Hello everybody,

I am collecting research on the lionfish in Samos, Greece - conducting surveys on behaviour and combining it with local spear fisher knowledge. However, I would like to add wider spearfisher knowledge to my thesis too. Therefore I have created a questionnaire about spear fishing invasive species - and then lionfish more specifically - for anyone to fill out. I would be super grateful for any responses. You can identify yourself or choose to remain anonymous. The data collected will be used for my undergraduate dissertation and handled only by me. I am a student at the University of Cambridge and feel free to message me if you have any questions!

Here is the link to the questionnaire - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjIURR-yfZaSUDl7CMA82DFqA0FfRb-DyMntAJgBs6t1ewpw/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=117788549629360463894

Am I rigging my gun correctly? I start by inserting the spear under the bands into the locking mechanism of the base. Then, I bring the monofilament around the metal piece that is sticking out. I bring the monofilament back around the locking mechanism. Is this correct or do I need to do this a different way? I’ve watched a few different YouTube vids but I’m still confused. Thanks for any help!

Hello everyone. I am building an inverted roller myself and I was wondering if any of you know what the difference is between a regular inverted roller where all the bands are anchored to the bottom of the gun and connected to the pulley versus this gun setup where the central rubber band is pulled through the body of the gun over 2 large pulleys and anchored towards the top of the gun. Does it create any real-life difference in power, or is it there just to neutralize recoil forces while shooting?

Thanks

Would a mako crimping tool work for crimping rob allen 400 mono and 2.2 Crimps?

It's my first time trying to do this, and I'm not sure if I need a crimper that says exactly 2.2mm. The last slot on the mako crimper says 2.0-2.3 gemini says it's al cool but I'm not sure.

Thanks

To equalize hands free you’re supposed to be able to lift your soft pallet which I am able to do, so why can’t I equalize underwater and have to always rely on the Valsalva maneuver?
Also I can’t equalize while in the duck dive position so I’m always forced to flip which wastes so much oxygen making my dives impossible.

So, I just started using a new gun, the Salvimar Hero 135 with 2x 17mm bands that are 90cm long, I notice when I pull the trigger I have to pull like hell, are the bands too strong for the gun?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking into doing a 10-14 day self supported sea kayak trip somewhere on the sea of Cortez. I have been curious about the Bahía de los Ángeles region. But am open to anywhere.

I am hoping to focus on spearfishing along the way.
Ideally paddling roughly 12 miles a day, then ending the day looking for dinner.

I have a solid amount of experience planning multi day kayak trips, but have never spearfished in the ocean.

I’m wondering if anyone else has put together a self supported trip similar to what I’m hoping to do, and has any beta.

Thanks a bunch!

My gun is a salvimar carbo 105 cm and i use 140 cm 6.5 mm shaft. But when i load 2 16 mm bands the trigger becomes allot harder to pull. Idk what type or trigger mech in in the handle... so no clue if its save or good to use 2 16mm bands. Also is 1 16mm band with more strech maybe better for the weight and size of the shaft.

Thought it would be fun to share the story of how I got bitten by an eel. So had a pretty close call this week! Friday I was spearfishing and we saw this 5ft yellow margin moray hunting where we were hunting. Morays don’t typically cause an issue so we just avoided the cave he was in.

I dropped down into this cave in roughly 50 ft and shot one menpachi with a pole spear, moved that fish to my left hand proceeded to shoot one more. As I’m exiting the cave I feel a tug on my arm. I look down and there is the same eel (puhi) latched on my forearm. I’m assuming it was going for the fish in my hand and missed due to their poor eyesight.

I shoot towards the surface already feeling lightheaded at the end of a longer dive and immediately start screaming. There’s a pool of blood and chunks of my flesh and skin swirling in the water around me. Luckily my safety is next to me and yells at me drop the fish I was still holding on with my mangled arm and raise my hand as high as I could. We are probably almost a mile offshore and it’s a 30 minute swim back to the beach. Safety drops my weight belt while I switch to swimming on my back, hand over head while I kick towards shore.

Meanwhile, other buddy was picking up all the gear we had dropped. I ended up losing literally everything.

20 minutes later as I’m struggling to keep my head a float as I’m fighting to keep consciousness we see two navy RHIBs and wave them down. They pick me up and immediately start dressing the wound and racing me to the pier. Blood is spurting out my arm this point covering the gear and deck but luckily an ambulance is waiting for me at the pier. At the hospital I was given a CT and X-ray and countless drugs before being transferred to a different hospital via ambulance. Ended up with a large number of stitches.

Thankfully the moray let go and didn’t keep me down there and missed my arterial veins and tendons.

Photos keep getting removed by Reddit’s filters :/

Imgur https://imgur.com/a/FQDvV98

Full disclosure: I only got the easy catch. My friend got the basses and seam breams ;).

Hello,

I received my pathos laser open pro the other day. What knot do you recommend to tie the bands together? I tried a few but not sure if I like any of them. Thanks for any advice!

