UK Waters - First Gun

[Callum Howe]

1.

Hi Guys, as you can tell I'm new here.

Over the last 5 years or so I've been on and off in terms of deciding to start Spearfishing or not, I was a vegetarion for the first 18 years of my life and for the past few years I have been trying various meat products for the first time, I have however never tasted fish and I figure this is the most sustainable/enviromently friendly way to catch them.

I live in london but it isn't too much of a struggle to get to the coast for me and I would like to start spearfishing Ideally before winter, if not then perhaps spring 2017.

Now to my question, what size speargun is viable for the (usually) low visibility waters of the UK? budget isn't an issue so I am open to suggestions, I have had a look through a few different manufacturers and I'm really struggling to see note worthy differences and figured people with hands on experience are likely to be the ones that can advise me here.

I'd like something that isn't lacking in power and that is accurate enough so that any misses can be put down to human error rather than the gun itself etc

*Bonus points if it looks pretty but functionality is obviously the most important aspect.*

Thank you for any help you can provide.


2.

Also can someone recomend me a good year round wetsuit and a mask?

 

[Callum Howe]

1.

Hi Guys, as you can tell I'm new here.

Over the last 5 years or so I've been on and off in terms of deciding to start Spearfishing or not, I was a vegetarion for the first 18 years of my life and for the past few years I have been trying various meat products for the first time, I have however never tasted fish and I figure this is the most sustainable/enviromently friendly way to catch them.

I live in london but it isn't too much of a struggle to get to the coast for me and I would like to start spearfishing Ideally before winter, if not then perhaps spring 2017.

Now to my question, what size speargun is viable for the (usually) low visibility waters of the UK? budget isn't an issue so I am open to suggestions, I have had a look through a few different manufacturers and I'm really struggling to see note worthy differences and figured people with hands on experience are likely to be the ones that can advise me here.

I'd like something that isn't lacking in power and that is accurate enough so that any misses can be put down to human error rather than the gun itself etc

*Bonus points if it looks pretty but functionality is obviously the most important aspect.*

Thank you for any help you can provide.


2.

Also can someone recommend me a good year round wetsuit and a mask?

Apologies for the spelling error at the bottom of the post.

 

[Mr. X]

Hi Callum,
I would recommend a 75cm band powered speargun. The make/model is largely irrelevant

Get a 5mm spearo wetsuit: open-cell inner (you'll need to lube up to get into it - think of it as an initiation or rite of passage), it'll have a hood & a loading pad on the chest. High waist spearo pants are normal but long-john pants are a popular option - perhaps more if you are using a kayak/boat (where you might remove your jacket) or if cold is a particular problem, but it might complicate fit. You can cut long johns down to high waist pants later if necessary.

Mask: Get a black Technisub Micromask, it is not perfect but it is the best mask I have used so far & comes in a mask box: http://amzn.to/2bBPaiK Lots of other masks are available though: black, twin lens, low volume is traditional for spearing. Explore the DeeperBlue.com forums for reviews & comments. Omersub, Cressi, Beuchat, Seasub & many others offer spearo masks. Some designs available now are generic or copies, offered with different branding. I think camo designs which have a lighter coloured frames around the eyes are probably counter-productive, in that they draw attention to the eyes rather than offering any real camouflage benefit. Britain isn't sunny enough for mirrored lenses. But it is not essential, I started with a Typhoon version of the Cressi Big Eyes, it's a clear, high-ish volume scuba mask - not a spearo mask - but a very nice mask to snorkel with and my wife still uses it. Once you start diving a deeper, low volume helps.

Get a black Omer Zoom snorkel.

Proper full foot, long spearo fins. e.g. Beuchat Competition.

Neoprene gloves & socks for warmth & to fine tune fin fit. I would recommend 3mm or 4mm for gloves - I tried 2mm super-stretch neoprene gloves and found them too cold for UK waters, even in the Summer. 3mm-5mm for socks, depending on fins. Feet swell in warm weather & shrink in cold water - the difference can be significant.

Weight belt: rubber, Marseille buckle is traditional. Rob Allen's belt is good if you can get it at a reasonable price. Aim for ~£18 - some prices quote now are exploitative - you need to be willing to ditch your weight belt in an emergency. The resourceful Guerns make their own weight belts out of old conveyor belt material.

