Spearfisherman unite......

[JimmyG]

Sitting here tonight in the cold wondering what people in warm places are doing. then I got to thinking again about how much fun I used to have spearfishing, so I was just wondering, how many of ya'll on this board are Divers?  I'm pretty sure I know of one on the forum, but anyone else on here dive and spearfish? Talk about a hoot, it's like hunting with a fishing pole on steroids. I started in California as a skin diver(free diver now a days).  I goat my son interested in becoming a certified Scuba diver and got certified in scuba myself. I've been to The Keys diving and spearfishing as well.  It's been a couple years now since I have been diving, hard to do up here in Tennessee with a lot of success unless you dive some quarry's.  Anyhow, anyone out there do this?  I would ride the Valk to a good dive site if I could, there, now it's valkyrie related. 

[olddog1946]

I learned to scuba while on a temporary duty down in Panama and Honduras back in 85. The Navy sponsered a course, and since I had a lot of time to myself I signed up for it. The old fart that taught the class had fins that were at least six foot long. He'd been teaching classes for something like 45 years. What a trip !!!
I've been lucky enough to dive in Panama (both Pacific and Atlantic), Hondouras, and the Philippines.
Once I retired from the Air Force and moved to central Wa. I didn't go again and sold all my gear for 250 bucks. The kid that bought it was extatic, he got one hell of a deal. I'd won the money to buy all of playing  the dollar slots at the Hotel I was staying in while in Panama.  Those were some good times.

[Xtracho]

olddog....Roatan< one of my favorite places to dive in all the world. Got my first certification in 1979 then went on to Commercial Diving School in Seattle. Spent 5 years diving in the oil patch before I got my Captain's License. Still love to blow some bubbles once in a while. While up in Seattle we did some awesome spearfishing in the Puget Sound. We would also go up to Anacortes on the weekends and dive for Dungeness crabs. Yup...those were good times.

Jimmy...some good diving here on the gulf coast, although the visibility is usually best in the fall and winter. We used to dive the old Liberty Ships off the Alabama coast, there's an old Russian Freighter off the coast of Pensacola, and there are some caves to be explored here in the panhandle. Not really my cup of tea but I've done it a couple of times.

[olddog1946]

The most amazing thing I found about diving was the absolute brilliant colors..freaking awesome !!!

[Xtracho]

The most amazing thing I found about diving was the absolute brilliant colors..freaking awesome !!!

And night diving is even better. Wife is from Honduras so we get to spend a lot of time down there. She's from Tegucigalpa, not too far from where you were probably stationed. Roatan is the southern tip of the second largest barrier reef in the world. Only second to the Great Barrier in Australia. The best diving is always in the first 60 feet or so where the sunlight gets to everything.

[sandy]

I use to dive. Been down on the Rhone in the BVI. The Rhone is the ship that The Deep was filmed on. Movie took place in Bermuda but the underwater scenes were on the Rhone off Salt Island. I still snorkle summers on St John in the USVI. My best buddy moved there 8 years ago.

[donaldcc]

  i've done scuba a bit.  little cayman island was the best ever.  fly in on small plane onto seashell covered runway.  75 yard or so off shore dropped from 75' to about 3000'.  every kind of sea animal.  even hammerheads.  awesome.  night dives are completely different sealife.  it's amazing.

[miscott]

                         brilliant colors..freaking awesome !!!   


 

[Pappy!]

Born and raised in the Keys.....Dad owned a Johnson Outboard dealership. Grew up diving. We also lived in the Bahamas for almost 7 years....fantastic diving and spearfishing there albeit with a sling instead of a spear gun.

[steve 3054]

I have dove most of the keys and a few spots in the Bahamas chain as well...killed a lot of fish to pay for trips...great fun, if you can give it a try...a whole lot of ocean out there and you can only see the top...

[Patrick]

We dive while in the keys over the winters, although, I don't spear-fish. As much as I like Hogfish I probably should. All the fishing we do is with conventional stuff.

[POPS 57]

I spearfish all the time here in northern Minn. But i do it in the winter on hard water. We take a small fishhouse called a dark house with no windows on the lake or river. Cut a big square hole in the ice and set the house over it. Now you can see the bottom real well. Then you set there and wait for a big old nothern to swim in to your decoy.

[JimmyG]

hey, great replies, love the ice house fishing one.  So, you guys still diving now or has everyone about givin it up?     I still have my gear, just have not done it in a while. I still have 3 spear guns and a sling too. Still have a regulator and the peripherals.  maybe one of these days I'll break loose and do it again. I'd love to make it down to make the lobster season, that's a hoot and a half to do

[Xtracho]

hey, great replies, love the ice house fishing one.  So, you guys still diving now or has everyone about givin it up?     I still have my gear, just have not done it in a while. I still have 3 spear guns and a sling too. Still have a regulator and the peripherals.  maybe one of these days I'll break loose and do it again. I'd love to make it down to make the lobster season, that's a hoot and a half to do

I still do when I have time. I still have my old Dacor Pacer 900 regulator. Even used it with my hardhat in the oil patch. Baby girl is going into Marine Biology so she needs the cert. Funny thing now, PADI will let you do all the classroom work online then you go to your local dive shop for the check-out dives. So this summer she'll be getting certified.

[olddog1946]

The most amazing thing I found about diving was the absolute brilliant colors..freaking awesome !!!

And night diving is even better. Wife is from Honduras so we get to spend a lot of time down there. She's from Tegucigalpa, not too far from where you were probably stationed. Roatan is the southern tip of the second largest barrier reef in the world. Only second to the Great Barrier in Australia. The best diving is always in the first 60 feet or so where the sunlight gets to everything.

My trips into Tegucigalpa were usually 3 days at a time, with maybe 2hours of work to do, then party time. The boys from the unit we had there spent a lot of time at the Volcanic (?) harrassing the lovely ladies, and there was a German resturant someplace there that had some of the best food I ever ate. I absolutely loved the people and how friendly they were. Always felt comfortable there. Panama was a different story.

[RP#62]

I spent all my highschool years in the keys and was in the water nearly every day.  We got spoiled to the warm weather though and it it got to where you needed to get used to the water, we just wouldn't go.  Well except for one place.  On the north side of the naval air station at Boca Chica is a place we called the sub pens.  Its a series of dredged out canals connected to the ocean.  The canals were around 20 feet deep and the walls were straight down.  We were told the navy was going to store submarines there (but it was probably going to be a housing development).  When it was too cold to go in the water, we would spread blankets out on the edge of the water and just put our heads with mask and snorkels and arms in the water  We'd wait for fish to swim by and shoot them with spear guns.  We actually got some good sized snapper doing this.
-RP

[Valkernaut]

1960-1962 mostly free diving/some SCUBA off the coast at Tripoli(especially K13,,,,) Unbelieveable visibility!

Jim