HOMER, Alaska (KTUU) – When the general public bring to mind freediving and spearfishing, visualizations of the transparent blue waters in puts like Hawaii or the Florida Keys are most probably the primary to come back to thoughts — no longer the chilly waters of Southcentral Alaska.

But for the previous a number of years, Brad Conley and a couple of Homer locals had been donning thick wetsuits and venturing out in pursuit of a extra intimate option to in finding dinner.

“Being close to the sea it was once roughly a given you already know to get a wetsuit, go browsing, swimming, snorkeling, and in the end it donned on us — let’s get some spearguns and spot if we will pass in finding halibut,” Conley mentioned.

After a number of years of spearfishing only for a laugh, this summer season marked the primary time he included spearfishing into the choices of his Homer-based water taxi corporate Coldwater Alaska.

“The massive distinction, numerous constitution boats fish in deeper water. Giant kelp forests the place we’re at you’ll be able to’t pass arrange in the course of it, and I feel simply the way is rather a little other with the rod and reel,” Conley mentioned. “The spearfishing component of it, we’ve were given to have a look at some spaces the place we will in finding halibut, use chum or odor to convey them in or arrange the place halibut are at. However then we’ve additionally were given to determine spaces the place it’s secure to get within the water and swim. The present, the elements, the whole lot — it’s were given to be a sexy managed surroundings.”

Conley says that for many spearfishermen he has labored with, getting a Pacific halibut is a bucket checklist merchandise.

“We’ve had a couple of other folks this 12 months, they arrive up and so they’re preserving a 100-pound halibut,” Conley mentioned. “It’s beautiful arduous to overcome that.”

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