Weights: I think we estimated about 1lb of lead for 9 or 10 pounds of body weight, roughly but start low and add gradually in safe conditions. It depends on your size, bodyfat, the salinity of the water, the thickness/buoyancy/age of your wetsuit and the depth you want to dive to (shallower water needs more weight, deeper water less weight).

A large, inflatable torpedo shaped marker buoy/float, with blue & white diver flag. Clips to attach stringer, float-line & crab bag.

Float line (polyester washing line or aquarium tubing work well - I use RobAllen olive polyester float line): 10m-20m should be plenty to start with. Make a winder to hold excess line & help carry it - or watch youtube videos to see how SA spearos wind theirs.

Fish-stringer & clip to attach fish to you float. You can use the spike to dispatch speared fish - if the spike is quite long & sharp (like the RA stringers), the spike will often work better than a knife.

A knife is probably not essential but if you want a knife (and most spearos do) then I would suggest a spearo dagger. Folk normally want a big one but the small, flat ones are probably more practical and cheaper. Use it to dispatch fish and/or gut them. Alternatively, look on it as a pure emergency cutter & get one with a sharp blade and sharp serrations for that purpose.

Shop around for the reasonable prices. Bear in mind that some vendors offer better service than others - and that can make a big difference. In my experience, real shops that sell on the web usually provide better service.

You might want to visit your local fishmonger/supermarket to try some fish & other seafood (I had some pickled welks this week, lovely ) before making the investment - but it does taste at least 10x better when it is fresh and you caught it, prepared it and cooked it yourself

 

[Callum Howe]

Hi Callum,
I would recommend a 75cm band powered speargun. The make/model is largely irrelevant

Get a 5mm spearo wetsuit: open-cell inner (you'll need to lube up to get into it - think of it as an initiation or rite of passage), it'll have a hood & a loading pad on the chest. High waist spearo pants are normal but long-john pants are a popular option - perhaps more if you are using a kayak/boat (where you might remove your jacket) or if cold is a particular problem, but it might complicate fit. You can cut long johns down to high waist pants later if necessary.

Mask: Get a black Technisub Micromask, it is not perfect but it is the best mask I have used so far & comes in a mask box: http://amzn.to/2bBPaiK Lots of other masks are available though: black, twin lens, low volume is traditional for spearing. Explore the DeeperBlue.com forums for reviews & comments. Omersub, Cressi, Beuchat, Seasub & many others offer spearo masks. Some designs available now are generic or copies, offered with different branding. I think camo designs which have a lighter coloured frames around the eyes are probably counter-productive, in that they draw attention to the eyes rather than offering any real camouflage benefit. Britain isn't sunny enough for mirrored lenses. But it is not essential, I started with a Typhoon version of the Cressi Big Eyes, it's a clear, high-ish volume scuba mask - not a spearo mask - but a very nice mask to snorkel with and my wife still uses it. Once you start diving a deeper, low volume helps.

Get a black Omer Zoom snorkel.

Proper full foot, long spearo fins. e.g. Beuchat Competition.

Neoprene gloves & socks for warmth & to fine tune fin fit. I would recommend 3mm or 4mm for gloves - I tried 2mm super-stretch neoprene gloves and found them too cold for UK waters, even in the Summer. 3mm-5mm for socks, depending on fins. Feet swell in warm weather & shrink in cold water - the difference can be significant.

Weight belt: rubber, Marseille buckle is traditional. Rob Allen's belt is good if you can get it at a reasonable price. Aim for ~£18 - some prices quote now are exploitative - you need to be willing to ditch your weight belt in an emergency. The resourceful Guerns make their own weight belts out of old conveyor belt material.

Weights: I think we estimated about 1lb of lead for 9 or 10 pounds of body weight, roughly but start low and add gradually in safe conditions. It depends on your size, bodyfat, the salinity of the water, the thickness/buoyancy/age of your wetsuit and the depth you want to dive to (shallower water needs more weight, deeper water less weight).

A large, inflatable torpedo shaped marker buoy/float, with blue & white diver flag. Clips to attach stringer, float-line & crab bag.

Float line (polyester washing line or aquarium tubing work well - I use RobAllen olive polyester float line): 10m-20m should be plenty to start with. Make a winder to hold excess line & help carry it - or watch youtube videos to see how SA spearos wind theirs.

