Spear Fishing.

[Shorerider]

Wetsuit?

I've got most of the gear so far, but I'm now looking at getting a Wetsuit. I was out on Sunday-All day-which was around 40 degrees here in Melbourne, and was still a shivering wreck after a couple of hours.

I've narrowed it down to either This or This.

I'm just not sure if the extra $75 is worth it for the camoflage. Would it really make a difference?

Any other options???

I'm headding to Lorne for 4 days over Easter. I cant wait to get in the water there.


Shorerider.

 

[poppa_johns]

i recomend the camo one just for that added edge. actually does help sneaking up on fish, especialiy in clear water.
my 2c

 

[Joel O]

my (and many many others) pick of the current crop of wetsuits are the ones being made by spetton at the moment. open cell neoprene so you will need to lube it up before use, not nearly as bad as it sounds, but they are super stretchy and the most comfortable wetsuit i have ever worn by a long shot. being open cell they are warm too. plain black model is only 300 bucks too (thats what happens when the importer sells direct). some other options which i have not tried personally but have heard good reviews about are the deep sub suits, same importer as spetton and the new suits being imported by tony heugh.

my personal recommendation is either the spetton or deepsub suits. the importers name is roy and he runs AGRO dive imports. i can't stress enough how excellent the servic e is from him. he'll give you all the help you need sizing the suit, answer any questions you've got and reply to emails quickly. i tore my suit first dive (totally my fault, me being lazy) and mentioned it in passing on a forum. that same day i got a call from roy to check whether i'd sorted it out and repaired it (even offering to fix it for free).

DEEPSUB

SPETTON

TONY HEUGH SUITS

they are all 2 piece, open cell suits. all top quality and really well priced.

when it comes to gear i have no problems paying a premium for top quality gear and highly rate my spetton suit.

open cell basically means the neoprene doesn't have a nylon lining on the inside and feels like rubber. because of this you need to lube up the suit before you put it on. sounds like a hassle but all i use is a bottle of water with a little bit of shampoo in the water, squirt a bit inside the suit and sldie it on. if you use an old shampoo or detergent bottle with a pop top it's really easy and once you get used to it the suit will slide on easier than a regular lined neoprene suit.

EDIT: as far as camo vs black here are my thoughts:

stay away from blue camo, blue is the last colour to be filtered out by water and as such, if you're wearing blue you will stand out like dogs balls.

green is similar but not quite as bad as blue. the best colour camos are the earthy/red based ones. red is the first colour to be filtered out and you will blend in much better as well as being more visible to boats on the surface. grey camo's work well too.

for general use, especially down south there is nothing wrong with a black suit. they've worked well for 50+ years and many top divers still wear them in comps.

camo vs black is a pretty hot topic and the outcome always seems to be inconclusive but if it makes you more confident you will dive better which in turn means you will get more fish. on the other hand, many people believe camo suits have more effect on the guys at the boat ramp than they do on the fish.

food for thought.

 

[sawtell]

All I've speared so far is a Stingray, ....

.

CAN NOT HANDLE PEOPLE WHO SHOOT STINGRAYS... did you keep the ray? or just pull spear out and let it die? what a waste. ive see that many rays with spears hanging out of them, i find it hilarious, the person who shot it underestimated what the ray could do.
they deserve to loose there spear and the 50-100 bucks for a new one.



i dont spear fish any more, cause i got sick of going out with mates who would ping of all the undersize fish and just let them go you would then see them on the way back in floating around on the surface gasping as they died.. what a bloody waste.


little point, becarful at lorne spear fishing. due to the peirs. get to close and say hello to mister fine.

 

[Shorerider]

I would NEVER shoot something "just for fun" , I DID take it home and got a few nice Flake fillets from it.

Sawtell, please don't jump to conclusions before finding out the details.

I'm also well read on the restrictions of Spearfishing, wich includes a 30m exclusion zone around any Pier or Jetty.

I'm not far from you Sawtell, so If you ever want go spearfishing with a sensible diving partner, just PM me.


Thanks Joel O once again for your in depth reply. The Camo suit I was leaning towards was the Green/Brown one I posted earlier, but I will consider the others you mentioned.


Thanks again, Shorerider.

 

[sawtell]

sorry, i didnt mean to sound so aggressive at you, it was mroe of a statement, and directed at your if you did do it.

Ive never taken ray from the bay? i know people do eat it. What kind of ray was it? and how big? take you for a ride?

 

[Joel O]

like i said before, in my opinion it's pretty hard to go past the spetton suits and if i were buying one thats where my money would be going.

if you've got any other questions feel free to ask here or pm me, always happy to help out new guys getting into the sport

Edit: as for spearing rays (or anything for that matter) if you enjoy eating it and don't make a huge scene when you get back to shore i have absolutely no problems.

it's good to keep in mind spearfishing has a bit of an image problem so the more good ambassadors we have for the sport the better.

 

[Shorerider]

Not sure of the type of Ray it was, although it was the sandy colored type, and not the darker type.............if that's any help?

Well funnily enough, I thought it may have taken me for a ride too, but it was more like a big weight on the end of my gun. It was taken at the "Cerberus" ship wreck down in Half Moon Bay. A great spot to dive. Although we didn't see many (big) fish around the wreck, we tormented a school of good sized Whiting closer to shore for about an hour, but got none.

My mate got a good sized Pinkie at around 35cm or so from Williamstown on Sunday. That place is loaded with fish. We saw Leather Jacket, Trevalley, Pinkies, Whiting, Luderick, Stingray and heaps of Abalone. Although 95% of them are too small, it's a great place to see the wildlife.

As for getting fined for spearing at Lorne Pier, are you speaking from experience? If so, how much was the fine??

