Best pole spear length for lion fish

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They all look the same to me, but my 42" lion buster was only $30 on sale at a local dive shop. $35 on this random website here: Lion Buster Polespear
The points are all sharp as frig. Fiberglass pole, stainless bits. Made in the USA.
 

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There is a BIG difference in LF hunting just casually if you see one and than LF hunting because it's a tournament, etc
If you are just starting out, then get a 2.5ft butt to tip, with a 6 inch 3 pronger. It's easy to carry underwater, easy to reboard the boat ladder and easy to giant stride/back roll off the boat and the short length won't get in the way. You can one online ~$30 from Florida Scuba divers at POLESPEAR PARALYZER

As you get more experience, and enter a tournament you should move up to a 42 inch pole with 12 inch 3 pronger. The reason why is because when you do the tournament, you've probably done alot of research and are only going to a handful of divesites that are only loaded with lionfish and you really won't move more that 30 feet from where you hit the sand. In this case it will be 10-30 lions clustered together. You will waste so much time and gas if you just shoot the lions, one by one and bag them individually. Typically I will shoot one, keep it on the spear, shoot 2-3 more stacked on the spear and finally put all 3-5 LF's into my zookeeper all at once. You also will be diving with 2 zookeepers each dive and typically float one up when it gets full and start filling the 2nd one till out of gas.

Just like dive equipment, don't try to force your equipment to do things it's not best at doing. You don't use a putter to hit a golf ball off the tee and you don't use a driver to putt on the green (even though both would work). Take the right gear down for the dive you are about to do.

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John,

My gosh many thanks for the detailed reply. Exactly the detailed information I was looking for! I don't see myself getting into a tournament, though it sounds like a lot of fun! Maybe one day when I'm on vacation diving and they're running a tournament I'll join in. I just want to do my part when I'm diving and take out the ones I see. I always see them, though I've never seen a big cluster like I see in the video's.

One question and since I've never gone after one with a spear when recreational diving and you spear a lion fish, do you have to collect and remove it, or can you let it lay where you speared it?

Thanks,

Jeff
 
, or can you let it lay where you speared it?...
In tournaments it goes by quantity so even the tiny ones get turned in for counts. But for eating and selling purposes, generally it must be 5 inches mouth to tail. You wouldn't want to waste time cutting a filet off anything smaller than that, and if you bring them back to the dock, guarenteed someone will take them from you to eat if you don't want to filet them. Most deck hands will probably fillet them all for free for you if you give them half your catch in return since they taste so good.

But if an LF is under 5 inches, I will still harvest it. Where I dive (Jupiter) it's pretty sharky so I don't drop them and feed them. I bring the small ones back to the dock, chop them in half and toss them to the waiting brim fish and crabs. I know some people kill LF's and leave them on the reef, nothing illegal about doing it. Its just not my preference to encourage a free meal to the tax man (and the tax man is always there, even if you can't see him)
 
In tournaments it goes by quantity so even the tiny ones get turned in for counts. But for eating and selling purposes, generally it must be 5 inches mouth to tail. You wouldn't want to waste time cutting a filet off anything smaller than that, and if you bring them back to the dock, guarenteed someone will take them from you to eat if you don't want to filet them. Most deck hands will probably fillet them all for free for you if you give them half your catch in return since they taste so good.

But if an LF is under 5 inches, I will still harvest it. Where I dive (Jupiter) it's pretty sharky so I don't drop them and feed them. I bring the small ones back to the dock, chop them in half and toss them to the waiting brim fish and crabs. I know some people kill LF's and leave them on the reef, nothing illegal about doing it. Its just not my preference to encourage a free meal to the tax man (and the tax man is always there, even if you can't see him)

Many thanks, I do a few shark dives out of Jupiter each year! I have one scheduled for June and Aug if this virus will run it's course and things get back to normal. My all time passion is diving with sharks, just love to be in the water with them. I never see LF when shark diving, but do on my reef dives.

Thanks again
 
I have a used zookeeper for sale if anyone is interested
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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