Carrying a firearm while fishing

Nice vid fishingaddict! There are a multitude of reasons for carrying while fishing, which is why I think the exemptions exist. A 12ga seems like a bit much to carry in terms of weight with the 18" barrel restrictions. I was thinking a .357 revolver for its simplicity and reliability with an extra speed loader but I like the idea of having the power of the shotgun. I've got a side by side 20ga black powder pistol that isn't bound by the 18" regs but I'm not sure black powder is very reliable on the water unless stored in a dry sack. Also, I was having a discussion with a fellow angler and he suggested you can't shoot a GWS under any circumstance, even if it is attacking you. Is that accurate? Thx for your input gentlemen

No.

 Better be packing extra bullets homie, if you shot the GWS, then their brothers and sisters are gonna come scrambling to the scent of the blood.

Must be exhausting being so worried someone/something is going to try to kill you. I have plenty of other things to worry about.

Fuck me, Tommy 

If you are so terrified of getting hit by a GWS while fishing that you are contemplating carrying a firearm, then you are not ready to fish Bean Hollow. You will not have a good time if you shit yourself every time you see a fin or hear a splash.

Ask any one of our members that has been attacked by a GWS if a gun would've done them any good...

Nice vid fishingaddict! There are a multitude of reasons for carrying while fishing, which is why I think the exemptions exist.

multitudes?

maybe protection from tweekers. Maybe on sketchy inland waters with close banks and shallow drafts? (I don't often fish these areas so I can't comment on 'em). In bear country..... I guess, or where mountain lions might actually leap down on you.....

But, on a kayak on the inshore waters of the Pacific ocean? 

 I'll go out on a limb and say that a handheld firearm will be useless in the event of a shark attack on a kayak, and there is far, far more danger of collateral damage due to wild rounds being fired.

Smacking an attacking shark with your paddle will be just as effective, and won't kill anyone around you. Jab its eyes or gills, bash it on the head or nose, these actions will probably be instinctual and are shown to work in many attack instances. You don't need to kill a shark, just spook it off, and for such large imposing creatures often they can be quite easily spooked.

as for it being illegal to shoot at white sharks...if a shark swims up to you, do you shoot it? Firing on a "threatening" shark may get you in trouble. I guess it would depend on how convincing you were about being threatened when being questioned by the authorities.

Ah, then wait until it is actively attacking, then shoot it........ I doubt that'll work. I guess ask anyone who's been hit if they would have had time to draw, lock, and fire accurately. Ha, RockHopper beat me that one.

I have a genuine practical interest in firearms, but for this instance (kayakfishing) I do not think they are not the answer.

Ask any one of our members that has been attacked by a GWS if a gun would've done them any good...

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Nice vid fishingaddict! There are a multitude of reasons for carrying while fishing, which is why I think the exemptions exist.

multitudes?

maybe protection from tweekers. Maybe on sketchy inland waters with close banks and shallow drafts? (I don't often fish these areas so I can't comment on 'em). In bear country..... I guess, or where mountain lions might actually leap down on you.....

But, on a kayak on the inshore waters of the Pacific ocean? 

 I'll go out on a limb and say that a handheld firearm will be useless in the event of a shark attack on a kayak, and there is far, far more danger of collateral damage due to wild rounds being fired.

Smacking an attacking shark with your paddle will be just as effective, and won't kill anyone around you. Jab its eyes or gills, bash it on the head or nose, these actions will probably be instinctual and are shown to work in many attack instances. You don't need to kill a shark, just spook it off, and for such large imposing creatures often they can be quite easily spooked.

as for it being illegal to shoot at white sharks...if a shark swims up to you, do you shoot it? Firing on a "threatening" shark may get you in trouble. I guess it would depend on how convincing you were about being threatened when being questioned by the authorities.

Ah, then wait until it is actively attacking, then shoot it........ I doubt that'll work. I guess ask anyone who's been hit if they would have had time to draw, lock, and fire accurately. Ha, RockHopper beat me that one.

I have a genuine practical interest in firearms, but for this instance (kayakfishing) I do not think they are not the answer.

 

Nice vid fishingaddict! There are a multitude of reasons for carrying while fishing, which is why I think the exemptions exist.

multitudes?

maybe protection from tweekers. Maybe on sketchy inland waters with close banks and shallow drafts? (I don't often fish these areas so I can't comment on 'em). In bear country..... I guess, or where mountain lions might actually leap down on you.....

