A question about floats??? Help

[FilthyAmatuer]

Hey everyone

reasonably new to spear fishing, mainly short smaller fish on hand spear, but recently got a double rubber 1400 woodie. It has a decent amount of power when it shoots (at least for me) I have it shark cliped to a float line, float is an old body board. And the spear is attached to the gun.

My question is, if i shoot a decent sized fish, kingy or whatever, and it decides to run, is it ok to let go of the gun, and play it from the float? Or is this likely to result in me loosing my gun?

I would rather not loose the gun, so if this is the case, I will prolly stick to shooting fish i can overpower easily

I am just reef fishing on the West coast, mainly around perth, but have been to augusta and lancelin, and will be going up north in spring, gnaraloo and coral bay possibly (so bigger fish up there)

Thanks in advance for your help

Cheers

Haydn

 

[kmo]

A lot of guys have no problem in letting go of their gun when chasing big fish and using floats. As long as you have faith in your knots and gear, and enough line so that the fish will not be able to pull the float down to the bottom and never come up, I think you'd be pretty unlucky not to get your gun and the fish back.

Having said that, I've never shot a fish thats taken my gun from my hand because I'm pretty new myself.

Have a search for quick release mechanisms, or look at [ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=64504"]Dummies Guide to Rigging a Speargun[/ame] for some ideas on ways to shoot the fish and keep your gun in your hand.

Good luck, I'm sure some more experienced guys will chip in on this subject.

Kmo

 

[FilthyAmatuer]

I use a 20 m float line with a 1 m bungy, and the line from the spear is about 5 or 6m. I have never dived in anywhere deeper than 12m. As I havent been free diving very long. I am normally comfortable in about 5-10m.

But am keen to get better.

 

[deep thinker]

Thats what the float is there for, youve also got a body board as a float and very few fish would be able to pull that under, except tunies or other big pelagics. Just check youre connection on the board is strong enough not to pull through. There is a thread here somewhere on bodyboard floats.
Another thing you have to remember is to keep the fish off the bottom after youve shot it, using the floatline to play the fish. If it holes up with your spear stuck in its side and it gets deep enough then you might not be able to retreive your equipment.
Good luck and Safe Diving