Pole spearing in Arkansas

[Dr. Rockzo]

Hi all,

I am near purchasing an Aaron Crist pole spear and was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on length as well as rigging. The lakes around Arkansas are stocked with striped bass, catfish, and walleye, all legal to take in state regs. Striped bass and catfish can get pretty big and having fought some on hook & line, is a slip tip necessary? Possible float line? The Crist pole spear comes standard with a 12" flopper shaft attached to a 2 piece 6' pole. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Dr. Rockzo]

Bump...

 

[hteas]

For free swimming fish in the water column I use an 8' Gat-Ku with slip tip. I recently got it, and the largest fish is about 6 lb so far. The slip tip seems to be a necessary pain for pelagics. I too often lose fish with my 3-prongs if I can't drive the fish to the bottom and pin it there.
The down side is messing with stuff. I speared one rockfish Saturday where the tip went in on one side of the head just above the gill cover and out the mouth. Getting the tip back out took some time and surgery once I was on a beach.

I use a float line attached to a Manny Puig type band (extra loop at the end of the band to tie the line to. This keeps the floatline from slowing down the spear as you let it loose. For bigger fish this would seem to be almost mandatory, as least if you want to keep the spear.

Howard

 

[Dr. Rockzo]

How much force are the Gat-Ku bands normally rigged at? And when you tied the Manny knot, did you notice a significant change? Was it a lot more difficult to draw the spear? I've been debating whether or not I want to do that with my Crist spear because the band is already very stout. I wasn't going to use a Manny knot per se, but just wanted to tie an overhand knot so that I could slip the band over my wrist if I need to free up both my hands. Here's a picture taken from another forum illustrating what I'm talking about. And because I'm just starting out, I don't think I will upgrade just yet to a floatline system; my skill level is nowhere near the place it should be if I want to tackle a striped bass. But thanks for your response. Keep them coming, I just want to learn some of the ropes from the experience people here.