dumpsterDiver
Banned
- Messages
- 9,003
- Reaction score
- 4,652
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Mako 120 with a reel and shooting everything from flounder to cobia and grouper
Spearfisherman use many different configurations. It sounds like you are starting out. You should be good at diving before you try to shoot fish, especially cobia... they can swim around you, wrap 400 line around your neck and kill you before you even know there is a problem.
I'm only exaggerating a little. I use the same gun for scuba spearfishing, but I would recommend that you remove the reel. There is much less to go wrong if you have a single wrap of 400 lb mono line between the fish and the gun. A reel spooling out can make a terrible mess and present a significant entanglement hazard.
Reels are useful for freediving in many situations. I know some extremely expereinced scuba hunters (mostly commercial fisherman) and a FEW use reels on scuba guns. This allows them to shoot kingfish and let them run, without tearing off. For a new spearfisherman, I strongly encourage you to remove the reel and go for simplicity.
As for how to clip the gun to yourself... I never do that until the hunting is done, and I (almost) always remeber to unload the bands. I use the clip on the gun handle to attach to a chest D-ring. If you have the gun clipped off there and it accidentally fires,, say the stringer finds its way into the trigger guard, the recoil of the gun will slam the butt into your face and may remove teeth or worse.. Don't clip a loaded gun to your self.
As for the stringer, in many places I will not use a stringer because there are too many sharks.. I use a bag or send them to the surface on an smb. If you want to clip a stringer off, put a clip on your waist strap and the side of your hip.
I also use an Air 2, have no octopus and always take a back mounted pony bottle (over 60 feet).
The best way to learn to scuba spearfish is to NOt do it. Find someone who has been doing it for 10 or 20 years, beg them to allow you to buddy up and carry the stringer (and no gun) and you will learn so much faster than making all the mistakes yourself.