But, on a kayak on the inshore waters of the Pacific ocean? 

 I'll go out on a limb and say that a handheld firearm will be useless in the event of a shark attack on a kayak, and there is far, far more danger of collateral damage due to wild rounds being fired.

Smacking an attacking shark with your paddle will be just as effective, and won't kill anyone around you. Jab its eyes or gills, bash it on the head or nose, these actions will probably be instinctual and are shown to work in many attack instances. You don't need to kill a shark, just spook it off, and for such large imposing creatures often they can be quite easily spooked.

as for it being illegal to shoot at white sharks...if a shark swims up to you, do you shoot it? Firing on a "threatening" shark may get you in trouble. I guess it would depend on how convincing you were about being threatened when being questioned by the authorities.

Ah, then wait until it is actively attacking, then shoot it........ I doubt that'll work. I guess ask anyone who's been hit if they would have had time to draw, lock, and fire accurately. Ha, RockHopper beat me that one.

I have a genuine practical interest in firearms, but for this instance (kayakfishing) I do not think they are not the answer.

Tweekers can and do make it out to the ocean.  Usually to steal your crab pots.

Not a firearm, but this happened this year up here:

On January 14, 2015 Andrew Goff of the Lost Coast Outpost described the following;“Attached to a personal dive float and with a 70cm speargun in hand, 23-year-old Martin Magneson was free diving on the channel side of the jetty about 50 yards out from where the rocks transition to ‘dolos’ (a concrete block in a complex geometric shape weighing up to 20 tons, used in great numbers to protect harbor walls from erosive). Conditions were good; he’d snagged a few fish, which he’d clipped to a rope attached to his float that also tethered his gun, in case he dropped it. Magneson said underwater visibility was pretty good for Humboldt — about 20 feet. As he was about to surface, he glanced out toward the ocean and his peripheral vision caught a grayish/whitish object in the distance. At first he thought it was a harbor seal, as he’d already seen a couple earlier. Then he figured it out,‘It was a great white. I couldn’t mistake it,’ Magneson told LoCO  via phone, estimating the shark was nearly 15 feet. ‘Its mouth was as big as my torso, from my waistline to the middle of my neck.’ At first, Magneson said, the shark wasn’t aggressive — ‘It was just there to investigate’ — and watched him from a distance. He wonders if maybe it had been drawn by his day’s catch, still attached to his float nearby. Then it quickly came closer. As the shark neared, Magneson pointed his speargun toward it but resisted firing — thinking it might be his last line of defense. When the shark was close enough he poked at it. ‘It felt like a solid object,’ he said, adding that his prodding didn’t really phase it. Magneson pulled the trigger. At this point the shark was close enough to engulf most of the speargun in its mouth. Magneson released his grip when he felt the animal bite down. After untangling the rope attached to the gun from his weight belt, Magneson said he then pushed against the shark to get away and was struck by its pectoral fin. Aided by his three-foot fins, Magneson swam as fast as he could toward the jetty.  ‘I don’t know how long it took,’ Magneson said about his brief journey to the rocks. ‘It felt like it took forever.’ Once he reached safety, he looked back toward his float and said it was briefly moving, as though the shark was still somehow attached. Then the movement stopped. He contacted the Coast Guard to let them know his equipment was in the water. The Coast Guard pulled in his equipment during a training session later that night. Unfortunately his speargun is no more — only the handle and trigger portion, sporting a few bite marks, was still attached to the buoy when it was snagged.‘The main thing I learned is to be a lot more careful,’ Magneson said, noting he probably should not have been diving alone where he was.”  Please report any shark sighting, encounter, or attack to the Shark Research Committee.

I'll agree, for spearfishermen, there have been multiple attacks where the speargun was used to ward off an aggressive shark.

that's not what the OP was talking about though.

I'll agree, for spearfishermen, there have been multiple attacks where the speargun was used to ward off an aggressive shark.

that's not what the OP was talking about though.

How about one of these?

http://www.waspknife.com/

I'll agree, for spearfishermen, there have been multiple attacks where the speargun was used to ward off an aggressive shark.

that's not what the OP was talking about though.

How about one of these?

http://www.waspknife.com/

I'll stick with my speargun...I can just see me stabbing myself with that crazy knife. 

FWIW...I jabbed an aggressive seal with my speargun a few weeks ago...felt like I was poking a brick wall...can only imagine what poking a GWS feels like....

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Just carry a rape whistle.
It's all you really need.
Lol