Purposes behind different types of tips

[prod3y]

Hi everybody,
Im trying to get into spearfishing and Im seeing that there are a wide variety of tips. What is the reason for this? Are some tips for certain types of fish? If someone could lay all of that out and explain it to me that would be excellent.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Shafts with a single flopper barb on top (Tahitian) or on the bottom (Hawaiian) are generally more suitable for smaller fish and/or when shooting into rocks. If you shoot that kind of shaft into a large powerful fish, particularly one with soft flesh, the leverage of the shooting line pulling on the rear of the shaft can widen the hole in the fish and let the barb pull out.

Slip tips let the shaft pull back out of the fish with the tip toggled on the far side of the fish, or inside the fish, and the cable or Spectra from the shaft to the fish doesn't widen the hole. I'll try to find photo of slip tips toggled.

Flopper shafts can be sharpened after hitting a rock. Slip tips can be destroyed and are very expensive to replace.

Often we hear from spearos who show us photos of very large game fish taken with flopper shafts. But they don't show us photos, or even tell us about, all the fish that tore off.

Of course there also doubler flopper tips that screw onto threaded shafts. They are not nearly as expensive as quality slip tips, and can be replaced if they get too damaged from hitting rocks. They are a good choice for small guns at close range, but they have a lot more drag than either slip tips or flopper tips.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I hate it when I'm the only one who replies. Surely someone else has something to add or a different slant?

 

[prod3y]

So does the spectra from the slip tip attach to a reel on your gun?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

So does the spectra from the slip tip attach to a reel on your gun?

No, it goes through a slide ring on the shaft. A knot on the rear end of the Spectra (or a crimp on the rear end of cable) keeps it from coming back out of the slide ring. The slide ring is prevented from coming off the shaft by the screw-on adapter, which has a larger diameter.

The shooting line (mono in my case) attaches to the rear end of the shaft, and the rear end of the shooting line attaches to either a float line or reel line. Of course the shooting line could just attach to the muzzle of the gun, but if a fish is big enough to require a slip tip, then it would be big enough to take the gun away from you.

 

[prod3y]

Wouldn't you be concerned that the shooting line if attached to a bouey would get tangled in kelp? How do you prevent that from happening?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Wouldn't you be concerned that the shooting line if attached to a bouey would get tangled in kelp? How do you prevent that from happening?

Many people use float lines in the kelp, but they don't use floats big enough to fight a fish. A lot of people use a bare line, some put knots in the line so that they know its getting close to the end when it running through their hands, and others, including me, use a slim streamlined float that just serves as something to grab and helps find the end of the line in the kelp.

My line is 120 feet long. Last summer I shot a 62 pound fish that took ever bit of it. I wouldn't have been able to hold on without that little float to grab. I was pulled under water three times and struggled to get up for breaths. I was on the verge of giving up and turning loose when the fish finally wrapped up in the kelp and stopped.

Just to get the terminology correct- The mono shooting line is about 22 feet long (depending on gun length) and that is in turn attached to the reel line or float line. My guns are rigged in what is called "Hawaiian breakaway" style.

A loop in the rear end of the shooting line is a few inches from the line release and a loop of bungee cord stretches from the shooting line over the line release. The clip on the float line attaches to the loop in the shooting line. When I pull the trigger, the bungee comes off of the line release and then my gun is out of the chain. If I'm in open water, there is a big float on the rear end of the float line to fight the fish. But in the kelp, I have to rely on hand pressure and float line length.

 

[poildeq]

I hate it when I'm the only one who replies. Surely someone else has something to add or a different slant?

I have used only Tahitian with a single flopper and can attest that I have caught 25-30 kgs fish without losing them.