About spearfishing...

In the hmmm department, worth a listen, and some days I just hate opening the news...

I thought about writing this over on our sister blog "Fishing Under Sail" but off hand I expect the people reading "FUS" already know all this...

So, here's the thing... Spearfishing has a seriously bad rap and a very undeserved knee jerk reaction with a lot of cruisers and folks who should know better.

Let's say you go to the local fish market and buy a pound of fish... Chances are that the pound of fish you're buying represents an additional four to nine pounds of by-catch and if you throw in some of the other tactics and unsustainable bad practices commonly used by the commercial fishing industry, it's safe to say that your Mahi Mahi filets represent some seriously heinous ecological practices.

Canned tuna AKA death in a can... well, it's even worse.

So, how about hook and line? I fish and when I catch fish that I don't want I practice catch and release but the fact is that catch and release often results in a damaged or dead fish no matter how careful you are. That said, since the amount of damaged/injured/stressed fish is so minute to the hell that commercial fishing entails, it is still acceptable and preferable by comparison in terms of scale...

Spearfishing, on the other hand, is the only method of putting fish on your table that lets you select your catch. This means you can harvest a meal sized grouper or a medium sized wahoo or mahi that reflects your needs rather than catching fish that would be better off left swimming and breeding.

While a lot of places we visit have made spearfishing or even owning spearfishing gear illegal (and we always follow a country's laws in the matter or simply do not visit them), we find most of those laws are based on fairly spurious logic and bad science. Sure, some spearfishermen in the past have ignored laws, exceeded limits and cleaned out reefs of fish but so do commercial fishermen who have used everything from bleach to dynamite to show that extra profit, which after all is the real problem... Greed! Where spearfishing has been problematic it has almost always been in the hands of commercial fishermen...

Just saying...

Listening to Kitty Daisy & Lewis

So it goes...

The lion fish are safe for the moment...

Widespread crime/fraud and still no perp walks, a curious case, and something to ponder...

We picked up a new pole spear the other day it's really cool, cheap, and I can't wait to use it so I can review it over at Fishing Under Sail...

Of course, I really want to go out and decimate the local Lion fish colony but what I really need to do is anti-foul and finish our new dinghy.

The anti-foul in question is a home brew copper epoxy using 41 micron copper flake mixed into Raka epoxy (speaking of Raka we are using their new UV inhibited epoxy and it seriously rocks). Since this is a semi-temporary dinghy I expect the anti-fouling to last a lot longer than we'll own it, but it is an excellent test bed so it does make some sense. Anyway, the copper-epoxy costs less than any anti-fouling paint that works so it's still the cheap guy's first choice.

That said, we liked out temporary Bolger "tortoise" so much that we used it for both of our Loose Mooses so this slightly larger "Brick" (plans are in "Instant Boatbuilding with Dynamite Payson") might well be with us for awhile...

So, for today at least, no spearfishing...

Listening to Green Day

So it goes...

Skin like sandpaper and real big teeth...

Back when I was a kid, my brother and I started our version of a lemonade stand... Since we lived on Catalina, instead of making lemonade we did the next best thing and started catching fish for salt-water aquarium folk.

As things go it was actually a pretty successful business enterprise for a couple of kids. Once we moved from simply using an aquarium net to home-built slurp guns we actually started making money.

The downside was being the greedy kids we were we'd find ourselves festooned with plastic bags containing little fish all thrumming with danger danger Will Robinson vibrations which attracted sharks who thought someone had just rang a dinner bell. The worst were young adolescent Tiger sharks who would rip the bags off our belts and come back for more... Coming home from a hard day catching critters, the difficult part was having to explain to my dad how I wound up looking like I'd lost a fight with a belt sander.

Have I ever mentioned I used to be young and stupid?

Over the years while spearfishing and surfing I have had no shortage of up-close-and-personal experiences with a variety of sharks who never seem to have been interested in eating me but they have had some serious interest in fish I've speared and my surfboards...

Which is why I perk up when folks mention shark repellents as anything that makes sharks less interested in my upcoming dinner or surfboard would be no bad thing!