Fish-stringer & clip to attach fish to you float. You can use the spike to dispatch speared fish - if the spike is quite long & sharp (like the RA stringers), the spike will often work better than a knife.

A knife is probably not essential but if you want a knife (and most spearos do) then I would suggest a spearo dagger. Folk normally want a big one but the small, flat ones are probably more practical and cheaper. Use it to dispatch fish and/or gut them. Alternatively, look on it as a pure emergency cutter & get one with a sharp blade and sharp serrations for that purpose.

Shop around for the reasonable prices. Bear in mind that some vendors offer better service than others - and that can make a big difference. In my experience, real shops that sell on the web usually provide better service.

You might want to visit your local fishmonger/supermarket to try some fish & other seafood (I had some pickled welks this week, lovely ) before making the investment - but it does taste at least 10x better when it is fresh and you caught it, prepared it and cooked it yourself

Thank you for your thorough response, looks like I have some shopping to do, I understand that with the gun the brand isn't make or break, but what about a C4 or something similar? Not worth it?

Where abouts are you located? I understand you are British yourself from what I have gathered in the hundreds of threads I've read whilst I should have been working! I have never been free diving myself, I taught kayaking for 6 years and I can hold my breath for roughly two minutes in a pool, I clearly need to train and I was wondering if there are any experienced guy's down this way that I could maybe buddy up with?

 

[grantl]

Personally I'd skip the band gun and get a 70 dry barrel pneumatic. They're about the same size,as a 60 band gun and perform more like a double band 90. Cheaper to maintain too.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

 

[Callum Howe]

Personally I'd skip the band gun and get a 70 dry barrel pneumatic. They're about the same size,as a 60 band gun and perform more like a double band 90. Cheaper to maintain too.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

Am I wrong in thinking Pneumatics can be troublesome?

It's some times hard to seperate opinion from fact on the internet but a lot of people have said they lose power below a certain depth etc

Not that I plan on diving deep anyway, I just don't really know anything about them, what would you say their pros/cons are?

 

[foxfish]

I have one air gun that is 30 years old and still working well, I don't know how deep you would have dive for a pneumatic to notably start loosing power, certainly deeper than I dive!
Some folk find them difficult to load, not I though!
Dry barrel air guns have lots of power, low recoil, smooth shot, accurate, low maintenance, easy tracking but they have more moving parts than a band gun so if they do go wrong then they might be more complex to fix.
I am really not a fan of basic tube guns as I find them aggressive to fire & generally not very pleasant to use but of course they are the most popular guns around & probably the best gun to start out with!
High mass band guns are much nicer to fire (and own) but can be heavy out of water & expensive to purchase but a nice wooden gun will have perfect balance and low recoil.
Carbon tube guns are very popular they kick like a mule, scratch easy & need looking after but again are very successful at killing fish.
Good luck with your choice

 

[grantl]

Am I wrong in thinking Pneumatics can be troublesome?

It's some times hard to seperate opinion from fact on the internet but a lot of people have said they lose power below a certain depth etc

Not that I plan on diving deep anyway, I just don't really know anything about them, what would you say their pros/cons are?

I guess any gun can be troublesome but I'm not sure pneumatics are any more prone to issues than a band gun in reality.
Power loss a isn't an issue at all in reality, there's a lot of factually incorrect info on forums about it.
The pros are you have very little recoil, lots of power in a small package, very reliable, easily variable power.
Cons are that some of the cheaper guns have horrible triggers ( same with band guns) and getting spares in the UK can be difficult for some brands.

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

 

[Callum Howe]

Thank you for the replies guys!

I'll get a Pneumatic then, I had a look through some more forum posts about them last night and they seem to be the better choice, in that case which would you recommend? I will be mostly fishing around the southerncoast, I would like to visit portland as I hear it's good there.

what's the best Pneumatic gun on the market? (obviously this is a matter of opinion but still) and once you pump up the gun how many shots do you usually get out of it before having to reset?

 

[Callum Howe]

Hi Callum,
I would recommend a 75cm band powered speargun. The make/model is largely irrelevant

Get a 5mm spearo wetsuit: open-cell inner (you'll need to lube up to get into it - think of it as an initiation or rite of passage), it'll have a hood & a loading pad on the chest. High waist spearo pants are normal but long-john pants are a popular option - perhaps more if you are using a kayak/boat (where you might remove your jacket) or if cold is a particular problem, but it might complicate fit. You can cut long johns down to high waist pants later if necessary.

