Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

so i was just on fb and saw a video of one diver with a bag full of lionfish some up to 3 lbs in size.....

i got to thinking although i dont spear fish..... we on this site have the ability to make a difference with this infestation.... we do pier and bridge clean ups how many of you spearfisherman would be up for a group effort to go and hunt a bunch of these things down.... figure if we could get 20 guys to take out 100 in a days work..... thats 2000 lionfish we wipe out plus the ones they would breed and create.... that is a huge difference and if we could organize this a few times a yr we could make a difference on the effects they are causing our ocean......

thoughts??? i think its a good idea and something as a group we could organize state wide and really change the numbers.... maybe we could get fwc backing on it...... .. just thinking out loud

Have you ever been diving or spearfishing before? It's not as simple down here as some areas where they grow in packs of 300+ out in the open. The northern gulf area is a breeding ground for them.
Here it would require finding enough that aren't hiding in coral or rocks to not be wasting time and it's not a full proof thing you still have to have something special to store them in and protect your hands. And a gig cuz loading a speargun 900 times isn't fun.
I will let you know by Thursday night how many I saw in the two days diving for lobster and you will get an idea of what the deal is ill probably see no more than 10-20 they just aren't in numbers here like in the gulf. Also you don't need fwc backing with those critters it's kill em when you see them. Even in protected waters I believe.
Btw there are already a ton of lion fish derby's and cleaning events, I'm all in but you'll probably end up doing it with an already established group doubt you'd get more than me on here to participate lol

and this is why im inquiring.. i dont spearfish i dont dive so ... im curious bout if we can do something... im sure we have friends gulf side

I'm talking like Pensacola... If you want to do something just learn how to get underwater find some structure and start shooting... Id be happy to teach you sometime

i wont dive or go under.... just nto for me.. ill boat all day or fish but no diving for me

So then isn't this kinda pointless? you can't really help without getting in the water? Maybe clip the spines before fileting but that's not helping the problem ...but hey if you want to rent a boat I'll go out there and shoot for you all day lol

This year the fwc is allowing you to take one extra lobster for every 10 lion fish you catch or spear

dude i dont have to be one of the divers to organize an event ffs... just cause im not diving doesnt mean i cant help get the group togetehr and make it happen ... i dont have to participate.... to organize... if my boat was running id def take ppl out:) and im sure theres plenty of ppl on here to help also....

and good for fwc .. nice move

talk to miguel hes the best spear fisherman alive

Like I said when you got the boat I'll help, I'll let you know the numbers late this week on how many I see but if I get my extra lobster I'll be lucky
And from the look of Miguel I doubt that boy is anything of a spearfisherman looks like he's the type that floats on the surface lol

That guy is a master diver and spear slinger. I hear he kills grunts by the hundreds.

BigC, dont think there is anything we can do to stop them. They are here to stay but we can kill (careful with this word)
and try to control their numbers as best as we can.

You'll never get rid of them or even make much a dent in the population.

The problem now is that they are thick on the deep wrecks, that you can't easily dive. Got one while fishing for vermies on a wreck in 300 feet up in Jupiter, and have seen videos from divers using Nitrox on deep wrecks that show hundreds of them covering the wrecks.

Kill them all, they are delicious, but don't kid yourself that it will do much in the way of population control.

PhishingPhanatic wrote:You'll never get rid of them or even make much a dent in the population.

The problem now is that they are thick on the deep wrecks, that you can't easily dive. Got one while fishing for vermies on a wreck in 300 feet up in Jupiter, and have seen videos from divers using Nitrox on deep wrecks that show hundreds of them covering the wrecks.

Kill them all, they are delicious, but don't kid yourself that it will do much in the way of population control.

Rorys right! Its all about water temp.

i thought about something like that in the hood once but they just breed worse then rabbits


all hope has been lost

lmao... im gonna go hunt fried chicken at the grocery store i guess....

Only saw 2 lionfish in two days...good luck lol

You're on the right track, May go over to the roundup in St. Pete next week. It's something we can correct, or at least severely limit. We're hunans afterall, we've wiped out countless animals.

Leadslinger wrote:You're on the right track, May go over to the roundup in St. Pete next week. It's something we can correct, or at least severely limit. We're hunans afterall, we've wiped out countless animals.

Good point, wonder if some kind of fish trap would work? Kind of hard to dive as deep as they can. Seems to me screwing around with some kind of trap design might be worth a thought. A bounty is about the only other thing that seems to work.

Pat we expect a prototype in 30 days.

Fish traps are illegal. Not sure the loop hole that allows pinfish traps but trap fshing is outlawed. Doubt that traps would work that well on lionfish.

I haven't heard of anyone getting a bonus bug from capturing the 10 lionfish.

I think our crew might have seen less than 10 in two days with about 9 hours of dive time between Haulover and Dania pier. Caught or killed none, and did not see anyone at the J. Lloyd docks with them. We did have to release 4 bugs after the final dive and secondary total check over the limit because it was easier than searching for 40 lionfish.

I think I said already but down in the keys I saw only 2 lol and neither were big enough for a nice meal, forgot my speargun at the dock but would have rather seen 2 more lobster than the lionfish anyways cuz day 2 was horrible for us.
But I didn't hear anyone boasting that they got their extras.