Earned a Lionfish Badge at Evans Crary in Stuart

[scubafool]

Is this still an issue with the model or has it been resolved? Or is it due to not screwing it on tight enough?

The Jenny's are known for not being wound too tight, or having several screws loose.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

U 2 man...

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Hit Black Rock off West Palm today and had myself a little kill streak - I wasn't counting, but someone looked in the cooler afterwards and said she saw 8 (plus one tiny little bastard a few inches long that I managed to skewer right through the brainpan with the paralyzer tip). Some were BUFFs (Big Ugly Fat F***ers); I forgot to bring a cooler with me and given that I had a while before I was going to get to Miami I added those to my crew tip. Van, Bryan, Finch, and Carrie of the Narcosis were stellar as usual.

One of the services performed was digging out a heat pack for me; while I was jamming one particularly bloated specimen into my homebrew zookeeper (whilst grunting "Get in there, you fat f***!" - sadly I did not get this audio gem recorded for posterity) I took three dorsal spines in the forearm. Pain wasn't too bad; I proceeded with the dive and racking up the kills. It got a little worse on the way up; we had a bit of a thermocline and it's possible the area was a little numbed on the bottom. Still wasn't too bad, but the heat pack took the edge off and by the second dive it was down to a nagging little ache.

 

[MrChen]

Glad to hear the hit wasn't that bad. You'll be aching for a few weeks. I replayed my incident through my mind over and over. I've yet to spear another LF, though I did try 2 weeks ago unsuccessfully.

How was your forearm in harms way?

I purchased the limited edition clear version of the zk and I mainly did that because it has a handle mounted on it. I'm hoping this will make it safer.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Glad to hear the hit wasn't that bad. You'll be aching for a few weeks. I replayed my incident through my mind over and over. I've yet to spear another LF, though I did try 2 weeks ago unsuccessfully.

How was your forearm in harms way?

I purchased the limited edition clear version of the zk and I mainly did that because it has a handle mounted on it. I'm hoping this will make it safer.

Basically what happened was I got one too big to fit down the cone (should slit it a bit farther up) and was packing him in there like a Looney Tunes character loading a musket - I was on my knees with the zookeeper sitting vertical and using the short spear like a plunger to shove the lionfish down. I had my hands at about head level and elbows angled out, and one shove drew my arms in to where the dorsal spines got me in the underside of the forearm about halfway between my wrist and elbow. Finally got him stuffed in there although I think I ripped a chunk of his back off in the process. My arm still feels a bit bruised now, but I wouldn't know it unless I applied pressure to the spot.

 

[MrChen]

Dude, that's a crappy way to get hit. Luckily it was a mild hit. My ring finger which was pretty much fine the next day was sore for a few weeks, but I had no problems using it.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

$100 bucks?! What's wrong with a Home Depot or Lowe's bucket with holes drilled in it and a strap across the lid?

 

[HalcyonDaze]

$100 bucks?! What's wrong with a Home Depot or Lowe's bucket with holes drilled in it and a strap across the lid?

I've never tried that; my main concern would be that I do most of my diving up in the West Palm Beach/Jupiter area which is almost entirely drift dives. Having a 5-gallon bucket hanging down off my hip seems like it would be a drag issue. My homemade zookeeper is pretty heavy, but it's 6 inches in diameter and I have it clipped off like a stage bottle. The extra drag is noticeable but not too bad.

I probably could have built mine for cheaper than I did (and less weight), but when I got started I was paranoid about being stung and basically built the thing as if the lionfish had armor-piercing weaponry. The PVC sewer pipe I used is probably at least 3x the thickness of the ones you'd pick up in the store, the endcap is practically bomb-proof (usually I need a set of channel locks to get it off), and I have a PVC T-joint glued over the drain holes so a spine can't poke through. There were also a few parts I bought (like a second endcap to go over the front) that I removed after a couple of trial dives.

 

[MrChen]

I considered the bucket as well, but it's just too big if you ask me.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I'm sure you guys are right and it sounds like you got it figured out...