Which spots? Reefs and wrecks? Trolling only or bottom fishing too?

Do you target large fish only? Or reef snapper and anything else you can catch too?

Hmm. Not really.

Here is another nurse shark I caught not long ago: https://www.fishingstage.com/t-64035-1.html

And I caught maybe 3 or 4 since then that I didn't even bother reeling in. Either cut the line or yanked the line while holding the reel until the hook fell out of its mouth. Honestly, nurse sharks are more of a nuisance than anything else. Definitely wouldn't say rare down here. Maybe up north where you were things are different.

Caught it on a whole white grunt near the bottom, about 45ft down.

Releasing it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be:



This is the longer version:

it was actually bigger than seems in this picture, due to depth


still bigger than it looks


this is about right sizewise

Well, I got my reply from Florida's FWC. They said what I'm describing is considered gigging. And they consider gigging to be a type of spearing. And so spearing rules apply.

Which means, it's legal as long as you are more than a certain distance away from beaches, jetties, etc. And there are restricted species.

So I think I'm going to give this a try.

Yeah, I'm no longer considering a spear gun. I did some more research on it and it looks like shooting one while above water is not a good idea. The recoil is bad and the line might get tangled, and might even pull the spear back towards you. So that explains why I didn't see any videos about using a spear gun from a boat.

I don't want a bow, but I came across pole spears with rubber bands. You can use the band to launch the spear into the fish. I like this better than using a bow. More compact. And I won't need to shoot much farther than maybe 5 feet.

Yes, we can't eat them here in Florida. That's why it's only for bait.

Don't want to waste time. Just want some bait meat. And it's either barracudas or grunts. Grunts aren't all that great for bait. The scale is too rough and the skin is too tender. Meat rips off the hook too easy. So you end up with a bunch of strikes and then the bait is gone.

On days when we get blue runner, that's an even better bait. But on most days, you are pretty much guaranteed to have access to plenty grunts and plenty barracudas.

Barracuda simply makes the better bait of the two. And if I could just spear it without wasting much time, it would be awesome.

Of course, we can't cut it up while on the boat. So the idea is to take it back, then cut it up and use it for the next time. And the next time we are out, spear another one and save it for the next time. Besides, shooting them with a speargun seems like it would be fun.

I mostly target snapper and sea bass for food. I'm not much of a "for fighting" type of fisherman. More of a "want to eat it" type. But I'll upload a video of a shark I caught two days ago. It was fun to tire it out and then let it go. Still, not something I do as the main goal when going out fishing.

It's interesting how people usually say "don't take legal advice from a cop, they are not obligated to know all laws and regulations, and you are not legally protected if you act on incorrect advice you receive from them".

But at the same time people have complete faith in game wardens, wildlife management personnel, etc.

I'll of course contact Florida's FWC, but it would be nice to have a confirmation that what I hear from them matches common practice in the state. That's why I posted the question. One does not prevent the other.

I want to catch some barracudas for bait. And whenever we go out fishing reefs, I see them constantly swimming/floating around the boat, 2-3 feet deep. Just sitting there not moving.

So it would be really easy to spear one right from the boat.

I tried searching, and with any reference to spear fishing and boats it's always about using a boat to get to the location and then dive with a speargun.

I don't want to dive. I want to shoot a speargun while standing in the boat.

Is this something people do? Any laws or regulations prohibiting it? Anything else I need to think of?

My wife caught this thing while fishing for snapper. We looked it up, it says this fish is both poisonous and venomous. Pic quality isn't great, but we were worried about getting stung while handling it.

About 45-50ft near a reef.

Not a bad trip. Got two Blue Runners that we cut up for bait. And also cut up three Grunts for bait. The 16 is what was left.

Not sure what kind. I first thought it was a nurse shark, but now I'm not sure.

While shrimp is considered the best bait, it's too easy for it to be pulled off the hook when the fish strikes. So I'm drifting away from using shrimp to using cut up bait like blue runner or grout.

When using cut up bait fish, if you dress the hook with it by piercing the skin twice, it's almost impossible to get it off. So you end up with smaller fish nibbling on it without removing it from the hook. And then a large enough fish gets it and swallows it and gets hooked.

With live shrimp (or dead shrimp for that matter), the shrimp is too delicate. And small fish that's too small to swallow it tries to nibble on the shrimp and by doing so either rips the shrimp or completely removes it from the hook.

So you end up having to use more and more bait just to continue fishing. It's annoying.

What I try to do is use live shrimp to catch some bait fish, and then switch to using cut up bait for further fishing. At the end of the trip I take all unused bait fish home and freeze it for the next trip.

I used to buy four-five dozen live shrimp when going out as that was my main bait. Not I get a dozen (if I don't have any bait from previous trips) and that's usually enough to get some bait fish. After that, I just use bait fish.

Attaching a short clip. The wire leader broke as I was pulling it in. The shark fought for around 30 minutes.

Attached file:
(Download)