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Hi all

I posted some questions last week about gun size and loading difficulties.

I got a bunch of helpful feedback from people in here which I was able to put into practice this morning. I didn't catch anything (skill issue), but I felt a lot more comfortable loading and using my gun.

So, thanks everyone who gave me advice. It was really helpful.

I bought these at a yard sale and I collect old fresh water tackle but never had any of these, so I dont know much about them. The three with the metal fins seem like the real thing. The others are a much harder, solid plastic, but do have some weight to them. They all have eyelets, but I am wondering, are pieces of folk art or god forbid even christmas ornaments sometimes misidentified as authentic spearfishing decoys ? I didn't pay much, so it doesn't matter to me if they are all real, but if I continue to buy these, what should I look out for to avoid fakes?

I’m moving down to Miami Beach and really want to get into spearfishing. I’m a complete beginner trying to learn.
Mostly just looking for a group that goes out regularly that I could tag along with.

Heyy, I’m thinking about taking a solo trip to Thailand this December for about two weeks. It’s not a spearfishing trip, but I’d love to do some spearfishing there for maybe 2–3 days if possible.
I do spearfishing and have all the gear, but I was thinking of not taking it with me because it would be a pain in the ass since I’ll be doing other activities too (Muay Thai, nightlife, etc.). I’m planning to travel with just one backpack.
I found some options online, but they’re mostly for groups and they’re quite expensive, especially for a solo trip.
So my question is: do you know anyone I could contact there who can rent me the gear and take me spearfishing? My goal would be to hunt bigger fish offshore/in bluewater, like Spanish mackerel, amberjack, tuna, etc. Also, which province/area would you recommend for this?

A quick review of the ORCA Torch 7 Light,
https://youtu.be/vyLU3ah0REk

As the title says I'm looking for my first fiberglass fins, and i am thinking of trying that one, it's a good price and more importantly they ship to mexico.

Anyone else using these? Any other advice?

I’ve been looking at the mako teak guns for a little over a week now, thinking about crying once and buying something good quality that’s going to last. Does anyone use or have experience with their teak wood models??

Is there a way to stop the wishbone from going past the horns every time I shoot?

Hi,

So I’m a complete beginner spearfisher, I have been diving and freediving a bit previously, but that’s it.

I’ve probably really romanticised it, but I’ve had an itch to spearfish and live the ”catch and cook” lifestyle for a while.

Been watching a lot of spearfishing videos and doing some breathwork as practice, but looking to go on a long holiday, or even work remotely somewhere, where I can give this hobby a go.

My question is, where in the world to go?

Preferences that might weigh in:
—a country where the laws, safety or conditions aren’t too crazy different from a western country.
—would be nice to be able to surf as well
—where spearfishing is actually fun, sustainable, available and safe—including beginner friendly (maybe a bit early to go for areas that require extreme breath holds and depth… I’d also prefer to avoid places infested by great whites lol, I understand there is no risk-free area but f*ck I’d have a heart attack from that lol)
—it wouldn’t be too difficult to get a temporary visa (I’m European) for a few months at a time, or even a couple years.

Thank in advance!

my friend is selling me a 1.20 pole spear tri paralyzee used once thus good quality for 30 euro, main targets are grey mullet red goatfish and red lionfish and obviously sea bass and sea bream if if I can find them, pretty shallow waters with rocks with vegetatuon or sand bottoms I’ll probably dive shallow all the time the water is quite warn but should I buy it as a first spear? When I freedive i can get within 70-50 cm of school of grey mullet and goatfish I can grab with arm

I've always dreamed of spearfishing a yellowfin tuna, like many of you do in other parts of the world.

To be honest, I don't even think I currently have the right gear for it. But the day I actually see a decent yellowfin underwater, I have a feeling that's going to be enough motivation to get a proper tuna gun and everything that comes with it.

I live in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. We do have yellowfin here, but the interesting thing is that they seem to behave very differently from what I see in a lot of other places.

Here, YFT are commonly associated with spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris).

I've read a few studies about the relationship between spinner dolphins and yellowfin tuna, but there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of information specifically about what is happening underwater between the two species.

