Spearfishing Oil Rigs

Posted on December 22, 2020

Author: Aaron Young

3 Things You Need To Know When Spearfishing Artificial Structures

One of the most common questions we get asked is about hunting rigs or artificial structures. In this episode of The Complete Guide, Aaron Young, aka Key West Waterman , discusses some of the things spearos deal with when hunting those rigs. Why is it different to reef hunting, what type of equipment should one use, which species prefer such locations, are there sharks around? Read on.

Why Is It Different To Reef Hunting?

The biggest difference is that obviously you have a structure coming up out of the surface of the water, so you deal with fish getting tangled that you wouldn't deal with regularly on the reef. That's something that you have to contend with. You use a different style line, a lot of guys use spectra, some of the guys switch to cable, I'm not a big fan of it! I usually use dyneema, or sometimes I'll use an abrasive resistant float line, an armored float line, because a lot of times you shoot a big fish you can't stop it, they're going to get wrapped up in the legs and you got to deal with something that will not cut on the sharp structures.

What Species Can One Encounter?

Some of the most common fish we deal with out on the rigs are cobia, african pompano, snappers, mangrove snappers, dog snappers, cuberas & yellow tail snappers. That's something that's pretty regularly dealt with out there.

Keep In Mind

Where there's a lot of fish there's a lot of predators so, more prevalent than anywhere else, I think you probably see more sharks and goliath groupers, if you're familiar with those. We see those more than anywhere on the artificial rigs and structures that we hunt! If you plan on doing any rig hunting I highly recommend it be with experienced divers or divers that you trust. A lot of times we do an one man up one man down method, for each two guys in the water we only have one gun. That way if someone's down there and needs assistance, they've got someone right on top of them ready to help pull, ready to keep that fish from getting wrapped up in the legs and getting cut off or sharked or eaten by one of the goliath groupers. I've had days where the goliath groupers are so bad, they swallow every fish that we pull up. I remember one time that we had a goliath grouper eat two or three 30 pound permits and swallowing them whole, like there's no problem. They get upwards of several hundred pounds so, just keep that in mind, if you plan on going out there, make sure you're with some guys that you trust.