Holed up fish recovery at your limits?

Quote from Treebilly3

Yes Padi advanced, But I haven't used my gear in a few years. To much crap to pack down the dock!

To me, 60' in your cold waters with all the lead is a deep dive, sounds like you can cut it, but all it takes is one F-up. I have always had a steel 72 on my boats just in case and I have used it twice to get my gear back.
At that point I'm no longer spearfishing... just doing salvage and recovery.;)

The main thing about deep holed fish is .....it's only a fish...not your life. Make sure your spotter can dive as deep as you and save your life before you take this kind of risk. Another bad thing would be having your buddy black out helping you.
I'm not going to tell you how to dig a fish out as there are so many different scenarios, but take your time getting lots of surface time. Try to plot out how your going to proceed after a recon dive, then take it slow one step at a time. The most dangerous time for a diver however, is when we have a mission, we get focused on that and throw safety and clear thinking out the window. I would completely forget SpareAir (Death- in-A-bottle) and get a small pony tank instead.

Cheers, Don

PS. Billy I just reread your post, if your ''buddy'' is only diving 20 your diving pretty much alone.

Plan # 2 head to warmer waters so you can get ''buddys like this.:D;)

Cheers, Don

Quote from Treebilly3

Thanks don! I doubt the misses would let me go out if my dive buddy looked like that :laughing:

Sorry mate I have the same problem.;)

Now what were you trying to drag out of the hole ? ling?

I shoot two wraps on my guns as well. If I shoot bull calico in the rocks deep but close, I grab the barrel after the shaft flies, locking the wraps that are left. Then I short line the fish out of the crack or hole. I learned to do this when I was a Sheephead killer, big ones can get the shaft back in the ledge or hole sideways, then the work starts. The big snapper Monsterslayer deals with have a Phd in this.

Cheers, Don

I am with Don.
I keep a 40 aluminum and backpack on my boat for gear recovery. I actually passed out once getting a Red Snapper untangled from an oil platform in 50ft, and the water was warm. It was just that the fish was tangled in a bunch of old fishing line and crap, and I stayed too long cutting it out. My buddy got me out of a permanent bind that day. I have used scuba for difficult retrieval since then.

If we have a fish hole up, normally black grouper or snapper, we'll usually leave it for a while and start fishing for other fish. All the commotion of a holed-up fish will oftentimes bring in more fish. Obviously, this is from a boat where we're using break-away setups and can easily re-rig a gun. Letting the fish sit can also make it easier to recover later. Worst case, we normally go with a SCUBA rig...