Posts by Ryddragyn

  • Minus 15 miles offshore

    Quote from spearstuff

    I've always wondered... what kind of meat do hogfish have? Can anyone relate it to a fish we have out here on the west coast?


    btw Nice hog!


    Probably more similar to sheephead than anything else, seeing as how they're both wrasses. But then again the Mexican hogfish in the Sea of Cortez are related wrasses but the meat is noticably different (firmer IMO).


    Very nice fish, especially for where you were. Congrats. I'd love to shoot a Fla hogfish one day soon. What are conditions like in March usually?

  • Some recent videos...

    Quote from Marco

    Never had the chance to dive with sea lions. Are they aggressive/dangerous to divers?


    Nice vids


    Usually they just swim around and scare fish off, or steal them off of stringers that are clipped to floats. All the ones in the video were females, but males can be a bit more feisty. I've had them bark at me from the water, then jump onto the dock and do a false charge with teeth bared. They're more like sea bears than sea lions...


    Worst I've had while diving was them just swimming around me repeatedly and invading my personal space. No bites though...

  • Wong Shafts?

    Are these the same shafts that Florida Freedivers was selling for a while as "KJ" shafts? I think they're the same shafts made in the same factory in SA.


    My experience with them is that they aren't completely deburred everywhere, so the mono loop through the sharkfin can get chewed up after just one trip.


    That said, I only bought one shaft, so my results might not be typical. Also, for what it's worth, I bent the hell out of the shaft, but while it was straight, it shot like a dream due to the extra rigidity vs. 17/4.

  • America vs Australia: spearguns

    Quote from luxemburg

    The riffe euros are pretty popular over hear but alot of our diving is shore based so the oil finish gets scratched up alot hence why people like the hard finishes alot over here.


    I think the euros are pretty poorly made also. The wood is not great and the finish is poor. However they are a nice gun to use.


    I am in agreement. Most of my diving is off of rocky shores, so an oil finish is not the best protection (or lack thereof). That's exactly why I did the hard finish.


    As far as quality of manufacturing, teak is a pretty soft wood with a high oil content, so A) it gets scratched easily and B) there is a tendency of the guns to delaminate. That is what happened to mine, but I caught it early, and the epoxy finish saved it. The gun is now about as perfect as it can get (for my own diving and hunting style that is) thanks to the increased stability and durability. However, if they made the euro series in padauk that would be very interesting...


    My other go-to gun is a carbon fiber Aimrite.


    Post pictures of your guns already! I think you've been lucky enough to find a forum with people with similar-enough tastes in spearguns.

  • America vs Australia: spearguns

    Quote from Dan

    Not all Americans prefer bulky wood guns, this is mostly a west coast thing. You can see my preferred gun and the dimensions here http://spearfishing.world/spea…-made-a-new-speargun.html


    The sculpted "artistic" guns you speak of by their nature increase the size of the stock considerably. For this reason I stay away from them. The only production guns made to my preference as far as stock dimensions are the Riffe competitor series. These are good guns but have one major drawback, the handle.


    Like Dan, I prefer slimmer, rear-handled wooden guns. Being a west-coaster, I live in the epicenter of the massive, mid-handled wood gun culture, but I've just never liked them.


    My go-to gun is a Riffe Euro X, but with a hard finish that apparently is also liked by the Aussies.


    As far as artistic, sculpted guns go, I think the Europeans do that even more so than us. Case in point , Abellansub, et al.

  • Custom Euro Gun Builders

    I meant tracks, when I looked at some of the C4's on display at the blue wild a few years ago, they were trackless, and seemed to rely on parallel band alignment to avoid whip. The Omer wooden guns were trackless too. Most of these guns look like they have tracks (albeit extremely shallow ones to accomodate their complex geometry). Not that I have a complaint with that or anything, just noticing..

  • Best hali dive yet!

    Quote from Stephan

    Really nice fish there Daniel. And while there is more skill and pride in whacking halibut when it comes to eating I'd rather be eating a limit of scallops raw on the beach.


    Way to go guys.


    Daniel: Do you mind saying how deep the water was where you found the fish?


    His were in very shallow, I saw a few shorts at the same depth. I dove the deeper reefs and sand patches a huindred yards out and saw nothing.


    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Ry. That also sounds amazing


    You'd be amazed how much attention you can get on a beach when you drag a boogie board full of scallops on the beach, then start cutting them open and squeezing key lime juice on them.

  • Best hali dive yet!

    I repeat: **** you, Daniel. :) Oh well, my corbina tasted good.


    By the way, scallop dive was successful this morning. Collected a limit and ate them all raw on the beach.

  • Keep your wood gun looking good

    Don't oil it for a while to let as much oil get out of it as possible, then add epoxy after sanding and acetone.


    I had Phil Herranen epoxy my Riffe Euro as a way to prevent scratching and delamming. Worth every penny. The thing has been dragged down gravelly river bottoms, knocked around on boats, used as a marker on rocky coral reefs, etc etc...it still looks amazing. If you're going to epoxy it, use his stuff.