lineshafting big cobia

[seabeast]

a little while back as soon as i hit the bottom here comes a big ray with some monster cobia around it. i picked one out shot him behind the eyes straight through the head. i was letting him play himself out by watching him do circles around me, meanwhile about a 25lb genuine swims up to see whats going on. after seeing the snapper i lost my concentration and started pulling in the cob so i could shoot another fish, as soon as i touched the cob with my hand he took off full force straight up. i started letting line out with one hand and letting air out of my bc with the other. imagine the look on my face when i realized the line was wrapped around my fin buckle! i was bent over untangling as he pulled me up about 8ft before i could let more line out and dump all the air out of my bc. lesson i learned was don't get greedy and careless. when lineshafting powerful fish, one of my top priorities(even before getting him on stringer) is make sure i always know exactly where the line is, it's not a good feeling being pulled fin first straight up

[seabeast]

i haven't tried it just for fear of the $ loosing tips and shafts. 90% of the spearfishing in ne fl is shooting big fish in low visibility. when you guys over there have 10-15ft vis and shooting big fish do you ever have a problem losing shafts? about 50% of my diving is on artificial reefs, if the fish isn't stoned alot of the time they head for the sand away from the bubbles. just curious any opinions are welcome

[swathdiver]

I learned the hard way with my first cobia too. Was completely wrapped up, fish under my arm with tail knocking my mask off, hands barely able to hit inflator to make it to the surface. As my mentor said, "That'll learn ya!"

[liberty hound]

I agree with Seabeast on this one, I had a cobia swim off with my shaft stuck thru his head last time we were out!
another time I had one on the stringer and both his gills were cut ,he still had enough life left in him to beat the crap out of me , some how knock my weight belt off and swim away with the stringer in his mouth.
I think its best to shoot them and and keep minimum pressure on them until you know they are worn down.
Another thing about them that seems to be different from other fish is when they are wounded they don't try to hold up in structure, instead they swim off onto the sand.

[Aint Scared Me]

Lemonfish require all your concentration but I must admit I am more worried about a big AJ than a lemon. The problem with big AJ's is you are in deep water and the chance of getting pulled down after a misplaced shot is great (yeah been there doen that).
Funniest story on a lemon was a friend (and member who shall remain nameless) shot a 55lb lemon off my fins (the bastard) that I never saw. It was his first real spearfishing trip and he was a little out of his league with a po'd lemon. He grabs the lemon hangs on for dear life and wraps his legs around a crossmember. I look over to check on him, give him the OK sign and through a 1/2 on mask he shakes his head no - hell he was still breathing and I was surrounded by 15lb snapper, so I flash him the OK sign again and get another no. SO being the good buddy I am I go help him out and put the lemon on a stringer. By the time I did this the most of the snapper had vanished but I did get one or 2. Nice fish a**hole. Not a bad way to start your career as a spearo

[one_lucky_shot]

what kind of reaction do you see most with a free shaft shot that did not stone? i have seen many a fish go buck wild and hear many stories of it on a line. if you take that same fish, same shot free shaft.. does the fish just swim off, cirlce around? what?? if they have enought fight left to try to kill a diver what do they tend to do? if they run how far do they run? or do they run till the feel they are no longer threatend??

[lukepaige]

I do all of my spearing around the oil rigs off the coast of Louisiana. I've never heard of freeshafting until I found this site. It would be almost impossible to do that in my area because of the almost constant strong currents and bottom murk. How do you freeshaft in water that is 300'. Every fish I've ever shot that isn't stoned goes completely ape shit. I can't imagine trying to chase down a 50 lb cobia with a spear sticking out of him. We rig our guns w/ 2 raps of stainless steal cable. The barnacles on the rig legs would tear anything less to shreads. It is very common for us to spear 40 lb cobia, I've yet to stone one though. These bastards are always the first fish shot on a dive. As soon as you're out of the boat they just swim right up to you with that stupid look on their face. A pissed off cobia scares me almost as much as a pissed off tarpon, you never know where they are going to go. Generally we shoot them and go straight back to the boat, we can do this because most of our cobia come within the first 15 feet of a dive. Any ideas on how to freeshaft around the rigs, if you missed then there goes the shaft!

[FredT]

When you have a line on any fish over 30 pounds he is entirely capable of killing you, especially if there are obstructions about.

A cable or line wrapped around your neck, arm, or foot, and also wrapped around the obstruction prety effectivly ties you to the bottom. A 70+pound fish is able to drive the line into your flesh and sever tendons and arteries, and crush windpipes.

