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British (UK) Polespear.
- Thread startermyfish
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
No, that was just one reason...we were getting less & less entry's & more & more complaints about night time v day time & nobody wanted to do the admin.
It is all well and good when unpaid staff are getting reward for their efforts but, is a thankless task when folk argue or generally disagree all the time.
We have been very lucky over the years to have dedicated members who have supplied trophies & others who have taken the time to admin the competitions.
It is all well and good when unpaid staff are getting reward for their efforts but, is a thankless task when folk argue or generally disagree all the time.
We have been very lucky over the years to have dedicated members who have supplied trophies & others who have taken the time to admin the competitions.
A few more images...
A shoal coming in @ 9 meters in less than ideal vis for the camera. Ideal for the pole-spear though.
Lining one up.
A shoal coming in @ 9 meters in less than ideal vis for the camera. Ideal for the pole-spear though.
Lining one up.
A few shots from previous dives using the kayak and polespears...
Great pics and vids , I really like the idea of a pole spear, I would be interested in having a go myself , I was wondering where you got your pole spear from as I guess the cheapo ebay ones aren't really ideal and most have a parlyser tip ? Thanks
OK, I have various poles and to be honest, some configurations are better than others for specific tasks.
Without boring you with science, for British species, you want fast and manoeuvrable but, with enough punch to do the job.
The issue at hand, is the job can change depending on how you fish a polespear.
If hunting on the move, you need a spear that you can load and hold for periods as this is more, you come across a fish and you shoot. Lets suggest you are swimming along boulders at HW or perhaps searching kelp for bass, or diving classic flatfish style in a curve. You need a slim pole, fast as well and, bands you can load, and hold.
You will see where I'm going with this in a second. The point being, ALL polespears I have researched are for species and have been developed for species that are NOT our own.
However, they do work with some minor changes.
You mentioned 3 prongers. I have these too and, in some circumstances, NOTHING is better.
Flatfishing, red mullet (day or night), shooting fish in holes and even for mullet. This latter use was a complete surprise and we mostly use a slip-tip for mullet.
OK, so you can see, straight away, you may want a flopper, a 3 pronger or, a slip tip.
So, buy a pole that has those options.
Not ALL poles do.
My commercial poles are by Gat-Ku ( I have a 7ft and a 10ft ) and, enough riffe components to build up 3 complete spears. The latter are EXPENSIVE ! but, versatile and, fast enough, light enough to take on ANY task we might ask of it bar shooting conger in holes. For that job, you'd need a big punching stick and tip shafts that are disposable as you KNOW they are going to get bent.
I never use stock band configurations, EVER and, neither does my dive buddy Chris.
We have found theraband black and silver tubing is great for our needs.
The cheaper fibreglass pole, for us, are USELESS ! Do NOT buy one.
As a first pole for UK use, I would suggest 6ft min, 10ft max with 7 to 8ft being ideal.
Gat-Ku ( USA sourced ), or JBL, Riffe ( Can be found at Apnea Jersey ) do a range of useful pole for British polespearing but, forget the band, just, if possible, buy the spear and a few tips.
JBL do the shakka in 6ft or 7ft that is carbon and aluminium mix. Gat ku is a mix too but, oddly, the JBL is carbon rear, alloy front and the gat-ku, carbon front and alloy bar rear. Both work, but, in different ways.
On clocking a decent fish, especially on the move, the polespear will BEND. Yes, even on our smaller species that are mostly under 10lb. Really bend sometimes.
So, depending on your fishing....
Holes 4 - 6ft with flopper and 3 pronger.
Aspetto (diving and waiting) 8 - 10ft with flopper or slip-tip.
Mixed diving, something in-between and around 7 or 8ft with your favourite tip for the job at hand.
Dealing with our vis is straightforward. Gat-ku have a brilliant solution in the 'Inshore Shrinker'. However, in clearer water, fish will often back away from YOU, but NOT the spear tip. So, once more, a grip length that is 50-60% of the pole length, is better BUT... your band length is shorter and so, as a consequence, the overall range, punch and speed can be compromised.
This reply was not designed to confuse you but, open your eyes to how something that should be a simple as a stick with a band on it, could work with you, or against you.
Buy one that offers the most versatility and options that suit our varied diving and you can't go wrong.
Hope this helps.
Basically, this leaves you rear section to grip length alone so your bands stay the same whilst it brings the spear tip closer to YOU so, low vis is easier without compromising power or speed.
Wow ! Thanks for such a detailed reply . You must be really quite into it ! It will just be a sideline for me as a bit of fun unless I get hooked . Just been on the gatku site , slightly confused . So if I got a sevener and the inshore shrinker what would the 7ft become if I put the inshore shrinker on instead ? Im thinking sevener and inshore shrinker with paralyser and flopper . What are the advantages of the slip tip ? Thanks
OK, the inshore shrinker is around 1ft long and the average tip, another 1ft long.
