First spearfishing trip 4-20-8

[diver918]

Sunday 6 of us went out with Capt. K out of Carrabelle, FL (Carrabelle Charters | Carrabelle Fishing |Carrabelle Deep Sea Fishing) for a 3-tank dive. 4 of the 6 were going to be spear fishing while the other 2 just wanted to do some recreational diving. This was an opportunity for me to try out all the new gear I had just picked up so I was pretty excited about not having to rent anything but the wetsuit.

1st dive- I overinflated my BC and not being used to having a back flotation got my head pinned into the water right away...adjusted that pretty quick. Got to the bottom ~55' and followed a ledge where I shot my first fish. Nothing to brag about just a sheepshead. Had a little trouble pulling the shaft out of the fish and ended up being tied up with the line that ran to the gun. Got the fish on the stringer and kept following the ledge, vis was about 20' but we didn't shoot anything else.

2nd dive- A LDS gave us a random mix of tanks. We had some steel 120s, alum 80s, low-pressure steels (?), which made figuring out my weight a little difficult. My buddy shot an AJ towards the end of our dive, we were about 68’ below surface and I had about 850psi left in my tank. The AJ did not go down easily…actually it didn’t go down at all. He shot it and the school started spinning in circles over our heads. I thought the line tied to the gun was going to end up hurting one of us so I grabbed it and was helping my buddy pull it in, grabbed my knife to either cut the fish or the string and then the AJ broke himself off the shaft. Looked down at my gages and I was down to less than 400 and we were still over 60’. Gave my buddy the up signal and we didn’t bother looking for the anchor line just started to ascend right there. When we got to about 20’ I was sucking pretty hard out of my regulator so we buddy breathed at the safety stop. Those were a LONG 3 minutes! Trying to hold on to my buddy’s BC, my speargun, stringer, and adjust the air in my BC because I was overweighed gives you a lot to focus on! When the 3 minute timer beeped we ascended to the surface and were only 15-20 meters from the boat. Bit of a scary experience, but I think we both handled it well and it helped that we had covered that scenario topside during our planning of the dive.

3rd dive- Got down to about 70’ visibility was about 40’. We were the last ones in the water since my buddy was feeling a little seasick, so when we got down everything had been kicked up pretty good. Shot a snapper at the bottom after my buddy missed it. No problems getting to the surface this time, only that we came up pretty far from the boat.

Overall, the dive was a great time. Capt. K has a great setup and was cool about not rushing anyone into the water. Definitely see us using him in the future, and he’s supposed to have his compressor setup pretty soon, so no need to drag 15 tanks from Tallahassee.

Here are some pics. Not many since it was my first time taking the casing underwater and I was making sure it was sealing properly before putting the camera in it.

Nikon | my Picturetown


I'm using picturetown because our new camera uploads them automatically to the site when you plug it in to charge. Pretty sweet setup.

 

[shoupart]

very cool account of your adventure!

how did the fish taste?

I'm impressed you tackled so much as a relatively new diver! One of my instructors was a spearfisher and told me I needed to be proficient w/ my gear and skills before I attempted hunting, and I soon learned why.

I'm curious what lessons and tips and techniques you picked up from your first time out- any reflections you'd like to share with the rest of us?

 

[Zoomer]

Sounds to me like you had fun and learned something new.... just a quick observance/question...

Shouldn't you have done those dives in reverse order? deepest to shallowest rather than, 55' , 68' and 70'

 

[Papa Steve]

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you had a good time and learned a lot. I'm looking forward to doing some spear fishing myself. My opportunities will be out in the Gulf off of oil rigs in 200+ feet of water so I plan on getting a few more dives under my belt before I take on the task loading of spear fishing in blue water.
How much do you think diving with all the different types of tanks (apparantly for the first time ??) added to the mix.
Also, just curious, when you say you buddy breathed at your safety stop, were you sharing primary's with your buddy or using his octo?

