New/ Aspiring Spearo - Kent

[ALamb649]

Hi All,

I'm looking at starting to spear fish in Kent and Surrey and looking for a basic kit to get me started with not my x-cel camo 3 mm wetsuit.

I've seen sets like: https://www.spearfishing.co.uk/spearfishing-packages/the-hunter-gatherer-spearfishing-package/

is it worth getting a set with everything in?

Also as a newbie should I start with a pole to get the basic concept and then move onto the gun?

Thank you for any help or guidance.

Keep safe

Adam

 

[Mr. X]

Looks like a good kit to me. Not keen on the weight belt, prefer rubber Marseille-buckle by somebody other than Picasso.

Not sure if you are saving any money on it tho, the price seems a tad high. That's a£7 knife, sub £100 speargun, etc. Cost it out.

 

[ALamb649]

Roger thank you Mr.X been googling through the kit and was thinking of the easy option for all of the kit.

Think it's back to paper and pen see the best wetty, knife etc and get from different venders.

 

[Mr. X]

Just had a closer look, yes a good deal. I didn't see all items first view. Very good kit. Price for socks & gloves can vary a lot.

I've done a costing for you:

But say wetsuit, gloves, socks and fins £200 seems reasonable. Speargun and snorkel £100. Float, mask and bug bag £40. Belt and stringer £20. Knife £7. That's £367 at the keen prices I would look for. Yes good deal and the RA items lift the desirability and overall quality considerably.

Beware Picasso sizes can be very small, prob. SE Asian sizes, but I doubt if they standardize them or have any quality control checks on sizes. I own a few Picasso items but would not recommend them; at best some are tolerable. Other forum members have reported being disappointed by Picasso gear. I think the fins are considered decent though. The mask is prob. Ok.

 

[Mr. X]

Get yourself a better, stiffer float line though. If you are lucky, you might be able to find 10 or 20m of polypropylene washing line that looks like RA floatline for £1 or £2, as I have. I also got a big ball of rope identical to RA Thai curry green floatline at a car boot sale for 50p - couldn't believe my luck and the seller was delighted to get rid of it at that price.


Failing that, aquarium air tubing. See recent thread discussions for more on that.

Don't buy metal core washing line nor nylon, they sink.

 

[Mr. X]

The 80cm Sparid is an excellent choice for UK. We generally recommend 75-90cm for UK. Visibility in your area is typically poor, so a shorter speargun makes sense. Anywhere in the range 60-90cm would likely be ok. Maybe even 50cm sometimes?

 

[ALamb649]

Mr X you are a saviour, thank you so much. All points taken on board and so very useful.

Thank you

 

[ALamb649]

Thank you for the upgrade for the float line as well.

Can you recommend any books or videos for prepping kit and basics?

 

[Mr. X]

Only one book: Len Jonses's Guide to spearfishing. An illustrated booklet from South Africa. YouTube is a good source of info. I picked up an Italian DVD on eBay that was good, could barely understand a word but you can learn a lot but watching, gear, technique, attitude, etc.

 

[Mr. X]

Browse this forum too. The hunting thread and "for dummies" articles by Miles are excellent places to start.

 

[ALamb649]

Thank you so much Mr.X

 

[ALamb649]

Been watching loads of Daniel Mann on YouTube and it's really interesting and making me want to get into the water more

 

[Woohoo]

If I could only give one piece of advice to a noob (I’m still a noob myself) it would be to use a bungee float line. Nearly all the dramas I had on my first several dives was getting tangled in a cheap nylon line. Almost never get tangled with the bungee line and can untangle yourself easily when you do. Will never use anything else again.

My second biggest cause of problems was being overweighted, so would recommend caution there as well.

 

[ALamb649]

Thanks WooHoo, how long a line have you been using? Also whetted the best place to source?

The forever question as well is how much weight do I buy to put on my belt?? I know it depends on wetsuit thickness, my weight etc and info out there is confusing for a brand spanking aspiring spearo

 

[Woohoo]

This is the one I bought 4 years ago and it did me proud. It’s only 4 metres but extends up to 16 .

Diveinn | Online store for dive and snorkeling equipment

Online store of diving and snorkel equipment. Find at Diveinn neoprene suits, masks, fins, tubes | Best price.

www.scubastore.com

This cheaper ones got great reviews as well. A lot of people won’t use foreign companies like this, but I haven’t had any problems so far.

Diveinn | Online store for dive and snorkeling equipment

Online store of diving and snorkel equipment. Find at Diveinn neoprene suits, masks, fins, tubes | Best price.

www.scubastore.com

Knowing how much weight exactly is impossible. Just need to keep adding more till you get it right. Plenty of threads on here that will give you a rough idea of what other people use. Then if you can afford it, buy one or two more and you should definitely be covered. The best advice I’ve ever read is being weighted so when you are floating vertically the water level doesn’t go above your mouth. If it does you’re too heavy. Being too heavy and trying to untangle myself from my line, was by far the biggest issue I had at first.

The best advice I could ever give you though, is to do what I did two weeks ago and move from Kent to Cornwall.

 

[Mr. X]

For regular float,-line it depends on how deep you want to dive but around 10m - 20m for a beginner would be good. The longer it is the more likely that it will tangle or that you will need to (temporarily) shorten it. 12m-16m is probably ideal, unless you need to go deep.

 

[ALamb649]

Thank you both for your guidance, now it's buy the above starter kit. Set up the kit and get into the water.
Is there specified set up techniques for spear to gun, gun to float line etc?

 

[Mr. X]

Btw for UK you don't need bungee float line, the fish arent that big. BTW you do mean proper bungee floatline rather than the rubber cord used to strap things to roof racks don't you? I don't think the latter floats but, if stiff may not tangle much.

Re. Your question, various options are possible. I will suggest what I use and let others describe their alternatives:

Spearline fixed to speargun muzzle. Speargun handle clipped to float line. Floatline clipped to float.

 

[ALamb649]

MrX thank you for the advice, think it may be a bit of trial and error with the set from the shop and go from there

 

[ALamb649]

So I have finally received the set and it's amazing- a closed cell wetsuit is a lot different then a surfing wetsuit.
Now this weekend I'll test all of the kit, test the setup and have fun