Fish Hunter is here

A

actionyak

Joined
Feb 13, 2011
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163
The Fish Hunter I preordered back in January has arrived! Pretty excited to get this knife. My camera is horrible, so jump in and share some good pics if you have one. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing surfingringo sticking some fish. My family isn't making our annual trip to the Keys this year, so it may be a bit before I have a chance to really put it to work. Until then I'll be playing with the sheath to see if I can rig it up for calf straps, and I'll likely sharpen the front third of the false edge on top.

 
I got to handle one at the Blade show and I LOVE it! It should work beautifully for its intended purpose. It is a nice compact design and though the business end of it looks rather menacing, the edge side of the knife is very much like its cousin the aqua Salt and I believe from a utilitarian standpoint it will function much like an aqua salt with a pointy tip. I WANT ONE!! :D
 
I just received mine in the mail as well. Used it this past weekend fishing the back bays here in NJ. It is a great knife. I even used it to filet a flounder and, while not ideal for that job, it worked really well.

I am a bit worried that the tip is actually too fine for its intended "braining" purpose. Most of the spearing up here in my area is focused on stripers. Their heads and gill plates are real hard, and I am not sure the tip of this knife would hold up.
 
great you all! Thanks for starting this thread. I am seriously looking at the Fish Hunter to compliment my fixed blade Salts, and I also want the Jumpmaster 2 but that one is too similar to two I have (Jumpmaster and Aqua Salt) whereas this one looks more "fresh air" and somewhat different, far from what I already own.
I'd love some more pics and thoughts, especially on the sheath retention (and possible dulling issues), weight and thinness of the handle.
I love how my Aqua and Jumpmaster are inconspicuous and comfortable to carry due to their thin grips, flat handles and slender profile. how about this one?
Any comparison or side to side pics? Thanks much!!!
 
Interesting you mention sheath retention, ThePeacent. Mine is great. Solid snap and excellent retention, once I realized it takes a bit of pressure to seat it properly. (Edited to say ignore all of this from my initial post: Mine had none. Zero. Like turn it over and it fell out. I tried the boiling water and vice grip trick and it's tight enough now I would carry it, but there is not a positive "click" like lock. It's just friction against the top of the handle holding it in. I may try a small piece of shock cord in the lanyard hole and rig up some kind of catch on the sheath.)

I think it will be easy enough to index the false edge to the sheath to avoid dulling the blade on insertion and removal.

I've been playing with paracord to see if I could get some calf straps on it. I haven't tied off the paracord yet as these aren't my favorite straps and the ones I like better are a little wider, but I think this is going to work out well. Also, here are a couple of pics that give an idea of handle width compared to a PM2. Definitely chunkier than the Jumpmaster, but I like that for this use.

ChrisM134, I'm interested to hear how the tip holds up to a striper's skull. My intended use is for big AJ's and cobia, and I think it will work out well. I have a custom ground Jumpmaster (Thanks, Sal!) with a thin tip but with the thick blade stock it was still tough to penetrate a fish skull. I think this thin dagger grind is going to be much more effective.







 
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Thank you for the long and dedicated answer.
I was really looking forward for this one, but didn't want another "thick, non-cutting dagger" as most knives with these blade shapes and intended purpose are only thick stabbers and have horrible bevels or edges, with poor cutting performance.
The grind, spyderco's serrated pattern and everything seems to indicate this is an exception.

Sadly I also wanted a sheath with excellent retention like the two I have, but it seems fixable per your words and past experiences.
Thanks again for your answer and I'll try and get one soon and post my impressions and pics as well. Thanks!!!
 
The retention on my Fish Hunter is very good and has a solid positive lock. Much like shown in this video:

As far as being a good cutter, I think this is a very good design. I used it this past weekend to chunk bait, cut line, and fillet fish. No complaints.

Again, my only concern is the super fine tip. No doubt it will help with penetration, but its hard to describe how thin and needle-like the tip is. I have a real hard time believing it will be able to handle the head of a decent striper, but I haven't tried that yet.
 
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Now I want one. I used my Atlantic Salt this week in Destin more than anything. Serrations chunk very well.
 
Hi Actionyak,

We checked inventory at the shop and we could find no Fish Hunter's with loose sheath retention. The only thing we can think of is that you are perhaps putting the knife in backwards or that there is definitely something wrong with the sheath., Please contact us and let us know as we would prefer to replace your sheath if it's bad.

sal
 
Hi Sal,

Thanks for your reply. Is the knife in the sheath correctly in my picture above that shows the straps? Maybe I'm just not giving it enough force to reach the "snap." The retention in the video above is perfect. I'll give it a try when I get home and report back.

