Speargun for a teenager?

[dumpsterDiver]

I usually have the gun loaded at the surface (or before) and I always carry the gun loaded to the surface. The gun needs to be loaded on the descent to alllow a quick shot. It is good practice to have a loaded gun on ascent if you have fish with you (and there might be sharks around).

Swimming around with an unloaded gun will definitely degrade your performance. Plus who wants to try to hurriedly load a gun while a fish swims in front of you?

 

[Rick Murchison]

I usually have the gun loaded at the surface (or before) and I always carry the gun loaded to the surface. The gun needs to be loaded on the descent to alllow a quick shot. It is good practice to have a loaded gun on ascent if you have fish with you (and there might be sharks around).

Swimming around with an unloaded gun will definitely degrade your performance. Plus who wants to try to hurriedly load a gun while a fish swims in front of you?

Bet you like those "brush shots" while deer hunting too, eh? Especially at night...
Rick

 

[CBulla]

Interesting - there is a conflict in the way the FL law is written. Thats actually amusing

Re the loaded weapon on descent - I have made practice of setting the bands early after the coaching of some fairly experienced spearo's sharing with me some basic tricks. That has come back to be a friend in that when my bands broke this summer I was near enough to surface and get some new ones without much hassle. It would have completely sucked to have tried to set those bands at 60' when i had the hogs lined up like cows at a trough in front of me, which I have witness to, and have those bands break.

 

[james croft]

I am not up on Florida fish regs. I do remember when Florida Marine Patrol and Florida freshwater commision merged some years back. I do know from hunting and fishing along the tidal states that the regulations pertaining to salt water and inland waters are naturally different. Often they are set by commisions or agencies and have seperate publications of their regs. I suspect Florida as well as most tidal states would have different spearfishing regs as they pertain to salt and fresh water. I am well versed in VA regs and know it is illegal to spearfish in freshwater but there is a code section to boat, water ski or spearfish on inland waters while under the influence. Always thought that was strange. FWIW, most game and fish laws look like they were written by the IRS.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

YouTube - 11 yrd old freedive hunter

here is my pre-teen spearing

 

[ReefGuy]

lol I guess I'm going to have to dig into statutes tomorrow. Maybe I'll find something difinitive there. I'm curious now. I've also got some contacts in the fwc, I'll ask around and get an answer on that.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

hmmm.. My understanding is you cannot spear fish in freshwater. Period. That was those guys mistake at Ginnie Springs who were next to us at the MegaDive. They were spearing and some spearos knew the laws.
(I heard they were caught, had to appear in court and give up the fish. The local law enforcement has a list of people who get animals that have illegally been hunted, so nothing went to waste.)

 

[Jim Lapenta]

He'll put his eye out!

 

[Rick Murchison]

To continue the hijack, it is legal to spear in fresh water in Alabama, but not "game fish" (bass, bream, crappie, walleye, etc). That leaves catfish as about the only edible legal freshwater spearing target worth taking.
Rick

 

[Hank49]

Re the loaded weapon on descent - I have made practice of setting the bands early after the coaching of some fairly experienced spearo's sharing with me some basic tricks. That has come back to be a friend in that when my bands broke this summer I was near enough to surface and get some new ones without much hassle. It would have completely sucked to have tried to set those bands at 60' when i had the hogs lined up like cows at a trough in front of me, which I have witness to, and have those bands break.

Good point. I've only had bands break on me once. All three at within 5 minutes because I was in too big of a hurry to check them on a gun I hadn't used for a few months. Lucky I had another gun on the boat. (that used shorter bands) But for me it's not so bad, like getting to 60 feet and having it happen, because I'm only free diving anyway.