much surprises me with lionfish (I've seen nets, slurpguns, J-hooks, PPD's, knives, muck sticks, & even fins used)

But just for grins,,,,2 questions :
1) On the 60" gun, are you shooting them or stabbing them ie; no trigger pull ?
2) If shooting,,,
.........A) How many bands are loaded on that 60" gun when you shoot them?
.........B) How far back from the LF are you when pulling the trigger?

1. Shooting
2. 1 band, and about 5 feet back so my shaft comes completely out of the gun (enclosed track)

 

[Ana]

Not sure if the thread is still measuring who has the biggest one, but as a side note...

For those getting LF know that FFWC has a program going that exchanges 25 LF tales for a commemorative coin that is worth an extra lobster each day during mini-season.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Same here. No more than a handful of lion fish on any spot. So we do the same thing, at the end of the dive after we have shot and strung our fish, then I will shoot them with just one band pulled. Then I just leave them on my spear reload and shoot another.

This is better than having to carry a zookeeper with you. If there was so many lion fish on a spot a zookeeper would be useful, then I would just head back up and get it and clean them out in one dive.

Here is an old video of me spearing some lion fish and leaving them on the spear.

Lionfish shooting starts after 2:30

 

[IncreaseMyT]

I have seen people stab them though too @Johnoly with their gun. It is trickier than it looks though.

 

[CuzzA]

99% of the lionfish I've speared (50+ and counting) have been shot with a 60" speargun.

What up, buddy! I didn't know you had an account on here. Looks like you guys had a pretty good trip Monday. I'm heading out Saturday. You must have to work.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

In Hawaii, what are the invasive species?

I recently returned from Maui, Hawaii. A company takes visitors out spearfishing and targets invasive species which are competing with endemic species. We had a wonderful time learning spearfishing techniques while helping control a menace. I am not sure that spearfishing is all that destructive to sea life compared to other sport and commercial fishing activities.

(Postscript :: I have heard of cases of sharks stealing caught fish from spearfishers.)

(I also saw (on Youtube, I think) about somewhere where some of the area's sperm whales have learned to steal caught cod from fishermen's long-lines, and other sperm whales are imitating.)

 

[covediver]

In Hawaii, what are the invasive species?



(Postscript :: I have heard of cases of sharks stealing caught fish from spearfishers.)

(I also saw (on Youtube, I think) about somewhere where some of the area's sperm whales have learned to steal caught cod from fishermen's long-lines, and other sperm whales are imitating.)

Invasive species on Maui are the peacock grouper (roi), bluestripe snapper, blacktail snapper.
Please don't go after the Hawaiian lionfish, they are native to the islands.