Where to book for a great first spear trip?

[S. Haynie]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of booking a trip to go pole spear fishing. Nothing terribly deep but we love grouper, mahi mahi, and fish in general. We'll be leaving a 3 year old with family so we don'w want to leave teh country incase we need to get back fast.

I'm looking for destination suggestions. Probably mostly close, shallow work as I'm new to free diving. I wouldn't mind the option of hiring a guide or boat and go out for the Mahi.

Hogs, small grouper, Trigger and such would be lovely in general.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[BadaBing]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of booking a trip to go pole spear fishing. Nothing terribly deep but we love grouper, mahi mahi, and fish in general. We'll be leaving a 3 year old with family so we don'w want to leave teh country incase we need to get back fast.

I'm looking for destination suggestions. Probably mostly close, shallow work as I'm new to free diving. I wouldn't mind the option of hiring a guide or boat and go out for the Mahi.

Hogs, small grouper, Trigger and such would be lovely in general.

Thanks,
Scott

I think NC spearfishing is tough to beat. It is a fairly long boat ride out to NC grouper/hog land (20-40 miles), but because of that our fish population gets much less pressure and the fish are larger and more abundant than other parts of the country. I'm a scuba guy so I have no idea what kind of depth you are able to spear effectively in. We do have some very good spots for grouper and hogs that are in 60-70 feet of water. If you come here, best advice is to charter a boat. I'd recommend Tortuga out of Beaufort or SpearIt out of Topsail Island.

Check out spearfishingplanet.com. I have found it to be a good source of info for the whole east coast.

 

[S. Haynie]

thanks, I'm a new free diver and spearfisher. I'll be working on my skill leading up to trip time but the idea of diving 60' right now.. well I may as well buy the box and pay for the plot.

 

[Hank49]

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of booking a trip to go pole spear fishing. Nothing terribly deep but we love grouper, mahi mahi, and fish in general. We'll be leaving a 3 year old with family so we don'w want to leave teh country incase we need to get back fast.

I'm looking for destination suggestions. Probably mostly close, shallow work as I'm new to free diving. I wouldn't mind the option of hiring a guide or boat and go out for the Mahi.

Hogs, small grouper, Trigger and such would be lovely in general.

Thanks,
Scott

I don't think you'll find mahi in shallow water. They're pretty much a blue water fish. You'll find them lurking underneath floating sea grass or rubbish going for the little fish that are hiding there.
Trigger fish, at least in Belize, are more a midwater fish also. I find them along the reef drop off hanging in the incoming current.
Both of these species would be hard to get with a pole spear because you won't have a barbed tip and you won't be pinning the to the bottom. Especially the mahi.
Your goal of hogfish and grouper is doable. Both are bottom dwellers. But grouper (except for Nassaus) are pretty wary and harder to get close to. Hogfish are probably one of the dumbest fish in the sea and a good starter fish. You can spook them and actually chase along with them and still get them. They'll actually stop and turn sideways for you. Good luck. Post pictures.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

We shoot in NC too, on SCUBA. We will find good spots/wrecks in 60 feet with good game fish on them. I love grouper too, but I find that I need to get down the line and shoot right away, or they will scatter. With SCUBA, I can just lay low on the wreck and hold for a while, then they will move back in. On a freedive, and with a pole spear, you may need to act quick. Your benefit will be that you are quiet vs. my open circuit gear.

On the same wrecks, I will find flounder that I just gig with the gun. We enjoy flounder just as much as grouper. If the spot is right, we may spend the dive just looking for flounder, and get some nice legal size 'flats.'

I have also spent a week on a liveaboard around the Dry Tortugas. It's west of Key West and can only be reached by boat (or plane). It was a nice trip, and the operators were good, but it was expensive. There is plenty of game fish in 25 to 50 foot depths. No spearfishing IN the park. We had to circle the area. No problem. It's all beautiful around there.

Hank is right. You need to find the Mahi under the floating sea grass. It's a whole ecosystem in there. Normally, it's a gun shot. You won't get in to pole spear range too often. And, hogs are dumb. It is a good starter fish, and decent eating. Especially on the grill. You can find a pole spear with a flange tip. If you haven't bought your pole spear yet, try to get one that you can change the tip between the typical three prong tip and the flange tip. These models are a little more expensive, but they are good.

Good luck and good hunting.

 

[S. Haynie]

Thanks, guys.

I know some of this.

Just to let you know, there are several videos on youtube of people pole spearing Mahi. I know they are not a shallow water fish. Also the recent episode of "Spear
Gun Hunter" has several shots of their crew getting them with pole spear in open water by the South Andros Bouy.

It involves flashers, and chunking sometimes. But in most cases I,ve seen. Holding more or less still the Mahi become curious and come to investigate, where they get nailed.

I read somewhere that trigger fish are great eating and have been curious ever since. While snorkeling shallow water in the caribean there were dozzens around. I figured they were likely to be present wherever I go.

I'm a brand new diver, so I don't know how deep I'll be able to get. All the Mahi I ever saw video of getting polespeared were in real shallow water. I should say shallow in the water collumn. 3 were at the surface with snorkel clear of the water. They just came right in to investigate.

Terry Maas's book discusses them as a species that spear hunters don't normaly target because they are everywhere. They are considered a bonus. He also says that swiming slowly around the floating seaweed or some structure like a bouy with flashers, which are usualy used to attract yellowfin or someother species, will draw them in real close. They are a curious fish and will come to investigate and so long as you don't look too interested in them they get with in range.

See youtube vides search "mahi pole spear" one is by Cameron Kirkconnel, then another by a group of young guys spearing in swimsuits. They got several. They didn't chase the fish. The fish came to them in all cases.

 

[Hank49]

Thanks for the info on the pole spearing. I can't do the video because of limited bandwidth allowance on my connection. Are they using a floatline on the pole spears?
Good luck finding the mahi. I've yet to see one in the water that I didn't catch on hook and line.
Trigger fish are good to eat. There is a little trick in cleaning them. The skin is really tough so cut an edge under the skin on both sides of the dorsal fin and around underneath too. Then put your knife under the skin near the tail and start rolling it towards the head onto your knife. It comes off nicely that way.

 

[j.doe]

try some of the fresh water lakes in your area.

sometimes the smaller sun fish can be a riot. My wife and I go for yellow perch all the time, and we challenge each other to get the biggest. Bag limits are also quite good with 30 allowed between the two of us each time we go out.

Alot changes depending on if you have a boat or not.

what area do you live in?

 

[tshark]

Just a little note Spearfishing is not for new divers. Also spearfishing for Mahi Mahi is for advanced spearfishers & divers a fish is not worth your life. Please start with small fish snappers triggers sheeps head. Untill you are have more experience diving you shouldnt start spearfishing & I recommend that you take a class on spearfishing before starting. Many people make stupid mistakes & Pay the big price for it please dont be one of them. With that said I wish you luck & safe diving.

 

[S. Haynie]

I do fish the local lakes but visibility is crappy. There is like one other spearfishing in my state. There are no classes on spear fishing with out taking a trip some place. I'm a strong swimmer, I've done reef snorkeling and such I just haven't done it in a awhile and never did the "free diving" thing. Swiming to the bottom of the pool and stuff like that I've done much of.

I'm currently spearing large carp.

I miss access to the salt water. I wasn't into spear fishing then but now that I am I'd love to take a trip back up to Penn Field reef in Conn. Tons of fun sea robins, flounder, blues, and striped bass out there.