Spearfishing Report-not...Spearfishing Gear Report-yes

Report?, what report?....weathers been windy as hell this past weekend, as forecasted so my gills be drying up again, but I guess its ok as this time has allowed me to catch up on some orders, as well as finish up a few more guns for the summer season.

My latest gem is a carbon/teak euro speargun, with a Marlin handle/trig mech I'm making for the Squirrel (my son, B-day coming up). This gun will be unique in that it will be full'on enclosed graphite track (not many enclosed track eurospearguns out there, right). Lately I've been making most guns with a graphite poured track I've noticed a huge difference in performance, although its alot more work (and messy as heck), the graphite provides a slick surface for the arrow to ride! This gun has presented a few challenges, but hey, thats whats its about, what fun would it be if it was easy (yeah right). For example getting the right elevation of the enclosed track relative to the handle, another was tweeking the band holes (could have gone with a prefab muzzle but that was just too easy) to get them as high up as possible (that is inline with the shaft, I mean com'on its a euro right) Well this this carbon/teak custom euro will be measuring about 110cm, we're looking at 2 bands probably 5/8 (the Squirrel's man'ed up from 9/16, I hope) and my trade mark double taper, but this guns side taper will have a triad rather than concave finish (report to follow).

A few other spearfishing gear we've been manufacturing quite a bit of is our low profile spearfishing floatline, a very low profile floatline that provides virtually zero drag while spearfishing! Another spearfishing accessory is my 7x7 Punch speartip, the best spear tip out there (in my humble opinion), its a much needed improvement on the standard rock tip. Not only is the actual point bomb proof, seriously we've shot rocks head on and this point returned unscathed, but if it does blunt you send it back to us and we'll re-point it for as long as you own it! This spear tip has some very tight dimensions perfect for our mutton snapper's helicoptor effect, once speared...no more lost fish with this speartip. And of course the Divezilla Dive bag http://settingsteel-spearfishing.blogspot.com/2009/02/found-it.html, thats earning a new title as "the best made dive bag" in the industry, this dive bag will not only hold those huge freedive fins, but will keep everything catagorized and snug....and its breathable a big plus!...theirs a few other products we've been working on, but thats under the radar for now...reports to follow!

ps on a side note we'll be lauching our speargear website soon (sorry for the delay) and as I have told a few of you we're gonna have a "name our gear" contest for some of our stuff, the the prize will be the gear the winner named, we'll keep you posted.

Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

LongKey GagFest ala Run&Gun

Headed out this Sun. after the front to Long Key for another spearfishing adventure. The drive down was pretty cool as we had about 50 ft viz on the road do to the heavy fog, kinda reminded me of my midnight drives up to Okeechobee for the annual duck hunts with my uncle. Well NOAA said it'd be under 10mph winds with some scattered showers, my bud had gone spearfishing the day prior (Sat.) and encountered under 5' viz...but man I've been jonzin' to wet me gills and needless to say shoot another carbon teak speargun I just finished custom making for a client....so we decided to "travel light" and hit Long Key on the ski's.

6 on the am found us driving down the the spearfishing stretch with my custom dive bag strapped to the back of my ski...arriving about 8'ish, by then the fog fizzled and we were greeted with a beautiful day, zero wind, seas calm, I mean less than 1'...current was very light, viz was practically T-B everywhere we dropped. I had some new spearfishing waypoints I had picked up on the last spearfishing adventure and I wanted to investigate it a bit more so me and the O'V drew up a game plan and plotted our way to the spearfishing spots.

WOW every place we hit had fish in the house, seemed the ocean was crawling with Gags, some shorty's, but most legal and healthy we filled our limit within the hour and my Miami made custom bubinga carbon spearfishing gun was havoc on the fish . We managed to shoot a few nice mules (Big Yellow Jacks) quite a few hogs, a decent sheepshead, and probably my personal best octupus (didn't shoot him though). Damn them boys are masters of deception!. We were drifting a spot and my eye caught some telltale movement, that quickly registered as an 8-legged critter, next to a pretty big sea fan, I gulped some air and went down to get him in about 40', when I reached the fan I searched and he was nowhere to be found, I left my custom speargun marking the spot and followed my low profile floatline up. I was certain he was around so I just chilled on top waiting him out. He finally made a move....he was about 6" from my bubinga carbon speargun and about a foot away from the seafan, in other words he was right in front of my nose and I never saw him- took another gulp submerged, followed my low profile floatline down and poked him...someone say SUSHI.

And of course, no story is complete without the one that got away. We went to our favorite spearfishing permit spot (about 3.5 miles out) to find us a permiso, didn't see any, but as I was headed to the ski I saw what may have been the biggest permit I have ever seen (including H&L) in Florida, damn thing looked like a car door (well a SmartCar, car door;). I dropped to intercept his path, but he wanted none of that, so he switched on me and headed towards sand. I sped after him, my lungs screaming AIR and took a hailmadre shot (read as a 20

+ foot shot) that got him about a 6" forward of the tail. My clients custom speargun did not dissappoint hitting its mark, but that permit went beserk and launched into high gear, towards the sand I fed him my low profile floatline and chased on top, well I guess he wisened up and made a U'ee back to the structure, my heart sank as I new the flopper did not clear, and he'd probably not hold. When he got there the low profile floatline went slack, but I optimistically and cautiously, approched the hole as I did the floatline moved again, as soon as I saw him (inches from me grabbing the shaft) he shook and hit the shaft against a rock and the rest is a spearfishing story...of the one that got away :(

Not complaining though all in all it was a great spearfishing adventure at Long Key!

Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing...Long Key Hunt 12/29/08

Went out with a couple of spearo's this Tuesday (12/29/08) over to Long Key...what a great day spearfishing with some great guys! NOAA said it would be under 5mph winds, and although it was gusting in the early a.m (15mph) and bumpy headed out (4-5' waves) it laid down around noon...vis was amazing top to bottom everywhere which is not to common in Long Key...current was slow, very lazy, even at our famous snapper ledge...we also scouted some new spearfishing spots that might be quite good for the summer spearfishing adventures. Saw a few nurse sharks no bulls...surprisingly we didn't see any "huge" fish but plenty of legals, hundreds of hogs everywhere, and a bunch of 20-23" blacks. Climax was a huge kingfish that Jim speared and shook off his speargun, oh well we'll gett'em next time Jimbo...arrivato

Here's a baracuda I speared or should I say, ran into my shaft...fought him for about 15min and he went airborne 3 times before he was strung, goota add that my low profile floatline I'm prototyping performed like a champ too!...cudas makes great crudo, and escabeche...and yeah, yeah chum/shark bait too.

note the big smile which was triggered by the big Yellow Jack, that was stoned...Gotta say the carbon wood custom guns I'm making are lethal...WTG Jim! a black and toad red all part of our spearfishing trip, courtesy of Long Key

A half days bounty...gotta love them keys.

Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/