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All About Pole Spears & Slings What is it about that traditional method of the early hunter/gatherers under the water? These devices are indeed interesting and effective.

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Old 02-05-2014, 02:06 PM   #1
SnpperWhisperer
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The cats 2014

Last weekend we held the 5th catfish cull in lake Taupo, New Zealand. This is our only PSO competition, and again was attended by more divers (more than 90 people) than our national champs the week before! Here is a video one guy made: Lake Taupo Catfish Cull 2014 - YouTube
Spearo's swim in pairs for about 7 hours shooting cats. The record we set a few years back was 150 for the day. We only have brown bullhead cats. They live from about 1 m deep to 15m+. They are most commonly seen lying in the weed or on mud near weed, but also swimming around and sometime come in to see fish suspended on a float line.

This year Kolt and crippy got 132 fish and 38 kg to win. Long John and I only got 79 - our magic spot has failed us two years in a row now - next year we will gave to do some serious scouting the day before.
Someone got a new record of 631 grams this year too.
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Old 02-06-2014, 10:45 AM   #2
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Re: The cats 2014

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Originally Posted by SnpperWhisperer View Post
Last weekend we held the 5th catfish cull in lake Taupo, New Zealand. This is our only PSO competition, and again was attended by more divers (more than 90 people) than our national champs the week before! Here is a video one guy made: Lake Taupo Catfish Cull 2014 - YouTube

Spearo's swim in pairs for about 7 hours shooting cats. The record we set a few years back was 150 for the day. We only have brown bullhead cats. They live from about 1 m deep to 15m+. They are most commonly seen lying in the weed or on mud near weed, but also swimming around and sometime come in to see fish suspended on a float line.

This year Kolt and crippy got 132 fish and 38 kg to win. Long John and I only got 79 - our magic spot has failed us two years in a row now - next year we will gave to do some serious scouting the day before.
Someone got a new record of 631 grams this year too.
Surely 631g is a kitten fish av had bigger craps.....
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Old 02-06-2014, 06:13 PM   #3
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Re: The cats 2014

Yeah, for sure whoever introduced them might have thought about a bigger species! Some of the big 100 kg species would be awesome - we'd have to switch to using Riffe Islanders instead of pole spears!

The cats are a noxious pest in our waters, so this event is part-sponsored by our Dept of Conservation - there are not many competitions around the world sponsored by environmental organisations!
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Old 02-06-2014, 11:53 PM   #4
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Re: The cats 2014

That looks like a good cause and plenty of fun, do you do this every year on February? If ever I go to NZ I’ll plan it for this time of the year.

How’s the spearing going at the moment, any big snapper/kingfish stories?
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Old 02-07-2014, 01:57 AM   #5
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Re: The cats 2014

Yeah it is every year, last weekend of January, the weekend after our nationals. Come on over, a few Aussies usually do the Nats. Has been a mixed summer weathrwise and fish have been hit and miss. No riveting stories lately, but will get around to posting some recent pix at some stage.
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Old 02-10-2014, 08:46 PM   #6
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Re: The cats 2014

Here's some pixs from our national Champs a few weeks ago - my daughter Pipi entered her first spearfishing comp - and was forced to use a pole spear of course (a cheap 6 ft 3 prong from local shop Wild Blue).





The area for the juniors was dirty (4 metre vis) and cold (18 degrees) and not very fishy. She swam for an hour, got into the boat a bit disenchanted as her mate Brielle had 3 fish by then. After a sleep (wtf?!) she got back in and we managed to find her two fish in the last hour.

I swam in the Open competition with a ring-in buddy (he used a gun) and we finished well down the list, so not a great result for me - I haven't done any competitions for a while - but it was good fun anyway, and I always enjoy the challenge of two days' hard swimming and spearing in challenging conditions. I used my Lance Ohara because the rubber on my Gat-ku broke - it was nice, but I reckon that change lost me 2 fish the first day because the gat-ku 3 prong with the small keeper barbs do a better job of holding on to the larger but weak fish.
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Old 02-11-2014, 11:36 AM   #7
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Re: The cats 2014

I love the fact that your daughter enjoys the water as much as you do. It's really uplifting to see such bonding.
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Old 02-12-2014, 12:18 AM   #8
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Re: The cats 2014

Wow that was a great video and competition sponsored by the Dept of conservation... Props for that. great job on doing your part to remove invasives.
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