Posts by Dan

An interesting paragraph from the the same site as the first post.

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73. Compressors.
A person desirous of using during the period 1st August to 31st March a prohibited apparatus that is commonly known as an air compressor at a depth of not less than thirty feet nor more than sixty feet, may make application to the Minister in Form 3 in the First Schedule for a permit authorising such use and upon the issue thereof the prescribed fee shall be payable.

This is the first time I'm hearing about use of compressed air restricted to certain depths. I didn't think it was possible to institute this from a logistic standpoint. Imagine a law that stipulates that you can't possess spearing apparatus with scuba in less than 30fsw. This wouldn't preclude someone from spearing in the upper water column in say 60fsw. Tricky regulation to say the least.

Here's a quote from another albeit less reliable source http://www.bahamas-travel.info…g/fishing_regulations.htm

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Permits are obtained from Customs officials at ports of entry. Fishing gear is restricted to hook and line and you may not fish with more than six rods at a time. No vessel shall have on board any fish unless its head and tail is intact. Bag limits are as follows:Lobster or Crawfish: Six tails per vessel, at any time. Annual closed season is April 1 to July 31. Minimum size limits are 3-3/8 inch carapace length or six inches tail length. Egg-bearing female crawfish are protected.
Conch: The Queen Conch (conch) is considered an endangered species throughout much of the wider Caribbean, including The Bahamas. In an effort to ensure the continued sustainability of local conch stocks, the harvesting of the species by foreign boaters is prohibited.
Wahoo/Dolphin/Kingfish: Six fish per vessel, any combination.
Vessel Bag Limit: 20 pounds of scalefish, 10 conch and six crawfish per vessel may be exported from The Islands Of The Bahamas.
Stone Crabs: Closed season is June 1 to October 15. Minimum harvestable claw is four inches. Harvesting of females is prohibited.
Turtle: Illegal to catch or have on board; although legal to eat in The Islands Of The Bahamas.
Spearfishing: Hawaiian sling is the only approved spearfishing device. Use of scuba gear or an air compressor to harvest fish, conch, crawfish and other marine animals is prohibited. Spearfishing is not allowed within one mile off the coast of New Providence, within one mile off the south coast of Freeport, Grand Bahama and within 200 yards of the coast of all Out Islands. Spearing or taking marine animals by any means is prohibited within national sea parks.

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From the above it would appear that:
1. You can't spear with a pole spear since it's not a sling.
2. You can't use scuba.

For those interested in spearing in the Bahamas; I had some questions on a related issue and ended up finding this information which may come in handy as the Bahamian rules are not crystal clear.

Links to official Bahamian government website:
https://forms.bahamas.gov.bs/dp_form.asp?fid=258
http://laws.bahamas.gov.bs/sub…bsidiary_CHAPTER_244.html

Some pertinent quotes:

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"Hawaiian sling" means a device made of wood, or other suitable material, designed for the discharge of a missile under water by the force of a sling of rubber;
"prohibited apparatus" means-
(a) a device, other than a schnorkel, designed to enable a person to breathe whilst under water;
(b) a device, other than an Hawaiian sling, designed to discharge a missile under water;

"schnorkel" means a tube enabling a person whose face is beneath the surface of the water to breathe the air directly from the atmosphere and not assisted by a compressor;

"spearfishing apparatus" means any of the following articles used in the activity commonly known as "spearfishing"-
(a) a spear;
(b) an Hawaiian sling;
(c) a schnorkel;
(d) an underwater mask;
(e) underwater goggles;
(f) swim fins.

"take" means catch, capture or remove from the water;

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4.Use of firearms prohibited.
(1) Subject to paragraph (2), no person shall use a firearm to fish within the exclusive fishery zone.
(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to a person who uses-
(a) a firearm for scientific or research purposes with the written permission of the Minister;
(b) a firearm (commonly known as a "bang stick") for self defence against sharks and other marine predators.