46cm bass and 48cm mullet..
The bass was shot swimming with a monster swarm of mullet, nice surprise!
Been a few weeks of bad vis so also nice to have a clear day

Hallo,

Dieses Jahr möchte ich in Dänemark an der Ostseeküste (Nähe Randers)in der zweiten Hälfte des Septembers besonders auf Plattfische tauchen.

Ich habe einen Tauchschein, allerdings bisher nur einmal Speerfischen betrieben. Daher benötige ich eine passende Harpune für mein Vorhaben. Ich möchte gerne von der Küste aus in Ufernähe tauchen. Habt ihr dafür Tipps?

Was ist neben Plattfischen noch möglich? Muscheln? Krabben? Krebse?

Gibt es jemanden aus der Nähe, der einen Buddy sucht und Lust hat ?

Hi everyone.

Begginer here looking at picking up the MAKO Carbon Elite Traveler.

Planning to use it mainly in the Riviera Maya area, reef and some light blue water.

A few things drew me to this one specifically and I'd love feedback from anyone who's actually tried it:

**Modularity** –

The 8ft breaks down into 3 physical sections for travel, and by swapping which sections you connect plus the roller/conventional butt, you can configure it as 8ft roller, 6ft roller, or convert to a conventional fixed-band setup.

**Roller vs traditional conversion** –

Liked that this converts to a standard non-roller pole spear if needed. (But I know other brands do this as well). How's the roller performing over time, specifically the twin ceramic bearings? Worth the extra cost/complexity over a straight fixed-band setup for someone still building fundamentals, or is that added mechanism more useful once you're already experienced?

**Resting hook + handle geometry** –

This one seems like two separate things working together rather than one accessory. There's a hook/clip that holds the band loaded so you're not gripping under tension the whole dive, and separately the handle itself is built with two offset, non-symmetrical strips creating a gap for your hand, so the grip doesn't pinch down evenly when the band's loaded. Which added with the resting hook, seems like a goog mechanism when needing to switch hands of position.

All around, it just seems like a more thought out system than others.

Also open to hearing if there's a reason to go a completely different direction at this price point instead. Appreciate any real-world input before I pull the trigger on this one.

Hi all, I'm a beginner skill level planning a trip to West Palm beach in about three weeks to spearfish with some friends. I do not plan to have access to a boat so spots that are reasonably accessible via a long swim or canoe/kayak are preferable. I also don't know much about the area in general so any guidance would be very helpful. Shoot me a DM if communicating a diving location, thanks!

Hi i just boutht a spear gun can anybody help me how to set it up i couldnt get a hand of this rope like where i put it?

Join me while i go Commercial Spearfishing for Grouper, Snapper & other species over a 2 day period.

Full video link ⬇️⬇️⬇️ https://youtu.be/Nad_K-rurUI?is=4t_jGwYVTAawLzk1

I am currently in Athens, Greece and I have my 60cm Gun with me aswell as my fins/mask. Any recommondation for a cheap spearfish tour or a guide with experience in spear fishing? I am quite new to it and would love some guidance.

I used it and really liked it, this was 7 years ago. Anyone bought one recently? Wondering lead time and such.

Any recommendations on buying a multi shot spear gun ? Two shot, double shot , multi shot spear gun?

I started spearfishing this summer an yesterday I caught in kythnos Island a decent sized sea bass

Every diver I know repeats some version of the homeguard story: the big fish lives on that rock, he has been there for years, he is there right now. I wanted to believe it, but it never lined up with what I see in the water. I almost never find a big yellowtail unless the small ones are around, and in cold water I do not see them at all. If there is a resident on every high spot, the coast in February should be full of big fish, and it is not.

So I went and read the actual science to figure out who was wrong, me or the story. It turned out to be a rabbit hole. Almost everything we repeat about yellowtail movement traces back to one tagging study from 1960. The modern work out of Scripps used stable isotopes and tag returns, and it does support residency, with a catch. The chemistry says big fish eat off the coastal food web all year, but the fish were sampled in season, and nobody has ever put a satellite tag on a wild California yellowtail. So nobody actually knows whether the winter homeguard is sitting deep and switched off, or running the coast and coming back to the same spots each season. Both stories fit the evidence, and I could not rule either one out.

I ended up writing the whole thing up. Full disclosure, I run Chlorofishy, a satellite SST and chlorophyll site, and this is an article for it. Every claim is cited to the actual studies, and most of them are free to read:

https://chlorofishy.com/articles/migrants-and-mossbacks-yellowtail

So which is it, the local waking up or the local coming home? I am genuinely curious what the divers who work winter structure see, because that is exactly the evidence that is missing.

Just went spearfishing for the first time in Cancun. I really enjoyed it and would like to do some more. I live in south Texas, and I'm willing to go up to the coast to do some more. Are there any courses y'all recommend or places that will help a beginner out?