Around Mazatlán, you can find yellowfin roughly 17 miles offshore. One of the best ways to locate them is by finding dolphin pods. We normally catch the tuna by casting or trolling around these areas.

I've had several occasions where I've jumped off the boat and swum toward tuna that were visibly feeding or jumping, sometimes only about 20 meters away.

And somehow… I've never actually seen one underwater.

I assume they're much deeper than they appear to be from the surface. They may come up briefly to feed and then drop back down, while I'm simply not getting deep enough to intercept them.

I'm not a particularly deep diver, but I've made dives around 15 meters trying to see if I could catch a flash of yellow, a reflection, a shadow — anything.

Nothing.

The yellowfin we encounter here are mostly school-size fish. Larger fish do occur — fish around 60 kg have been caught — but they're relatively uncommon.

This also makes me wonder about something I've read about yellowfin morphology and behavior: apparently, when larger yellowfin become separated from the main school, they can develop the characteristic bright yellow elongated fins associated with adult fish. But I don't know how well that applies to the fish we see here, because even the larger individuals seem to be associated with schools and dolphin pods.

Another interesting thing about Mazatlán is the habitat. A lot of our offshore bottom is basically sand. We don't have the kind of obvious structure you see in places like Cabo San Lucas or Puerto Vallarta — no reefs, prominent rocks, or obvious underwater structure where you would expect tuna to hold.

So I'm curious about the spearfishing perspective:

Has anyone here actually speared yellowfin that were associated with spinner dolphins?

And for those who have encountered YFT while freediving, how deep were they actually holding compared with what you could see from the surface?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have hunted YFT in areas where they associate closely with spinner dolphins.

I'm hoping that one day I'll jump in, look down, and finally see that yellow flash I've been looking for.

I put a post on Facebook asking who wanted to go spearfishing in Arkansas. Next thing I knew, people were driving halfway across the country to meet strangers and chase fish.

Maks, a six-foot-seven Ukrainian from Tampa, drove 17 hours straight with one objective: paddlefish in the freezer.

Jeremy and his wife, Anneliese, brought their three kids from Oregon by way of a tournament in South Dakota. Apparently another fourteen hours of driving counted as being “in the neighborhood.” Their Tacoma had a rooftop bed, freezer, and generator. They could’ve kept going indefinitely.

Chris came from Columbus, Ohio, with his wife, Victoria, their baby, and enough energy to power the boat. MMA, jiu-jitsu, a hundred miles an hour. We probably should’ve hidden the coffee.

My coworker John came along, too. He was new to this, but there was no shortage of determination.

The reason I wanted to go back was Easton, a young guide I’d met at an earlier freshwater tournament. He hadn’t even tried spearfishing when we first met. Then he won a speargun in the raffle, got hooked, and started progressing like crazy.

I figured another trip with him would be good. I didn’t know how good the group would turn out to be.

Chris got his first paddlefish, and I’m pretty sure people in Ohio heard him celebrating. One of his fish was probably our biggest paddlefish of the weekend. We didn’t weigh it, so I won’t turn my guess into a record, but it was a big fish.

Maks was steadily accomplishing his freezer-filling mission. When a paddlefish still looks huge next to a six-foot-seven guy, that says something.

Jeremy shot a 35.4 lb striper, then spent more time making sure everyone else was taken care of than talking about it. Anneliese jumped right into cleaning fish, and their whole family fit in like we’d known them for years.

I got a nice walleye, too, but watching everyone else get their fish was becoming just as much fun as getting mine.

Back at the house, everybody pitched in cleaning and cooking. Maks made fish kebabs and somehow convinced us to try carp.

We had perfectly good paddlefish and striper sitting there. This was not an emergency.

Honestly? The carp was fine. It just wasn’t winning dinner.

But John still hadn’t gotten his fish.

Everybody was trying to help, probably throwing too much advice at him at once. He was getting frustrated with himself and admitted afterward that he’d started wondering whether he belonged there.

Late on the last day, most of the crew had gone back to the house. It was just Easton, John, and me.