I must admit, it feels like Spearfishing is an illegal activity for some reason? I kind of feel guilty bringing in fish for some reason??

Joel O, are there any Spetton stockists you know of Down here in Melbourne, or are they only an online shop? Preferably, I'd like to try the wetsuit on before I buy it, which I could do with the Picasso suit. Also, is the Picasso suit any good from what you can tell?



Cheers, Shorerider.

 

[sawtell]

williamstown ey, i hae a funy feeling i seen you? where abouts did you spear and what time.???

i seen some people spearing behidn the footy ground, at about...... 3? i was fishign of the rocks, i then went spearing because of all the whiting i could see.

i got a good 45cm whiting, just a sand whiting. didnt eat it, ill use it has bait for fishing.

williamstown is going really well this season fish wise, if you keep away fromt he main beach, and head towards the segulls footballl ground, and further around to time ball tower. ... ah yeah if you didnt guess it i live in williamstown haha

whats the go with cerebus? is it still a no go zone? i was told last year it was a no go zone within 50metres of the wreck due to it being unstable?

nah i havnt been fined, i have just seen some people spearing around the peir a few times (its a good peir plenty of salmon around it).

 

[Shorerider]

We were spearing in front of the swimming pool car park, from 11am until about 4pm on Sunday, so it probably was us you saw.

Yes I knew you were from Williamstown, but only because I sold you (and your mate Alex) 2 Alex DX32 rims a few years ago.

Next time I'm headed out your way spearing, I'll PM you if you'd like?

The Cerberus is ok for diving around. I got polietly told off for standing on the ship itself by a life guard on a surf ski. Aparently a guy fell through the deck a year or so ago, so for safety reasons you can't get on the Cerberus. However you can swim/dive all around it and over it.


Shorerider.

 

[Joel O]

no spetton stockists as such as far as i know but roy is pretty good at sizing you up online. if you get in contact with him he'll let you know what measurements he needs from you and sort you out with the right size suit.

apparently the older picasso suits were awesome but in recent years the quality has been a bit all over the place.

 

[Shorerider]

Lorne.

Well Lorne didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. My mate came down on Sunday which we had planned to go spearing. I should have taken my Surfboard, not my Speargun!

It was way too rough near the shore, which made the water very murky, let alone very dangerous. On one of my first attempts at entering the water, I must have dropped my mask & snorkel while chasing a runaway fin. I aborted the entry, only to find out later I had lost some gear. I did however spear for about 30 minutes, which was only fueled by my search for my mask & snorkel, but got nothing (besides seasick). Oh well.

As for my Wetsuit purchase, from what Joel O - and many like him on the Spear Oz site - has said, I think I'll go with the Spetton.

Joel O, which color Spetton suit would you recommend? They don't seem to have a red/earthy (ish) suit as you said, or was this aimed toward another brand.

Edit: Just got the attached pic from Roy at Agro. Is this the color you had in mind. Thoughts?



Cheers, Shorerider.

 

[Joel O]

i was just referring to camo suits in general. the colour of that deepsub does look quite nice though. spetton only do a blue camo and a grey camo as far as i am aware. spetton and deepsub are a slightly different cut to each other, roy should be able to advise which one suits your body type better. the fit should be your most important consideration. the performance gain from a good comfortable fit will probably outweigh any advantage offered by camo anyway. the grey spetton camo looks alright and will be miles ahead of any blue colours.

 

[nick89_]

I went spearfishing for the first time on the weekend down the NSW south coast. Had a blast and I would consider getting into it if I can find anywhere to go spearfishing around Sydney (and please tell me if you need a boat or not, would rather not need a boat.)

 

[Joel O]

on a slightly different note...
if the weather holds i'll be getting out this saturday hoping for some good conditions and fish

Edit: heaps of guys diving from the rocks all over sydney. a boat is nice but by no means essential. guys take 20kg kingies from the rocks every season and heaps of smaller fish. not being from sydney though i cant help you out with any spots or contacts.

 

[Shorerider]

Wetsuit.

Well, I had a good (almost 30min) chat to Roy from Agro Dive Imports this afternoon. I have decided to go with either the Spetton (1st choice) or the Deep Sub. It'll be a 3mm all Black suit.

Roy was sceptical on the benefits of camo, so I have decided to go with plain Black.

Roy also recommended a 3mm as I told him that so far I haven't been too cold in the water after 4+ hours, besides getting a sore jaw from shivering so much.

Joel O you're 100% right in relation to the cut of the suit being the most important. Once I've sent off my measurements to Roy, he will suggest which suit he thinks will fit better, which will be the one I will most likely buy. Good luck on Saturday.

P.S: Here's a site I came across while doing some research on Spearfishing. Some of you whom have posted in this thread may find it useful.

Spearfishing map of Australia. Enjoy




Cheers, Shorerider.

 

[fueltank]

I went spearfishing for the first time on the weekend down the NSW south coast. Had a blast and I would consider getting into it if I can find anywhere to go spearfishing around Sydney (and please tell me if you need a boat or not, would rather not need a boat.)

Where abouts are you from?
Heaps of places to go diving. I don't mind going out for a dive if you're keen.
Need to get the rubber replaced on my gun first though.

 

[Joel O]

i just finished a new timber gun tonight, now desperately hoping i can source a shaft for it in time for the long weekend.

might try get some pics up later on tonight.

 

[fueltank]

i just finished a new timber gun tonight, now desperately hoping i can source a shaft for it in time for the long weekend.

might try get some pics up later on tonight.

nice one.
If you're on the spearfishing forums, talk to Jools about a shaft.
How big you thinking of going? 7mm?

 

[Joel O]

which forum. probably gonna go 8mm, 7.5 minimum. 7's don't hit hard enough for my liking