Spearfishing help? (NO hijacking please!)

[smike]

AREA 8-2:

I went on 5 or 6 dives, lingcod hunting, in season in 2009, and shot 3, small (less than 5 lb) lingcod. I do not have a boat, and so I shore dive. I know where a group of ling live, and I think that several moved into the area just before season started. I do not have a hard time figuring the size, because I have to get within 5 feet to shoot it anyway. With lingcod I have to get in close because I want to hit the fish in the head, so that I won't damage the meat, and, I don't want to hurt the fish and not kill it. The lingcod are good eating, and the only fish in (this area) that are worth eating. Cabezon are also good eating, but they have to be pretty big to get any meat, they are mostly head. I like the flounder, but they are too small around here too. I haven't seen any Rocks big enough to take around here.

I wonder what depth range the Lingcod live in, I haven't been below 100' looking for them. If they are only in <100', then I guess the spearos are possibly major takers of the Ling. Otherwise, hmm, Not-So-Much.

I seem to remember a story on this forum last season where some poachers came into an area in a boat and speared multiple lings and then took off when the post-er came near them.

I wish that the fishing pressure was lower on all the fish. I probably will not be hunting this year, unless I go somewhere like Neah bay where I can see bigger rocks and get multiple fish on a single dive. At least here in are 8-2, the fishing stinks, probably for everyone. At this point inside Puget Sound, forget the people, let the fish recover, if they can, in spite of the drainage ditch they are living in/we dive in.

Mike

[Cera]

The "hawaiian sling" or pole spear is generally where you start as a spearfisher. They are not only cheaper but actually easier in some way. But the problem with them is if you don't get enough power behind them they tend to glance off the fish whereas with a gun you generally have much more force and don't have to have such a precise angle to get a kill. They are easier to 'reload' than regular guns and much faster as well (as previously mentioned). As you get colder in the water it gets harder to load the 2 or three bands on the spear guns while all you have to do is pull back and hold the slings.

My understanding of CA's change in free diving was to save to population and put the 'sport' back in fishing. I know they started seeing rapid declines of abalone and changed that to a free diving only as well (in fact it may not be legal to even harvest them anymore).
I believe that is what happened to fish as well. Maybe they also have more divers than we do here? I know diving off the coast up here is way more difficult than in most spots in so. cal.
I think that by making it free dive only they have also created some disadvantages. For example I think one would be more likely to take a shot at a fish they wouldn't normally take because they are limited to one 'dive' to get the fish before having to recover for many minutes.
Also the depth limit could play into it some as well since it is much harder to dive deeper. BUT those freedivers are amazing! Watching them is crazy! It is definatly more diffcult and as skill that is aquired.

I must agree with everyone here on the board, spearfishing has much less 'waste' than other methods. I do agree with the upper limit on fish (especially after hearing the studies on the matter) although my husband thinks it would be difficult to gauge the sizes of both upper and lower underwater.
Nearly everyone I know who spearfishes does it for the fish (meat), I only know of one person who was into the 'biggest' fish he could find, which is a little surprising given the sport. I think in order to recover the fish population a shorter angling season is needed, but not because of the spearfishermen.
I hope my rant was coherent.

[HelgaFins]

[quote="Cera"]

My understanding of CA's change in free diving was to save to population and put the 'sport' back in fishing. I know they started seeing rapid declines of abalone and changed that to a free diving only as well (in fact it may not be legal to even harvest them anymore).
I b



You can still spearfish in California with scuba gear.... No Game Fish maybe speared (Salmon, bass, sturgeon...).

You must free dive for abalone, San Francisco to the Northern California border. There is a season for abalone diving. The limit is 24 per year and 3 in possession. Only the "Red" abalone may be harvested, which must be a minimum size of 7 inches.
There has been a huge poaching problem with abalone harvesting, so the "Take" and "Tagging" of your abalone harvest has been modified many times thru the years to combat poaching.

Free diving for abalone in California North of Monterey has been required for at least 40 years now. Somewhere around 15 years ago they closed off the diving for abalone south of San Francisco because of the decline of abalone do to disease, over fishing and poaching. Before the closure, you were allowed to use scuba gear south of Monterey California.

In Oregon, you are allowed 5 abalone per year and 1 in possession. You may use scuba gear for harvesting abalone in Oregon.
In Oregon a legal size abalone must be 8 inches minimum in length.

[Cera]

Yes, living so close to the cal. border I knew it wasn't allowed but wasn't sure if they changed it in oregon or not since I left.
My husband also said that scuba/freediving depends on area and what you fish for.

[smike]

I was just in LA area, went to a couple of dive shops, one of them was part of a sporting goods store, they even had a pool in the "Sports Chalet" store!

Both stores had more square feet of guns on display than regulators & wetsuits, I was amazed the polar difference in attitudes toward spearos there and here. Once, here, I didn't see any guns on sale at the LDS, and was given the impression that it was not PC for me to even ask about guns, although the same store started stocking them a few months later.

Mike

[nwscubamom]

Spearfishing comments and answers to questions now compiled. It's lengthy, but was very very informative for me.
Take a gander if you want to get inside the head of a spearo:
http://www.pnwscuba.com/spearfishing.htm

Thank you to all who helped with this - your insight and willingness to honestly give me the straight scoop was very much appreciated.

- Janna