Holed up fish recovery at your limits?

Fortunately I dive with better divers than myself. So if I have an issue, I get one of the better divers to get it and I spot them.

I know Harry, a tremendous diver, said he would have a scooter on the boat for deep tie/ hole ups. Then he could spend his whole breath hold on the task.

Theoretically a rope, a weight and a buddy and you could do the same. Maybe two buddies to ease the retrieve.

Not advocating any of these ideas. Just throwing them out for discussion

I try to keep a tank in the boat when I go out.

the two wraps of mono may be the reason the fish was able to rock itself up so good in the first place

I´ll tell you my limited experience with pargo, which is the fish that gets holed up the most. Step number one (and the most difficult one) Try to always be sure to get a holding shot, the head area is the best cause of the hard bones that allows the spear to hold on. I don´t like body shots and I avoid them as much as I can, but is not always possible to acomplish that tho. Step number two: Try to grab th shooting line as soon as you can and do not let go the tension, if the fish holes up, go to the surface to recover air with the line properly grabbed and with enough tension that avoids the fish to go deeper into the cave. Step 3: Get your float with a small 6 feet bungy and let the float and bungy do the work, clip the float solidly to the bungy and line so the fish gets all the pressure from your rig. Recover it once you had calmed down and had enough recovery time. Repeat as needed. The other good idea is to dive with a buddy and get turns to fight the fish in the cave. Is safer that way. Saludos

This is a video of me recovering a diving buddy´s pargo at deep water. An example of team work.

Saludos

Pesca Submarina de Pargo.avi - YouTube

I´m the one with the black suit

Good advice Monstruo

I'd resort to anything before tanks

Exactly bro, my same thoughts!

I don´t think a pony bottle is a good idea thought. Use a fast deploying float such as a carter float instead. I have never done that but I think is a better way to go than using a Pony.

Good luck and stay safe.

Quote from Treebilly3

Thanks monster this is a new problem for me. The fish here don't usually have holes deep enough to make a recovery dive necessary. It's usually the shaft getting hung up that cause a second dive on a fish. My dive partner is still working on hitting 20' so it'll be a while before he's much help.
I'm just thinking one of those small spare air bottles could be attached to my float so I wouldn't have to make the long swim back to the boat. It wouldn't give much time but I think it be enough.

If your shaft is getting stuck in the rockwork a lot do you think it might be overpowered a bit? If you're primarily shooting into holes or straight down into fish you could power down (longer or less bands or shaft with a rest tab)

getting a dive partner up to speed can be frustrating but I guess in Alaska you are lucky to even have one

Try to go with just one wrap of shoothing line and a shorter gun.

Making any kind of strenuous physical and/or mental effort at such depth is very dangerous. Focusing on the task you can momentarily forget your internal safety gauge. When you remember it again you could be past your limit heading for a blackout.

Some other factors to consider extracting a shaft/fish.

1. Are you using a double or single flopper shaft? If your problem is the shaft getting wedged in a rock crevice, sometimes you can turn it so that the flopper lies down and allows extraction of the shaft. With two floppers this is impossible because when one flopper closes the other opens.

2. Is the shooting line attachment point at the very back of the shaft or on a sharkfin tab? If it's on a sharkfin tab the shaft can act as a big slip tip and the back of it can get wedged inside the hole making extraction impossible. If you're shooting into holes a lot a euro shaft with the shooting line attached to the back is best.

3. To extract a stuck shaft you can reach, often turning the shaft is necessary. It's difficult to grip a shaft with your hands tight enough to turn, the shaft slips in your hand. In this case a shaft extractor is handy tool to have. It's basically a stainless steel piece that has a hole you can slip over the back of the shaft, then slide and lock over the shaft notch. The shaft extractor gives you a lot of leverage to turn a shaft. The Speardiver Stinger knives have the extractor tool built into the knife, so you don't have to carry an extra tool. Albeit I consider the Stinger a secondary/backup knife.

I usually carry a full scuba rig on the boat.
We hunt on the reef drop off and I've had fish shot in 30-40 feet hole up below 100 feet. I don't want my buddy/son free diving that deep for a fish.
I had one large dog snapper take off when I was using a float line. I couldn't grab it fast enough and by the time I got to it, it was stretched straight up and down. 100' float line, 18' shooting line and about 6 feet of stretched bungee. I got my scuba gear and and when I got down to the hole, the fish was inside a small cave and had gone up on a ledge. I had to crawl in and reach back over my head.

It's not pure but in some cases it's better than losing fish and shaft.

a great deal with doogies at the time they get tangled in the deep reef
over 70/ 90 lb fish cannot be managed/ recovered by pulling the line and while it's taking off deep in the rocks...a pretty much stronger fish than the other same size tuna
several spearo accident with this fish:(
-shooting line too long and you probably loose the fish in the reef, so that most of the time you have better to cut the shooting line.
-shooting line too short and you cannot get close enough while struggling against the current at over 90 feet depth....

Quote from Treebilly3

I'm wondering how do you guys recover fish that get tangled in the rocks or just get wedged in a hole at the limits of your diving ability?

All gear is disposable. Just leave it and hunt shallower next time.

Billy are you certified ?

Cheers, Don