Reel limits

[Jeremy Harris]

Hi everyone,
I'm pretty new to spearfishing and this forum. I wonder if anyone can give me a little advice before I do something stupid..? I have a Geronimo Elite which comes with the reel. I've pumped it up a bit with two bands and a heavier spear. I love the simplicity of the set up and the experience of a clean, simple uncluttered dive. I also live on an island without a spearfishing store where it takes from 3-6 months to have anything shipped. All that to say I don't have a float line or the things I would need to rig one up in a hurry.

At the moment I haven't worried too much about the fight with what I shoot. I'm a strong swimmer, calm in the water, and the 40m of line on the reel gives me plenty of time to get to the surface from the depths that I hunt at (15-20m). I don't tend to go out too far though and the largest fish I've shot so far was a 10kg amber jack (and he died on impact). In a couple of weeks I'm headed out with a gi-joe type who swears blind he's shot big tuna and wahoo on a reel. I've seen it done on youtube too but I confess I'm not sure its a smart plan. I've caught those fish on a line from a boat and am under no illusion as to the power they have.

My question is this - how likely am I to lose my gun if I don't get a kill shot on a wahoo or tuna? Should I attach the gun to myself so I can cut the line worst comes to worst - or is that a terrible idea? Does anyone have experience of this? Do I actually just need to get sensible and order a float line?

Appreciate your thoughts!

 

[Mr. X]

Simplest: Why don't you attach your speargun to your float/marker buoy with a float-line? That way the speargun & fish will remain attached to your float.

If you are dealing with big fish, use a big float, very big. Better yet use 2 big floats, joined by another float-line in a break-away pouch (see Rob Allen website) and/or a thick bungee.

You could take your speargun out of the equation using a break-away rig on your speargun (search this forum for details - basically a metal ring on your speargun with a tight fitting piece of rubber on your float-line). These are designed so that the spear, spearline, float-line & floats stay attached to the fish but your speargun is freed when sufficient force pulls on the line - that way you keep hold of your speargun (don't drop it though, it will not be attached to your floatline) and the float stay attached to your fish.

It believe it is normal practice to use a large solid foam filled float that will not collapse under pressure as your first float and then a second float of similar or bigger size. The second one could be inflatible. Or just use a huge foam board like Tommy Botha's.

 

[sharkey]

I'm biased against reels. They have their place, but shooting wahoo & tuna in open water isnt it. When chasing these fish usually a live boat is used to follow the divers, this provides safety & also picks up divers to restart drifts. Without a rig line & float its difficult to follow divers & provide a suitable level of safety. I consider it a selfish & risky act to not use a rig & float. Reels are also much more complicated & can jamb, its a good way to loose a gun. The diver becomes the float effectively when using a reel, however we are also trying to be neutrally boyant, not positive, so we can dive. Large pelagic fish wiegh typically 30% of thier measured wieght in the water, try pulling up a 100kg fish without a float. A 100kg fish will need 35l of displacement just to stop a dead fish sinking. I see reports & photos of some pretty good fish taken with reels but when we look into it they usually are assisted catches using multiple guns & divers. These fish & captures should never be considered trophies, if we are shooting fish for sport then we need to be sportsmen not just killers & follow the rules. There are lots of gimmicks which come in & out of fashion in spearfishing, a simple rule would be to keep it simple. When things get sporty the simple things are generaklly the last to fail. For example I dont use breakaways, my mono is attatched to the gun, the gun to the rig rope (bungees etc), people claim they use a breakaway rig so they wont loose their gun, I have only ever lost one gun to a large fish like this. My experience with others using breakaways is that I would have lost several had I been using them, not to discount the missed opportunities on fish, as seconds count in these situations & breakaways are more complicated & slower to load. Keep it simple, keep it safe, use a rig rope & a float to fight & land the tuna & wahoo.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I'm a big gan of breakaway float line myself, but you can get by with the float line attached to the butt of your gun. Its just that if the fish takes your shaft and float line, it takes the gun too.