Thanks again for building this knife! It's awesome to see a company take such an interest in customer's ideas.
 
I can't wait to get this knife. I sold my aqua knowing I want this one! I plan on dyeing the handle green.
 
Looks correct to me. It would be disappointing if this was more than an isolated issue. Do we know what those little retention tabs are for compared to the aqua sheath that does not have them? Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere.

I'd contact spyderco. They'll take care of it!
 
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So, yeah, apparently I don't know how to work a sheath. :oops: The sheath is great. The video that ChrisM posted above made me realize I just wasn't giving it enough oomph to seat it properly. Solid retention, it works great. Combined with the straps I'm going to rig up to carry it on my calf it's going to be perfect. Sorry if I threw anyone off!
 
actionyak said:
So, yeah, apparently I don't know how to work a sheath. :oops: The sheath is great. The video that ChrisM posted above made me realize I just wasn't giving it enough oomph to seat it properly. Solid retention, it works great. Combined with the straps I'm going to rig up to carry it on my calf it's going to be perfect. Sorry if I threw anyone off!
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Ha! Glad I came across this thread. I guess I was in the same boat. Don't know why I didn't try a bit harder to seat the knife in the sheath. I was thinking defective sheath, maybe? All is fine now. But then again, I have been known to jump in forgetting fins or a mask on occasion.:rolleyes: Mike
 
Mike157 said:
Ha! Glad I came across this thread. I guess I was in the same boat. Don't know why I didn't try a bit harder to seat the knife in the sheath. I was thinking defective sheath, maybe? All is fine now. But then again, I have been known to jump in forgetting fins or a mask on occasion.:rolleyes: Mike
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Glad it's not just me! I much prefer extra retention to not enough, and I would say this sheath leans towards the more tension side now that I'm using it correctly. It really is a good design.
 
Surfingringo said:
I got to handle one at the Blade show and I LOVE it! It should work beautifully for its intended purpose. It is a nice compact design and though the business end of it looks rather menacing, the edge side of the knife is very much like its cousin the aqua Salt and I believe from a utilitarian standpoint it will function much like an aqua salt with a pointy tip. I WANT ONE!! :D
Click to expand...


Lance, I'm a little confused. Why are you excited about a Salt "anything," at this point, made with H1? I thought your testing and writing about LC200 in the Spydiechef and acknowledgement that H1 isn't great in plain edge, spelled the end of H1 and the transition to LC200. Seems curious Spyderco's still coming out with new models in the lesser steel. What did I miss?

Thanks
 
Well, for one, the Fish Hunter is in H1 Serrated Edge, that means excellent edge retention and toughness, as we all know how great SE H1 is.
Secondly, I stick to H1 because I know how it bends, how it sharpens and how it responds to cutting different materials, I'm very familiar with it and that just doesn't happen with LC200N.
Not much has been done to test and abuse this steel or put it to its limits, so it's kind of an unknown territory there.
Thirdly, maybe cost has to do with it. My Salts were all under $100, folders and fixed blades, and now I see all the LC200N models going for $160 or more, and part of what made me so fan of the Salt series was their price point.
And finally, I believe H1 is Japanese steel and LC200N is from the US, so that means it's easier to make an FRN blade with H1 there... and being the knife so similar to the Aqua Salt (handle material, sheath, edge and blade design, etc.) I guess it's easier and cheaper to produce in the same factory, in Seki City, Japan.
 
TomR2 said:
Lance, I'm a little confused. Why are you excited about a Salt "anything," at this point, made with H1? I thought your testing and writing about LC200 in the Spydiechef and acknowledgement that H1 isn't great in plain edge, spelled the end of H1 and the transition to LC200. Seems curious Spyderco's still coming out with new models in the lesser steel. What did I miss?

Thanks
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Hi Tom, I am indeed excited for the fish hunter and have one in route to Costa Rica now. As far as H1 is concerned, I don't think there is any steel I know of that would be better for this design. H1 is extremely tough...significantly more so than lc200n. On a thin tipped design like this, that level of toughness is FAR more important than edge retention. Not only does H1 have good impact toughness, it will bend instead of breaking if pushed beyond its stress limits. Lc200n has proven itself to be reasonably tough in my use but nowhere near H1 level. Hardened to 59 it will definitely break under stresses that would leave H1 unaffected (or at worst bent). Add to that the fact that this is a serrated model (where H1 really shines) and I think that this is the perfect steel for the design.
 
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