Freeshafting

The posts from SB leading up to this thread.

Quote from HeadHunter]About an hour later on a different spot...I managed a close second with this 75 Lb'er....hit 'em with a free shaft and the game was on....whew....[/quote][quote=nilsonov

whats the point of freeshafting? isn't it just for small fish that can't get away with your spear? I take it you knew you were going to stone him?

I posted one of the three pics that shows shot placement.

I disagree about the amount of skill involved. What these guys do is go to where the fish is at their leisure. Sometimes the fish thinks it's safe and they have all the time in the world to shoot it at point blank range. Sometimes it's in a wreck or a hole, with the fish having nowhere else to go and sometimes not even wanting to go thinking it's safe. Sometimes they're blinding it with flashlights. Also no one ever knows that they're going to stone a fish. These freeshafting guys will never tell you the amount of fish and shafts they lose. I also disagree about the increased range and speed of a freeshaft, if there is a difference it's not enough to make a difference.

These guys don't care about the shaft and a hurt fish that's just going to die in some hole later. They just live for the rush of sticking the shaft in a big fish. It's irresponsible and disrespectful to not have a line on the gun, and only possible in deep water when scuba spearfishing. Think current, anything less than perfect vis, and having to go back up for air soon after the shot. The fish are impressive and it's interesting to see how big they can get, but I don't celebrate those catches. Wait till you freeshaft on scuba one day and then tell me if you feel like you've achieved something.

Exactly Don, a different tribe, nothing to do with what we do.

Never. I don't feel it can be done in deep water, in bad vis, and I'd be limited to bottom fish. In the Bahamas was the only time I used a sling, and I rigged it with a shooting line. I got some nice fish like that in open water too.

It's lamentable. I lost a legal grouper a couple of years ago when it went into a tiny hole after being shot. I saw nowhere for it to go and so let go of the gun to prevent a tear out. He did have a very small hole and dove into it taking the shaft and most of the two wraps of shooting line. It was a tabbed shaft and when I pulled on the shooting line the back end of it toggled on some rock corner. There was no reaching it and so I had to cut the line and leave everything there. The thought of that grouper expiring while skewered and not being able to move in that hole haunts me till today.

BTW I think I figured out a way to salvage such a situation in the future. Keep a long thin PVC tube on the boat, it can double as a flag pole. On such an occasion the shooting line can be threaded through the pipe and the pipe slid all the way down the line to the shaft. Then some leverage can be put on the pipe to dislodge the back end of the shaft. BTW this is the only disadvantage I see to tabbed shafts. Had it been a euro shaft I'd probably be able to pull the shaft and the fish out.

A different time, a different place, hunting pressure and consequent scarcity of fish and weary fish, will make anyone take shots that are far from %100 sure due to distance or quick movement by the fish. For example I and others have landed nice fish that were tail shot. The alternative of not taking a shot unless it's %100 sure could mean coming away empty handed. With that said I do hate taking shots that are outside my comfort range, but it happens more often than I would like. Could I have done something different with my approach? When I see the difference between a fish that is not weary, like a grazing hogfish, and a skittish one, I think that mostly it's not up to me, there's a limit to how much I can make my approach non threatening.

I dove a few times with a Russian dude here in Miami, actually a very good spearfisher. But he would boast a lot, which became annoying. He would constantly talk about about how all fish should be stoned and how he stones all his fish. Pointing out how light the shaft on his pipe gun is because he doesn't need to worry about it bending. One day he brought it up a notch and said that a really good spearfisher, one who sells his catch, doesn't even go for a stone shot, he shoots the fish through the gills and out the mouth, so as not to damage the meat at all :rolleyes1:

Truthfully I fell for it, I was really impressed. When hunting I don't have the kind of personality to follow someone, I usually head off on my own following my own instincts. On this one day I said to myself, let me see how this super spearfisher hunts and learn something, and decided to follow the Russian dude around. Not 15 minutes passed and I saw him dive on a fish, I positioned myself above him to watch the action. I saw him take shot and hit a mutton, the fish was hit low, thrashed and came off the spear. Since that day I don't pay attention to such claims. It is what it is.

haha fish don't have a brain!!

Looks like you're the only one doubting it