Any spearfishers on this site?

[Fin Mike]

Just wanted to get a census of RC members who may be spearfisherman as well as reef enthusiast. I personally love shooting big gags in the head, while enjoying the serene beauty of the reef. Are there others out there like me on this website?:strooper:

 

[philter4]

I no longer spearfish, but only because I love to collect tropicals and I can't carry everything I need to do everything I want to do, and fish for my tanks win.

I have a brother who is big into freediving to spear, and I used to do it every chance I got, just what I like to do has changed so I rarely go any more.

 

[Fin Mike]

Philter4 I like to do both. I spear to get some fresh fish, and also to pay the gas bill. I am very interested in collecting though. After whacking a 20 lbs gag in the head two days ago, I decided to take some time to really check out the local fauna. Unfortunately carrying a big fish like that in a decent current can be a bummer on your progress. So I shot him up to the surface on a lift bag, and took my time to hang out with the locals.

My big issue is how to decompress the fish. I don't know how deep you can collect tropicals in sunrise fl, but in Myrtle Beach, you have to get to 50+ ft to get to a small portion of tropicals. In 100ft, it is game on. Probably the same fish you can get there.

My question is, how do you decompress your fish, and how long does it take?

 

[philter4]

It depends, but from 100 ft or less I can bring the fish up with me, just go slow and do a lot of one min stops, usually at every 20 ft interval, then at 15 ft stay as long as you can. This is usually all I do when diving shallow, below that you need to hang the fish, when doing that we use a weighted line and move the fish up every hour or so until they are about 10 ft, then leave them there for as long as you can. Just remember you can't move the boat very fast while the fish are hanging or the buckets come to the surface and the fish get beat up and their bladders get damaged.

 

[Fin Mike]

Thanks for the advice. I just hate the thought of needling a fish. Although we have done it with success, I just don't like it. I was thinking of using a weighted bait bucket to put my catch in and then bringing them up the anchor line. I was in 75 ft a couple days ago, and there really was a good selection of tropicals to choose from. Blue angels are extremely common here and you do see the occasional french/ gray. Do you see many juvenile rock beauties where you come from? In this area, I have only seen adults three times, and I dive a lot. I have read somewhere that someone is catching Juv. Rock beauties and having long term success with them in captivity. Being that the RB is one of those fish we just (supposedly) can't keep alive in aquaria, I was wondering what your experience is if any with this fish.

 

[philter4]

Rock beauty is one of the most common angelfish here once you go deep, in shallow they are not as common as queens, frenches and blues, but not unusual to find them. They do well if collected without drugs and decompressed. I have kept a trio for 5 years in the same tank, they were all small when I put them in and the dominant one grew much faster then the other 2, it now is big and has streamer to the dorsal and tail. I have also given several away over the years and only 1 or 2 have not survived longer then a year or two. IMO the ones commercially collected are usually drug caught (quinaldine is a legal drug here in FL) and needled which is why (IMO) they don't do well, some fish just don't handle the trauma as well as other fish.

 

[Fin Mike]

Your success stories with the RB are awesome. Some people say that it is a dietary issue such as a lack of sponge. What do you feed them, and how often do you feed them? Has your experience led you to go along with the sponge theory?

Also, what do you consider deep? In the Advanced Open Water certification class, 75 ft is considered deep. Makes me laugh!!

 

[philter4]

I do believe that once they are adults and feeding almost exclusively on sponge you have more trouble keeping them, but as juv's they are more open to different foods and they can be easily adapted to aquarium foods.

Deep to me is different to a lot of people, my dives are almost all over 100 ft and depending on what and where we are up to 200 isn't an unusual dive depth. It isn't that I want to go that deep, it just seems the fish I like all live deeper then that. Some of my favorite fish are the Progonathoides butterflyfish, see my avitar, pygmy angels (I've collected 5 species total) and things like flame wrasse and lightining wrasse, another one of my favorite groups of fish are the basslets, again deep water. If I could catch these guys shallower I would do it because it is a pain to go deep, decompress, bring the fish up ect. Still, it is what I like to do so I go as often as I can.

 

[Fin Mike]

A buddy of mine just finished his tri mix class. He wants to go that deep to shoot the big 40+ lbs gags. But under any circumstances, 200+ is DEEP. 130-140ft is (so far) my deepest dive range.

Now you have me curious. Which Pygmy species? I was under the impression that Cent. Argi was the only one close to our shores. I'm obviously wrong!! Do tell!! Spare no detail. I love Centropyge angels. You have me all excited now if you can't tell. Maybe a tri mix class is in my near future!!!

 

[philter4]

You are not wrong, but I travel to Hi every year so I've got flame, potters and fisheri from there and flameback from the caribbean.

