Beginner Speargun/handspear info

I'm a fairly experienced diver (AdvOW, Rescue) and I want to start spearfishing in some of the lakes around where I live in northcentral Arkansas. I like the idea of the pneumatic guns, but I really don't know. How do you use a handspear? I saw one in a dive shop, looked like a scary thing with 3 points on it. Do you just throw it (seems like that wouldn't work well underwater) or do you use a band to launch it?

Thanks,

Well, I saw a video with a gent using something like that and he stabbed the fish with it like a picker pole for trash. Then there are Hawiian slings, those are kind of like slingshots for spears. Pneumatics are alright I suppose, I dont know anyone with one. Everyone I've speared with use band guns, myself included.

Do you use something to pull back the band or do you just pull it with your hand? How hard are they to pull back? I was looking at a '38 Special' speargun in the dive shop, but I didn't really get to see how hard it is to pull back.

I just pull the bands back with my hands - I put the butt of the gun against my hip, grab a band, do a curl, and hook the band in the notch on the spear. Don't forget to make sure your safety is set, otherwise you could launch your spear off setting it

By your first post Tek, it sounds like what you saw was a polespear with a paralyzer point. A polespear is simply a pole with some kind of point on one end and a length of rubber tubing attached in a loop to the other end. The way it's used is to loop the band between your thumb and first finger of your strong hand so that it crosses the back of your hand on top and palm on the bottom. Using your free hand grab the shaft and pull your band hand up the shaft stretching the band. Grab the shaft with your band hand. You will now have the band across your palm and the pole in the same hand, just point and release. A polespear is just about the easiest spearfishing system there is. I used them for many years growing up in Florida.

A Hawaiian sling is kind of like an underwater slingshot that launches a steel shaft much like a speargun shaft. The way it's used is to put the butt end of the shaft through a hole in the center of the grip and into a cup on the band. Grip the grip in your strong hand and pinch the cup between the thumb and middle knuckle of your rear hand. Extend your forward hand toward the target while pulling back to the side of your jaw with your rear hand, just like pulling a slingshot. When you have the band extended point and release.

With both these systems you will have to see the fish or at least know a shootable fish is in the immediate area before cocking them. You won't be able to swim around with them cocked and ready, but both work fine for taking fish.

Of course you'll want to check your local fish and game laws. if you haven't already, before taking to the water with something like this.

Both these sites have pictures of polespears and Hawaiian slings also known as Bahama slings etc.
http://www.bluewaterhunter.com/
http://www.headhunterspearfishing.com/

An improved model Hawaiian sling.
http://www.hawaiiansling.net/

Technitrox,
slinger is right but let me summarize. Slip the crook of your hand into the rubber band , grip the rubber while sliding the pole spear through your hand. Grip the pole tightly (about 2/3 up the pole), line up a fish and thrust/release the pole towards the fish. Release the pole otherwise the fish will pull loose. Pick up the pole and jam the fish into the bottom. The JBL three pronger with barbs works best. They make a collapsible model. The pole can be flooded which adds greatly to the weight and to the impact.

Don't use a Hawaiian sling as you will lose the shaft in murkey lake water.

Normally, I don't recommend pneumatic guns. However, they have some advantages for hunting in lakes and rivers. They are short and easy to maneuver among other things. Check it out.

If you decide to go the polespear route, Tek. Hold your hand still when you release a polespear. Thrusting will cause accuracy problems by changing your point of impact. Kind of like someone thrusting their hand foreward when shooting a pistol, if they hit anything at all it will be by accident. Let the band do the work, that’s what it's for. You're not going to appreciably help it.

Hold on to the polespear after the release or you may loose it, especially on larger fish. The effective range of a polespear is only the length of the pole, anyway.

Something flooded with water, underwater, doesn't add anything to the weight or kinetic energy. For larger fish where more kinetic energy is needed for complete penetration of the fish go with a solid aluminum polespear. A solid aluminum 6' polespear is what I used to use in Florida for taking amberjack and jack cravelle. Fiberglass, graphite and hollow aluminum polespears are all good choices for general purpose polespear use. In a lake I don't imagine you'd need the weight of a solid aluminum one except for biiig catfish.

