FreeSpearo: Spearfishing kit - What and where? (part1

May of us when looking at starting a new hobby look to the internet to give us a starting point. With spearfishing it is no different as there is a wealth of information out there, its the putting it into tangible, practical advice that becomes a little tricky.

I was lucky enough that in my escapades on the net in search of more information I stumbled on a chap who was able to steer me in the right direction. I will share some of the wisdom that was imparted to me.

As I am sure you have by now realized spearfishing is not as simplistic as it originally seemed. Gone are the thoughts of you swimming in the ocean with nothing but your swimming costume and a speargun, nope there is allot more to it than that. Let me briefly list a few items that a spearfisherman might need, we can go into a little detail later:

Speargun (obviously)
Fins
Mask
Snorkel
Wetsuit
Weight belt
Buoy
Float line
Stringer
Dive knife
Gloves

OK, so as you see there is a decent amount of kit. Let us now look at each item individual over the next few blog posts and see what options there are for each one. Let us start with the...

Speargun

This is the main part of your kit, something you are going to bond with and become immensely fussy over as you develop your own style.

The main difference in spearguns is the length, you can expect to find lengths from 70cm all the way to 140cm. Why the variety? Can you imagine swimming on a reef, along gullys and in caves. Cruising around with a 1.4m speargun is going to pose a bit of a problem. So logically the size will depend on the application, but it does not end there, it seems the longer the gun the more accurate it is, so you are going to need to give it a bit of thought before running out and buying the first gun you find. Along with the length you will find the longer spearguns have 2 rubber bands, this is to give them that extra power to get to that huge game fish. I have personally found a 1.1m gun to be a good all-rounder especially the models with muzzles able to take a second rubber band.

You will also find "rail guns", these are spearguns where the spear runs on a rail for the full length of the barrel and not just on guides at increments along the barrel of the gun. This feature allows the spear to travel smoothly off the barrel increasing accuracy but also stopping the spear from bending under speed and then clipping the end of the barrel resulting in a loud "ping" sound as the spear exits. This frightens the more spooky fish and you could possibly loose that trophy catch you had your eyes on.

Next is the more debated feature, reel gun or traditional gun. Now this is where you need to see what suits you better. A reel gun has a reel attached to the gun with about 30m of braided cord attached directly to the spear via a bungee, this will allow you to let a large fish run with your spear giving you time to surface. A reel gun offers freedom of movement as you are not "attached" to anything (buoy), this setup tends to suit boat divers more as they can just load their catch onto the boat rather than onto the stringer on the buoy. It's also a good setup when negotiating caves and other areas where a buoy line might get tangled.

A traditional setup on the other hand is more suited to those than like the security of a buoy to string their fish and mark their position. It also allows you to let your gun go with out the risk of loosing it. This setup is generally favored by shore entry divers.