Posts by red tide

I drink a giant cup of Cafe Bustello every morning diving or not. On dive days I drink the same but I also take a Claratin D24. I have been doing this for years. I have done it for weeks at a time diving well past 100 feet all day everyday. To each his own I say.
Oh, I almost forgot about the beer advise. Drink lots after every day of diving but never when diving If beer is not available drink wine or rum:crazy:

I have taken several Hogfish over the years that looked like that one. It is amazing how they recover. It is kinda strange that you don't find other fish with similar healed up wonds. I have only found this with Hogfish.

Don,
That was one ugly speargun

Does this one meet the policy?:D

Quote from Rolo

I agree, this is a great thread. I can't imagine all the fish and stories alinged with that gun. GR is the master story teller and could probably shoot fish with just about any contraption. Good stuff.:thumbsup2:

Rolo,
Let me know when those big stupid East Coast greys start showing up. I will come over with my vintage arsenal and we can have some fun.

Viejo

Welcome to the best Spearfishing Forum out there. You will find a lot of great information here and members that are willing to help you get dialed in. Good luck and show us your big fish stories

Quote from greekdiver

How often does it happen to you? Lets say out of 50 shots?

Very infrequent. It does seem to happen when you least expect it. It can be very dangerous. I have shot 60 fish in a single day and never had it happen. I don't know:crazy:

Quote from Wood Guy

What a great post! Reminds me of some of the early go carts I made as a kid- ironing board, bunk bed frame. That gun belongs in a special place on the "Wall of Fame"! Do you still hunt with it?

That picture was taken this past year. I brought out some old guns and went diving with some friends. We had a blast. Everybody marveled at how I could still hunt with that thing. I have a newer version that is even more high tech. I will take some pictures and post it when I get a chance.

I hunted Tampa Bay and the Gulf waters from Saint Petersburg to Tarpon Springs inside of 60 ft. Mostly in the 25 to 35 foot stuff. We did not have float lines or reels. We would free shaft and then switch to the line shaft to finish of the bi ones. I lost alot of shafts back then:D
As far as the fish go it is pretty much the same. Grouper, hogfish. mangrove, cobia are about the same. Goliath grouper are more plentiful now(we used to shoot a bunch).There are a whole lot more sharks. Strangely enough there are less sheephead in the bay nowadays. I think the invasion of the green mussles has a lot to do with it. Sheephead like barnacles and all of the barnacles have been block out from the green mussles. But what do I know.

Line shaft to free shaft... I invented that too:D
So you see all of these high tech guns are not really so high tech. I used to have as much fun with that gun as I do now with all of my Wongs, Aimrites, Riffes, Alexanders ect.

I do not know for sure but I believe I invented the rail gun. Yes this one off masterpiece sported a rail from bow to stern.

The shaft was made from a 48 inch piece of spring stainless. I had to buy it in 12 foot legnths from the stainless supply house. I think I had to pay $12 for a 12 foot legnth which worked out to $4.00 per shaft. I hand drilled the hole for the barb and for my high tech trigger mechanisim. I cut the slot in the back of the shaft for the bands with a round hack saw blade. The trigger was made from left over lexan that I had laying around from a skateboard project that I lost interest in.

O.K., you guys asked for some pics of my 1976 super high tech hand crafted speargun designed by a 16 year old mastermind. Enjoy
Here is a profile of the gun that I used from 1976 to about 1995. I shot thousands of fish with this gun. Notice the high tech enclosed muzzel that I crafted out of a piece of sprinkler pvc (I worked on a golf course)

Quote from griswold

GR,

What are you using for shooting line?
How long do you cut your wishbones?
How many wraps?
If 2 wraps, do you alter the wrap direction?

I recently tried using a stiff spectra line for my shooting line and it failed miserably - got stuck in the bands approximatley every 10th shot. This stuff tended to get a kink in it when twisted.

Bill used a closed muzzle rob allen railgun for years as his primary inside the rig gun and would get tangles pretty regularly until he started changing out his cable as soon as it got kinked.

I think that the tangles happen when the shooting line is kinked, or somehow slightly messed up while it is passing through the area where the bands are spread out after releasing their energy.

In my mind, minimizing wishbone length and doing everything possible to ensure that the shooting line comes off cleanly and isn't a material that is prone to kinks and tangles is about all we can do unless a bottom line release is an option.

I know that Merlo's site advocates a bottom line release to keep the shooting line on the bottom of the gun, away from the bands. He says that he has never had a band/shooting line tangle using this system. I'm thinking about using it on some future big guns which will won't utilize reels.

I just read your post in the reel thread and wonder how you route your shooting line (through the line anchor, or straight to the reel?) I like running it straight to the reel, just to keep one more thing out of the band area. As you know a float isn't an option many times on the rigs, and we usually don't have a bottom, so this is a subject that is particularly significant to me.

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On my reel guns I only use one wrap of line. It is usally one wrap of 250 to 400 lb mono depending on the structure and fish being hunted. I have tried spectra a few years back with miserable results. This problem has happened on my Riffe Baja, Riffe No Ko Ai, 55 Wong Hybrid, Rabitech 130,Aimrite 125 and Aimrite 140. As you know I shoot a lot of fish and have a lot of comparisons to make an assesment, but I can not figure what it is that causes this to happen. I love hunting with a reel for the convenience, but I am ready to go old school and dump the reels forever unless somebody can tell me how to prevent this from happening.

What causes the shooting line to get tangled in the bands? This only happens once in a while but it can put you in a bad situation quick. I recently lost a $1,000 gun that I had to let go of at 80 feet. #$%^^^:angry5:

Quote from greekdiver

What do you think caused the line to get stuck on the bands? Is it the reel line or mono getting stuck on the bands? I have yet to experience this.

I will start a new thread on this subject.

For South Florida I would get a 120 to 130 railgun or a 55 to 57 Wood gun. Two bands and a 9/32 or 7.0MM shaft. The Riffe S3 and C3 are good guns but you might be a little under powered at times. As long as you are having fun it really does not matter what gun you have. Some days I go retro and use this old gun that I built in 1976. Still shoots fish and I still have fun.

Welcome Mike. I just found this place a week ago. Definitley the best spearfishing forum out there. A lot of good info and exchange of ideas.

Until this past year I was a reel junkie. I would use a reel for every type of fish except wahoo and tuna. What happened??? I lost a gun to a Permit I shot in 80 ft of water. My shooting line got caught in the bands and I could not horse the fish to the surface, so I let go of my favorite Wong gun never to be seen again. A couple of weeks later I shoot a 40 lb Kingfish and my shooting line gets caught in the bands on my 140 Aimrite. Fortinatley the mono cut the bands and I landed the King. Anyway, I am kinda not liking reels except when hunting Kelp, Bridges, or Oil Rigs.
Prior to my reel negativity I wanted to design and produce a better reel. I wanted one that would hold 300 feet of 2mm line. It would be a horizontal mount and have a fast line retrevial. I invisioned a biggger diameter reel with a lower profile. It would have a stainless shaft and base, but everything else would be some type of plastic/carbon.
If somebody comes up with a kick ass design, I might be inclined to fund production.

Western Australia actually. Best spearfishing in the World.