Diving for bottomfish

[Sliderite]

As a natural progression to the thread "What to do on a hot August Day", I would like to entertain the idea of diving for lings and other bottomfish along the jetties. Has anyone done this and what does it take to get the license, training, tanks, and gear??
Are there diving clubs that do this? I have thought for some years now how fun it would be to dive and spear the bottomfish. Is the cost so prohibitive?? Does Scuba take years to get to the point where you can dive along the jetties? Thanks

[ 08-13-2001: Message edited by: Sliderite ]

[Threemuch]

I have been doing this for some time in CA and now in Oregon. I don't use tanks, I freedive, and frequently take many bottomfish. It's a kick. But it's not for everyone.

1. Visibility here stinks. 10' is a good day.

2. It's cold. 45-58 degrees depending on where and when you dive. 7mm wetsuits are a must.

3. Big current. You must time it with the tides, or have a chase boat, to pick you up at the end of a drift dive.

It's expensive, but what isn't! Renting all the gear is probably $50-$60. Owning your own is $500 for freediving double that for scuba. Send me an email for more info, I love to teach newcomers the sport.

[parker]

Ususally, people spear fish as a side benefit to scuba diving. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone learning how to dive just to spear some fish.

Save yourself some money and just buy your fish at the market.

Oh yeah, spear fishing is like any other kind of fishing. The more knowledge and experience you have, the better you will be at it. You can't "learn" how to spear fish over the net. You've gotta get wet and log some dives.

If you are still not discouraged yet, here's a short list of what you will need.

Boat & Motor - all the good fishing sites are not accessable by shore. If they are, they are either a Marine Sanctuary, or over-fished. Boats & Motors are not cheap.

Your basic scuba certification will cost you $100.

You can rent gear, but you'll want to buy your own if you're doing that many dives.

You're looking at about $3000-$5000 for a good set of gear, including drysuit. That's the low-end. A good drysuit will run you around $2000 alone. A good regulator is close to $1000. The costs on good scuba gear is staggering.

I say "good", in that most of us divers, usually want to come home after a dive. Why anyone trusts their lives to crappy scuba gear is way beyond me.

Anyways, I could go on and on, but I won't. If you're interested in scuba diving in the Pacific Northwest, feel free to check out my site, Diving The Northwest.
http://www.divingthenorthwest.com

[Smily]

I use to do a lot of bottom spear fishing. I use to do this in waters that weren't so abused by the Tidal changes. In the Great Northwest you have pretty serious Tidal changes and can be very difficult to swim against currents depending where you are. Actually I should say impossible to swim against in certain areas. I have also done a lot of drift diving but when I did it in the Pugent Sound area, It scared me big time. Not only fast currents but poor Visibilty. I got to disoriented I aborted that on dive. First one ever!!! I must have One Hundred dives logged also. I think that is what hinders me from doing more diving up here is poor visibilty, currents and much colder water tempertures also.
I am not trying to scare you off in anyway. I would highly reccomend it if your in good shape, (not shaped good [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] ) When I got certified in 88', The class was only $70.00 for the open water 1 class. I went out and bought gear and didn't have that expense. I understand it is about $250.00 to $350.00 with gear these days. Do shop around. All dive instructors and shops operate differently and be comfortable who you pick. I went with Naui organzation that is world renoun. There is also Padi and others. Naui and that dive shop was the cheapest at that time. Some people call P.A.D.I.= Put Another Dollar In. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] You must shop and hit ALL the diffferent stores. Ask lots of Questions as it a very expensive sport. Well worth the time effort and money. You would not Believe all the different creatures under the sea and don't get me started on Night Diving on the jetty walls. Your open water one class should be done as little as 5 weeks or how you arrange it. I think ours was 8 weeks at that time. There is a lot to know and the controlled experience is also very important like the beggining you will have pool dives. Pretty boring but you need to learn the equipment inside and out. If you started now you would be done in Sept. Think of how the coast is then. When you have big seas you will have big surges underwater. It can be a fun experience and it can be an exhausting one.
Yes, the Dive stores has charters and clubs you can join up in. I met my old dive buddy in the open water class and he was a great dive buddy. It is important to have a good dive buddy. One that understands you and knows where you are and how you think. There are people that just swim off and you go What buddy? [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] I have dove with a number of people that are NOT good dive buddies. You will learn with experience. This is more than I wanted to write but there is that much more and takes that much time to learn. Hope this helps and doesn't discourage you. Good luck. Hope this helps. By the way. Going Spear fishing to me was like going to a Seafood Market and everything was yoursfor the taking. Following all laws of course. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Smily [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Sliderite]

Thanks for all of the input.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Make sure you put your dive flag up! I hooked a scuba diver when I was about 12 fishing the jetty at Newport. We had been there all morning when the guys showed up, and somehow they ended up over our lines and FISH ON!!! He was OK when I set the hook, but then my Dad hit him again. Just be careful and make sure people know where you are and you know where they are.

[Vinny]

Hook up with Threemuch! I haven't been diving in quite a few years, but I used to think that free diving was for those who didn't want to make the effort to get SCUBA certified. Then I tried it after a few years of dragging SCUBA tanks, etc. around. Talk about "a breath of fresh air!" You can move much easier in the water because you are "free" of all that clutter and weight. The one breath thing is a cool challenge. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]