A Good/bad Choice Spearfishing

youre right, the reel is not used to fight fish...personally i use a float line setup, but les take the scenario you just described...
say you shot a big grouper and it darts down to a cave at 30m and you cant dive that deep (which is normal) and you have a reel line setup, all you can really do is:
1 - Hope that you placed a good shot
2 - Take your gun down to say 5m and tighten the line and lock the reel...then attach a small buoy to the gun (to be at depth)..what this will do is preven the fish from going further,,,also it could slowly drag the fish out of the cave allowing you to reel it in (thats when prayers that you plaed a good shot are in order)
3 - Get a dive buddy who can go down that deep

I dont use a rel myself, i use a float...and when hunting the biggies, i try to rely on having a good shot in the first place...
best of luck

when you shoot what you consider to be a trophy fish, its natural for your heart rate to skyrocket. it comes down to lowering your heart-rate and being relaxed. in the meanwhile, like marwan said, lock your reel, so that it doesnt play out any more line. keep the line tense. at one point or another you will face two scenarios:
1- the fish exits its cave, at which point you will feel the line give you some slack. thats your hint that its time to start pulling gently and hope it gets the idea that its time to come home to papa
or
2- the fish stays in the cave, at which point you have a few options, some which yield better results than others:
a-if the fish is really that deep, and you cant reach it, then you can either float there all day, or cut your line.


alternatively what you can do, is place a good shot that will hold and when you start ascending keep tension on the line so that you dont allow the fish to sound. most important thing is to be relaxed, it will significantly improve your breath-hold abilities.

and while you think abt all this, train, and train hard, but safely ofcourse.
g'luck