To save searching, here are some photos of what is called a Hawaiian breakaway. It doesn't require any hardware attached to the gun, and never fails to release.

Cut the shooting line so that the loop in the rear end is a few inches from the line release on your gun. Then stretch a loop of bungee cord from the loop in the shooting line over the line release and attach the float line to the loop in the shooting line (not to the loop in the bungee.

 

[sharkey]

Thats the breakaway rig I'm familiar with. It took us by surprise down here when folks started to push rubber through a ring or hole in the gun instead. Most spearos I know use this on big fish so as not to loose their gun, my problem is that when the gun is no longer attatched to anything I'm much more likely to loose it. I have only ever lost one gun rig & floats to a fish & I would have lost the rig & floats anyway with a breakaway. I reckon I have saved several guns & speared more fish because I dont use a breakaway.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Pushing rubber through a ring or hole sucks. I shot a tuna with the Riffe breakaway in which a rubber plug goes through a hole in the butt. The rubber plug didn't come out, the gun was almost torn from my hands until the slip tip pulled out of the fish. A couple of weeks later I went out on Daryl Wong's boat in Hawaii, ands noticed that every gun was rigged as in my photos above, so I switched.

I agree with you that keeping track of the gun after the float line breaks away can be a problem. I guess its just a matter of what we are used to.

If I had no other reason for using the breakaway, the fact that we shoot fish in thick kelp in Southern California would be the best one. If the float line is attached to the gun, then the gun is being pulled down through the kelp after the fish. It can hang up and possibly tear the fish off. But if that doesn't happen, we still have a problem. The fish is often wrapped up in heavy kelp on the bottom in poor vis, and we have to cut it out. And if the gun is attached to the float line, then we may have to go over 20 feet way and cut the gun out of the kelp too. Its just a lot more of a mess.

 

[sharkey]

I have also heard this called a "Sef African" breakaway. We like to think it was started by an Aussie down here. No doubt if we look further it would probably have been a Kiwi who came up with it first.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

No doubt.

 

[landshark sa]

This is my setup for bigger fish... The "Sef African" breakaway:

 

[landshark sa]

Hi everyone,
I'm pretty new to spearfishing and this forum. I wonder if anyone can give me a little advice before I do something stupid..? I have a Geronimo Elite which comes with the reel. I've pumped it up a bit with two bands and a heavier spear. I love the simplicity of the set up and the experience of a clean, simple uncluttered dive. I also live on an island without a spearfishing store where it takes from 3-6 months to have anything shipped. All that to say I don't have a float line or the things I would need to rig one up in a hurry.

At the moment I haven't worried too much about the fight with what I shoot. I'm a strong swimmer, calm in the water, and the 40m of line on the reel gives me plenty of time to get to the surface from the depths that I hunt at (15-20m). I don't tend to go out too far though and the largest fish I've shot so far was a 10kg amber jack (and he died on impact). In a couple of weeks I'm headed out with a gi-joe type who swears blind he's shot big tuna and wahoo on a reel. I've seen it done on youtube too but I confess I'm not sure its a smart plan. I've caught those fish on a line from a boat and am under no illusion as to the power they have.

My question is this - how likely am I to lose my gun if I don't get a kill shot on a wahoo or tuna? Should I attach the gun to myself so I can cut the line worst comes to worst - or is that a terrible idea? Does anyone have experience of this? Do I actually just need to get sensible and order a float line?

Appreciate your thoughts!

Although some spearos like to use reels for blue water hunting - gun reel with an additional belt reel - I would definitely recommend against it. Fish like Yellowfin Tuna which like to fight vertically in the water column is a real danger in deep water. Should you get tangled with the line a big YFT will pull you down to 50m before you have a chance to get your knife out of the sheath.

Like the other guys said, get the correct kit for the job. I generally use the kit in the post above for hunting blue water pelagic species. Besides the risk of broken / lost kit, having the proper tools for the job instils confidence which makes for better hunting. The last thing you want to worry about when lining up a fish is inferior kit.