For polespear points I always liked a double barbed (two floppers) for general pupose use. For amberjack I liked a double barbed break-away. Tried a paralyzer point for a while and didn't care for it polespearing, but they do make a good frog gig.

Spearslinger, a water filled spear is a heck of lot heavier and has much more inertia than an air filled type. I don't know but you may be confusing the concepts of buoyancy and mass. Anyone who wants to go heavier (denser) should go to the Biller fiberglas model which works equally well. The pole is solid glass.

Thrusting or not is a matter of personal hunting technique. It depends on range and size of fish.

I repeat, the JBL barbed three pronger is superb for fish up to 10 pounds. I even landed a 30 pound amberjack with a JBL polespear. This is possible because a speared amberjack circles the diver keeping pressure on the pole and fish. The diver simply spins in circles with the fish until he can get control.

Spearslinger, a water filled spear is a heck of lot heavier and has much more inertia than an air filled type.

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Who ever heard of an air filled polespear? ROFL
Seawater weighs 64 lbs./cubic ft., in air. If immersed in seawater that same cubic ft. weighs the same as the surrounding water. It you weighed it on a scale underwater the only weight you would see would be the immersed weight of the container.

When I used to polespear I had some made from solid fiberglass and some from solid aluminum. For the same length and diameter the aluminum poleapears were much heavier underwater (denser). The downside to aluminum is fighting a large fish can put a more or less permanent bend in a solid polespear and will break a hollow one. This isn't a problem with fiberglass or graphite.

Thrust away if you wish, but you'll be more accurate if your hand is quiet when you release.

I've heard of people taking up to 50 lb. grouper with a paralyzer point. I also used to know a guy that killed a black bear with a .22 LR, but I wouldn't want to try it. If paralyzer points work for you, hey, rock on. I tried them and didn't like the results.

I've taken quite a few AJ that size on a polespear, in addition to many smaller fish of various species. Of the AJ, I don't remember any of them circling pushing against me. Usually they just try to haul butt if it wasn't a stone shot. A few did ram me after they were hit, but I doubt that was deliberate.

I've seen air filled pole spears. Hollow fiberglas tubes and also collapsible aluminum spears (Sea Horse) that had no flood holes. They will kill fish but are a bit too "light" for my taste.

You have no knowledge of physics and this could hamper your understanding of spear fishing weaponry. The buoyancy, interpreted by you incorrectly as weight, is irrelevant. It is the mass of the object which produces inertia and delivers the power to punch. A water filled pole spear has higher mass and has higher inertia than a hollow, air filled spear. This is true whether above the surface or below. A solid glass or metal spear has even higher mass but in my experience does not add enough punch to justify carrying the weight (negative buoyancy), at least not for the size of fish that poles are normally used for.
Pesky

SpearSlinger1:

Who ever heard of an air filled polespear? ROFL
Seawater weighs 64 lbs./cubic ft., in air. If immersed in seawater that same cubic ft. weighs the same as the surrounding water. It you weighed it on a scale underwater the only weight you would see would be the immersed weight of the container.

When I used to polespear I had some made from solid fiberglass and some from solid aluminum. For the same length and diameter the aluminum poleapears were much heavier underwater (denser). The downside to aluminum is fighting a large fish can put a more or less permanent bend in a solid polespear and will break a hollow one. This isn't a problem with fiberglass or graphite.

Thrust away if you wish, but you'll be more accurate if your hand is quiet when you release.

I've heard of people taking up to 50 lb. grouper with a paralyzer point. I also used to know a guy that killed a black bear with a .22 LR, but I wouldn't want to try it. If paralyzer points work for you, hey, rock on. I tried them and didn't like the results.

I've taken quite a few AJ that size on a polespear, in addition to many smaller fish of various species. Of the AJ, I don't remember any of them circling pushing against me. Usually they just try to haul butt if it wasn't a stone shot. A few did ram me after they were hit, but I doubt that was deliberate.

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