The following guide covers installing a reel on any band gun. The reel used in the video that accompanies this guide is a Rob Allen SS reel and the gun it is being installed on is an older model Rob Allen 110 Rail Gun. The methods in this guide and video will work on any wood, carbon, or metal banded gun.
]]>The techniques you will be reading about in this guide were not taken from any book, they are simply ideas perfected by means of trial and error throughout many years of spearfishing outings and countless hours of fishing and research.
For anyone who practices the sport of spearfishing, the presence of a grouper or “aguaji” evokes a strange feeling within us. Many believe this feeling is a result of the primitive predatory instinct that remains within us from our earliest evolutionary stages and is exhibited when we find ourselves facing a fish or any other prey. Controlling this feeling and using it to our advantage is of great importance while hunting.
Groupers can display several different behavioral characteristics when in the presence of a diver. In some cases they will be aggressive, in others apprehensive, and in many cases a mixture of both as they curiously and cautiously approach a diver. Recognizing these behaviors and responding appropriately will be the number one key to your success just as ignoring them will quickly lead to failure.
Every spearo develops particular fishing techniques over time that he or she believes to be the most effective. In my case, I have studied the behavioral characteristics and general traits of groupers and I have been able to combine and perfect many tricks and techniques of this sport that have resulted in excellent results while hunting groupers. The following list and a little practice will guarantee improved success while hunting grouper!
]]>The number one rule of thumb with all gear is to rinse after use. Even if you are diving in fresh water it is a good idea to make sure that any sand or other contaminants are rinsed out of and off of your gear after use. You should make sure that you flush out your trigger mechanisms and reels carefully as well.
Band guns
The most important item to check after each use is the trueness of your shaft. A minimal bend in a shaft can result in great inaccuracy! Band wishbones should also be checked after each use. Make sure that they are not damaged and replace as needed. With a dynema wishbone you can easily replace it in minutes by setting up a replaceable wishbone system. A failing wishbone is way too inexpensive to fix to jeopardize ruining a day of fishing or missing that trophy catch. Don’t know how to set one up, take a look at these videos: Wishbone Replacement and Replaceable Wishbone Knot
Latex bands should also be inspected often for signs of cracking or dry rotting. Band life can be greatly extended by always storing your gun in a cool and dry location when not in use.
Pneumatic guns
Pneumatic guns require a bit more maintenance. It is recommended that a complete overhaul be performed every year. An overhaul includes the changing of all o-rings and oil as well as a thorough inspection of the internal workings of the gun. Although you could go years without a problem, if you have something a simple as a failing o-ring while out on the water, you have just blown a day of fishing! By properly servicing your gun you have a better chance of avoiding such mishaps, and problems are discovered and corrected before they cause even more damage.
Reels
Beyond the simple rinsing of your real after each use, you will need to periodically dismantle your reel, clean out any corrosion, replace o-rings, bushings, and re-lubricate. You should also keep a lookout for frays in your reel line and replace line as necessary.
The pole is usually between four feet and eight feet long and made of fiberglass, carbon fibre, aluminum, or wood. Longer versions often break down into two or more pieces that screw together. The tip is either threaded to accept different kinds of spear tips or already has a fixed tip attached. The most popular spear tip on polespears are the paralyzer (often called a three-prong), and the Tahitian shaft (a single pivoting barb). At the butt end of the spear is an elastic loop, usually made of surgical tubing or a band of rubber.
The spear is operated by placing the rubber loop in the crook of the thumb, then reaching up the spear shaft to stretch the elastic band and grabbing the polespear to hold the band in tension. On flimsy spears, it’s useful to twist the spear as the band stretches to keep the spear from bending. Shooting the spear involves simply letting go of the spear shaft. The effective range of a polespear is about the length of the spear, necessitating a close approach to the target.
Polespears are versatile and inexpensive, and can be highly effective spearfishing tools in the right hands. While polespears are usually used for small reef fish, people have landed large lingcod, striped bass, ulua (giant trevally), halibut, amberjack, sheephead and other medium to large fish with a polespear. One thing for sure is the fact that polespears make the hunt quite challenging.
Shaft Materials
Commercial polespears are made of basically three types of material: fiberglass, aluminum, and carbon fiber.
Fiberglass
Fiberglass pole spears are the heavier of the three materials and almost indestructible. The additional weight has an added advantage of packing the largest punch, but on the negative side this added weight causes generally results in less velocity in the water than the other two materials.
