Posts by Guest

  • Portable depthfinder / bottom machine

    I've done a bit of looking, but can't seem to find what I want. Do any of you kayak guys know of a relatively inexpensive bottom machine suitable for a kayak? It seems like it would need to be a bit more waterproof than typical electronics in case the boat gets flipped. It would be really great if it ran off a smaller battery pack, instead of a typical deep cycle 12V battery.

  • New Gun!!!

    Quote from Dan

    Congratz on the new gun. For some reason "killer bee" comes to mind. I find the last pic confusing. It looks like there's no mech in the trigger pocket and the ends of the pocket are rounded, so as to accept the Tuna mech. But in the pic above it the mech housing looks square.


    Based on the position of the red breakaway bungie, I think that last pic is the bottom of the gun, showing the pushrod against the trigger.


    Beautiful gun. What were the woods used?

  • Minus 15 miles offshore

    Quote from polegun8

    Nice fish. Between Tampa and Clearwater, I hear there are a lot of hogfish. Also, I hear that you have to go far far out to get into deep water. I was wondering how close to shore hogfish can be found in decent numbers? Also, what would the water depth average at 1 mile out? 3 miles? Thanks.


    You usually wont be able to have very good viz 1 mile out. The water there is a lot different than on the east coast. Average depth 1 mile out of Clearwater is about 20ft. 3 miles out, 22ft lol I hit a lot of the public numbers in 35ft and they're about 7-9miles out. And yes there are a lot of hogfish.

  • Polespears and slings

    Quote from Dan

    LOL just cut the shaft an inch and grind a new point. Why would you want to move it forward?


    That's an option, but it doesn't make much sense unless you have old gun shafts laying around. The RA sling shafts are already designed with lower power sling shooting in mind, and they are cheaper. Having the flopper further forward on a sling shaft compensates for the reduced power generated and increases its ability to deploy. This does however slightly increase the chance a fish will be able to shake the spear by not having a long enough piece sticking out the exit hole for leverage. It's a compromise, but if the flopper is never able to deploy you are more likely to lose the fish entirely than if the fish shakes that shaft after some fighting and holes up. Flopper length also determines how far the shaft must penetrate before deploying and leverage needed to hold in the fish.


    I like the RA 6.6mm shafts in 170 or 180cm length for shooting longer shots on open water type fish or when over hard bar type bottom. For larger groupers and reef hunting I like the thicker 7mm in 160cm length because its more maneuverable in and around holes and more resistant to bending when fighting fish out of holes.

  • Diving with goggles

    I agree that there can be a normal force from your face, and there is probably a difference in the way equalization is done when freediving / scuba. I'm having a hard time breaking some of my scuba habits, but on scuba, I would equalize until a few small bubbles escaped. So in that case, the internal air pressure and external water pressure exactly balanced (ignoring the mask strap). A scuba mask also has a lot more internal volume, and room to move before it hits the face. But your analysis is stil a more complete one.


    I don't have any experience with typical goggles, except messing around in the pool. But the ones I have tried always seem designed to fit just inside the eye socket, and so push on softer tissue instead of bone. At least on me. The wooden goggles just seem a little rounder and maybe larger, so I'm thinking they contact in different places.

  • Diving with goggles

    Thinking about a mask . . .


    The air pressure inside the mask exactly balances the outside water pressure at all times, whether you add extra air or not. What changes, is whether the mask has to compress to achieve the pressure balance. When you add air, you increase the internal volume of gas inside the mask, so that the skirt stays "inflated" to the proper position. I guess what I am saying, is that I don't think air pressure on or around the eyes is what causes discomfort, but the way the skirt gets deformed and pressed against the face.


    With goggles, maybe it is possible to get a fit in such a way that the frames fit the hard areas of the eye socket (avoiding the softe eye tissue), and create less pain when pressed?

  • Freediving class fins

    Quote from Dan

    Those of us who are accustomed to using good fins would be very reluctant to downgrade. I detect the presence of the "I did a freediving course" guru factor :)


    lol well its not that I dont think good fins are important, but theres a certain point where your equipment will limit you, until you hit that point, which I havn't hit yet with my fins, I dont think that I need to spend $300 on CF fins.


    As far as the technique vs. gear goes all I can say is that William Trubridge ( has great technique) just dove no fins farther than 99.9% of people can with the best CF fins on the market. See you dont need good fins to go deep :)  <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">

  • Freediving class fins

    I just finished up a PFI class this past weekend. I brought my leaderfins and no one really commented on them. They wern't really as big of gearheads as some of the guys on this forum, but they did give some pointers as to what type of footpocket to buy.


    The people taking the class had all sorts of fins from the Persistent double pointed one to C4 falcons. Honestly, its a lot more in the technique than your equiptment.

  • Doc's Ear Plugs

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Dylan, what you are describing sounds like what happens to Ben when he dives back to back days...i wonder if it is not actual congestion but inflamation of the tubes themselves causing blockage...then no amount of clearing would work, only antiimflammatory drugs


    Funny you should mention this Judah. I learned in my PFI class this week that it is actually the membranes and muscles behind my ear that were getting inflamed and blocking the passage of air from the eustachain tubes and through the eardrum.


    Only antinflammatory drugs like ibuprofen have been able to clear them.

  • Broken Carbide Drill bit in Pursuit Jig

    I know it seems a little counter intuitive. But I've been around some pretty big surface grinders in different machine shops, and they always use a heavy flood of liquid coolant to protect both the grinding wheel and the work piece from overheating. The fluid also helps carry the abraded particles away from the contacting surfaces.

  • 33" rear-handle

    I really like the handle Rich. It seems simple in retrospect, but it's a very clever solution. Thanks much for sharing the detail.

  • Broken Carbide Drill bit in Pursuit Jig

    I know I'm probably splitting hairs, but here's my take . . .


    Different oils serve different purposes. In this case, you want the oil to reduce the heat due to friction, and to absorb some of the heat that is generated. But some oils (like motor oil) are formulated with additional additives that are intended specifically to prevent two metal surfaces from contacting. That's not optimal when you WANT the cutting edge to bite.


    So while motor oil, WD-40, and many others will work a lot better than nothing, I find that pipe threading oil or a similar cutting oil works better still.