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6. Spearfishing apparatus in certain areas prohibited.
No person shall use any spearfishing apparatus to fish-
(a) within one mile of the coast at low water mark of New Providence; or
(b) within one mile of the southern coast at low water mark of Freeport, Grand Bahama; or
(c) within two hundred yards of the coast at low water mark of any other Family Island.

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9. Spearfishing tournament etc. prohibited.
No person shall organize or engage in a spearfishing tournament or competition within the exclusive fishery zone.

There's a lot of other information to read through.

I'd ask what the difference is between the magnum and regular to know where the $250 went but I'm just not interested in those guns, not even for encyclopedic reference. I'll assume it goes into the extra band On the other hand I believe people should put their own value on their work, but I can have my opinion.

Quote from monster slayer

The problem here Dan is that they sell you the idea that, since the gun has an all wood, perfectly ballasted, semienclosed back third, you will be able to powerit up with a 5/ 16 shaft and 3 5/8´s with no recoil.

I thought hybrids sell with three 9/16 bands? I know Riffes sell with three 9/16 bands.

Monstro :), With regards to your post on off the shelf accuracy; for those of us who made a gun or two those considerations are moot. I believe we look at guns differently ie. not see the glitter but the foundation. There's really not that much to a speargun. The fundamental principal is that if you want to increase range and power without losing accuracy you have to increase the mass of the stock which in turn will have the disadvantage of more difficult handling. Pipe guns have no mass to speak of so they're limited by design to a basic power configuration. It is when you cross the line with one aspect of the design that other aspects suffer, such as in the case of a hybrid.

With regards to being "excommunicated" that is the problem with spearbroad, notice the broad it stands for queerness, I will never allow it to get to that state here.

Quote from LOMartin

do you have the name of that fish?

It is an oar fish and it is a deep salt water fish. I thought it wasn't real so I did some searching on it. Here's another pic. I'll wager it's very good to eat.

With the recent controversy on spearbroad I looked at their website http://www.pelaj.com/product-viewer.asp?id=733 this link features their Kanji gun, I like the name. Check out the price tag; 649 AUD, thats 564 USD. I saw it in a store here retailing for $535. Assuming the gun functions perfectly I still think the price is outrageous. Is that a plastic trigger and line release? Then it must be those special stainless steel screws securing the handle to the barrel :rolleyes1: Parts cost on this gun has to be less than $100, that's quite a mark up. Looks a bit like a Rob Allen BTW.

I guess there's a first time for everything but I never ever had bands tangle with the shooting line. My arrangement has always been standard, like a Riffe, or like in my guns pictured in the first and second posts.

An amazing hunt with the viz making it all the more memorable. The water looks clean near the surface, better some viz than none, at least you can see and follow the buoy lines down part of the way. I hope to experience those spots with you some day. Thanks for sharing. BTW I'm grabbing one of the pics

Interestingly even on a solid muzzle like that people unnecessarily set the holes too far back. I guess it's for aesthetic reasons but there's at least 3" lost on this gun.

I often wondered if track past the band slot affects accuracy. Theoretically there's always some muzzle kick, if there's more gun past the band slot that's more possibility of kicking up the shaft.

I keep stumbling on pics of these crazy looking fish and I can't help but wonder; Would you spear this fish?

This was a while back but I remember, Sergio was fine and most of the fish are his. That big one in the middle is not a mangrove though, it's a cubera that I shot in real shallow water and as such is not that big.

Since the above writeup I've settled on this way of attaching a spike the gun. It is simply a hole in the muzzle, the muzzle does have to be solid without a band insertion slot. The spike is threaded and screws into the wood. I've also found myself from time to time being too lazy to reach for my knife and dispatching fish with it. Tin Man and I talked about the idea of a spike for pipe guns which is in the second pic but there doesn't appear to be much interest.

This is what is known as a kill spike although I call it a shark spike because to me that is it's primary use. Here is a picture of a spike on one of my guns. I made it from a Ray Odor kill spike by cutting off some of the plate, drilling an extra hole and shortening the shaft. If you give Ray the specs I think he'll make one like it, otherwise it will not fit a Riffe speargun.

