A First Timer’s Guide to Spearfishing Off a WaveRunner
By Gaby Keiderling
Yes, you can spearfish from a jet ski. I learned this when I went to Fort Lauderdale this winter, and my friend (and professional spearfisher) offered to take me to work with her. Her work: riding off into the ocean, jumping off her jet ski with a giant speargun in hand, and trying to catch some fish.
My immediate reaction was yes. And then I thought about it, and realized that spearing fish isn’t something I could emotionally handle, but I was still down to go along the ride. We loaded up the jetski—technically speaking, a VX Yamaha WaveRunner—all of the gear, which included:
- A Weight Belt
- PFD
- Dry Bag
- Wetsuit
- Cooler
- Dive Flag
- Gloves
- Masks, Snorkels, Fins
- Float Line
- Speargun (this one in particular)
Then we were off. Coasting through Fort Lauderdale’s canals, we chatted about how she got into spearfishing—a story for another time—and how vastly different her laidback Florida life was from my Manhattan bustle. When we got out into the Florida Straits near a dive set, we tied our ski up to a buoy, put up our dive flag, and got changed into our gear. It had been a minute since I’d snorkeled, and the weight belt seemed pretty counterintuitive, but was proven vastly wrong once I plunged myself into the water.
The waves were incredibly strong; I would bop down for 15 seconds or so to scout some fish and pop up about 15 yards from where I went under. Even though I considered myself to be fairly fit and walk miles everyday in New York City, I still was out of shape. The speargun was taller than I was, and swimming with it was a challenge in itself, as it kept trying to float up to the top. I began to wish that I opted for the five-pound weight belt instead of the single pounder.
When I saw a school of fish, I purposely shot the spear the other way to miss. Well, even if I had been aiming for them, I still would have missed. But fish look so different when they’re out swimming than they do when wrapped in sushi.
Coming out of the water, battling the current to get back to the jetski, and dragging myself onto the deck, I was completely gassed. We checked the time and I’d only been in the water for about 20 minutes. As to how professionals do this for endless hours on the daily, I will never know. But I give them mad props.
