Category Archives for "Deep Sea Fishing"

Spearfishing: Sustainable and Fun

Gone are the days when the Captain Ahabs of the world hunted whales to near-extinction. While harpoon fishing isn’t as popular as it once was, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of spearfishing. Done correctly, spearfishing can be a more efficient, humane, and eco-friendly method of catching fish than angling.

What is Spearfishing?

Spearfishing is exactly what it sounds like: fishing with a spear. Modern spearfishing is usually done with a polespear or a speargun, and most spearfishing equipment is meant to be used underwater, not on land.

Spearfishing is a highly versatile sport. You can spearfish while freediving, or decked out in a full-body wetsuit with a 30-pound scuba tank strapped to your back. You can use as little or as much equipment as you'd like.

Polespears

A modern polespear or hand spears consists of three parts: a pole, an elastic loop at the end of the spear, and a spear tip. Most modern polespears are collapsible.

We recommend a two-piece over a three-piece collapsible polespear because are more rigid. You don’t want a polespear that flexes excessively because it will throw off your aim when you spear your target.

The paralyzer or three-prong spear is a very popular spear tip, and it’s commonly used to catch small- to medium-sized fish, such as lionfish.

How to Use a Polespear

The first step is to load the elastic band. Loop the elastic band at the blunt end of the polespear over the four fingers of your dominant hand. The elastic band should rest on the web of your thumb.

Now it's time to grab the spear and load your polespear. Reach up the length of the pole with your dominant hand, stretching the elastic band as you do so.

As you do this, twist the spear one full turn (360 degrees). Wrapping the elastic band slightly around the pole reduces the amount of flex in the pole shaft. This is an especially important step if you have a two- or three-segmented pole. A pole that flexes excessively won’t shoot true.

Grab the spear with your dominant hand. As you pull on the elastic band, the tip of the spear will retract. You are now holding a live weapon.

Do not use a polespear outside of water. Shooting land targets is dangerous and can damage your spear.

Extend your shooting arm completely forward and lock your elbow. Hold the pole with only your shooting hand. Slowly loosen your grip on the pole. The spear tip will shoot out.

Polespears have some kickback, much like a gun. Overloading your spear will produce more kickback.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Polespear Fishing

Polespears are inexpensive, simple, and compact. They’re a very easy and cheap way to explore spearfishing if you don't want to commit to buying a speargun.

The biggest disadvantage of polespear fishing is the range of your weapon. The longest polespear is 10 feet long (3 meters). Anything longer would create too much flex in the pole.

If the range of a polespear sounds too limited, take a look at speargun fishing:

Types of Spearguns

There are two primary types of spearguns: elastic-powered (rubber band-powered) and pneumatic (air-powered) guns.

Elastic spearguns are simple and require very little maintenance.

In an elastic speargun, a cord is usually attached to the end of the spear. When you pull the trigger, an elastic band slings the spear forward, and you reel in the fish with the cord.

A pneumatic speargun has the same result as an elastic speargun, but the spear is propelled by air. Parts are cheaper and easier to replace for an elastic speargun, so we’ll go over the basics of elastic-powered speargun fishing in this article.

A standard elastic-powered speargun consists of these parts:

The Spear

The spear is thinner on elastic-powered guns than for pneumatic guns. Most speartips have a hook or locking mechanism so your prey doesn't slip off your spear.

Reel Line

A striped or brightly-colored reel line is usually connected to the end of the spear, to make recovery of your catch easier.

Rubber Band (with Wishbone)

The rubber band rests on the top of the gun, and the wishbone is a metal or elastic band that connects the two halves of the rubber band together. The wishbone is what will hold your rubber band in its loaded position until you are ready to fire.

Here is how you load an elastic speargun. While underwater, rest the non-business end of the spearguns against the center of your chest. Reach forward, towards the muzzle of the gun, and grab the rubber band with both hands. Very slowly, pull the rubber band towards your chest. Apply even and steady pulling pressure to prevent the speargun from slipping off your chest.

Loop the wishbone of the rubber band over the spear notch at the top of the speargun. Your gun is now loaded, and you're ready to catch some fish!