Aluminum
Aluminum pole spears are lighter than the fiberglass pole spears. The lighter weight results in a little greater speed in the water, but this speed does not come without a negative. Aluminum is not very malleable and a bend in the shaft will result in a highly weakened point that will more than likely snap when you attempt to straighten the shaft back out.
Carbon Fiber
Carbon fiber polespears are the lightest of the current materials on the market. Theses shafts are smaller in diameter and extremely lightweight. The decreased resistance due to the smaller diameter matches up with the lighter weight to result in a lightning fast spear. Carbon fiber’s properties also allow the shaft to be strong, but have the ability to absorb flex without a permanent bend. One drawback with carbon fiber is that when you shoot a larger fish and do not “stone” the fish you lose control over the fish because of how flexible the material can be. It is very hard to pin a 6 - 7 lb. fish against the rocks when you didn’t shoot it in the head. This limitation aside, carbon makes a great material for polespears, but also comes with greater expense.
Band Material
There are some differences in polespear sling tubing: outer diameter, wall thickness, and quality of rubber. Most bands stretch to about 25 lbs, but the larger diameter stuff provides about 40 lbs.
There are two outside diameters available, the thicker “Heavy Duty” tubing is better when you can find it. The best way to determine the strength of the band material is to look at the inside diameter of the tubing; the smaller the inner diameter, the stronger the band.
You can’t do much about the quality of rubber. The quality of bands used for polespears is generally not as good as for spearguns. Since “soak off” isn’t as important for polespears, it probably doesn’t matter that much.
Tips
You have the choice of either a fixed tip (usually a paralyzer) or a threaded tip. Threaded tips are generally your best choice as this opens you up to the myriad of available tip options.
Polespears come in different sizes, usually 5 feet - 8 feet in length. With some minor modifications some of these spears can reach a length of 12+ feet.
Effective use of a pole spear balances on several things. First your ability to relax and stay still in the water, and second your ability to hold your breath and keep your calm until the fish comes within range. If you are looking to perfect your spearfishing skills, a pole spear is a good place to start.
read guide...
Reels are a must if the diver is not using a float line and float. The diver can replace the float line with a reel, but should not do so if hunting for large fish. It is recommended that either a float line or a reel is used at all times. Reels are very useful if the fish goes in a cave after being speared and the diver must return to the surface for air before returning to retrieve it. The diver can loosen the drag on the reel and pull the spear gun all the way to the surface; keeping the spear gun from getting lost and aiding in the return to the cave by following the reel line. When using a reel in areas where boat traffic is a concern, the diver must dive close to a vessel with a dive flag clearly displayed. This may be law in some places, check with the local authorities before diving.
Reels can be mounted on almost all spear guns. There is usually a specific reel for every production spear gun in the market today. Most are made of plastic, but some manufacturers are now making reels out of aluminum, stainless, and glass filled nylon with carbon fiber. Aluminum reels are most common. It is important to note that Aluminum reels must be washed with fresh water thoroughly after each use and serviced periodically because the stainless steel parts and the aluminum will react with each other creating corrosion even if the aluminum is anodized.
Reels range in size from 30 meters to 100 meters of line capacity. The capacity also depends on the thickness of the line in the reel. Typical line thickness ranges from 1.5mm to 2.2 mm. The thinner the line the more capacity the reel will have. There are many lines in the market today that are very resistant to abrasion and with test strength of up to 600 lbs. Examples are Dynema, Kevlar, and Spectra.
Reels can be mounted horizontally or vertically. Reels that are mounted horizontally will cause less drag when moving the spear gun side to side through the water column.
]]>
Common Shaft Sizing Charts (Euro, Pneumatic, & Thickness Conversion)
<ul>
<li>Web Version</li>
<li>Print Version (Adobe PDF)</li>
</ul>
Sizing Chart - 16mm Bands
<ul>
<li>Web Version</li>
<li>Print Version (Adobe PDF)</li>
</ul>
Sizing Chart - 20mm Bands
<ul>
<li>Web Version</li>
<li>Print Version (Adobe PDF)</li>
</ul>
What is an experienced skipper? The number of launches probably does not qualify as experience, I believe that experience comes from reacting to and overcoming problems. Most of our launching takes place through the heavy surf experienced along the Natal Coast. Waves in the vicinity of 2m are common and bigger waves are not unusual. This makes for hard-core launches on many occasions.
The first and most important rule is make sure your vessel is seaworthy. This is a legal requirement and must be renewed annually. It involves the assessment of the flotation capacity of the vessel, first aid equipment, tools/spares, safety equipment/capsize bottle contents, life-jackets, compass, radio(valid licence), anchor, sea-anchor, maps, fresh water, capsize rope and skippers certificate(add to that some form of identification for the crew and their relevant permits). The vessel must have its registration number clearly marked on it too.
