Free-diving/spear-gunning

[mainbutter]

Anyone do a bit of free diving and spear gunning in MN? I ran across a few youtube vids and man does it seem like it'd be right up my alley. Any words of advice before I look further into this sport?

[LightningBG]

go out to a lake with your diving mask and see how far you can see. Chances are it's not going to be far enough to sneak up on much (unless you're on a really clear lake like Square Lake.)

[mrklean]

one of my old roomates did it he shot a bunch of carp he was over by stillwater someplace

[Early Riser]

I would recommend it if you can get together the equipment.

I brought the sport back to my home state of MN from Hawaii where we lived for a spell while I was growing up.

Lighting is right, the clarity of metro lakes in mid summer can be a factor. The best luck I had was when I speared the inner city lakes from about Memorial day through much of June. They are full of carp and free of motor boats which is nice when skin diving.

The carp can be stalked by snorkeling and readily shot with a spear gun along emerging weed lines in 8-12 feet before they pile into the shorelines and shallow water to spawn. You can also do well during that time as they get pretty worked up and actually will bump into you when you lay still in the weeds along with them. It was more fun to free dive and pick them off out of their schools in the deeper water.

Make sure you have a place to dump them. They seem to do real well in gardens.

Another bonus was picking up all the snagged lures on the bottom near shore. The viewing of other fish, including monster bass, muskie, pike and walleye was nice as well.

There is a guy who visits here now and again who is pretty active in the sport. If Steve is lurking he might chime in as well.

[mainbutter]

Awesome stuff

Equipment may not be in the cards until next year, but it sure sounds crazy fun.

[DanOmite19]

I remember this topic awhile back and was interested as well. I would talk to stick500. Check out this old thread...

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...spe#Post2364957

[Stick500]

yeh I'm here! Hi Early Riser- have you given it a "shot" this summer at all?

I've had a great year with the spearfishing- lots of June and July action at Harriet, Calhoun and my spot in Golden Valley but the water's clouding up pretty quick with this heat. Early in the season I even got a few big ones in Cedar when it was relatively clear but still chilly.

I have a mistake in my info in that old thread that's linked here (I can't seem to edit it) in that I mentioned you could take roughfish and panfish here in MN- wrong! I was still in WI mode where that is the law- in MN it's strictly roughfish only. There's a few paragraphs on spearfishing in the regular DNR Fishing regs. You also can't spearfish within 1000 feet of a beach, which is pretty ridiculous as none of the other states have any such restrictions.

Oh well, I just dove Minnetonka for the first time last weekend and even though the vis was pretty good for hunting, the carp were not in their usual haunts (shallow weeds) for some reason. First time I've been skunked all year. I want to go back and give it another shot soon but am having trouble figuring out the best places for vis and habitat and the fewest boat traffic.

BTW, you need to drag a dive flag with you at Tonka and the city lakes and I am just now figuring out how to do it without getting tangled. If anyone wants any tips on getting started in the sport I'm here to help....

[Early Riser]

I haven't made it out this year. In fact I have not been out in several years, but like we were talking about this past winter, I would like to do it again in the future. When I do get the itch I will let you know!

[chris63]

Spent three years On Oahu myself.Miss the clairity of the Pacific.(On and off shore.)Hey you guys should check out Christmas lake just west of Minnetonka.During the week is best of course!Happy diving!c63

[chris63]

I made a mistake on the lake name I was referring to it is Little long lake although Christmas is good for diving too!c63