Through this text I will try to explain , and share my knowledge and experience about spearfishing this ultimate predator of shallow waters. Through my history of catching this fish, I will try to write about things that are not seen in videos, which season of year is the best for spearfishing for this spieces, on what grounds, and with what equipment… so lets start !!

My first encounter with a leerfish happened back in 2006 in Rogoznica, a nice small place near Šibenik, which I was visit often for spearfishing. In that time I have been doing spearfishing for several years, but I have never encountered a really big fish, over 2kg. That day, in the afternoon, I was doing shallow dives, waiting for the fish on the bottom. In one dive, at a depth of less than 2 meters, while I was waiting for the sea bass, a huge fish appeared, approaching me without fear! It was a leerfish weighing over 20kg!! I hit it behind the head, the line on the reel starts to disappeared rapidly , and suddenly I felt relief! The fish went with the shaft, because the nylon broke. Due to inexperience, I did not check the nylon and connections often, and I paid price for that. I certainly did not sleep well for several days after that encounter!!

But I learned two things from that event. First, that even if I am diving in shallow water (less than 5m), there is big chance that I see a big fish, and , second that I always have to be maximum prepared for such event . The speargun must be equipped with reel, 30-80m of rope or dyneema, shaft must be well treated with sandpaper and polishing paste on the places where it touches the nylon, otherwise there is a high chance that the nylon will break. Also, immediately after that event I bought crimping pliers and started using sleeves. After years of searching for the ideal sleeves and nylon, I concluded that Jinkai sleeves size H and regular fishing nylon with a diameter of 1.4mm suit me best. It can stand really big fish, and it does not slower the shaft. This combination has pulled out over 30 big leerfishes,from 2017. till now !!

So, my first encounter with a big leerfish ended badly for me, I was shaken for a few days, but I believed there would be more opportunitiesin future, I just had to be ready next time….

I was waiting a 5 years for next one, and then in 2011. it happened. I was in Kanica ,small bay next to Rogoznica, and in one dive on 12-13m depth, suddnely I saw leerfish that was passing near me, acctually she was passing maybe 5m from the tip of my speargun shaft, not even paying attention at me! I move a little bit to her and shoot. I hit the fish too low, but somehow i manage to pull her out !! In that moment, my happiness knew no bounds!

Next year, 2012. in June I also had encounter with leerfish. I was diving in the late afternoon, searching for dentex, on the dephts from 12 to 22m. On one of these dives , on 16.8 m depth, from behind came nice leerfish. Acctualy, I record that catch so you can see in below:

Even though I had already caught two big fish, it still wasn’t enough to say I was going for targeted leerfish spearfishing. Not even close!

The time I realized this was in the May of 2017., when I was spearfishing on the place where I was searching for big seabass and gilt-head sea bream. That location I was visiting for over 10 years, and had some nice catches there, especially gilt head bream, over 2 kg. Sometimes in the spring time I was also caught some leerfish, but only small ones, till 5kg. However, towards the end of one hunt, and I had already caught a lot of smaller fish, on one dive, after 20 seconds, a large leerfish appeared on my left side, it literally scared me. With two hands I turned the speargun and hit it behind the dorsal fin. I fought it for about 10 minutes, it pulled the entire line off the reel and when it got tired, I caught it in my hands and finished it off. I pulled it ashore, sat on a nearby rock, and admired the beautiful specimen of that species of fish!!

After that catch, I thought…”Ok, I was lucky! I ran into her, they’re not always there”. But my father told me, one week later when I was going on that location again, “My son, be careful, that maybe even bigger leerfish doesn’t drag you to the shores of Italy!!”

And then happened almost same scenario, almost at the end that diving day, on one shallow dive, i saw in front of me two big leerfish, coming slowly to see what I am doing on the bottom. It was easy to to hit one of them, and after 15min fish was in my hands.

Now I start to realise that these catches of big leerfisehs are not coincidence!

After 5 days I went again , on the same microlocation, with my friend Jadran. We start spearfishing but nothing happened for 5 hours, and Jadran became bored, and he stopped with diving. He catched some nice seabasses, one of them was almost 2kg. I knew that leerfishes are there, for sure, it was only the question of time when I will have encounter. Already running out of strength, I was using sneaking technique close to the shore, and in one dive I sneak through bottom to a depth of 2 m, and wait there to see if something will appear!?? Suddenly, also from coast side, from 1m depth, big leerfish, who was probably hunting mullets, was passing by me at least 5m from the tip of the shaft. I thought I will miss that shot, but …. I hit her, little lower, but fortunately leerfishes there have strong fin, and that probably save that fish do not ripped off and runaway. Reel start to “sing” again, and after pulling 80m of rope from reel, and started dragging me along the surface. If the terrain is without rocks, I always aloud the big leerfish to pull rope from reel , freely, because leerfish is very strong fish, and if you try to stop her, probably something will breake.The drag on the reel is slightly tightened, and I always check this at the start of fishing.

One more in collection !!

And that is how it all started, Licomanija…and still lasting!!

In that time I was using GoPro 4 camera with battery backpak, and first 2 catches of leerfish, unfortunately I did not manage to record, because the camera ran out of battery. The third leerfish was filmed, this one with my friend Jadran, and it’s the first scene from the video “Licomanija”. The footage shows the fish being caught at a very long distance, I would say at least 5m from the tip of the harpoon.

First video “Licomanija” you can see below:

For the end of this first chapter of hunting leerfishes, I would draw some conclusions :

1.Where to search for leerfishes? In my experience, it is best to look for them in shallow, flat terrain that gradually descends into depth with strong currents, which are abundant with small fish.

2.What is the best time of year to search for them? Spring turned out best for me! I tried also many times in autumn, but without success.

3.Which kind of speargun is suitable for this kind of spearfishing? I am using inverted roller 100cm, from Neo Carbone, with 7.5mm shaft. The speargun must be powerfull , but what is also important that have a big reel on it, with capacity at least of 50m of rope or dyneema. I prefer more… 80m!! Like I already wrote, all knots,joints, sleeves… must be in perfect condition, because you never know what monster of leerfish can come while you waiting on the bottom!???

To be continued……