Your boat trailer has to comply with certain requirements i.e. reflective tape and the name of the vessel, registration number, skipper’s name and a contact telephone number clearly marked.
That having been said, there are small issues which when given enough time will snow-ball into large and often dangerous circumstances.
Shortly after completing my skipper’s training I decided to take my boat out into a large dam to assess my ability. Always make sure you have enough fuel! I did not carry sufficient fuel and ran out of fuel within earshot of the quay. Fortunately it was in a dam and I could summon help. The lesson was well learned and I always carry at least 50% more fuel than I intend to use at sea.
On another occasion on some-one else’s RIB, the hydraulic steering tube broke. Oil spilled all over the boat. The skipper did not carry tools. Had he carried just the required tools, we could have saved the day and continued Spearfishing. Unfortunately we had to make use of emergency steering and head back while conditions were favourable.
Not all boat builders or outboard service operators are reliable individuals.
My first RIB came apart at the seams because it had not been built properly. Fortunately, the inherent buoyancy of the vessel saved the day. I replaced it with the one I currently own. Pontoons do not have an indefinite lifespan. Expect about 5 years of life before they need replacement. My boat is at that stage now and I am planning to have the pontoons refurbished by Feral Inflatables in Scottburgh.
I used several different service centres for my motors only to find that most were incompetent or apathetic, two qualities I don’t need when it comes to outboard motors going to sea. Initially two service centres missed a severely damaged starter motor on one engine. This led to inconsistent performance which gave us several frightening incidents in heavy surf and eventually resulted in a crew member fracturing a vertebra during a launch.
Then much to my chagrin, another servicing resulted in the wrong spark-plugs with the wrong gap being used in the motors. Again the motors ran poorly and the next beaching was frightening with large waves thundering in front and behind. I had no idea of how the boat was going to perform but we limped up to the beach safely.
Finally, I found a skipper who services motors in his spare time and works for the Shark’s Board officially. He is also a Spearo and appreciates the importance of sound motors. I have not looked back since. The motors now run extremely well but you are never incident free.
We were preparing the boat for launching. All the gear was on board and the trailer was tipped to dump the boat on the beach. A weight belt slid down the deck and pulled a fuel hose loose. No-one noticed until we hit the first set of waves when that motor failed. We took several waves over the bow but quickly managed to restart the engine and head out. On another occasion in very rough seas, we were preparing to beach. As I commenced the run to the beach, a motor failed. I turned the boat out but got caught in the first of a set of foamies(breaking waves). We struggled out, only to find a connecting rod had come loose. It was promptly connected and we were on our way once again.
Something I encountered quite often was the effect of the “start-in-gear-switch”. If a motor failed in the surf, it would only start if the motor was in neutral. I quickly disabled this feature. My motors start promptly in gear or out. Another feature I have disabled on my motors is the lock when the engines are down. This means that if the engines encounter something solid in the water, they will tilt up, hopefully minimizing any damage.
If you don’t want to loose it, tie it down. We have SS clips on all our gear bags which allows gear to be attached securely to the boat. I have lost thousands of rands of gear overboard when encountering rough weather or large waves. You never notice it happening at the time. Besides, I have not flipped my boat yet and when I do, I would prefer not to loose all my gear.
Seawater has no respect for electronic equipment. Electronics are housed in waterproof containers. I found that my radio needed attention after every trip as a result of water damage. Now it remains dry and I have no more repair bills.
I recently encountered an electrical fault on my boat. The fault resulted in a small fire when no-one was around. With 100l of fuel and lots of plastic and rubber, it could have been a disaster. Fortunately, I just have to replace the wiring harnesses to the motors. In the future, I will disconnect the positive terminal from the battery after beaching the boat. No electricity, no short circuits!
The downside of living in Johannesburg is that at best I get down to the coast once a month. That results in the boat standing for long periods of time. For some reason a boat that is used frequently is always more dependable than one that has stood idle for a length of time. To combat this idiosyncrasy I maintain it is safer to rely on two motors. The redundancy allows a dependable level of safety. Battery maintenance is crucial. Keep the batteries charged, clean and properly filled with distilled water.
Finally remember the little things. You are running fast and the boat is jumped clear of the waves unintentionally. On landing in the water, the motors have no power in spite of the high revs. Your props are cavitating, decrease the revs to allow normal function and propulsion to return. Fuses do blow, check them regularly to ensure trouble free motor operation.
Contributed by: Silverback
November, 2007
read guide...
Let’s get to it…
]]>