PoleSpears- Ray odor

    When Dan and Mrmike had this exchange in the Broward Beach thread, I was curious to hear more about it and other people's thoughts.. Ihave been very close to purchasing one of these spears with an extra section to make it 8 ft when needed and Ihave only every heard great things about them. Dan can you share your experience with them. thanks


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    mrmike
    yep thats him, nice meeting you steven. i think im gunna head back there this coming thursday if the weather holds up, should have my new ray odor pole spear by then (crosses fingers). if anybodys interested it would be cool to meet some other guys on here


    05-08-2010, 12:04 AM #1533


    Dan


    Now why did you buy that? It's too heavy and slow. It's for like huge grouper in locations where they let you get that close.


    Steven and the gruppa!


    mrmike


    i hear its a good pole spear, obviously not as good as the guns you guys use but also not nearly as expensive... if i win the lotto or figure out a way to make my bills vanish ill look into a nice gun. my friend uses a 42 special and its alright im more impressed by another guys yellow divers direct pos polespear... also just starting out, if i get alot more into it ill go bigger/better. right now im still working on getting some decent fins and a prescription mask cuz i cant see shit in the water (if i can get close enough to see it im close enough for a polespear hahahaha)


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    i like diving with a polespear occasionally, you can take a lot more fish in the small range than I ever would with reloading. it is great for those days when all you can find are schools of small snapper and goatfish. I also like the primal and really technique-focused nature of using the spear...anyone else like to dabble into polespears?

    i like to spear fish

    The Ray Odor polespear is a solid piece of aluminum. I mean it comes in three section but each section is solid. There's not much to making a pole spear out of solid aluminum, you drill a hole in one end and stick a piece of shaft in securing it with a pin. The fact that it comes apart in three sections, is knurled and anodized takes more work to make but doesn't affect it's functionality. Yes it is robust and not likely to break. I believe the Manny Puig pole spear is also solid aluminum.


    What does that mean? That the polespear is heavy and slow. Heaviness provides penetration power, but penetration power is no good if the fish moved before the spear hit it. Speed also gives penetration. For a polespear I prefer the kind of penetration that comes with moderate weight and lots of speed. I found the JBL hollow aluminum polespear to be very fast, in combination with a slip tip I believe it can take big fish. Fiberglass is also faster than solid aluminum, but not as fast as hollow aluminum. It's questionable how much stress the hollow aluminum can handle before it bends but a slip tip should help to prevent that from happening. I think an ideal polespear would be made of two materials, maybe half from aluminum and the other half from carbon or something along those lines. I'm not an expert on polespears, I haven't used one in a long time, but solid aluminum is definitely too heavy and slow for anything but the most close up shots on slow/big fish. You don't need to be in the water to figure this out, just put a milk jug or something on your lawn and have a go at it.

    i have played with the gatku spears which are just as you describe but i didn't like how limited the draw length was by the flexible half.....with my fiberglass spear i can wrap the sling and twist it around the spear to keep it straight, I draw it up to the 5/6 mark of the sear, this cannot be done with the gatku.



    I was thinking about getting the regular odor with the 30 inch extension which is basically a shaft on the end, that would get bent in big fish, but it would also give a pretty good bit of length without the added mass



    without actually trying it, i cannot imagine the spear is that hard to move, i mean i move a much thicker speargun through the water. for the shooting speed I might be surprised, but I think it will move fast enough? do you have one Dan, could i borrow it?

    i like to spear fish

    I don't have one. I had a hollow aluminum JBL and sold it. I sold it because if I'm going to be spearing where I can't use a gun I prefer to use a sling.


    The part of the spear that's shaft instead of solid aluminum may be just as heavy.

    good thinking about that 30" part. i think I still might try one...which brand of hollow aluminum did you use, JBL?



    here are some pics of my gatku...the band stretch on this 5ft model is like 30"


    (i went w clickable small pics this time to save bandwidth)






    i like to spear fish

    OK i got my ray odor today unfortunately he sent me a 3 piece and i ordered the solid one piece- so im exchanging it for the right one. gotta say it is a big badass spear mine measures 8.5 feet total length (6 feet of aluminum and 30 inches of tip). its not that heavy i didnt weigh it but I went to a metal sales website and they list the weights of everything (input 6' of 5/8" aluminum and 30" of stainless) and it spits out an approximate weight of 2-2.5 pounds. also its only 5/8" thick so it should be very maneuverable in the water. I know ive seen hybrid spears that are half aluminum/ half carbon fiber but: a) there like 200+ bucks and b) from what i heard they arent very durable but very fast. the ray odor comes with a big thick band so i dont imagine it will be as slow as dan thinks it will be. when my 1 piece gets here ill do a review of it.