The whole trick to lineshafting large fish is line management. Either keep the line taught with you and one end and the fish at the other when in open water, or tie the line off to the structure and GET OUT OF THE LINE ARC! Approaching the fish from outside the arc is much safer than "climbing the line".

FT

[diligaf]

This cobia talk reminds me of a story that took place many years ago, one that made me a better diver by reminding me to use good judgment and not be lackadaisical.

It was a flat summer weekday and I didn’t have anyone to go out with. In those days I almost always dove deep and when I went out alone, I’d call off the dive if the conditions weren’t right or go into shallower water if the current was too strong.

So I headed out to a wreck in 200’ of water, but the current was running about 2 knots to the south. Well, I should have either headed in or at least to shallower water. But I said what the heck, I’m here, I might as well get in. There was a commercial dive boat about a ½ mile to the south on a wreck in about 130’ of water. I figured in the worst-case scenario, I could swim over to that boat. But, I really would have hated to do this because the captain, even though a friend, was very anti-tech diving.

I pitched the anchor and made my way down the line. At 130’ the current completely stopped. The anchor was securely caught on the north side of the wheelhouse. The rope was very tight but was not rubbing on anything. However, I knew I should move the anchor, so when it was time to leave I wouldn’t have to worry about clearing the wheelhouse. But as I looked around, the wreck appeared to be very lifeless. So I thought “I won’t be long, so I’ll just leave it.”

I circled around the wreck and was headed back to the anchor when a turtle swam up with a 45-pound cobia on his back. In those days I used my old Ultimate “Dually” setup with one line and one free shaft. I line shafted the cobia and quickly pulled him to me. Time was now running short and I needed to hurry. I didn’t have time to “brain” the cobia and headed for the anchor line. I had the cobia and gun in my right arm and was trying to pop the anchor with my left and was wishing I’d properly placed the anchor at the beginning of my dive. I got the anchor loose and was trying to get enough air in my BC to clear the wheelhouse with the anchor, my “dually” gun, and the cobia when he came back to life. He got between my shoulder and my regulator (never let this happen) and the next thing I know is instead of air I’m getting 100% water. I thought “Oh Sh*t, he broke my regulator!” I grabbed for my reg and realized I only had my mouthpiece. The cobia just simply pulled it apart from the reg and I quickly put it back together. However, in the mean time, the anchor re-caught on the wheelhouse and the cobia is thrashing like crazy! Now my air is starting to run low, the current is too strong to do an acnchor deco, and I’m not letting go of the cobia. I’m starting to think I might have to let go of the anchor line and start swimming in during my deco to reach the dive boat in 130’ or if I miss that swim to shore. Either way, my friends would never let me live it down. This thought gave me that little extra energy to pop the anchor, secure the cobia, and have a nice drift deco under my boat.

Looking back, I knew after that day not to push it if the conditions are not right and never be lackadaisical in your procedures.

[one_lucky_shot]

amazing what the thought of what our buddies will say can do to your body.

don't see why any capt or any one for that matter would be anti- tech. that just does not make sence to me. if you are a tech diver you are good at what you are doing or you are dead. not nice but honest.

[Graham]

Line shafting in the rigs, always carry wire cutters. You never know what may happen.

[lukepaige]

what kind of wire cutters do you use? Frank over at Temento's sells one kind, it isn't stainless though, you have to oil those bastards up after every dive.

[Graham]

I have yet to find a really good pair. Shimano makes a really good stainless steel pair that wont rust, but they couldn't cut warm butter. I have found pairs at home depot for around 5 bucks that cut really well but they are rusted out after 2 trips. Let me know if you find a good pair that will cut and last.

[RichT]