Shark Camo out of OZ is making a large decal you put on the bottom of your surfboard that says to sharks don't bother...

Since it's less than $50 and even looks cool it's sort of a no-brainer!

Another company that seems to have a viable product is Shark Shocker which is a wrist/ankle band containing very strong magnets that sharks and rays don't find pleasing. The video of various rays reactions at an aquarium petting pool seems to show that they just might be on to something. At a pretty reasonable $30, I'd certainly give it a try...




Hey, I'm no longer young but apparently still kinda stupid!

Listening to Shark-Fin Blues by the Drones.

So it goes...

Tostadas...

Homesick Texan has yet to come up with a single dish I do not feel the need to make for myself and eat...

Her most recent Fish Tostadas Vera Cruz style is all sorts of good ...and the salsa is perfection! Just the thing to make with all that Mahi Mahi you've been catching!

Speaking of catching fish...Because the various "My place in the food chain" posts have been so popular and people keep asking for more, I've added a new blog dedicated to things centered around fishing, spearfishing and similar mayhem done on and around sailboats. Do check it out... Fishing Under Sail.

A new Blog...

Just a quick note.

Over the last few years I have received a lot of feedback on the various "My place in the food chain" posts. People seem to like fishing and spearfishing from sailboats it would seem and I get a lot of email of the "Why don't you do more fishing stuff " which does not always fit in the Boat Bits framework...

So it seemed like a good idea to do a blog devoted to the art and madness that is fishing and spearfishing from sailboats.

On the bonus side it also allows me to throw in the whole gamut of what do you do with that fish after you have caught it thing and as a couple of my great loves are eating and cooking I expect that the new blog will contain a lot of cooking/eating subject matter as well.

Fishing Under Sail... (An evolutionary step above fishing with clubs)

My Place in the food chain (Ongoing)

"It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top."

Hunter S. Thompson

The current Compass ( a Caribbean boat rag) has yet another anti spearfishing rant which would be OK if the ranting fellow did not eat fish or fish with hook or line...

Sadly I no longer fish or spear for any reef fish confining myself to blue water pelagic fish these days as ciguatera is so widespread that reef fish is something of a Russian roulette gig down here but over fishing whether by spear or line is equally bad but that does not make spearfishing evil in itself.

Responsible spearfishing is much more ecologically sound than line or commercial fishing as you are able to target what you want ( Mahi Mahi) and unlike a line fisherman you don't wind up with Barracuda, Puffer Fish, Angel Fish etc which even if released will be stressed and damaged by their encounter and whose survival is an iffy thing at best. Catch and release is certainly better than catch and kill for those unwanted critters but it is not so great from the fish's perspective. Spearfishing on the other hand if you are looking to catch a grouper of a certain size that is what you are going to get...A much more selective process. As to the spearfishing is bad for reefs canard... Do you know how much my spears and spearheads cost? Do you really think I "Mr Cheapseats" would shoot reefs or coral? DUH!!!

If you are going to catch fish for dinner the simple rule is be responsible....Harvest only for your needs.

It gets a lot harder where store bought fish is concerned...Commercial fishing is pretty much a rape/pillage affair and profit is the only rule that matters. So if you think the fish you buy at the local market is harvested in any sort of "Green" manner you might want to Google the term Bycatch and see just how wrong that thought is.

My place in the food chain... ongoing

Sailing into the USVI to find a big Amazon order ( can you spell DVD's) waiting at one of our mail drops is always nice and being able to catch up on "EXTRAS", "HOUSE, MD" and the second half of "ENTOURAGE" but the real treat was my new slip tip spear head for my hand spear from Gat Ku which is just PERFECTO...Excellent design and workmanship at a price that is cheap when you consider what others are charging these days. Can't wait to get it wet....

On the downside my minions at DEMA were unsuccessful at scoring new carbon blades for my Sporasub Variant fins which seem to be discontinued but as Sporasub did not have anyone around to ask about them ( and they do not respond to their emails) you have to wonder why a big company ( I believe that Sporasub is a division of Mares) does not provide the kind of service that a small companies like Gat Ku, Ray Odor and Hammerhead do on a daily basis.

