I would say that for the most part, as spearos mature, they becme more selective about their take and better with their weapon.
Can it seem unfair to certain types of fish? Absolutely. Some let the hunter take an easy shot. this does not mean spearfishing is easy by any stretch. The simple dynamic of loading a banded gun are sometimes too much for some to ever get right. Just like anything else with diving, it takes practice to get good at it.
Unfortunately, that practice can come at a cost of bad shots that injure the fish while allowing it to get away. I am guilty of that myself when I started and still miss a shot from time to time. H20 doctor watched a decent Hogfish get away from me on the Jim Atria while he was here. It was a bad shot and the fish got off the spear before I could get to it.
I spent about 5 minutes looking for it before I went into deco and felt bad that I was unable to find it and finish it respectfully. The up side is that the ocean is a great machine and that injured fish will provide a meal for something else in the water.
Some requires exceptional skills such as hunting for tuna. You aint gonna get close on scuba so you have to be a freediver AND one hell of a shot with a long gun.
When I started hunting in the PNW, one of the fisrt sites I went to with my small gun was Langley. It was in the winter and had just snowed terrible... barely got the truck up the hill coming back. There are perch there to beat the band and they were legal to take year round. I got a few, cleaned and ate them, decided they were too damn mushy for me and have not pointed the gun at them since.
Lastly, and I'm gonna be a bit of a smart ass here. Anyone who says they dont like Lingcod has not tried one of Cory's fish tacos yet. I have been gone for a while, I am allowed to use his name on this board?
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