Im sitting at home sick today and reading this thread reminds me of a similar experience with a very big fish that could have turned out worse than it did.
It was probably 11 or more years ago I was diving an old shrimpboat wreck in about 170 feet of water.
It was the middle of winter and the water was very cold so I had a 7mm wetsuit and a hood on. My buddy and I had just entered the water and were dissapointed to see vis about 30 feet with a lot of particulate in the water. We had anchored on this wreck for some reason, and were headed down the anchor line. My buddy was way faster than me getting down at that time and he quickly dissapeared out of site. About 110 feet down,I suddenly see two of the biggest Amberjacks I have ever seen,even to this day, swimming right at me.They were both easily over 100 pounds and I think the one that i shot would have been close to 120!
They both did a drive by on me and I carefully lined up a shot.
I pulled the trigger on the bigger fish and and he stopped dead in his tracks! Or so I thought.
My heart started racing as I started to put the stringer through his eye sockets and placed the stringer over my shoulder as I typically do. I decided to continue heading down to the wreck to see how my partner was doing and see if I could bag a big grouper also. I had just gotten my gun reloaded ,when all of a sudden i felt my self getting ripped backwards through the water like I had just been hooked up to the back of a ski boat! I was getting pulled so hard and so fast that my mask was was getting ripped of my face and filling with water! All I could think of was the mother of all sharks has just grabbed this fish on my shoulder and Im going to be the dessert! I twisted and turned to try and get the stringer off but it was digging in to me so deep that I couldnt even look behind me or get it off me! Finally after what seemed like several minutes, but what was probably only about 10 or fifteen seconds, the stringer popped open and slid off me.
It was then that I realized what exactly had just happened.
The amberjack that I thought I had stoned was simply knocked out for a few seconds! He had come back to life and was swimming his butt off! It took a couple of seconds to get my mask back on and I tried to chase him down but he quickly dissappeared out of sight.
I tried to swim some search patterns along the bottom hoping he would settle there as they typically do, but being in water so deep,I only had a couple minutes to search.
I gave up the search and somehow found the anchor line and saw my buddy heading up with a 42 pound gag.When we got on the boat,I took off my wetsuit and had a deep red line that turned into an ugly bruise where the stringer had been digging into me along my shoulder! I have told several people about this story and given them the type of stringer I was using that day and asked them to try and open it with their hands or by standing on it and pulling.Very few people can open it,but that fish sure did!
Lesson: Be very,very carefull when shooting big fish!

[FredT]

Is to throat even "dead" fish once strung. If they're still live they bleed out and die quickly. If it's already dead it only costs you about 4 seconds time to do the deed and may save your ass.

[fernandezh]

Good Advice FredT
Besides, I think Amberjack tastes better when they are bled out. I had an AJ once try to drown me. I swear that thing must have been possessed by Satan because I had cut his gills, and stabbed his melon several times but he was still doing his best to drag me into deeper water. I solved that problem by attaching a lift bag to the stringer and sent his ass to the surface.

[lukepaige]

In response to Graham:
The guys at Temento's swear by those cutters, they have red handles and a tiny "mouth" that actually does the cutting. Pretty bad explanation, but that is what they use to cut all the wire in the dive shop. I think they sell for about $10-$15. They will know what I'm talking about. They suggest putting them in a mayonnaise jar filled with oil after every dive. The stainless steel cutters won't cut the thick stainless cable we use, and the other "good" cutters have that spring that keeps them open, it will last about 2 seconds in salt water. I'm definately getting some of those cutters this year, it would suck to lose your life because you didn't want the hassle of keeping a $15 cutter oiled up after every dive. I've never dove with any type of cutter before, but you know how much shit is wrapped up around the rig legs.

[Graham]

I'll have to give those a try this year.

[FredT]

Originally posted by fernandezh
I swear that thing must have been possessed by Satan

In 30 years I've never met a large AJ that WASN'T possessed by Satan. There is a reason they are called "fish from Hell." Not to mention the fact that every one I've speared that I didn't stone always wanted to go "home." At least a Cobia will sometimes run to the surface.
BTW don't cut the gills, cut the flap of flesh just aft of where the gills join the belly between the gullet and the bottom of the fish. It's a faster cut and you get to cut the BIG pipe just after the pump. They bleed out faster that way. Photo below shows the cut point.

FT

[FredT]

cut point

[diligaf]

Originally posted by Graham
I have yet to find a really good pair. Shimano makes a really good stainless steel pair that wont rust, but they couldn't cut warm butter. I have found pairs at home depot for around 5 bucks that cut really well but they are rusted out after 2 trips. Let me know if you find a good pair that will cut and last.

Trauma shears work pretty well on cutting most things including wire and hold up well from the effects of rust. Don’t buy the ones at the dive shops that sometimes cost $20. You can buy the same shears at Discount Auto Parts for $3. Another thought is to vacuum-pack your wire cutters. They will stay as good as new this way.

Cutting fish throats is probably the best way to kill a big fish. Another thought is to just send every fish up on a lift bag. I use the safety sausage type bags with a large brass clip. I grab the fish by the throat and attach the brass clip on the throat and send him up. It is very quick, no drag carrying them around, no shark problem, etc

[FredT]

In a restricted envionment they didn't work.

FT

[diligaf]

Fred - Trauma Shears are quick & work in most situations, but if using cable lines, I would also carry a vacuum-packed wire cutter. I think if you carry both you'll be much safer. It is also a good idea to test your shears or cutters on the wire you are using before you go diving.