Art was the only spearfisher to make the cover of Sports Illustrated, along with his brother.
He is in his 70's now and is still spearing with his Hawaiian Sling .....
This is the biggest fish I got with a 6 foot (yellow) fiberglass
pole spear. I had removed the paralyzer tip and add a single barb detachable tip. I was quite
lucky that the hole thing hold the pressure of the fish.
Unfortunately, I only use the pole spear when I go after flounder
these days. But it is definitely a trill to get a big fish on a pole spear!
Regards, Tino
Here's a few photos.
The shots of black rockfish and lingcod are by Kurt Bickel when he was up here for a Spearfishing Magazine article (A moose stole my speargun) Black rockfish /Sebastes melanops, Lingcod /Ophiodon elongatus , silver salmon /Oncorhynchus kisutch
Howard
I got this fish in Maryland in 1987 on a wreck that was only half there the other half they towed in and fixed it. It was an oil tanker. in about 80 ft of water and the top was at 25ft I was on scuba and I just got a 15lb tog and was out of air. when I got to the top of the wreck vis was bad. I was going to use my pony bottle I just took the last breath of air out the main tank when this school of giant amberjack started flying past me. I thought they were tuna. All I could see was the shadows going by. So in stead of putting the regulator from the pony in my mouth I pulled the band on my polepear and and shot into the school. Next thing I new I was flying through the water. I managed to get hold of the spear on the other side of the fish and get the fish between my legs the spear went in and got stuck on his back bone so he could not rip it out and it was in the upper part of the body near his gills. I still needed air and was ready to let go when I pulled up on the shaft and he went up. When we came out of the water I got air the guys on the boat said it looked like I was riding him. Actually
I was. I got my Knife out and stabbed him near the head and slowed him down. Some of my friends jumped in and Dave got a rope on his tail the others pulled him in. I finally got the regulator in my mouth and could breath. I guess you could say It was all most freediving. In the pic. the Tog is at my feet.
click here for full story on SpearfishingWorld.net
Show me the way home, I am almost ready to buy an airline ticket!
Manny speared this amberjack with his pole spear. Manny is said to have a strange nature that just does not scare fish away! The man is legendary.
This is a picture of a 45 lb black grouper from last year’s trip. I observed as Bob was moving quickly through the water and I figured he was after a large fish.
Bob got this grouper with his 1st ever shot with sling at 10 ft believe it or not in a down trajectory which probably helped, he is to the right of the picture. Anyway, much to my amazement he nailed the grouper, The shaft actually went completely through the grouper; who immediately went under a rock and popped his head out of a hole, the grouper saw me swimming and so I went deeper and pulled the pole spear to the tip as I came up on the hole it was to late for Mr. Grouper, I nailed him in the back and stuck him to the ground. 1 hour later and with the help of an anchor line put through his mouth and gills, I managed to cut him away from the shaft and both I and Bob pulled him out.
The 2nd picture is just of me looking under a wreck in Bimini.