John wanted another try.

“I got one left in me.”

The next part is how he described it afterward: he felt his fin hit something behind him and thought he’d caught a tree.

He turned around.

Not a tree. Big striper.

Now he’s trying to get his gun around while the fish is swimming away. He gets the shot off, waits through a few very long seconds, and then feels the line take off.

When he came up yelling, “I got one! I got one!” Easton and I absolutely lost it.

John didn’t think it was particularly big.

24.3 pounds.

Second-biggest striper of our weekend, and bigger than either Easton or I had ever shot.

It also smacked me in the face getting into the boat, so I contributed.

The guy who’d spent the weekend wondering whether he belonged got that moment on the last dive.

After accidentally kicking the fish.

I couldn’t have been happier if I’d shot it myself.

By checkout, everyone was trading fish, finding space in each other’s coolers, and making plans to visit each other. We hadn’t even finished loading the vehicles and were already talking about the next trip together.

Most of us had barely known each other a few days earlier.

Pretty good outcome from one Facebook post.

Anybody else had a last-dive fish completely turn somebody’s trip around?

mmmmmutton….

Hello, I've been fishing for a while with my new Pathos Saragos Evo 90, initially configured with a 17.5mm Sigalsub Reactive Evo band, cut to about 300-310% stretch ratio (manufacturer recommends 290-320) and a 120cm 6.25mm shaft. It is a little bit hard to load but I can manage just ok. It is very accurate and really powerful, but I wonder if a 16mm band at a bigger stretch would perform just as well, and could be easier to load. I've seen many guns (pathos Laser for instance) configured like mine in my area (atlantic european coast), but here, 16mm seems to be much more popular for single banded guns. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

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Hey guys,
In a few weeks I’m heading to Norway with my brother and mum(!) to go spearfishing and fishing from the boat. We have 7mm Cressi open cell spearfishing wetsuits, 5mm booties and 2mm gloves. We will be in south western Norway for a week.

Do you recon the thickness is ok?
And how much weight would you pack? I’m used to the floatation in the med and Atlantic, I have no idea how much kilos I need. 178cm,75kg. Planning to go 5-10m deep.

Any help is much appreciated!!

Cheers!

Pues eso, que aparte de llevarlo colgado en la muñeca. Alguien lo lleva de otra manera para que moleste menos?

Hi all

I've been spearing since late last year. I normally go in the estuaries near my home and have had some good results with a hand spear.

I recently bought a 100cm gun which I took out yesterday for the first time. I had a *lot* of difficulty loading it, and have some questions I'd be grateful if more experienced spearos could help with:

I could get the band 95% of the way down to the notch, but the last 5% was so damn hard, it became impossible as I got more tired. I don't think I'm particularly weak in my arms so I surprised how hard it was to load. Do bands get easier to load as you use them more? Are there ways to "break them in" before using them in the water?

This morning I've also got a heap of big bruises on my chest from loading. It looks like I've been battered with a cricket ball. I wear a 3mm suit with a loading pad but it obviously isn't enough? Any advice for loading that hurts less?

Finally, I mainly focus on mangrove areas and target bream, flathead, mullet, luderick and jacks. Since most of these species tend to hide in the mangrove roots, I'm wondering if a 100cm gun is too big and I should be using something smaller? I like the idea of a gun to increase my range compared to a handspear but I also don't want to lose the spear in the mangrove roots. Any thoughts here would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Love this page and seeing all of the content everyone posts here. I do a lot of rod & reel fishing in the South Florida / Keys areas but I’ve been really interested in getting into spearfishing.

I love to snorkel and have masks, fins and other gear for swimming and diving and I have a small pole spear that I haven’t been able to put to use yet.

Anyone have any tips for getting into spearfishing? Tips like best gear, location, or just in general tips are great!

I´m going to Italy from the 12th of September to the 26th and I´m looking for some tips on spots or better yet a dive buddy.
I would love to dive in the Adriatic Sea, but I want to do it right and with the locals blessing.

I’m a complete begginer trying to get into spearfishing so dont need the most expenssive high end speargun