With regards to getting kit over there. I notice the RMS St Helena has a monthly sailing schedule. Is it not possible to ship kit over with her? If so, you have access to all the required goods in South Africa so it's just a matter of getting space on the ship.

Btw, what is the status of the Airport over there? I was super disappointed when I heard about the wind sheer issues as I was hoping to plan a trip to St Helena / Ascension in the near future.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Wow - thank you all so much! This is absolutely what I needed to hear. While your approaches vary (gun in or out of the equation mostly) the underlying message is as I had suspected - don't mess about, get the proper kit, and treat the fish with the respect they deserve. For simplicity, I will get the gun rigged to a couple of good floats as a first stage and order the kit in for a 'Sef African' set up on the RMS for next season.

Landshark Sa - yeah, the airport fiasco was a real bummer for us here as well. We are pretty used to being sold lines about great new things that will revolutionize the island and provide people with desperately needed additional income/services. There's a revolving door of highly paid UK government 'experts' who come for a jolly for two years at 10x or 20x the average local wage, tell people how they are going to fix everything and then shrug their shoulders when it doesn't work out and head off somewhere else with their small fortune. I'm not a local myself (from the UK originally) but am here for as long as I can be helpful on a local wage. I feel for the local population deeply with all that is going on. Particularly those that made investments based on the promise of increased tourism. One guy bought a sport fishing boat and is on the hook for loan repayments while he waits for tourists (such as yourself I guess) to eventually show up and make bookings. The government is actually making things even harder at the moment for some of these guys by trialing a limit on the number of spearfishing licenses to just two per year across the whole sector! What that means in practice is that for the coming year one operator who was lucky enough to get connected with a couple of Saudi princes has both licenses booked. Those with private planes can fly in and out of here but for those of us with limited means the RMS remains the only option for now.

You should definitely come though - Ascension is set up way better than we are for spearos but we are getting there. I would be more than happy to take you out to some local spots off the coast if you don't mind a bit of a walk

Thanks again everyone - very helpful indeed.

 

[landshark sa]

Let me know when you are ready to get the kit then I'll put you in touch with Tommy Botha who builds the guns and boards.

Truly unfortunate to hear about the the airport and as far as I can see not something that can be easily fixed. I really do hope they can figure out a way of providing some main stream utilisation.

Wrt the spearfishing licenses: Does that mean only two charter operators may take a group of spearos out or is it a case only two foreign spearos may be diving?

Thanks, may just take you up on that offer. Ditto if you ever find your way down to South Africa

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Thanks landshark - we'll be in CT for a day at the end of November actually, but its a family trip on our way back to the UK for Christmas so no time for diving. I may head back that way for a course or two mid-year though which could give me some opportunities to get in the water which would be immense!

The licenses allow more than one spearo on a trip (the 'trip' can be up to 8 days), but applies to 'one party'. There are also catch limits so you can only shoot 2 wahoo each etc...

Thanks for the hook up with Tommy Botha - I've been using the dive factory for my stuff who seem pretty good. I'm not sure I'm ready for another gun (I'm still in the 'doghouse' for ordering my dive watch which is yet to arrive!), although I would love a wooden one like yours which looks amazing. Also, I think I would prefer an inflatable float since if I swim out from shore I have to haul everything down and back up again - usually a good hour and a bit up several hundred vertical meters!

Great to be in touch - loving being a member of DB!

 

[Mr. X]

Re. the Rob Allen / Len Jones* style rubber-in-ring/tube style break away rigs - I suppose the idea is that the break-away is not deployed if you shoot and miss the fish, as it would be with the admittedly simpler** "Sef African" breakaway described & illustrated by Bill & others above. I would imagine that could take some fine tuning to get right though.

* Len Jones's book shows a way to make your own using a piece of (metal?) tube lashed to you speargu with electrician's ties & an off-cut of bulk rubber. RA sells a ring & rubber kit designed to fit their railguns - perhaps tuned to that use?

**"Simpler" here is intended as a complement. Simpler is often better.