scububa
September 23rd, 2007, 11:44 AM
Went down to Table Rock to go along with Diver Dick, his son Spencer, and Roger C. to Bull Shoals for a day of spear fishing. I drove down Thursday evening and we went on Friday. I was prepared to pitch my tent at the campground, but Roger and his wife invited me to stay on their boat. Thanks bunches to them for that.
(This trip was also to pick up some parts to put my own set of doubles together and do a deep dive with Roger, but more on that in another report since it was Table Rock related.)
This was the first time I have done any spear fishing. It is also the first time I have been on Bull Shoals. So, I don't know much about the lake yet. We put in around the Peel area. Dick said it was 35-40 miles from the dam. We fished from a 20' 'duck' boat that we pulled down (belongs to Roger).
We made 6 dives. TC was at 28-32' zone. Vis was poor at that point. I only went below one time to see how far before it cleared up and that was around 45'. All the fish I saw and shot at were 13 to 19'. I put one channel cat in the cooler (2 lb'er). We had a total of 4 (largest was 3.5 lb).
I shot (and hit) two other fish. A flat and a channel. The flat was about the same 2-3 lb size. The spear clearly went thru and as I pulled the spear back, the fish came off. The barb guard was over the barbs, not sure how it happened, but makes sense the fish could get off. The bigger channel (5-6 lb.) I shot directly behind the head. It darted under a log and over a branch fouling the line. As I snaked up the line back, the spear had no fish. There was a sizable bite of sushi on the barbs, so I don't know what happened here. Bars were out. I had both bands loaded, sure I nailed it right behind the head and the spear was in it enough for it to carry into the brush pile. I looked around for both fish but never saw them.
Anyway, a great introduction to spear fishing and to Bull Shoals. The weather was perfect end of the summer. Blue skies and almost hot. The company was great, too.
We finished the day trailering back to Table Rock, putting the boat back in the water, putting gear away and going to Chili's for dinner where we ran into SLIM who was just getting off EMS duty and with a group of other blue suiters.
(This trip was also to pick up some parts to put my own set of doubles together and do a deep dive with Roger, but more on that in another report since it was Table Rock related.)
This was the first time I have done any spear fishing. It is also the first time I have been on Bull Shoals. So, I don't know much about the lake yet. We put in around the Peel area. Dick said it was 35-40 miles from the dam. We fished from a 20' 'duck' boat that we pulled down (belongs to Roger).
We made 6 dives. TC was at 28-32' zone. Vis was poor at that point. I only went below one time to see how far before it cleared up and that was around 45'. All the fish I saw and shot at were 13 to 19'. I put one channel cat in the cooler (2 lb'er). We had a total of 4 (largest was 3.5 lb).
I shot (and hit) two other fish. A flat and a channel. The flat was about the same 2-3 lb size. The spear clearly went thru and as I pulled the spear back, the fish came off. The barb guard was over the barbs, not sure how it happened, but makes sense the fish could get off. The bigger channel (5-6 lb.) I shot directly behind the head. It darted under a log and over a branch fouling the line. As I snaked up the line back, the spear had no fish. There was a sizable bite of sushi on the barbs, so I don't know what happened here. Bars were out. I had both bands loaded, sure I nailed it right behind the head and the spear was in it enough for it to carry into the brush pile. I looked around for both fish but never saw them.
Anyway, a great introduction to spear fishing and to Bull Shoals. The weather was perfect end of the summer. Blue skies and almost hot. The company was great, too.
We finished the day trailering back to Table Rock, putting the boat back in the water, putting gear away and going to Chili's for dinner where we ran into SLIM who was just getting off EMS duty and with a group of other blue suiters.