Most of my spearing was in fresh water (walleyes being the fish of choice) and for that the Scubapro Panther was always my favorite. Simple, strong relaible, fast loading open muzzle design and astrong enough stock and trigger mechanism that you could up gun it from two 1/2" bands to three 9/16" bands for better penetration on large fish at longer range. Back in the day (late 1970's to mid-1980's 6 to 8 lb walleyes were preferred as it was the optimum eating range - above 8 pounds they were not as god and below 6 lbs we consideref them too small to shoot. However with the huige increase in guiided fishing and tourism, the size of the walleyes in the Missouri river basin has greatly declined and now a 6 lb fish is very rare.
I am no longer a fan of shooting carp. 20 year ago 40 pound buffalo carp were common and were admittedly fun to shoot, but more importantly just fun to see. Unfortunately targeted hunts to remove them as "trash" fish have decimated their numbers and it is extremely rare to see them that size anymore. There are still plenty of smaller carp, but they don't live long enough to get that big and that is sad. I have also never understood the trash fish status of Chinese and Buffalo Carp. They do not directly compete with gamefish as they are bottom feeders and they are well adpated to the environment - and in other countries they are viewed and managed as game fish. The non-native thing does not cut as an argument either as the trout is not native to most of the palces it is currently found in the US either.
I have never been a pneumatic fan as they are severely power limited by te divers ability to cock them compared to the 2 or 3 times greater power of a band gun, and pneumatics lose power as you go deeper. They are also much more vulnerable to damage from sand and sediment and in general are not as accurate to shoot so they are a very short range proposition.
I am no longer a fan of shooting carp. 20 year ago 40 pound buffalo carp were common and were admittedly fun to shoot, but more importantly just fun to see. Unfortunately targeted hunts to remove them as "trash" fish have decimated their numbers and it is extremely rare to see them that size anymore. There are still plenty of smaller carp, but they don't live long enough to get that big and that is sad. I have also never understood the trash fish status of Chinese and Buffalo Carp. They do not directly compete with gamefish as they are bottom feeders and they are well adpated to the environment - and in other countries they are viewed and managed as game fish. The non-native thing does not cut as an argument either as the trout is not native to most of the palces it is currently found in the US either.
I have never been a pneumatic fan as they are severely power limited by te divers ability to cock them compared to the 2 or 3 times greater power of a band gun, and pneumatics lose power as you go deeper. They are also much more vulnerable to damage from sand and sediment and in general are not as accurate to shoot so they are a very short range proposition.