Memory Lane

[Gordie]

Please share some of your first or fondest memories from your early spearing days or even from the not to distant past spearing seasons.

[leechlake]

I had never experienced spearing until a few years ago. I went out hunting for tullies with my neighbor who has done it since he was a kid. We walked into the house and I had no clue what we were doing.

He had a two old couch pillows and we layed on our bellies faces inches from the water looking into what appeared to be a gigantic aquarium. It was about 6 fow on one end dropping deeper on the other side of the hole. The fish would always be cruising by and usually at some odd angle. I think he went 4 for 6 that morning and it almost reminded me of shooting trap or skeet but he was doing it with his spear.

The next day I took my son out to the house and I was so afraid of losing the spear and I had no experience I think I went zero for something. I needed something to hover right below the hole. Cool experience.

[fish4u]

When i was a kid my dad would take me spearing he would fill the thermas with coffee and cut off a big chunk of my moms fruitcake and that would be our lunch to this day i am the only one in my family to like fruitcake i lost my dad in 1980 when ever i can i take fruitcake with me to the spearhouse and its like my dad is there with me fond memories thanks for the topic FISH4U

[motley man]

Parents owned a resort, tavern, gas station on Little Mantrap Lake in the early 60's. Dad had 2 spear houses that he put out and I was 7 years old. Saw my first log float thru that scared the dump out of me. I would not go in that house alone for some time. Did spear many after that, back then we speared anything that swam by. Dad always had chocolate stars candy in the house that my brothers didn't know about, but I did. I still have a couple decoy's that Dad made. Miss you Dad

[Jameson]

My friend got me into spearing. He had speared with his father when he was young. His father moved up north and took his spear house with him. Eventually his father got too busy for spearing and offered up the old spear shack to my buddy. I was REALLY into winter pike n muskie fishing at the time, and was using the underwater camera a lot. My buddy was basically clueless on finding fish on his own. So, I tried to get him set-up in what I thought would be a good spearing spot. We set-up his house and he got real busy and wasn't able to spear for a couple of weeks. He offered me the use of his spear and decoys and said have at it.

So, I started spearing with no first hand help. Just figured it out as I went. I think FM.com was down at the time due to switching over software or something, so I didn't have you all to ask. Those first couple of weeks were awesome. I was attempting to spear every pike I saw. This included a couple of big fish and fish that were very deep that I would not think about spearing today, but I needed to learn somehow. The learning and applying my angling knowledge to spearing as I started are some of my fondest early memories.

[Early Riser]

Hey guys, good stuff. I love hearing about how people got into spearing and past memories/stories.

I started spearing fish at the age of 12 after we moved to Hawaii. After expressing an interest my father bought his three boys Hawaiian slings, a rubber raft, mask/snorkels, and fins. Later he bought me a short double band speargun made by Scubapro. As I advanced in my strength I got a neoprene vest and weight belt which allowed me to stay out longer. I got in with two other local kids my age and we went all the time snorkeling over the reefs and diving down hunting fish, lobsters, octopus, stingrays, moray eels, and anything else we could try to eat. I also went out alone. Wow the freedom and adventures we had! It is really like a dream to me now thinking back.

One time the three of us were out spearing goatfish when Tom L. got our attention to let us know he had found a huge moray eel. After Allen and I each put a spear in it, it turned back into it's cave. As we were recovering from our initial excitement and lamenting our lost equipment, the creature swam out the other end of the coral head dragging our bent spears, tethered to our guns. Tom L pinned it to the bottom with his Hawaiian sling before it succumbed. It was so big that a frozen two foot section of it slipped out of the kitchen freezer and broke my mothers toe.

After moving back to Mpls I took my skin diving equipment and plied the waters of lake Harriet near our home and speared suckers and carp. I have been back to Hawaii about 6 times and have always brought the gear along to spear more fish there. A more recent highlight was skin diving and spearing Molokai. It was very good and virgin like our old spots on Oahu in the mid 70s.

After working in Grand Portage MN I got into winter dark house spearing a few years after living back down in the cities. It may have been about 2003, but would have to check back on my journal. I was used to quiet after living up north for 10 years, and love hunting so this new hobby seemed like the perfect bridge from the things I loved about living up north to readjusting to life in the cities. Not having anyone to take me out or knowing anyone who knew anything about spearing, it was all trial and error. I had already done a lot of angling and hunting both animals and fish, so it didn't take me any time to at all to figure out and become quite proficient.

One of my favorite memories from the dark house was the first time I took our two boys up to our cabin and spearing off the Gunflint Trail. It was the first weekend of December so we could drive the backroads with the pickup. After getting as far as we could we hiked into a smaller lake and found a perfect scene of sun glistening off unbroken snow on a pine studded lake, under a deep blue sky. No sooner had we set up that the first pike showed up. Luckily for the boys they kept coming, sometimes two in the hole at once. They each speared a few and begged to go out again the next morning even though the weather had changed and the wind howled from the NW.

[Gordie]

When I was 7-8 years old I remember sitting in the car at the boat landing watching waiting for my dad to get the house ready. He always wanted me to wait in the car until the hole was cut or the stove was fired up and the house warmed up. I would sit a wait in anticipation for him to step out of the house and wave that big arm for me to run out to the house and peer into the underwater world I remember the smell of the woodstove and seeing the smoke billow out of the chimney. Those are the memories that I hold the most from my first days of looking into the spear hole.