Mask: Get a black Technisub Micromask, it is not perfect but it is the best mask I have used so far & comes in a mask box: http://amzn.to/2bBPaiK Lots of other masks are available though: black, twin lens, low volume is traditional for spearing. Explore the DeeperBlue.com forums for reviews & comments. Omersub, Cressi, Beuchat, Seasub & many others offer spearo masks. Some designs available now are generic or copies, offered with different branding. I think camo designs which have a lighter coloured frames around the eyes are probably counter-productive, in that they draw attention to the eyes rather than offering any real camouflage benefit. Britain isn't sunny enough for mirrored lenses. But it is not essential, I started with a Typhoon version of the Cressi Big Eyes, it's a clear, high-ish volume scuba mask - not a spearo mask - but a very nice mask to snorkel with and my wife still uses it. Once you start diving a deeper, low volume helps.

Get a black Omer Zoom snorkel.

Proper full foot, long spearo fins. e.g. Beuchat Competition.

Neoprene gloves & socks for warmth & to fine tune fin fit. I would recommend 3mm or 4mm for gloves - I tried 2mm super-stretch neoprene gloves and found them too cold for UK waters, even in the Summer. 3mm-5mm for socks, depending on fins. Feet swell in warm weather & shrink in cold water - the difference can be significant.

Weight belt: rubber, Marseille buckle is traditional. Rob Allen's belt is good if you can get it at a reasonable price. Aim for ~£18 - some prices quote now are exploitative - you need to be willing to ditch your weight belt in an emergency. The resourceful Guerns make their own weight belts out of old conveyor belt material.

Weights: I think we estimated about 1lb of lead for 9 or 10 pounds of body weight, roughly but start low and add gradually in safe conditions. It depends on your size, bodyfat, the salinity of the water, the thickness/buoyancy/age of your wetsuit and the depth you want to dive to (shallower water needs more weight, deeper water less weight).

A large, inflatable torpedo shaped marker buoy/float, with blue & white diver flag. Clips to attach stringer, float-line & crab bag.

Float line (polyester washing line or aquarium tubing work well - I use RobAllen olive polyester float line): 10m-20m should be plenty to start with. Make a winder to hold excess line & help carry it - or watch youtube videos to see how SA spearos wind theirs.

Fish-stringer & clip to attach fish to you float. You can use the spike to dispatch speared fish - if the spike is quite long & sharp (like the RA stringers), the spike will often work better than a knife.

A knife is probably not essential but if you want a knife (and most spearos do) then I would suggest a spearo dagger. Folk normally want a big one but the small, flat ones are probably more practical and cheaper. Use it to dispatch fish and/or gut them. Alternatively, look on it as a pure emergency cutter & get one with a sharp blade and sharp serrations for that purpose.

Shop around for the reasonable prices. Bear in mind that some vendors offer better service than others - and that can make a big difference. In my experience, real shops that sell on the web usually provide better service.

You might want to visit your local fishmonger/supermarket to try some fish & other seafood (I had some pickled welks this week, lovely ) before making the investment - but it does taste at least 10x better when it is fresh and you caught it, prepared it and cooked it yourself

is it worth getting a custom wetsuit do you think?
I really should try fish, I tried some calamari and that was *edible* aha

 

[NoFair]

is it worth getting a custom wetsuit do you think?
I really should try fish, I tried some calamari and that was *edible* aha

Depends on your body shape. If you fit well within the measurements of a standard suit it isn't much of an issue. If you are very long and skinny etc. a custom suit will fit better.

 

[Callum Howe]

Depends on your body shape. If you fit well within the measurements of a standard suit it isn't much of an issue. If you are very long and skinny etc. a custom suit will fit better.

I think I'm a pretty standard sized male to be fair, 6ft and like 74kg so I'm assuming there will be no need for a custom one then?

 

[NoFair]

I think I'm a pretty standard sized male to be fair, 6ft and like 74kg so I'm assuming there will be no need for a custom one then?

You should be fine with regular sizing. The suits are also pretty stretchy as well. Just remember that a tight fitting suit is better than a loose one so don't go too large on sizing. 5mm works well for most of the year for me.