 

[diver918]

very cool account of your adventure!

how did the fish taste?

I'm impressed you tackled so much as a relatively new diver! One of my instructors was a spearfisher and told me I needed to be proficient w/ my gear and skills before I attempted hunting, and I soon learned why.

I'm curious what lessons and tips and techniques you picked up from your first time out- any reflections you'd like to share with the rest of us?

Fishes were great...too bad I didnt have enough to make more than a sandwich.

I think I would have held back from spearfishing for a few more dives. It was a lot of fun but the excitement was part of the reason I ran out of air. My buddy and I decied topside that we would stay together even after shooting a fish. It was my first time spearfishing and I didn't mind missing out on a few fish.

Not really in a position to give out tips/techniques since I only shot 2 fish, but I would say be real familiar with your gear before taking on any kind of underwater activity.

 

[diver918]

How much do you think diving with all the different types of tanks (apparantly for the first time ??) added to the mix.
Also, just curious, when you say you buddy breathed at your safety stop, were you sharing primary's with your buddy or using his octo?

As far as the tanks, it really through me off. Not so much the different amount of air in them but more the different weights. I wasn't sure what my weight was going to be and I had to keep adjusting it on every dive since i would end up with a different tank.

I may have misstated when I said buddy-breathing. I was using his primary and he was using his octo. He has an in-line octos which some people may not be familiar with, but like I said, we covered everything topside so I was familiar with his gear as he was with mine.

I enjoyed it, and look forward to doing it again. Our LDS has a spearfishing class they offer where they review 'techniques and tips' so I may sign up for one just to meet some of the local folks that also take part in the sport.

 

[diver918]

Sounds to me like you had fun and learned something new.... just a quick observance/question...

Shouldn't you have done those dives in reverse order? deepest to shallowest rather than, 55' , 68' and 70'

Yeah, our original plan was to do them from deepest to shallowest, but when we came across the 55' ledge there were no fisherman in sight and the Capt. thought we would run into a large group of fish. Apparently, it's a pretty hot spot.

The 2nd and 3rd dives were pretty close in depth but our sit interval prior to the 3rd was a bit longer since one of our divers was feeling sick. I was limited by the amount of air not so much by the tables/comp.

 

[Seraphimx]

Wow... Spearfishing with tanks on your back is illegal in some countries. That's an amazing trip. I hope to pick up freediving fishing here in Québec. But I need to learn all the regulation. Most fishes that you CAN spearhunt in Québec are found in shallow regions, so it would be dumb to scuba dive. But in the ocean with the gear....I better train hard master...young padawan needs to learn the basics of the scubaforce to understand spearfishing. I've seen the pics but they are kinda small on the Nikon website.

How big where the catches?
You said just 1 sandwich?

 

[diver918]

Wow... Spearfishing with tanks on your back is illegal in some countries. That's an amazing trip. I hope to pick up freediving fishing here in Québec. But I need to learn all the regulation. Most fishes that you CAN spearhunt in Québec are found in shallow regions, so it would be dumb to scuba dive. But in the ocean with the gear....I better train hard master...young padawan needs to learn the basics of the scubaforce to understand spearfishing. I've seen the pics but they are kinda small on the Nikon website.

How big where the catches?
You said just 1 sandwich?

One of the guys caught some decent size fish...all were legal size obviously. I think the largest was a grouper but I can't recall the length.

 

[Seraphimx]

Well groupers are big enough to make 2 sandwich ...or maybe a huge one. its cool you shared pictures with us. I really like it.

I've been reading about spearfishing regulations here and one phrase struck me

translated from french " Must spearfish futher than 500m from a delta or the mouth of the river" in french (further) and (below) is pretty much the same (au decas) et (au dessous) so I was like WHAT! 1500 feet deep, crazy bastards its impossible. Note* I realized 5 sec later that it was my mistake.

What kind of gun did you use?
Is there a difference between pneumatic and slingshot ?