Speargun maintenance - check & adjust your spear floppers (a.k.a. barbs)!

[Mr. X]

I lost a couple of good fish on a single dive last year using my 90cm gun due to flopper issues. In one fish, the flopper failed to open at all and the spear pulled right out. On the other, I speared a good fish fairly deep and almost on the sea bed, the spear partially opened but then closed as I surfaced when I momentarily released tension on the spearline When I checked the floppers on both of my spearguns later, both were loose and not locking open and the rear tail tip of both were almost completely flat, the 90cm gun being the worse on both counts. Checking and adjusting the barbs is quick and easy, lesson learnt.

I like Daniel Mann's videos and he covers this and more in this video:

And Rob Allen's videos are great, concise references:

 

[Mr. X]

And if you want to replace a flopper, or switch it from top mounted to bottom mounted (tempting) or vice-versa

 

[Mr. X]

I bought 2 new Apnea spearguns recently. I really like them and their 6.6mm sharkfin spears look very good. However, the floppers are very loose and will need to be adjusted using a hammer (and possibly screwdriver and/or pliers) as shown in the above videos, otherwise I am sure fish would be lost.

BTW I never had to adjust the large heavy duty flopper on my Rob Allen spear. It came set up right and stayed that way. Hanging under the spear, it was also more inclined to open and stay open although it did cause lateral drag if not held close by a small rubber O-ring.