Anyone got any pointers for using a hawaiian sling? Am looking at getting a Seahorse or Kawabunga but don't have much of an idea of how to drive one. Tips so far;1)Fire from slightly behind the fish so the prongs can enter between the scales so as to facilitate easier penatration 2)??????? 3)????????4)????????
Should be good fun though tackling a big boary at depth could be interesting (no float line remember).I think I'll give the Kingis a miss for the time being.
Cheers,
Why the hell would you want to use one? Your pulling everyones leg with your querry?
Have used them before on tank - great for goldies! Don't tell anyone I did it.
Barney Waring got a 15kg kingie with a Hawaiian sling. Your well known accuracy issues could be a problem.
Russ
No way man, I'm quite serious. The whole idea being that it would IMPROVE my accuracy issues. Besides , I can't think of any fish that would be difficult to land with a sling except kingies and big barry just proved me wrong it seems.
In some respects, a spear guns a bit of overkill ie Turkeys, johnnies,pinkies blues, goldies.....need I continue?
I used to use H.S in preference to a gun. I found them to be more than effective on some species and far easier to reload. I never had the guts to shoot big Kingi's with one. The only disadvantage was they can be cumbersome when fully extended and slower to bring around for a shot. I found that they are easy to aim by holding straight out in front but pays not to muck around as the effective distance is obviouly limited by the length of the spear - Say effective 10-12 ft max - Use gloves as you have to rip the fish off the barbs by hand.
All up I say go for it
Jesus Russo,
Just re-read your reply. Goldies ON SCUBA!!!!!. Very sporting of you. A touch of cyanide fishing anyone?
Perhaps a spot of whale harpooning while we're at it.
A Turkey is a Tarakihi and yes John is dreaming if he thinks he is going to get close enough "all the time" to spear them with a Hawaiian Sling. Maybe the first one would wear it but the rest tend to hang off.
Johnnies , maomao and butters are about it for H.s. Kingies are a no go purely because all you are doing with an H.s is maiming them and that is not what the sport is about. Look at John, he does not maim any fish because he misses them most of the time - that IS sporting isn't it.
In summary , good for beginners , but limited in its operation. (H.S that is not John but you have got to wonder.
Russ
p.s I do not spear on tank - do not infact own tanks.
A big thankyou to Andrew Leys for your ideas. Seems there's at least one subscriber to this forum who knows his arse from his elbow when it comes to spearfishing!!!!
Scuba indeed!
Sounds like you ladies are having a great time on this forum. Thought it was about time to jump in and cast some aspersions around myself...
Ah, Long John, (or should I say 'Grasshopper') ... the hand spear is the weapon of the ancient Jedi Masters. Only once you have learned to clear your mind can you control your weapon (that's what Debs said about Russ anyway). It is with a handspear that all the past masters began.
In days of old, the art of handspearing was handed down from generation to generation, in my case beginning with the odd Black Angelfish, and leading to mass genocide against Red Mokis and eventually a few unlucky butterfish. Yes, hand spears have been used by our past fathers to land kingfish of 15 kg and more in competitions even. It is still in our bloodlines. Old Ron can tell you about spearing the odd large snapper back in the pre-history days, Trevor Bodger wearing a shorty wetsuit in mid-winter, and dive clubs selling Bugs and Kings to restaurants pay for their first boats (oops! Wouldn't cast aspersions so far as the old Reefcombers, that would be truly unprofessional and may get us all sued!). Other past masters such as Barney Rubble, Mark Blackie, and Jim the Jaw could no doubt tell you a thing or two about the art of handspearing, of handling one's own spear, or just stretching rubber around shafts, or maybe just stretching shafts...
Had you been schooled from a young age by someone in this, the true art of death dispensing, you would have known from an early age how to land the elusive turkey, but alas you were influenced by the easy path of Russ's line fishing tendency and ways (and perhaps Russ's rear-ended desires?) and never went through a formative hand-spearing of Red Moki stage that is so necessary to developing a dislike for mass slaughter. Russ's revelation as to goldfishing on scuba is an abomination against the good side, and only confirms our suspicions that he is lacking commitment to the cause. We suspect he will revert to his true form in later life, spearing goldies blowing bubbles, raiding craypots for his bugs, line fishing for his limit of 26.9cm snappers every time he goes out, it's all such a 'crying shame'...
The one YOU now serve was of course trained in the old ways and the force is strong in him. He is in fact, a master of the art of hand spearing himself. You must however complete your training with the light side so you have the strength to fight the dark side when you need it most, the future of the galaxy depends on it...
Imagine if you will a competition only with handspears between the dark side and the Bluetits for the trophy which we by now hold by default? Imagine the money to be made by selling Pic-ass handspears with Riffe drop-off heads, new 20mm rubbers at $100 each... oops, steady on...
But it would solve the excess fish problem at Nationals (although the Bluetitis didn't seem to have much of an excess problem somehow last year).. food for thought, Grasshopper, food for thought... what models do you stock?
Check out:
http://www.freediver.net/freedivelist/faqstuff/faq_polespears.html
http://www.geocities.com/freedivespearo/
I told you that the force was strong with this one, Russ...
