diy. fish spear

[woodrat]

tomtom suggested I start a new thread with this, hope I am doing this right. I made this fishing spear/ harpoon point from 3/16th ss. rod. here are details, shaftis about 1ft. long barb is about 2in. long, at back is large ss. flat washer. to make, cut parts, weld with ss. welding rod of 1/8in. dia. or smaller I just eye-balled angle for barb, then notched butt of shaft welded in washer. sharpen point and its ready. I use one of 2 ways, as spear, with shaft inserted into wood pole [made on site of coarse], and tied in, or as harpoon with spear shaft mearly wedged into pole. to attach my harpoon line I use commercial swivel with para cord attached.If I can offer any advice on use it is this , try and make sure your point goes completely thru, I have had fish as large as 15lbs. on if you dont get good penetration they make every effort to tear themselves off. I can tell you first hand they do not give you a second chance. tomtom will help me post pictures so cross your fingers we get this right. here are pic codes [I hope]

the same with spear1copy ,spear2copy ,spear3 ,spear4. hope I did this right ,thanks all for your patience.

 

[Quill]

Can't see the pictures yet, but I am looking forward to them.

 

[tomtom]

ok below are woodrats pics.. if they still dont work is because photobucket is down(again) and we'll jus have to wait for them to sort it!!

looks like a good spear to me

 

[Stuart]

Hi woodrat

could you explain your technique for using this spear?

 

[Hoodoo]

I like it! A guy could make one of those pretty easily using carbon steel and some brazing rod.

 

[Burnt Ash]

tomtom suggested I start a new thread with this, hope I am doing this right. I made this fishing spear/ harpoon point from 3/16th ss. rod. here are details, shaftis about 1ft. long barb is about 2in. long, at back is large ss. flat washer. to make, cut parts, weld with ss. welding rod of 1/8in. dia. or smaller I just eye-balled angle for barb,

(snippage)

I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm Woodrat, but you make a bit of a meal of that project, IMO. I presume you have such things as blacksmiths in Oregon? Take a length of your SS rod to a smith and explain what you want. He'll take about minute to make you something that you can finish off with a file -no welding required. Take the 'eye', for example. I'd either hammer a flat in the (heated) rod and drill a hole, or simply hammer forge a loop.

In any case, for a fish spear, you're better off with a trident or multi-pointed 'leister'. I've made several over the years with large salt water fish hooks (10/0) tempered and staightened.

I made my first fish spears when I was about eight years old out of six-inch nails -sharpened with a file- whipped to garden canes. We used them to spear small flounders and plaice in the sea on family holidays. Now I think of it, those were probably my first lessons/experiences of stalking and hunting and spotting very well-camouflaged quarry.

Burnt Ash

 

[woodrat]

burnt ashes points are valid. if your not set up to fabricate, then it would be a pain. I can say that including prep. [cutting parts, etc], it only took me about half an hour start to finnish. my goal was to produce a lightweight daul purpose spear/harpoon cheaply and quickly for as little as possible,[cost wise].I have a few different trident style spears, but could only use them as spears. I do carry a large ss., fish hook to use as a gaff and between the two, I ussually do not have much trouble having fish for dinner. as to technique, the streams here are mostly not to wide or too deep, so I work my way up the center slowly, watching along bank edges where they like to hide. I keep my spearpoint in the water when I see them, ease up close and nail em. sometimes I miss or they spook but they are real territorial so if you keep going they will try to get back past you giving you a second chance. I have a larger stouter one that I made with 2 barbs ,in that case crouched along river where a downed tree forced salmon into narrow spot. camo net over me as low as i could get, pine frond tyed to spear camoflaging point out in water. they must have thought I was bush and spear just another tree limb. about 15 to 20 min., and I had 35lbs. of really ticked off salmon on my hands. too use your spear this way hold it and thrust it just like pool cue. whatever style of spear you choose, its your stalking skills that will determine the outcome, I can vouch for that.

 

[Burnt Ash]

...about 15 to 20 min., and I had 35lbs. of really ticked off salmon on my hands. too use your spear this way hold it and thrust it just like pool cue. whatever style of spear you choose, its your stalking skills that will determine the outcome, I can vouch for that.

I'm not familiar with Oregon's fish and game regs, but they'd take a dim view if you tried that over here! At 35lb, that's probably a king salmon (Chinook), right?

Of all types of wilderness food acquisition, fishing (various methods) has got to be the most profitable in terms of returns for energy expended and application required. That is, of course, if you have the right circumstances.

Burnt Ash

 

[Gary]

Woodrat/Tomtom can I be cheeky and suggest you publish this (with pictures) on British blades too as I am sure a lot of guys there would be interested in this thread.

Wilderness fishing is interesting as unlike trapping conventional gear or parts there of tend to be more effective over all than most primitive hooks and lines meaning in the main we need to go prepared and as such your spear could be a very handy tool - having said that, weight for weight I would rather carry a gill net or a night line as these (like snares) are tools that hunt/fish for you while you perform other tasks and as such are more economical on energy.

 

[woodrat]

they take a damn dim veiw over here to!!!. whats a mate to do???. unpracticed skills are like no skills at all!!. I guess each has to follow his own sense of whats right. If we all did exzactly what the endless list of laws decreed, what a merry bunch of helpless sheep we would be!!. they call night lines "trot lines" over here, more commenly used back east than out west. I like and agree with your thoughts on gill nets also I recently purchased one but havent had chance yet to try it, have you used yours??, love to here about it, would very much to get tips on its use.