Author Topic: GS5 Friday and Saturday Dive?!?!  (Read 816 times)

BigJim

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Re: GS5 Friday and Saturday Dive?!?!
« on: March 17, 2011, 04:30:17 pm »
BigJim,

What size gun are you using in the low vis conditions?  I have a JBL Magnum and an Omer 82cm that I am happy with (mainly the Omer).  I have a pole spear that work pretty good for the low visibility days, but have considered getting a shorty gun for close shooting.  It looked like you had a little Biller or Riffe in your video?

I am really wanting to try for scallops!  Not sure if there are any pinnacles with them at the cove.  I may have to dive Trinidad for them.

Matt

Matt...my first gun I got was way too big for any low viz/high surge conditions and even though it is a great gun (Riffe Mid-Handle 44") that I got for a great price ($50) it is overkill for rockfish/hole hunting.

I then got a 75cm Mako Predator Pro....cool looking gun and was deadly accurate, but it jammed on me the very first time out and even though they sent me a replacement part right away I lost confidence in it...

I sold the repaired Mako at price to Andy baitnbeer Gomez who loves it, and used the cash to buy a Riffe Padauk Competitor 00 for $225 online from Austins in Miami (free shipping, no tax, very nice guys).

http://www.austinsdiving.com/proddetail.php?prod=RCP-0000

http://www.speargun.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16%3Apadauk-series&catid=9&Itemid=10

27 inches long and beautiful dark blood red wood...supposedly the hard straight Padauk wood allows the gun to be made from one piece of wood and so the price is cheaper than the other Riffe's but besides that is exactly the same...

Have it rigged with only one wrap of line and a single "Hawaian Flopper" shaft, and one beefed up 5/8 band and one of the 1/2 bands it comes with.

It has enough range to pick off schooling blues at about 6 feet (about as far as I can accurately aim anyways to be honest!!), and get real tight in even the smallest holes. The small size also makes it very easy to move around with in strong surge.

For hunting in the holes I am just loading the one 5/8 band to try and avoid messing up the shaft on the rocks and have found it has plenty of power to punch through a Cabbies skull....will see how it does on Ling skulls come April 1st!!

When the vis is better it is real easy to load the other band to give me a little more power/range and it snaps out nicely to the end of the shooting line. Then if I am going to check out a hole I can slip the second band off real easy as well.

My one "complaint" is that with the single hawaiian flopper shaft you really need to get the shaft about two inches all the way through the fish to have the flopper "engage"...This can be real hard to do in some holes where the fish is right up against the rock!! I am trying to work on shot angle/placement in these scenarios, but still sometimes the shaft does not go through far enough cuz it hits the rock on the other side and then if I don't get control of the fish immediately they can slip off the shaft....

Riffe sells a threaded shaft for these guns and I am thiniking of getting one and a smaller double or single flopper that sits closer to the tip of the shaft to increase the chances that it will go all the way through...but the shafts aren't cheap and so for now I am working with the one I got!!
 ;)

In between buying the Mako and selling the Mako I also picked up an AB Biller 32 with some christmas stocking $$. IMHO it works great and I have shot plenty of fish with it....my buddy Jim Okumoto welds 5 prong barbed trident tips and he gave me a couple to use...I put one on the Biller and it works great and had plenty of holding power for big grassies, cabbies and eels!! Not sure if they could hold a big Ling down though!!

The difference in ability to move in surge and get tight in holes was still limiting with the 32 Biller, and definitely feel that the 27" Riffe is my favorite gun I have used so far for the kind of hunting I do!!

Anyway....if you want to try it out up at GS5 just let me know!!

Oh yeah....I am DOWN to look for a scallop as well!!

 ;D

Sincerely,

Jim