Ah Mr. Reidfish,
So, you did not know she was your sister. Obewan was wise to hide it from you (inhale -exhale)
Good to (finally) have you aboard.(inhale-exhale)
Live long and prosper.??????? !! ???????
A the risk of upsetting some of you guys, my son and I have had success against both Snapper and Trevally recently.
There's some big Tervs out on the reef from Big Manly bay, well there's a few less now!
Also the Rakino Island Snapper numbers have gone down a few since we last went out there.
All caught on a Hawaiian Sling. My son is learning to spear and I used to spear 30 years ago. We are having a ball.
HS are cheep, easy to use, simple with maintanence, and easy to learn from. Yes you need more power if you want to get through kingis or big fish. I dont know if it's still legal to use .22, .303, or 12 gauge shells any more in the tips. Of course this was only possible with shots away from rocks!
Ross
Ross - I know someone else that dives that reef at big manly - he reports a few John Dory. Great to hear your experiences with the Hawaiian sling. Try Northern side of Army Bay (no swell needed) as there are plenty of snapper there and Tiri can surprise anyone with quality of fish present. I may dive at the Ahahas/noises area this weekend - had good reports from here with snapper up to 8kg speared in the last month. Do you berley them?
Long John/ Reidfish - what further evidence of the affects of prolonged breath holding can there be than reading some of the previous posts. It is clear to me that they share the same braincell. What is really scary is that they BOTH belong to my club!!
Anyone know what happened to Paul Mathews???
Russ
Reidfish ,
Just checked out those links. Wicked!!!!!
Kawabunga dude!!!
Im here!!!
Im always here.... lurking... waiting ....
Truth is its really hard to post to the list when I have nothing to report.
The weather hasn't been that great.... altho without going into too much detail I had a report from a vary reliable source who was buzzed by three King Fish on the Wellington South coast on the weekend.
Two were in the 35 pound range and the leader was estimated at 60-70 pounds so I might go out and have the bast@#d this weekend, putting me in pin contention. Temp was down at 12-13 degree's.
Also interesting, he found 1-2 hundred in berry female crays sitting out on the sand in about 20 meters. Just chilling out in the open. Apparently they were all pretty good size to.
Later
The first 100 were good, but he apparantly didn't boil the 2nd one hundred long enough and they needed more salt!
**** Disclaimer *********
I have on occasion been found to be partial to bullsh@tting unless its about the size of a fish or my tackle 
**** End Of Disclaimer ****
Hey Reidfish,
Im a first timer in this group,
maybe you can shed some light on where all the the oldies have gone,
like Jim Thornbury, Dave Sheilds, Dave Maran, Lintin Diggal, Trevor Bodger, Dave Casling, Ron Eves, Mary & Dick Meads, John Anderson, Kevin Thompson, Peter Feilds, Murry Brighouse, John Derling, just to name a few i remember, i lost track of them for so long,
i remember the Reef Combers guys selling up house and moving off down to Stewart Island, plus the adventures on the float plane to Never Fail Rock,
I was there at the start of the Blue Fin Spearfishing Club, when we use to train in the Swimarama Pool and then some South Africa guy joined the club and said you ever played underwater hockey so we challenged a few other clubs but 3 or 4 years latter i got married and just driffed away you know life go's around,
Cheers Lethal
Hiya Lethal,
Dave Moran is running Dive New Zealand magazine, Trevor Bodger pops up every now and then but is no longer active in the Bluefins, Dave Shields is around, spends time in Omaha and works at Moana Pacific and does some diving still (His son Darren is a legendary diver and runs the spearfishing shop Wild Blue at 131 Rosedale Rd, Albany), Ron Eaves has been coming to the Bluefins a bit lately, he lives at Ti Point and is very fit and well, haven't seen Dick Mead for a couple of years, but he's still around somewhere. Alan Langton is running Pro-dive, making wetsuits, although we haven't seen him for a few years. Brian Horton was running a dive shop just off Constellation drive, Mairangi Bay. I'm a bit too young to know the others. There's an auction of Kelly Tarlton's old stuff (and some stuff from his museum) coming up, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of those old blokes there - check out the ad in the latest dive magazine.
I can email you some contact details if you want. My old man (Dave Quinlan) may know of a few more around the traps.
The float plane incident is still talked about - Bob Rosemergy told me about it last year - he's in Wellington and is diving still, and running NZUA's spearfishing commitee. If you haven't been around the scene for a while you might like to know that Bob shot a 400+ lb queensland grouper at the Hen & chicks a couple of years ago (caused quite a stir!).
Up North, Cookie is diving still, and having a good life, we see him in comp's often.
The Bluefins is still going strong - about the same as it always used to be, just different people. Of course there's more south africans in the club now, but we just put up with them! You should pop in to a meeting some time - see the club website (and monthly newsletters) online at:
Reid Quinlan
Bluefins Freedioving & Spearfishing Club
Tarakihi on the bite Trips are few and far between at this time of year,... Read More >
Fresh and salt turning it on! It is not very often I get to say... Read More >
Lures paying dividends We finally had a break in the SE winds that have been... Read More >
Snapper and gurnard in the harbour The weather has finally taken a turn for the... Read More >