Posted by Roach Killer on October 25, 2002 at 10:00:57:
I went to Deer Creek last night at sunset. The vis was 2-10 ft. Surf was 1-3 and a good surge with the incoming tide. After about a hour and a half, I had six bugs in my bag (none of which really needed measuring, 2-4lbs). I was looking for my limit when I came across a couple of nice flatties....now last year I learned that Neptunes Law states: you always see the biggest halibut of your life while bug diving at night without your speargun....so I recently MacGyver'ed a special contraption for just such an occasion.
I used the 3" tip from an damaged spear slip tip, and a 9" Philips screwdriver (I ground the tip off it, and put a hole through the handle), and 15' of kevlar line with a 6" bungee attached near the end (I took it off an old speargun). I attached one end of the line to the slip tip..ran it through the hole in the screwdriver handle..and attached the other end to a D-ring on my weight belt. It is a thing of Beauty...the idea is to stab the halibut with the tip attached to the screwdriver and let it toggle on the other side when the screwdriver is pulled back out.
Back to the nice flatties...I saw this as the perfect opportunity to try my invention out. I unclipped the screwdriver from my belt, then put the tip on the end, dove down to the halibut and stabbed it dead center on the lateral line. It didn't ever flinch. So I pulled the screwdriver out, causing the tip to toggle, and swam up to the surface. The line tightened a little, but there wasn't much of a struggle, so dove back down grabbed it under the gills and headed to shore. One 30" flattie and 6 nice bugs...what a great dive.
Happy Hunting,
Roach Killer