I think a spike on a speargun in south Florida waters is very important. Sharks show up when the shaft is stuck in a fish. This is a time when a diver is vulnerable as his speargun is little more than a wooden stick. At the least the spike can be used to drive the shark away from the fish on the spear. In the worst case a diver can defend himself from a rushing shark or give an inquisitive one a reason to beware. I put it on all my guns. Recently I modified one of my guns and it became a problem to put one on it. This made me consider carefully where I can connect the spike to the speargun and consequently how long and robust it has to be. These are my thoughts.

No matter how long or sharp a spike is you will NEVER be able to kill a free swimming shark with it, these are the sharks we're concerned about. My experience is that shark skin is very tough yet very sensitive. The sharks react to the poke instantly not giving the tip a chance to sink in. If the spike were able to sink in deep it would not reach any vital organs and it would not hurt the shark any more seriously but it would increases the possibility of the shark ripping the speargun out of your hand. I remember reading an old book where divers would make a shark stick from a wooden dowel by nailing an upside down beer cap to the tip of it.

Consequently for it's intended use I don't think the spike has to be long at all, it need not protrude more than 1.5" in front of the speargun muzzle. This is also long enough to accommodate and detonate a slip-on powerhead.

Went swimming this morning with Pantoja, in the water by 7:30am. Vis was not bad, at 60ft you could make out hazy bottom structure. The current was very noticeable and got worse as the day wore on. At 30ft you could clearly see bottom from the moving boat but the current did not allow us to take advantage of it so we called it a day early, home by 1:30pm. The weatherman said 2-4.. wrong! Overall not a bad haul considering the conditions.

I wanted to make sure that the next belt I get will fit into the pinch weights Tin Man invented. These weights are awesome, they work exactly the way Tin Man envisioned them. Once I tried one I knew that I must get a belt that will fit the weights. The Rob Allen belt is the only one that is too thick to fit through the slot.

I mentioned that the rubber of the leisure pro belt had a very good balance between stiffness and stretch. So rather than experiment with yet another belt I simply took the buckle of the RA belt and combined it with the rubber of the leisure pro belt. I'm very pleased with the result. The hardware keeping the buckle on the belt is very sturdy. I also had the possibility to put only 4 holes in the belt at the intervals that I found most suitable. This makes the fit around my waist just right.

To hold the buckle in place I used these SS threaded inserts. They have a name but I forget what it is, you can buy them at west marine. They are a slimmer version of the ones in the pic of the muzzle wings. I had to grind them down to a length equal to two layers of the rubber belt.

The reason I used these fasteners instead of the Rob Allen mounting plate is because I have a distaste for logos and take them off whenever possible. On top of that I never liked the green color on that plate. However I was ready to reuse it with the DIY belt because I figured RA must know what they're doing. I laid the RA belt over the DIY belt and marked the holes to cut them out exactly like the RA.

When it was time to put the screw plate on I noticed that the plastic around two of the screw holes was cracked. The kind of crack that can happen when you over tighten screws. Except I've never taken it apart before so I didn't cause it. I tried tightening the screws anyways but two were spinning freely in the plastic. Garbage belongs in the garbage. I had the belt for a year BTW.

For those who might not be aware of the benefits; since I started using a rubber weight belt it has become a piece of gear I don't want to dive without. Here's a comparison of some rubber belts on the market.

I've examined various rubber belts in dive shops and got some idea of how they might perform but have personally used two so far, the Rob Allen and a no name brand.

The Rob Allen belt is made of a rubber material that is different to all other rubber belts that I’ve seen. The best way I can describe it is that it is somewhere between rubber and plastic. It stretches but not as much as other rubber belts and it is stiffer because of it, which is good. This allows the weights to not sag away from the body so much. The down side is that the RA material being stiffer cracks at stress points where normal rubber belts would never crack and does so relatively fast. No complaints whatsoever about the Buckle. The quick release function works perfectly. The width is 5.0cm and the thickness is 0.50cm.

