# Ohio Spearfishing Regulations



## NiceCatchAustin (Jan 20, 2013)

After a successful trip to the Keys last August, I got addicted to spearfishing, and have been looking into doing some spearfishing up in Ohio. From what I have picked up, spearfishing is ONLY legal for forage fish such as carp, suckers, gar, etc, and using a band powered gun is perfectly legal (ie: I'm not restricted to pole spears). Does anyone have any experience or knowledge on the subject? I don't want want to get caught illegally spearfishing with the idea in my head that it is totally legal!


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## polebender (Oct 29, 2011)

Call or email ODNR. They will answer your questions.


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## beaver (Sep 28, 2010)

I agree, call the district office. I'd guess that spear fishing in ohio is so uncommon that even your local warden might not know exactly.


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## beaver (Sep 28, 2010)

It seems like the fishing regulations would be the same as for bowfishing though, and I'm sure there are regulations on diving somewhere.


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## Flathead76 (May 2, 2010)

I would contact the wildlife officer in the county in which you are planning to do this. I assume that you have to have some type of dive flag posted to alert boaters that there is a diver. I would be worried that boaters still would have no clue to its meaning because it is so uncommon here. Also the fish that you are going to find will be 6-8 feet max because of visibility. Would be interesting to see the gamefish while shooting rough fish. I bowfish a lot and the info that you see will help you with your rod and reel fishing.


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## creekcrawler (Oct 5, 2004)

A little off-topic, but. . . 
We ran into the owner of a dive shop a few years back. Had him tell a friend who frequented the shop say that we were in and bought some spear fishing gear. 
Long story short, we had our bud convinced we were out spear fishing walleye off the gold coast, lol!
"Yeah well, we saw 'em on the graph. I went down and got three."
He bought it. Hook, line & sinker.


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## NiceCatchAustin (Jan 20, 2013)

Thanks for the tips guys! I'll give the ODNR a call.


Flathead76 said:


> I would contact the wildlife officer in the county in which you are planning to do this. I assume that you have to have some type of dive flag posted to alert boaters that there is a diver. I would be worried that boaters still would have no clue to its meaning because it is so uncommon here. Also the fish that you are going to find will be 6-8 feet max because of visibility. Would be interesting to see the gamefish while shooting rough fish. I bowfish a lot and the info that you see will help you with your rod and reel fishing.


I'm kinda lucky in the sense that I have access to an extremely clear, private lake (if my friend lets me in as a guest!) that is crawling with carp. He's heard of a few buddies bowfishing the area at night and having luck, so I'd like to see what damage I could cause with a speargun. But yeah, I'm definitely nervous about having a prop buzzing over my head! I guess I'm trading in the sharks for clueless people... I'd almost take the sharks!


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