Just a note on the Sporasub Variant fins ...They are the best fins I have ever used...PERIOD and the fact that the bane of long finners is overcome by the simple if clever fix of making them two part makes them pack and stow in almost less space than normal fins , an Elegant solution!.I have noticed that they seem to be closing out whats left of the model on Amazon but of course my sizing is not in the mix so if you have small feet and need some top of the line long fins at cheapo cheapo prices..Go for it!

And by the way if anyone out there in the real world knows of a shop that has blades for the Sporasub Variants please drop me a line...

Now I'll just say a hasty Happy "T" day as lobster is (hopefully) on the menu and still needs to be caught!

My Place in the Food Chain 1.5

I was watching the spearfishing show "Ocean Hunters" on ESPN the other day while in line to get a burger and the thing that caught my attention was just how over gunned the talent was using big guns for less than BIG fish. Which made me wonder just at what point do you jump to a bigger gun...

As you may have guessed I like minimal and simple...Pole spears make a lot of sense as do Slings but force the hunter to get up close and personal to the fish and this is no bad thing as it gives you the skills to get close to the big fish when you go with band guns.

Back when I was younger and dumber there was bugger all available to spear fishers in the form of decent guns...These days there are so many it is simply mind boggling. A lot of people have put a lot of thought and serious quality craftsmanship into gear that works. In the old days a gun that you could depend on was not always what you might be using...

Once I get out of the Caribbean (can you SPELL P.. A.. C.. I ..F ..I ..C?) which is becoming more and more spear unfriendly there will be a couple of new guns in the quiver but for the moment My Rob Allen Railgun is more than up to the Open water stuff I do though I have been seriously thinking about upgrading the muzzle with the Hammerhead when it is time to replace my current bands as they have a nice deal on a new muzzle and bands ...Which the way that bands rot out down here in the tropics will be sooner rather than later! On the other hand their new Evolution spear guns are so cheap...

My place in the food chain part 1

I've been trying to make sense of my quiver of fishing and spear fishing gear on So It Goes and truth be told I have the too much stuff but sure could use some more blues...Has anyone ever actually had enough fishing gear?

Fishing from sailboats is partly art partly skill but mainly it is simply just having to remember to do it sort of thing. Face it the people who catch fish...fish.

Of course I hear a lot of complaints from cruisers who never seem to catch anything but I find if you ask them it mostly turns out that they very very seldom drag a line behind the boat...Well yeah that would be a good cause for not catching anything!

Of course another reason for not catching stuff is that most lures are designed for trolling at speeds a whole lot faster than the speeds done by most boats and those high price fish seduction machines with the rattles, sexy skirts and the come hither jet streams of bubbles at five knots just seem to look a lot like that geeky girl at the dance that no one wants to dance with and the Mahi Mahi and Wahoo have no intention of filling out her dance card either.

I have been meaning for a while to try out some of the offerings at Hawaii Fishing Lures who actually understand that fishing from sailboats is a bit different than ripping fishlips off from fifty foot custom sports fisherman with a gazillion teasers and suchlike trolling at eighteen knots. HFL has a dedicated section on Sailboat fishing which includes a very concise but excellent primer on fishing from sailboats. Certainly worth checking them out.

On the spearfishing front I just picked up a new three piece pole spear from Ray Odor who just may be selling one of the best bargains around these days. The spear is well built handsome and packs a wallop...Of course not to say I was not sorely tempted by the wonderful Gat Ku spears but will be buying one of the Gat Ku slip-tips and paralyzer tips which should round out my triggerless spearfishing quiver quite nicely!

Speaking of triggerless ( Pole spears and slings) there is something of a renewed interest these days as many places are putting restrictions and bans on speargun hunting ( a very misguided thing by the way) so if you care to be selective about what you catch triggerless is the way to go...Now days I reserve the use of my band gun for blue water and pelagic fish off soundings which is the best of both worlds.