Trigger

A standard trigger, much like that on a gun or a crossbow. Pull the trigger to shoot the spear.

Environmental Effects of Spearfishing

A traditional hunter leaves bullet shells and toxic waste when they hunt. Firing ranges produce thousands of tons of toxic waste every year. Many of these bullet shell aren’t recycled and rust away in landfills.

Even the most cautious anglers often leave behind hooks, lines, and nets that leave fish in pain.

A cautious spearfisher doesn't leave behind any lines or hooks. Yes, spearfishing can get messy, but that's because many spearfishers hunt to eat or to reduce populations of invasive species, not to capture a photo of them holding an immaculate tuna.

That said, done ethically, traditional line fishing can be just as sustainable as spearfishing. Biodegradable fishing lines and hooks are readily available. No matter your preferred method of fishing, or your reason for fishing, it is an exciting and highly nuanced sport, and FishingVacations.com has resources to guide you every step of the way.

What is Deep Sea Fishing?

Inshore fishing is fishing within 9 miles (14.5 km) from the shore. Deep sea or offshore fishing everything beyond that 9-mile radius from the shote. At this distance from the land, the water can be anywhere from thirty to hundreds of meters deep.

Why You Should Try Deep Sea Fishing

Deep sea fishing is a incredible and unique experience from inshore fishing. You should definitely give deep sea fishing a shot if you want to:

Learn from the Best Hunters in the Ocean

Deep sea hunters are socially intelligent animals. Even sharks, which rarely seek one another’s company, will swarm in the hundreds to feast on a school of anchovies.

Hunters may have bloodhounds to lead them to their prey, but deep sea anglers have every apex predator in the sea and the sky as their guides.

The next time you go deep sea fishing and feel intimidated by the size of the ocean, pay attention to where the dolphin pods and seagull flocks are moving. These predators have hunted in the oceans for millions of years, and, if you watch them closely, they will lead you right to where the fish are schooling.

Enjoy Greater Freedom and Mobility

Inshore anglers must constantly deal with competition from other anglers. Instead of shuffling around the pier, knocking elbows with tourists and the dozens of other anglers at 7 a.m., you can go fishing anytime you want, anywhere you want.

Catch Bigger and a Greater Variety of Fish

Look at photos of anglers with trophy-sized catches. Unless they are fishing in a river or a lake, chances are, they’re standing on a boat, not on a beach or a pier.

There are two reasons for this: sound and space. Piers are loud and crowded, and fish don’t like vibrations or noise.

While the shoreline is a welcome shelter for tiny sculpins and hermit crabs, larger sea creatures like mahi-mahi, bluefin tuna, and swordfish didn’t grow large by scuttling around a pier. They grew large by feasting on large schools of open ocean fish, and by avoiding getting too close to inshore anglers. By only fishing inshore, you miss the opportunity to catch a bigger and a greater variety of fish.

In order to catch larger fish, you have to hunt where they eat. The Peruvian anchoveta is the second most-caught wild fish species in the world by commercial fishers. Anchovies swarm in the thousands in the open ocean. They need a large expanse of open ocean to maneuver away from predators. Large predatory fish will follow and hunt for anchovies in the open ocean.

Take Mahi-mahi, for example. Mahi-mahi specialize in hunting and catching flying fish. And where do flying fish fly? In the open ocean, away from the shore, where they have lots of room to swim and leap.

Another advantage that you have as an angler in the open ocean is the lack of familiarity open ocean fish have with anglers. Bass fishermen are well aware of this fact. They know that bass in a lake that doesn't have many human visitors will more readily bite than a lake that is popular among anglers.

You have a much better chance of reeling in a unique species that you've never caught before and catching a larger fish in the open ocean than shuffling along the shoreline.

Expanding Your Community

As you explore the world of deep sea fishing, you will get the opportunity to meet kayakers, windsurfers, sailors, scuba divers, marine biologists, and hobbyist and commercial fishermen.

All of these groups of people explore the ocean for different reasons, but all of them can provide you with valuable advice on the technical aspects of fishing and tell you where the best places to catch fish are. Who knows? You may even pick up a new skill or fishing buddy.