While anchored up on the reef today on a fishing charter we set the chum out and before long, some big yellow jacks came in. For some reason they rarely bite a hook, even though they will eat all the chum you give them. I have a half cooler full of mahua (glass minnows) and they'd eat every one without a hook in it. Even with 15 feet of 12 lb flourocarbon leader you seldom make them bite.
After a while I couldnt take it any more. We landed a nice batch of flags and some other stuff but the jacks were just asking for it. A week ago I free-gaffed one and it just about pulled me over the size so today I came up with a new plan.
I busted out the 130 Rabitech and unhooked the shooting line from the bungie and attached it to a snap swivel that was tied on to the end of the line on a 30 pound fishing rod. SInce I didnt have a float line for the gun and it was 90 feet deep, the plan was for me to shoot a fish and John to fight him in on the rod. I thought for a while about exactly which rod to rig to the gun but went with the Shimano Toruim due to its extra smooth drag.
I shook the chum bag, tossed a big handful of glass minnows and slid quietly into the water. John fed me some line as I chuckled to myself about how cool this was gonna be. The first two times the jacks backed off before I could get a shot but the last time I drifted back into the chum and hovered as the bonito blasted in and out and the big yellowtail snapper milled around on the fringes out of range. Finally a big yellowjack, 15 to 20 pounds, comes back into the chum. I focus on one piece of bait and sure enough he comes to get it. I fire and get a solid shot in the head and he bolts. The line clears the gun just fine and I pop up expecting to see John with a bent rod and a fish on. Unfortunately I came up just in time to see that the fishes departure had created a monster backlash. The rod bent double the line went SNAP!....with my only shaft on the end of it.
Seems the fish took off so fast it backlashed the reel and the rest is history. We'll call it a work in progress. Ill get it right one of these days.

Caught a couple of these out in the blue yesterday. Cool fish.

ed those are some of the prettiest and smallest wahoo ive seen.
interesting idea with the rod/shaft

I wasn't there, but I would tend to think the shot, followed by the spear and line suddenly stopping before the fish took off again, caused the backlash?

Sounds like your friend needs to keep a thumb on the spool.

Sounds exciting Ed. Save some fish for us:awink:.

Leave it to you to come up with a new technique.:toast:

It works, but you have to use drag you cant be free lining or it will backlash everytime.:BoomSmilie_anim:

Take a plastic tote, with a few coils of line in it the angler would have time to set up on the reel.I would use the clicker on a baitcast reel or very light drag on a spinning reel.

In hindsight I think the heavier spinning rod, which I had with me, would have been better. Would elimate backlashes. We left a bunch of slack in the water for the shot, since I wasnt sure how far this gun would shoot with no leash. Got that part right but when the fish bolted the thumb on the spool wasnt enough. (Yes, I know, if I would have stoned him.....) In gear with a lighter drag might have been a good idea too. Not like we're gonna pull the hook or anything :). Ill incorporate the lessons learned into the next try. Actually, the reason I didnt just shoot them normally is that I didnt have a float line set up and it was 90 feet of water. I keep a gun under the gunnels just in case I run across something that needs to be speared while Im on a fishing trip.
Heres another one of those weehoo we caught, this one down deep on a butterfly jig. Im thinking the same color pattern would be really cool in a speargun.

Matt Head might be able to pull of that camo pattern. Maybe on a Deathstick???:D:whistle::whistle:

Pretty hoo hoo..:o)
just imagine what some of the rodeo's were like when the oldtimers were shootin GG's

Cool colors on those fish!