Spear building advice?

[S. Haynie]

Oh I think the best tip for a pole spear gonig for the size of fish i'm after is a detachable. To help take pressure off the shaft.

I'm seeing HUGE fish come out of my favorite haunt. Asian Big Head Carp get to be 100lbs.

The best looking one price wise with out a bunch of extra parts and moving "stuff" is the Ray Odor detachable tip. There are other NICE ones out there but I think they are overkill for me (baring a 100lb big head). Most fish are carp sized.

 

[cmburch]

I use stainless steel socket head set screws to join the sections of poles together. I think it would be nice if able to standardize the screws so they are the same size as common speartips. 5/16"-24 or 6mm threading.

I use the JBL polespear breakaway speartip.
JBL #890 14" Polespear Slip Tip
It has a cable that I will probably change out for Dyneema/Spectra.

If you look into the SpearBoard polespear builds.
DIY Polespear grip - Spearboard Spearfishing Community
Wrapping a line then maybe epoxying over it, looks like a good way to make a grip.

Reminds me of building a custom fishing rod.
Cabela's -- Rod Building Kits

Also when drilling the hole for the sling perhaps drill the hole a few inches from the end so the end can be used as a hammer for getting bait such as muscles or sea urchins loose from rocks.

 

[S. Haynie]

I just found out about the slip tips by JBL. I wonder if that isn't part of my problem. At least the extended bodkin extension will give more mass and energy with less frictin for puncture.

Then the detatches and hopefully reduces bending of the main pole as the fish goes nuts. Problem is I've already bent mine and straightened it a few times. The first time I used a small tree crotch on the bank. Yesterday I could do it over my knee. I think it may be getting softer.

I've come across a few threads about aluminum tube shafts getting bent easily.

the one i'm building I had planned to use a 1/8" wall 6061 tube back 2/3 and a fiberglass front third. Then slip something inside for a bit more ridgidity. A guy in Hawaii (forget the name) suggests using a wooden dowel. All my local dowels are supper flimsy so I'll head into the city next week and see if there are some stiffer ones at the wood working shop.

I think maybee a fiberglass tube would be idea Or a carbon fiber. then I could slide a long piece of threaded rod with spacers into that and epoxy it inside. I make make a carbon one after this one is finished. Determine which I like best and sell the other. At this point i'm sure I'm over thinking things.

I found a source for light blue shrink wrap tubing. I'm thinking that might be a good camoflauge. I'm spooking fish now because my pole is brigh shiny gold aluminum. The new one will have a bright white fibeglass front thrid. The light blue will be non shiny and kinda sky colored. I know serrious saltwater flyfishermen prefer flat finised rods because they think that the shiny rods can spook fish.

I really want to keep as much weight as possible at the front end while keeping the main shaft rigid enough to resist too much bending when flexed.

I've purchased raw Stainless Rod to mill the front plug and the harder stainless 5/16 rod. I'm trying to decide how to connect the two togeather. IF I use set screws it can be replaced or exchanged with shorter ones. If not then I'm stuck with what ever length I put in there. I thought about sliding a stainless shoulder bolt through it then I could just buy the JBL $28.00 slip tip. I kinda like some of the others better though. They seem more streamlined and my prey is dense and armored.

I dunno. I kinda have analysis parallysis. I make make a visit tot he local physics professor and pick his brains.

 

[Spearo75]

This sounds like a great project! I have the same gold JBL pole spears you mentioned, but I never use them (not enough power or range for my taste). I have been creating different prototypes for a new approch to this sport for a few years, and as you know creating something from scratch can be full of failures and successes. The only thing I might be able to add that you probally allready know is that the bands make the power and once you have a solid design try adding diffrent size rubbers for more power. Also in my recent experience with hunting carp I have found that the thinner the shaft and tip the easier you get under their scales and through the body. I have seen pole spear hunters attach there float line to their bands and string the fish automatically to the float line as they hunt. Also A DIY float line is the way to go in my opinion (too expensive to buy and too soft/easily punctured). Hope to see some pics of your final product and good luck with your builds.
Neil

 

[S. Haynie]

Not enought power? Really? I've blasted the crap out of some fish but the problem was that I often didnt' get through or the flopper disengaged during the fight and they got off.

Well I got the first one finished. I wan't to make a few changes. I tried to sleeve a smaller solid fiberglass rod inside a 1/2" tube for the back portion with spacer/shims for align ment then used epoxy. The thinking was that it would add stiffness like a truss. Originaly I wanted to use a thiner rod of carbon fiber. I had the fiberglass and thought I'd test teh concept. Didn't work enough to consider doing with carbon for real on the next one. I figured I'd need to see dramatic structural improvement from the concept before plunking down the money for carbon fiber. Also I used a piece of fiberglass left over from another project. So I made it work and ultimately changed my design ending up with something I didn't want.

It's a bit of a noodle and a tad heavy at 1lb-11oz. The good news is that it works. The rubber I got was a bit too heafty so I had to make a larger loop than I am used too to even stretch past the mid point.

that got me thinking however that I could use a stiff spear gun rubber and only use like 1' or so of a straight section. a loop out of one end will connect to a hand band and a straigh rop out of the other will make a knot through the attachment point that is adjustable in length. just slide the knot up or down. I'll get more stretch and similar power I think.

I want to cut this handle off and shorten my fiberglass front section. On the back I'll either use aluminum tube or I really want to use carbon fiber sleeving over fiberglass. Those materials are not expensive but it's the danged shipping doubles my cost of everything. The fiberglass tube it will tripple. Well the smallest quantity of eposy for working in carbon fiber is $60 but it's enough to make like 300 spears.

However I'm not certain one layer of carbon fiber is enough to give the ridgidity that I want. Doing two layers will definatley do it BUT that does start to get pricy. Just buying a stick of 48" by 1/2" CF is like $60 (the woven stuff).

I put the JBL gulf slip tip on it. Probably over kill but I had already designed an extension into the project. 14" ontop of my 9" would have been silly. I think however for future ones I'll aim for the JBL pole spear slip tip OR the plain detachable tip #375.

This has been fun. I'm hoping to come up with a sweet super fast ultra durable design and sell a few here and there to fund my new spearfishing addiction.

When I was a kid I got really into the medieval and renisance fair thing. I really wanted to have a suit of armor. Turns out they were wicked expensive (for real ones). So I found this group that plays around in them and I started making smaller parts that I sold to them so I could buy a full suit. Buy the time it was all said and done I had designed and built a better suit than I could afford to buy. I just kep learning more and more about metal working. It became a fulltime job and business that I sold.

I miss being able to make something from raw materials and add value to it. Not that I'm planning to make money hand over fist but I like making things, hope it will lead me to new friends and connections in spearfishing and take a dent out of the cost of my spearfishing hobby.

 

[S. Haynie]

Oh I blased a big bufalo carp yesterday. It's on the smoker today. Check out "Smoked Carp" under the recipies section of "spearboard.com"