This no name belt is available from leisurepro for $22 http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/Categ...B45.html?Hit=1 The buckle is a PITA. When you close it tends to pinch your skin or wetsuit. The quick release function works fine. Changing weights is a big PITA because of the way the rubber belt needs to be threaded into the buckle. Once it is threaded there is no slack hanging out of the buckle. So if you miscalculated the length you need you have to do it over again. The rubber however is decent quality. Very durable and a nice balance between stretch and stiffness. At this price it's worth to buy the belt just for the rubber. Dimensions are 5.1cm by 0.30cm.

As a BTW I heard that truck tire inner tubes have rubber that may be suitable to make a belt.

Here are some other belts on the market you might want to comment on.

Omer Marsellaise belt.

Sporasub Marsellaise belt.

Cressi Marsellaise belt.

Immersion Marsellaise belt.

Spetton Marsellaise belt.

I have my own code for spearfishing. I wish I had someone who I respected to guide me when I started but since I didn't I pretty much came up with it myself over time. When I see a beginner show honest interest asking if this or that fish should be taken it makes me feel good. When I see a beginner kill fish in ignorance it makes me feel bad but I reason that it's a learning phase that everyone must go through. The ones that really bug me are the ones that show no interest and no ethics.

Ethics are not absolute, what I mean is that something ethical in one situation can be unethical in another. For example in another place and time I decided not to take sea turtles with a speargun after having done so twice. It just didn't seem right to me even though the turtle was for consumption. Had I been in serious need of food however as many spearfishers in that place were it would be justifiable. Under normal circumstances the following are some things I do my best to abide by:

Not kill fish that are not for consumption. If I kill a fish then I make an honest effort to eat it. If not suitable for consumption I do not kill this fish again. Don't get me wrong, I have been tempted. I know the feeling when a huge tarpon swims by and the trigger finger is having spasms. But then I've never taken one so I don't know if the stories about its inedibility are true. If it really turns out to be inedible then I will not kill it just for the rush.

Not kill fish which I determined from experience to be low yield.

I'm proud to say that from the time I started spearfishing I have applied the above two rules without fail.

It is hard to know which shot is sure to land a fish but I refrain from taking some. Like shots that I know will injure a fish with very little possibility of landing it but a good possibility that the fish will die from the injuries later.

Dispatch fish properly as fast as possible after capture.

Utilize as much of the fish as possible. I scrape off the flesh that remains stuck to the backbone with a spoon. I also try to get the flesh on the top of the head, cheeks, and in front of the pectoral fins when possible. This actually yields a lot of flesh which can be used as "croqueta" or at the least feed to my dog.

I was a guest on this boat and taken to a nice little reef. Got four Mackerels one being of good size, a mutton, a dog snapper and a hog. The hog was big for what I usually get here, I've been seeing too many little hogs lately. It was my last fish of the day, just as I was thinking that I've seen no hogs all day and considering the other fish I got a good hog would top off the day nicely. I was having trouble equalizing for about an hour and was reluctant to descend when I saw this decent size fish moving along a ledge on the bottom. There were many good sized parrots and the bottom looked hazy at 25'. Having considered my equalization problem I decided to let it go and just then I noticed something about the tail and thought "oh shit, it's a hog". So I dove on him but it was late as he was on the go. I kept after him on the bottom, the fish never giving me a broadside, and was coming to the end of my air. I took a shot when he did one of those body swings and skewered his left side. He shook off the spear and took off.

As I was ascending I kept an eye on his direction, by the time I surfaced I lost sight but saw there was one of those wavy sea plants in the direction he was going. Then I realized the flopper was stuck on the bottom. This is the closest I came to crying underwater, I really wanted that fish. If I descend to free the spear I will lose my bearings in the shitty vis and any chance of recovering the hog. So keeping an eye on where the plant was, I started doing the yo yo thing with the shooting line and losing my patience fast. Then the spear broke loose. Quick reload and swim over to where the hog might be. Breath up, dive and there he is looking disoriented, I got a stone shot this time. It felt good to know he was mine.