Hunting on Hookah

[Noah]

Just did a commercial spearing trip on hooka for the first time... after many yrs of not touching a tank and only freediving... MAN it was hard to remember to breath!

[rg_garcia]

Hey Noah,

How did you like the hooka? and how deep where you? Did you not enjoy not to hurrying the shot in some instances? It's nice when you can stalk you fish and you have aaaallllll the time in the world. I've found you can ambush your fish when you stay at the bottom vs diving down like a crazy epileptic frog and pretend your not lookin at the fish you aim to shoot.(I'm talking about fish in the open) How many times have you lost a fish because the need to breath? Don't get me wrong , I love free diving. It's what I do most of the time. But if I know I'm going to 45' plus reef
and want to do serious damage. The hooka is my choice. And when lobster season comes around.... the hooka is second to non.. I also have invented a Lobster snare which will be out this season. It's bad ass. No other like it. It has a self contained stainless steel spring. One hand operation. very powerful. The patend process took a long time I made the first one 6 years ago and Yes, I still have it and It still works fine. It's vertually indestructible. But that's another subject.
dive safe

THE IMPALER

[Noah]

Hookah was fun, we were out in 60' with 2 hoses, 350' each. Plenty of scope to work an area out, but still always seemed to come short when I saw good fish

Capt. wrapped my line around the prop while I was down had about 2 breaths to make it up... no fun. All in all it was good for commercial diving but honestly I could've shot more fish freediving and not had the hassle of dragging a hose.

It was very stressful remembering to breath, kept forgetting about it when I went into hunt mode.

Lobster snare sounds neat, hope you make a killing!

[rg_garcia]

Cool,
It sounds like you had a Hooka that was attached to the boat. What kind of hooka was it? I have the one that floats on a tube ( brownie ) Only one hose, 60' then it T's off to 2- 20' sections. Then you are free to move around w/ your partner. I do want to get the 100' hose soon. I do have 4 -20' hoses, so if i really need to I could just add to the 60'. 350'of hose sounds crazy. It sucks when someone kinks the hose. Thats why I like to take the spare air. 60' is not so bad but it does catch you by surprise. Groupers???? did you see any? Hogs?? I think I will be going off the beach on Wed. If it's calm I'll take the Hooka. It will be my first time to the 4th reef.
Happy Hunting

[Noah]

I believe it was a Honda and it was mounted on the upper deck of the boat. Between the 3 of us we probably shot 250-300#'s of fish, mainly gags then mangrove snapper, hogs, red gr., and a few triggers. Should've shot WAAAAY more but the GPS shit out on us once we got out there and we were just making random drops

I will certainly carry a spare air if I ever go deeper than 60 for sure.

[Marwan]

Originally Posted by rg_garcia

Hey Guys,
Let me tell yall from experience.... Hooka spearfishing is bad ass!!!!
To the dude that thinks your gonna unhook yourself and out swim a fish is smokin some good s#*t. You never win the chase game with a fiiaach. Never unhook your self. I go 40' to 45' all the time and never had problem.
I've also been dumb enough to go without the spare air. But let me tell you, You can take your sweeeeeet time and get your fish. I'm talkin 4 hr. down time. I have the big hooka, 4 divers and up to 100' if I wanted to. But I now my safe limits not to mention my other buddies lives. When your lookin for grouper, in all the holes and nooky nooks. I don't mind free diving in 20' to 30'. but nothing beats the hooka for the 40s
and 50s. I know. Some of you think its cheatin. But my Fry Daddy has no concience.
Good luck and be careful.
The Impaler

guys have you attended any formal scuba training?..i dont want to sound like a mother hen , but 4 hour bottom time is a sure decompression zone regardless of your depth and puts you at risk of decompression sickness..definitely dangerous..no fish is worth risking severe injury/life for.. if you are into hunting on air, i suggest you take a scuba course and hunt on scuba..if you dont like the scuba gear and like the freedom of going down without tanks, at least take the course, make sure you have adequate depth/time reading devices, preferably a computer and watch your limits...iu can imagine many dangerous scenarios in hunting on hookah and the false sense of security it can provide
please be safe out there

[irtrogdor]

I agree with Marwan, use a computer for hookah-ing. If only one of you has a computer make sure you all surface within 10 minutes of the end of the timer so that everybody is in the safe zone.

[rg_garcia]

Noah,
Wow!!!! That's alota fiiaaaach.. What guns are u using? I heard Trigger are very good. I usually give them to my 4 ' green morey(after I filet them). But next time I get a few, I'll throw them on the grill. And are you chumming? I'm Thinking about taking a chum bag out this weekend. What do you think?
On the safety issues. You are correct Marwan. One can never be too careful. Thats why we carry the spare air in case of emergency. 2 hrs. of down time is what I usually do. I don't have a computer but I do keep track of time. I will look into getting one this summer. I know some guys that go 80'+ on a hooka or they say they do, but to me that's way too deep for me. I like to stay at 40' to 50'. And I was PADI certified in 1980 in the beautiful Little town of Crystal River, Fl.
Thanks again for the scuba advise.

[Marwan]

RG Garcia..
2 hours down time is too much man..its not about spare air or having air left, its about breathing compressed air at depth...which you are doing , and the exposure of your body to nitrogen..the combined effect of depth and time is what puts you at risk, the deeper and longer you go the more your body absorbs nitrogen gas...and the more you risk getting DCS (basically nitrogen bubbles in the blood), so a 10 minute dive to 80 feet is not bad, a 2 hour dive at 40 feet is downright riskyand can cause serious injury...
...things like being exposed for a long time, like what youre doing, coming up too fast (as u would normally do for say freediving), yo yo diving, up to the surface and down to 30-40 feet constantly...is a recipe for serious injury this is not a joke....
if you are padi certified since 1980 you should know what im talking about...maybe get a refresher course mate, but what youre saying is pretty serious.. if i remember my tables correctly, the max bottom time at 40-50 feet would be in the range of 30-45 minutes or so..2 hours is waaaayyyyy out of safety limits..

[Old Man Dave]

Just out of interest i looked up on the net some no-stop times for 40 feet. Huge variation in different tables from over 5 hours down to just over 1 hour. Most tables agree around the 60 foot (18m) and deeper but not the shallows. Most give the time at 30 foot as unlimited. Much as I thought back in my previous post, and asumming excess nitrogen is not absorbed at this depth. However the 40 feet time seems to depend on which model is used for the tables. I have learnt to trust my dive computer (Suunto) but do know people who have bent using DC's. If I used hooka I think I'd use a dive computer and if in doubt err on the side of safety.

Dave

[Erik]

Of course DCS prediction is more art than science, but when I was diving inside 10 metres as a comm diver or even on a computer recreationally, the bottom time was virtually limitless, especially if you come up to 6 metres, at which point the computer would give you another 10 hours of bottom time (for example) after spending a few hours at 10 metres.

I swore by 5 minute deco stops, no matter whan the dive profile- even a quick bounce to depth.

[rg_garcia]

Dam it Marwan!!!! You are correct once again. According to the (PADI rdp)You should go no more than 1hr 40min. at 40'. Ok, I'll take a refresher course. I still have the book. I also don't have a choice but to get a computer. Thanks again for your advise.

[Marwan]

Cheers RG!..
be safe, and post pics of your catches