This will give you, depending on where on that first 1ft you grip the pole, a foot to 18" of pole in front of the hand. The rear, no matter what the polespear, stays the same.
The inshore shrinker knocks about 2ft out of the front of my polespear.
Serious ? Hmm, well, we've taken it seriously enough to be successful with it. Successful enough we've gone up against the guns in competition and even set some local/club records with the polespear. But, it's not about that, we wanted a new, sustainable challenge.
Right, back to tips....
Slip tips are great in open water when shooting soft fish like mullet or pollack. Imagine a polespear like a sub-sonic bullet. It travels slower, quieter and yet, is FAR less noisy and hasn't got the penetration of a normal speargun spear.
As a matter of interest, this is why floppers are closer to the actual point on polespear tips and shorter. This is so the flopper has more chance of making it through the fish. With bass, this matters, especially around head and, or gill plate shots. Soft fish like mullet are often shot through and through and SPIN like crazy on any line as you know. If that line tangles in kelp, or you don't grab the FISH instead of the spear, the fish with inadvertently use the weight of the shaft or the tautness of the shooting line to tear off.
This is BAD. It happens, but I don't take shots that encourage it.
Now, a polespear will likely hit a mullet, or pollack BUT, the fish has the whole length and weight of the pole to tear against. Hence using a slip tip. We have, and continue to experiment with slip tip line lengths. The gat-ku is just about 4 - 6" too short but, is EASY to change using some 1.8 or 2mm dyneema.
We are even playing with hybrid tips, in holes and open water to hopefully make things even more efficient. My buddy Chris has devised a slip 3 pronger and we are working on such a beast with MATC style flip over barbs too.
So, you can either use a short line to pole slip tip OR...
A fully detachable system (breakaway) where the tip line is connected to either a belt reel, OR, a float. We have tried both and I prefer the belt reel. This is super useful on pollack when the fish dives into kelp and tangles your slip line. You COULD leave a gun down there and it'll float above the kelp with it's floaty barrel and handle. A polespear offers no such luxury so, if we need a re-dive, we clip up the reel, or float line to the spear's band and away we go. As we dive around very fast tides and can be upto 16 mtrs, playing or diving around ANY line that will drop slack as you dive is BAD. Be very aware that we use detachable reels and take up slack as we dive back down. Don't drop down on semi slack or even slack dyneema. Just don't.
Hope this helps. It's good fun and, IMHO, makes anyone a better diver/spearo as your strategies have to be solid. Going back in with a gun after a month or so with a pole is like someone arming you with mini cruise missiles. You'll feel loaded and miss NOTHING.
Inspiring videos Myfish! Thanks for the information regarding the different spears, it really is very useful! I have fancied using a polespear for night diving for the last few years as the faff of reloading is completely negated... My dive partner has always put me off them but seeing your videos has changed my mind for next season!
After 10 days of strong winds, torrential rain, swell...
It was surprisingly clean where I dived.
It was surprisingly clean where I dived.
After almost 3 weeks of impossible conditions...
I made a Jersey north coast dive.
It was a 30ft tide and just after HW when I got in so it was still pretty deep really close inshore. Most dives sub 8 meters resulted in seeing NOTHING at all. Between 8 and 10, the odd pollack and wrasse. Only when dropping in post 11 meters were any bass seen. But, because of the vis and murk and shadow of the high land behind me, it made for dark dives at those depths.
Anyway ...
After checking all the go-pro footage with half closed eyes, I thought all the bass encounters had passed unseen by the lens. Amazing really that sometimes, bass are like 3ft in front of you in the murk and you make it out quite clearly, yet the camera fails 95% of the time to see anything !
But, a bit of de-saturation, a crop and colour balance later... I did grab one from the half dozen I got close too.
I made a Jersey north coast dive.
It was a 30ft tide and just after HW when I got in so it was still pretty deep really close inshore. Most dives sub 8 meters resulted in seeing NOTHING at all. Between 8 and 10, the odd pollack and wrasse. Only when dropping in post 11 meters were any bass seen. But, because of the vis and murk and shadow of the high land behind me, it made for dark dives at those depths.
Anyway ...
After checking all the go-pro footage with half closed eyes, I thought all the bass encounters had passed unseen by the lens. Amazing really that sometimes, bass are like 3ft in front of you in the murk and you make it out quite clearly, yet the camera fails 95% of the time to see anything !
But, a bit of de-saturation, a crop and colour balance later... I did grab one from the half dozen I got close too.