    85 total with tax since hes in florida. also i ordered it friday and it was here monday before noon. awesome service, oh and when I called him today and informed him of the mistake he responded with "aw shucks" haha seems like a real nice guy and an excellent businessman

    Ray is a nice guy by all accounts, and from what I've seen on the phone and email. However don't buy shafts, there's a good possibility they will not be straight, don't buy powerheads they will not deploy, don't buy a wishbone inserter it's crap. The shark spike will add a lot of weight to the gun and may be bent too, but because it's short and Ray is the only one making them it may be worth buying. All those things I know because I made the mistake of purchasing them.


    I agree a pole spear should be super cheap. But like anything it stops being a means to an end and becomes and end onto itself. I'd make one.


    BTW mrmike why didn't you want the 3 piece? Do you think the one piece will be more durable? Did the 3 pieces not align perfectly?

    I had the 3-piece one.


    Really durable... but really heavy.
    Packs a wallop, good value compared to others on the market.


    Sold mine a month ago. Nothing majorly wrong with it, just overkill for my normal polespear applications.



    Most of my polespearing is done with hybrid polespears (ohara, kawabunga, gatku, & homemade ones) like Lunker posted. Great for quick fish & can generate a lot of thrust/power. If going for heavier game like grouper... I'd probably use the beefier polespears like Crist, Odor, or Puig.




    BTW, I agree on the Odor shafts... :(

    good stuff guys, thanks for the info...
    ....Fuzz, you mentioned the crist spears. I have held Aaron's spears and spoken with him at length about them (very very nice guy) and just from holding them I felt they were exceptionally well made. what are your thoughts about them?
    I need a breakdown spear personally, but I feel like Aaron's are light enough to not fall into the Puig/ odor category, but still kick ass.

    i like to spear fish

    as another note, I spoke with Dustin (or Gatku) who is also a very nice guy, about his spears and about having a longer rear section to add more draw length. He was awesome in his reply because he was honest, what he said was that I could use the rear half of a 9 or 10 foot spear and simply add my short front. I explained that I need a smaller breakdown for the yak and he said it just wouldnt work. the 1/2 inch aluminium is not going to be able to take the increased stress at the joints it would have to be one piece. I was very greatful for his advice and honesty, but I fear the spear I want doesn't really exist

    i like to spear fish

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    good stuff guys, thanks for the info...
    ....Fuzz, you mentioned the crist spears. I have held Aaron's spears and spoken with him at length about them (very very nice guy) and just from holding them I felt they were exceptionally well made. what are your thoughts about them?
    I need a breakdown spear personally, but I feel like Aaron's are light enough to not fall into the Puig/ odor category, but still kick ass.


    Crist spears are definitely in the heavier category, but perhaps the lighter of those options. Price aside, I'd probably go with the Crist over the Odor & Puig.

    my 3 piece didnt align perfectly but not hugely off, I want a 1 piece because ive heard about breakdown models loosening and any screw-in joint is less stable than solid (some slight wobble was noticeable- but could be mostly overcome by using longer threads). I thought about just keeping the 3 piece and welding it solid and smoothing it out to make it completely straight but realized that although its possible and would only take me like 20 minutes, he was in the wrong and should have sent me what I ordered. lunkerbuster im sure you could easily make something like your talking about just to give it a try. it wouldnt cost much and you could tailor it to your exact specs.

    alright its been a while since I posted up here about the ray odor one piece. I got it a couple days ago and its exactly what I was looking for, only things ive done to it are tap the threads in the end deeper to hold my 30" tip better and I painted it a ocean camo type setup because it was 6 feet of shiny aluminum. havent had a chance to get into the water with it yet im hping in the next week or so.

    I like the gold hollow JBL pole spears for the money. I am with Dan on speed. A fast spear will out shoot a heavy spear everytime. The heavy spear may be more durable, but who cares if you are not puting fish in the box.

    i think with my 8 and a half foot ray odor and proper/good stalking I shouldnt have a problem getting fish, if I was targeting alot of wahoo or mackerel I think it would be a little different but for reef fish I dont think the heavier (but far cheaper) will be that big a problem. also if I find its too slow I may change out the band, its a 14mm band but its got a large inside diameter, by going to a thicker band (or one with a smaller I.D.) I could gain some speed. Just my 2 cents

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