Spearfishing in MN

[Freedive WI]

When the vis is good, over 8', I'll use my Rob Allen Railgun. It's about 75cm long and is made in South Africa.

For everything else I have a custom made mid-handle wood gun- with all RIFFE parts. I would have just gotten a Riffe, but they didn't make a wooden gun short enough for our vis- just a metal one called the M-tech 0.

I wish I would have brought my camera with me this last weekend though, still working out a couple of bugs with my speargun/camera mount.

I jumped in a local lake at the last minute to do a little spearfishing, when I ran into an amazing array of fish. I am used to seeing 4'+ long musky, perch, walleye, carp, fat bass, and all of the others, but on Saturady I also ran into at least 6 different gar fish in a varitey of different sizes. I was thinking that was pretty cool until I saw 4 different sturgeon. These things were all over 4' long and I even got to grab onto one of them. He just looked at me and slowly swam away as I let go- not bothered in the least.

I guess that just goes to show you that you should never leave your camera at home! :'(

Here's a shot of my buddy, Ted, with his wooden gun- we both have the same kind as he was the one who found the guy to custom make our guns for us. They can easily carry up to three slings, but for smaller panfish one 1 sing is enough. If your going for a big carp you'll need all three to get through their skull plates, or for longer distance shots.

For panfish spearing, which really is the main reason to spearfish around here, a small "Euro" gun, less than 75cm in length, work really well. They are easy to swing through the water and you only need a single rubber sling to get mose fish. Some people will start out with a genaric gun, like a JBL, and then move into a nicer gun if they find out that they really like to spearfish. I've had a chance to use them and still prefer a small Euro gun over them.


Jon