Spearfishing 1/12/2016

[mingle]

This confuses me too. A "hand spear" can only have 2 barbless prongs, but a "Hawaiian sling" can have 5 prongs. The regs don't seem to mention anything about only using a Hawaiian sling under water.

I've used a 5-pronged (barbed) sling for flounder spearing/spotlighting. Haven't been pulled up. I emailed the DPI people a while ago and even they didn't seem to know if this was okay or not.

Not quite sure about the logic of using two barbless prongs - surely the fish has a far greater chance of getting off (injured) and swimming off to die?

Mike.

What spear do you use? Apparently we're only supposed to use spears with 2 prongs and no barbs but everything I've seen for sale on the major online tackle stores has a cluster of prongs with barbs.

[4liters]

Yeah, it doesn't seem to make much sense or have any logic behind it

[Brett]

Have never lost a flounder or flathead, using an un barbed 2 prong spear.

the reason slings and spear guns have barbs, is because they are used on fish that are swimming and could easily slip off an un barbed spear.

The hand held spear is used to not only spear the fish, but hold it against the bottom, therefore preventing escape. You'll be surprised by how much flat fish don't move once speared. It's usually when you remove the spear they flap about like crazy. By this time they are already in your bag or bucket.

[Lightningx]

Great catching lightnignx. :thumbsup:

Where about did you catch these?

What secrets can you share for a newbie like me.

Thanks buddy.
Pick a nice calm night. I have often done well around a new moon. From my experience most of the flounders I have speared have been in knee deep water or less

[Lightningx]

Awesome catch LX! I was keen to head out but thought it was too windy! You have proven me wrong!!! How do you cook your flounder?

Great catching lightnignx. :thumbsup:

Where about did you catch these?

What secrets can you share for a newbie like me.

somewhere between williamstown and werribee is my guess

Im a relative noob at this but I can attribute my success so far to all the great info that's on this site in relation to spotlighting. Some of of the threads are a few years old but there are 'gems' of knowledge within them.

Thanks Shazz!
Well at first we also thought it might have been a bit too windy but decided to give it a go and it wasn't bad at all!
Cooking wise have tried many different methods including roast capsicum, garlic, ginger, chilli and lemon juice, another with soy sauce, ginger and have also tried smoking them as well and not bad at all doing it that way

[Lightningx]

What spear do you use? Apparently we're only supposed to use spears with 2 prongs and no barbs but everything I've seen for sale on the major online tackle stores has a cluster of prongs with barbs.

It's very confusing. I'm the same with mingle. The spear my mate and I use are 5 pronged spears with a Hawaiian sling.

[mingle]

I've speared many good-sized flatties (50-65cm+) and even with the barbed 5-prong it's sometimes a battle to get them to shore without them twisting off. I try and keep the spear pushed into the sand and slowly 'slide' them along, but they usually kick like crazy. If the spear hit isn't dead-central I'd say I lose 30-40% of them.

Mike.

[Lightningx]

That's where my mate and I use the thick leather gloves mate so you don't get spiked and can get a good grip on the big flatties to put in the bag

[shazdoggg]

I've speared many good-sized flatties (50-65cm+) and even with the barbed 5-prong it's sometimes a battle to get them to shore without them twisting off. I try and keep the spear pushed into the sand and slowly 'slide' them along, but they usually kick like crazy. If the spear hit isn't dead-central I'd say I lose 30-40% of them.

Mike.

Ive been told that when you spear flatties, you want to aim for the tip of their nose and spear them front on cos they will always swim forward once they feel threatened(or about to be hit by a spear). I only spotted one decent one last week and made the mistake of aiming for middle of his head but spear ended up halfway through his body :oops: