Halibut Hammer

    Many times I'll be hunting and I'll come across a fat halibut and wished I had something besides a knife to take them down, especially when I've got expensive mori slip tips on the gun. I talked to Dean down at Vector Marine and he said he could make me whatever I wanted. My idea was to have him make a small shaft with a handle and two floppers on it. I wanted an 8" shaft with 2 of deans retro floppers on it because my hopes are that the DFG will be less likely to cite me for a hooked device if I'm bugging (My argument against it being a usefull hooked device would be 2 floppers are more likely to hang up under a reef, plus why would anyone use a 8" as a hooked device?). Longer would be better but I've touched a lot of halibut so it will work out well in most cases.


    The twin floppers will also give me a better chance of hanging a hali and not having them pull off. I wanted one of the floppers as close to the point as possible in case the hali was sitting on rocks. The sheath sucks ass, I made it tonight as a quickie because I was going to try to dive. It's just a piece of pvc with a dynema as a belt loop. A bungee holds it upside in place and is used as a leash in case the fish is wild and to make sure I don't drop it.


    I'm going to make a T clip to hold the spike in like one of the other ones I've seen but I need my saws at work to make clean cuts on the pvc.


    Dean can make you any size hammer you want, he also machines stainless shafts etc and is in Hawaiian Gardens, I use one of his shafts on my 59" gil gun. Dean/vector marine 949-295-3590


    Videos will be coming soon, I'm getting a getting a new camera set up for xmas :)

    Quote from Dan

    Slip-tip hali hammer :)


    I use a detachable Don Paul '' knight Knife'':D


    Few DFG have ever wanted to inspect my knife.


    Cheers, Don

    Quote from Trace

    Chris & Don, Both very nice. I'll have to make one myself.
    Thanks for sharing.


    Thanks Trace, I have been lucky to have a few nice flaties take me on a ride at night, it is a very primal experience. I spot them, then swim past and crawl up to them and plant the tip hard into the head. I wear a belt reel with 50' of tuna cord that I can clip to if I ever see one over 25#. The best local fish so far with this rig was 21# in 1997 at a OC spot that will remain open after Dec 1. It is such a treat to be just outside the shore brake on the way back in and spot one as your getting ready to slip off your fins. The stuff Vector Marine marine makes can give a guy more time with the GF or kids. Chris's T will land some flaties for sure.


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Dayam you have some nice toys Don!! I love the slip tip design, I was thinking of using a mori tip with spectra and have dean thread the shaft but it would have been really expensive. I really like your sheath too, very covert. I'll have to start working on a better version of my sheath now that the bar has been raised so high!!

    Quote from chris oak

    Dayam you have some nice toys Don!! I love the slip tip design, I was thinking of using a mori tip with spectra and have dean thread the shaft but it would have been really expensive. I really like your sheath too, very covert. I'll have to start working on a better version of my sheath now that the bar has been raised so high!!


    I was going to make a few for friends back in the mid 90's but than I got really hammered at that salty surf spot;) and thought F.... I don't want to get sued when someone sees a record and dies trying.
    ''A man has got to know his limitations''.


    My first one was a Craftman Philps with a 3'' sliptip, the line looped thru the mid handle so one could hold it like a T. F+G in south Laguna would notice the screwdriver handle in the knife sheath and want to see it.
    Never had a issue though, just led to more talk. When I get out of the water I don't want to talk at all, just get to Circle-K, get my can of Guinness and bag of bbq chips and head home and run the hot water tank cold.


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Edited once, last by Don Paul ().

    In California you cannot possess a hooked device when you are lobster diving. Mainly it is to prevent you from making a big hook to reach back in caves and pull lobsters out (I really doubt it would work because the bug would simply keep flipping backwards).


    Every warden I've talked to here said they wouldn't cite me if I was diving with a flopper on a gun but they also were quick to point out that it is up to the officer. I only know one officer down here who would probably cite you.

    Quote from chris oak

    I really doubt it would work because the bug would simply keep flipping backwards

    That's precisely why it works :) The best bug catching device is a bichero (cuban name) which is simply any thin, stiff pole with a largish fish hook fastened to the end. You get it under the lobster, and jerk it back and up into the base of the tail. The lobsters backward motion only serves to secure it on the hook. I think someone posted a video here of catching lobster this way. The resulting hole is so small that it's easy to miss. I heard our own FWC use some sort of light which marks the lobsters body fluids where they would issue out of the hole. I imagine a good clandestine bichero would be a threaded speargun shaft, and a hook point which could be quickly removed and replaced with a speargun point.

    Quote from chris oak

    In California you cannot possess a hooked device when you are lobster diving. Mainly it is to prevent you from making a big hook to reach back in caves and pull lobsters out (I really doubt it would work because the bug would simply keep flipping backwards).


    Every warden I've talked to here said they wouldn't cite me if I was diving with a flopper on a gun but they also were quick to point out that it is up to the officer. I only know one officer down here who would probably cite you.


    Ditto. They have mentioned it to me but I have always been courteous with them and they give me no hassle. As long as you are not shooting bugs your in the clear IMO.:thumbsup2:

    BOBBERRYFISHCARVINGS.COM

    Quote from Dan

    That's precisely why it works :) The best bug catching device is a bichero (cuban name) which is simply any thin, stiff pole with a largish fish hook fastened to the end. You get it under the lobster, and jerk it back and up into the base of the tail. The lobsters backward motion only serves to secure it on the hook. I think someone posted a video here of catching lobster this way. The resulting hole is so small that it's easy to miss. I heard our own FWC use some sort of light which marks the lobsters body fluids where they would issue out of the hole. I imagine a good clandestine bichero would be a threaded speargun shaft, and a hook point which could be quickly removed and replaced with a speargun point.


    this sounds like a very difficult technique, but if theres any video id like to see a link...in alot of places its legal to snare or shoot lobster, and it sounds like it would be worth trying when i skip the country sometime next year.

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