Sorry guys... I had to run this morning.
My first knife hunt was at night. It was pretty interesting. I ended taking the second hog of the night in a river up to my shoulders after a long chase. That one was with a very experienced guide and several dogs and was pretty crazy.
As far as the neck knife thing... the knife that I have used most is only 3& 3/4" long... nothing too large. I'm actually holding it in the picture attached, but it is hard to see in my left hand.
The spear was thrown once, when I first encountered the hog. I was trying to hit the heart (low towards the front of the body) and I missed. I found a slice on the inside of one leg that I'm pretty sure was from that throw... but it ws very superficial. After the chase I drove the spear into the hogs body, hitting at least one lung. At that point the thing tried to get at me and I used the spear like you would use a catch-pole if you had a rapid dog on the loop end. This was probably when the spear bent seriously, because of the leverage. That went on for awhile before I took the spear out, circled, drove it back in and closed...flipped... and went to work with the knife.
As for the chase, it was a real RUN most of the time. The story is that it was the end of the day and the one dog we had was DONE. Wouldn't hunt. He had already bayed 3 good hogs and fought with another one while the rest of the hunting party got their kills. I was kinda just along as a "host". We were up on the swamp buggy when a hog spooked next to us and ran off, so I jumped down and chased the thing a short distance before the first throw. After that, the big chase was on and the dog was still on the buggy. After about 300 yards or so, the hog stopped and I had slowed down (getting winded). At that time, the buggy caught up and the dog finally decided to get on the gournd. The dog started messing with the hog and I went in for the first stab... the rest you've already read.
That hunt was set up through Mike Delany of BoarSight outfitters in southern Florida. He is awesome. Highly recommended. If anyone really wants to go hog hunting (or after deer, turkey fish, whatever) in Florida, he's the man.
I've used other outfitters/guides, but the only other commercial one that I would recommend is Krooked River in Texas, that's where I did my first knife hunt... they are very experienced and have big hogs.