spear fishing

[corndog-44]

I tried a lot of the spearing methods you see in survival manuals. Most of them are a joke, in fact it was the least productive. I can catch fish by hand more successfully than with the spear. If you do try the spear method, you must fire harden the end and add a barb. Even this method looks better on TV than in real life. It took 20 tries to spear one. Has anyone had any success at spear fishing? Any tips?

[wareagle69]

i had purchased a spear this summer but you must be native to legally spearfish in canada although if in a need to situation you can charge me when i come out alive. my new property has a stream running thru it and i will practice on my own property.

[owl_girl]

What about those Hawaiian harpoons, they must have been successful or the natives would have stopped using them. I saw an episode of survivor where they gave one team some of those Hawaiian harpoons and they said once they had then spearing fish was easy.

I would love to try fishing that way

[FVR]

Hawaiian slings are what we use to call them when we dove off the coast of S. Cal.

Pretty basic idea, long shaft, three pronged barb, with a surgical tubing wrist sling. Worked great for snorkeling, took a little practic.

I'd like to try it, seen a mess of trout in the stream across the street but it's illegal in Georgia.

[corndog-44]

It's legal in Indiana in certain large streams and non-flowing waters. Spear fishing is allowed in these waters all year, day and night for suckers, carp, gar, bowfin, buffalo and shad with no bag limits.

[FVR]

Yeh, legal for all the fish that taste like crap. Use to catch carp on the Delaware, caught one that was well over 10lbs, cooked it up and ate it. It was okay, If I was dying of hunger but otherwise, no thanks.

[corndog-44]

“Hollow out a log with an ax, put the carp inside the log. Toss the whole mess into a fire. throw away the carp and eat the log. “
~Ancient Carp Recipe

[corndog-44]

I try to account for optical refraction at the water's surface, which makes the fish appear to be further away. Unlike a straw in a glass, the fish are moving and so is the water. Should I aim lower to hit the target or what? I'm talking about surface spear fishing here, not underwater.

[trax]

tv was black and white, people were stills shocked and saddened by the Kennedy assassination...Yeah yeah I was a kid, blah blah blah..anyway...we used to go spear fishing!

I knew there was a point there trax, keep going! Carry a big-assed nail in your shirt pocket, if you need to spear fish, drive the nail into a good sized stick then heat and sharpen the flat end, barbed hook! As far as nailing the buggers corn-dog....practice. Where I hail from we had plenty of rock laden creeks where we could stand out on the rocks and spear the fish, plenty of broken and damaged spears but you do get more accustomed to anticipating the fishy's movements in the water with practice.

We caught plenty of jackfish (northern pike to my southern friends) which are slimy on the outside, bony on the inside, but tasty fried and certainly meet any daily protein requirements one may have.

Man, it's been years and years since I did that, course it was illegal as hell, but I'm wanting to go back home and do it again, just thinking about it!

[Smok]

yes using wood for the spear point is not very good try river Cain and fire harden it . make the point like the Hawaiian spear with 4 to 6 points or wire is great IF YOU HAVE IT

[HOP]

I use to make a fishing stick for my son it was basicly a stick split down the end some and with a few teeth carved on the inside and springy with a triger and he could catch blue gills all day long.

[Beo]

We did that in Ranger school, split the stick (6 to 7 foot length, flexible sapling works best about as big as two finger widths) down the middle 7in. split, fire harden after cutting barbs into split, insert a small stone (no bigger than your pinky) to keep the split seperated, tie in with twine or thin leather thong (wet twine first or leather thong a boot lace works well also) and there you have it. Aim about 1 or 2 inches behind where you wanna strike and practice. God its been a long time since I did that (don't tell no one its illegal in Ohio, but now I gotta try it again).
The simple way is to by a frog jig and use that.

[Smok]

Are you surer its behind and not below or above I can not remember ??

[flandersander]

I know. It is "Aim below and you will know, aim high and you will die (of starvation i guess)." So aim low!

[MedicineWolf]

Beowulf is right, it is aim an inch or so behind what you actually see. We still do spear fishing on the reservation.

[Bladesypher]

Spear fishing is a very hard skill to grasp and takes a large amount of skill.

[flandersander]

I agree. I want to try tying a string to the back of my blowgun and tying the other end on to the dart. making a barbed dart and try hitting the perch at the lake. any other ideas on blowgun fishing?

[Rick]

Check this out.
http://www.wholesalegoods.net/Mercha..._Code=specblow

Here's another one:

http://www.geocities.com/blowgunhunter/fish-pix.html

[pgvoutdoors]

I've had reasonably good success with a Hawaiian Sling. While stationed at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii we would use it to catch fish but I found it great to spear squid and eel. I was shown how to use the sling by locals, which always speeds up the learning curve. We would snorkel up on the squid and eels, they would back themselves into the rocks, where we could take a good short range shot.

Fishing spears I've found very tough to use in deep water. Here in N.E. Ohio we have shallow rivers and creeks that I fish for Steelhead by fly rod. I noticed that the Suckers are in high numbers in the Spring. So I made up a spear with a removable head. (took three heads with me) I went to a small feeder creek in the evening and waded into the middle of the creek. I worked my way upstream and as I've done before. I could walk up to the back of the suckers laying on the bottom facing upstream. The water was only one-two feet deep and very clear. I used only a small LED head lamp which gave ample light to move and spot the fish. The bottom of the creek is a flat Shale, easy to walk on. It was very easy to walk up on them

Relying on some training I receive in the USMC, I attempted to spear some suckers. The spear didn't ride forward so much, not like it had done in the past in deeper water. I used a three prong head with barbs of bone. (shattered deer leg) The penetration wasn't very good but I could easily hold down the Sucker to retrieve him. The spear heads were fragile and I went through the three I brought in about 1 1/2 hours.

I smoked the fish slowly for about three hours and cooked the in a half dozen ways. I used salt and wild plants as ingredients to my recipes. For the most part the fish turned out pretty good. Under a survival situation they would be darn good. Sense that time I've experimented on different methods of catching fish using natural materials and basic survival supplies.

[canid]

spearfishing seems to only lend itself well to some fish species in some situations. river carp, large and lazily drifting by are obviously more suitable than palagic tuna.

in my area, spearfishing is permitted during from spring through summer for carp, goldfish, western sucker, sacramento blackfish, hardhead [i don't even know what those latter two species are], sacramento pike minnow and lamprey. archery is permitted year round for most of those species. these happen to be the species best suited for that type of fishing. unfortunately, i would be hard pressed to find any fish i would want to eat within even unreasonable walking distance from where i live unless i where starving to death. i have to travel for my fish.

when i was in mitchigan, i giged for amphibians, which is an easier proposition, given my skill set [turttle and bullfrog from a johnboat in sloughs and lagoons].