Spearfishing in the San Marcos River

Sharpen your spears and help us remove harmful non-native fish from a local and precious spring fed ecosystem. In this video we are spearfishing for fish that have somehow found their way to Texas all of the way from the amazon river. These armor plated suckerfish are known as "plecos".
If you wish to volunteer and participate in the removal of these invasive animals, links to the spear pole tournament by Atlas Environmental are below. If you have missed the dates of the spear pole tournament you can still participate in the "bounty" that is also put on by Atlas environmental. Information on this is below as well.
Atlas Environmental Spear Pole Tournament:
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Atlas Environmental Bounty:
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[@macattackbowfishingmerch8672]

As a fellow pleco fisherman, I’d like to say thank you for cleaning up the waters. It does my soul good to see others participating in the clean up. God bless

[@scottbauerbelow]

Thanks man! Hope to run into you out on the river one day!

[@nwdixieboy]

I grew up in Miss. where all the streams are muddy. This is another world for me. You sure are a handsome guide!

[@GatewoodBrown]

This was so good Scott! Thank you for helping to clean up the river my man

[@scottbauerbelow]

Thank you!

[@welsh_dragon]

This was a 😎 📼, Scott. Funny how some fish are "bad" for our waters.

[@ronniebrown2517]

so pepper falls is now called spring lake?....in 84 and 85 i spent MANY hours from rio vista dam to pepper falls..... snorkeling, canoeing, swimming.....very good memories....i had an option to buy the house i was renting....now wish i had bought it.....i left central texas when the computer guys took over...

[@garstrum4401]

Spring Lake is the new-ish name for Aquarena Springs, the big lake above the waterfall with the glass bottom boat tours etc. I went to school there around 2011-ish so I'm not familiar with "pepper falls" but if you're referring to the waterfall where Spring lake spills into/becomes the San Marcos river, we just called it "the saltgrass" cause it has a big "saltgrass steakhouse" on top of the dam.

[@ronniebrown2517]

@@garstrum4401 we are talking about the same things with different names....pepper falls as the restaurant then was peppers.....watch the movie "the getaway" with steve mcqueen and ali mcgraw....in the movie they swim just below the falls.....we used to snorkel aquarena springs and moon the glass bottom boats...used to be some really aggressive swans there....i lived in a nice house on riviera street one block off the river for 2 years....lots of fun and good times....

[@garstrum4401]

@@ronniebrown2517 sounds like we are talking about the same thing! Funny that those falls are still referred to by the restaurant next to them a generation later.

[@ZCOOKZ]

Great video as always! Man that is some clear water.

[@scottbauerbelow]

Thank you Zach!

[@mateoguerrero7977]

I was wanting to go spear fishing when I I visit my brother who lives in San Marcos what kind of permits do I need or can I just show up with a sling a spear and fins. I’m 17 and I’m not sure if I would need a fishing license or not

[@mark3249]

I see some poison ivy at 0:44. Hope you aren't allergic. I damn near break out just looking at it.

[@d.l.b.6313]

There are a lot of these fish a few miles downriver from where you were spear fishing. They seem to like to hang out on the clay bottom. Not uncommon to see 4 or 5 of them in one small area when canoeing through there.

[@scottbauerbelow]

I have seen that too it seems like the sailfin plecos hang out down stream

[@paintballlip_poppin1201]

I live in San Marcos and I’m just getting in to spear fishing would love to go out some time man lmk

[@ernie1189]

great video! it's not illegal though. you just need a permit from the town of San Marcos to carry a spear. Texas Game and Wildlife allows you to spear non-game species.

[@scottbauerbelow]

Thank you! You are correct but when this video was made over two years ago it was illegal at that time and the permit was not yet available…

[@littlehills739]

good edit keep this up

[@scottbauerbelow]

Thank you very much!

[@surfit.]

Yeh, we had or maybe still have those sucker fishes invading our streams. I know the state made the public aware how they were killing off the local ecosystem. Don't know if it's an on going fight. If it's illegal to spear in that river, then I guess you can't go at night. I miss night diving. That was a pretty river. So clean.

[@chrismackay8314]

curious how you recommend dispatching them - are you able to stab them in the brain? your knife doesn't look very pointy - perhaps you are cutting their gills? thanks for sharing the video of the clean water.

[@justinmontgomery2358]

Does this hurt the fish? Are thy good to eat?

[@garstrum4401]

The idea is to kill the pleco fish cause they're invasive/harmful to the native fish/ecosystem

[@scottbauerbelow]

They do cook them up at the end of the tournaments and make sucker fish tacos lol…they are not particularly good to eat however

[@robdubois3844]

Great music!

[@scottbauerbelow]

Thank you!

[@erik-hi2sv]

No snakes?

[@gagejones6495]

Where can I get a permit to spearfish there

[@scottbauerbelow]

Atlas environmental can hook you up!

[@erik-hi2sv]

No Snakes?

[@scottbauerbelow]

Yeah there are snakes lol

[@joelmaske2493]

If only yall did a check up at least once a weekend with 5-10 people spearfishing, thats could do some good for the area just underneath the aquarena springs, you will never get them all though. sadly theyre here to stay

[@scottbauerbelow]

Atlas environmental offers a bounty…they have spearing going on regularly!

[@lolstrongmen]

@@scottbauerbelowThe bounty still a thing in hays?

[@davidtrimm3823]

Too loud