 

[Fin Mike]

Well darn! there goes my excitement. I was hoping there was more out there than I new about. I take it you are not catching the flame back (fireball angel Centropyge aurantonotus?) off the coast of Florida, but closer to South America? The reason for my questions are, who would think that we in Northern SC. would get a lot of the same species as y'all (SC speak) in FL. It would be a serious highlight of my life to see a pygmy in our waters no matter how deep it was. That is the beauty of what we do. There is a treasure around every corner. Boy do I love to dive, not just for the hunting aspect, but for the surprises. Nothing gets the heart going like seeing a 9 ft Sand tiger swim 10 ft away from you in all its glory!!!!

 

[stevemc]

I spearfish mainly. Since you got way off track, I also collect fish. I decompress my fish like a diver would decompress. I use a jug to mark the spot, and the cord is just a few feet longer than the depth. I have several jugs with the depth written on them. The line has loops about 2 inches long at 6 foot intervals, and start at 1/2 the water depth. For instance if I catch a small angel or chromis in 50 ft, I put it in a jar, and into bag(to keep mackeral from trying to eat them, and stress out the fish) and clip it to the first loop at 25 ft. Every 10 minutes I move it up. Do not do this on your anchor line. It takes about an hour to deco a small fish from 50'. If larger more time. On this coast-West Coast of FL, we have 4 species of Chromis, 3 of which are only found in 100'+ depths over coral reefs. These need about 2 hours of deco. Just like a person that had been down for way beyond their deco penalty. Only blennies and gobies and a few other, such as toadfish and batfish dont need to be decoed. Never use a needle. It may work on a large grouper, but not on a small little fish. Just take the time to deco and you wont have them floating in the bucket, dying at the surface. If less than 30 feet, you should be all right, but keep an eye on them. If they start floating, or acting like they cant swim right, take them right back down, and deco. I used to live on Oahu, and collected for a living there, and here in Florida before a RS and ML permits were required.

 

[stevemc]

Oh, and I never heard of anyone having a problem with rock beauties or any Florida angel. I have one now, that I collected in August and it is eating fine and I have had them in the past, and when they get too large, I release them. Never had a problem getting them to eat flake and frozen food. Just make sure you catch them large enough, that is the problem, I am sure. plus there is a minumum size for all angels, and that is probably why.

 

[philter4]

The min size for rock beauties is 2 inch, max 5 inch, all other angels it is min 1.5 and maz 8 inch. I have never had trouble with juv fish from 100 ft or less, but the older a fish is the harder it is for them to release the air from the bladder. Size is relative though, a 3 inch angel is easier to bring up then a 2 1/2 inch damsel. Stevemc is correct though, do not use your anchor line as the deco line, we use a weighted line that is independant so we can move if we want and we aren't worried about drifting. What we do though is move the buckets up and down the line rather then moving the line up and down, so on second or third dive we can hang the fish at different depths without affecting the other buckets.

 

[ssdalton]

Spearfishing the Gulf of Mexico any chance I get. I've always wanted to try collecting but I enjoy shooting more. I have enough trouble getting close to the big fish

 

[Fin Mike]

I spearfish mainly. Since you got way off track

You got that right!!!!

I must say thank you to both philter4 and stevemc. You both have brought up good points about collecting that I never thought about. Decompressing has been a major concern of mine. I don't want to hurt my quarry, and therefore have been concerned about collecting them. Now I feel much more confident. Thank you again. If you need spearing pointers, I seem to be pretty successful at that, just ask, and I will give you my best. One last ? though, how much weight do you put on your weighted line?

 

[philter4]

I ues a spare anchor, just make sure it isn't all the way to the bottom, I usually drop it to about 25 ft off the bottom. For instance if we are anchored at 100 ft then the deco line is 75 ft deep that way there is no chance for it to catch on anything.

 

[Fin Mike]

Gratzi!!

 

[stevemc]

I use a couple 8 oz egg sinkers. If its real windy or bad current, maybe more. I use braided nylon mason twine. And for the jug I use a 2 liter cola jug, and spray the inside flouresent orange. I let it sit open for a day, then squirt foam(great stuff brand) and again let it dry open. Then put on the cap tight, I tie it to it and wrap it around the jug. When I see a ledge on the fishfinder I throw it, and go back and forth to see how long the ledge is, and throw a jug at each end. Then I anchor up so that we are basicly at the middle. I try to anchor so we would catch out from it, and drift back to right over the ledge or wreck. Thats mainly for spearfishing, but you get the system anyway.

 

[Fin Mike]

Stevemc I totally get the system. My buddies and I sometimes throw a buoy overboard when we see the ledge come over the scope. I find it easier to hit the "spot" when a buoy is thrown overboard. It helps to eliminate those desert dives. We all experience them, and we all hate them. I despise diving an anchor line. I constantly worry about getting back to the line instead of shooting big fish. On a ledge, I guess it's not a big deal, but on live bottom in limited viz, and there could be a problem.

Anyway, thank you for your suggestion on collecting the fish. My problem is that I have a bunch of impatient "jerkos" that want to move from one site to the other with the "quickness". What's a guy to do?