Generally a breakaway on powerful fighting fish is very good... a fish like an amberjack I could also see it being useful on.
Reef hunting over here mainly involves trying to nail coral trout, cod, (similar to "grouper") and a variety of other fish. Where a breakaway can become a pest rather then an advantage is if you have it set up as an automatic breakaway (eg as soon as the fish pulls on the spear it detaches (riffe/roballen/ect) in the initial lets say 2 seconds your not putting as much pressure on the fish as you could be if you just reefed your gun back and grabbed your shooting line.
This often gives the reefies enough time to lodge themselves in a cave, under a coral ledge ect. I havent shot an amberjack before but I have shot a few trevally, mackeral and other dirty fighters off the reef, generally with these fish they first give a burst of speed and then will resort to trying to bust you off (less with the macks, they generally just run)... by the time they start thinking about the bomby, the ledge or the bottom of the reef you generally have the floatline in your hand and your ready for the fight! This is why I love to use breakaways so much... I don't generally wory about shooting "reef fish" this doesn't mean I don't shoot fish off the reef... I do... it means I shoot the macks and other pelagics ect that come to the reef to eat the baitfish... I think amberjack although they school around a reef ect still come into that pelagic category for me due to the shape and type of fish they are...
An interesting fish I find is the green jobfish... I am still not sure which box to put them in! their a lovely fish!
To conclude you can certainly use any rig you feel comfortable with! I just prefer not to use a breakaway on reef fish as by the time your fighting the fish it is often to late and your shafts on it's way to the pretzel factory :ko hehe. It is also slower using a breakaway in that you have to put it back when you reload... not a huge factor but time can be important...
I missed having a shot at a Spanish mack around 25 to 30 KG the other week because I unloaded the gun (shot it off) then took to long to load it when the fish swam in.
Wishbone! thankyou very much for the effort
it doesn't look like a bad rig at all! I recon it would work with a breakaway... it would just be a little slower thats all!
Can anyone remember if it was Abri or who it was that had the railgun with a second trigger mech attached to the outside of the handle? he used this as what i would see as just about the ultimate breakaway... it functions as a normal setup unless you pull the trigger which detaches the breakaway... Brilliant thinking... their might be a post around somewhere with it.
rob