reading in another thread that some members here have never expierienced a broken shaft, with the following note that they dont shoot "big fishes" wich could break their shaft, i thought i start this thread.
personally i am always surprised about the amount of pressure even relatively small fishes can put on your gear. even more i am surprised by people who diving at least now and then, saying such things as "i dont shoot big fish". i went out for shoredives on my own with the intention of just shooting couple mangroves and parrots, and came back shore with big cuberas,barras,grouper or cobia. found 25 meters off the beach in 20feet shallow waters. it rarely ever happen, but it does and will happen again. and when it happens you better be prepared, and make sure your equipment is even better prepared.
years ago i used a standard european speargun, a beuchat mundial, with the 6.5mm shaft who have these notches cut into the shaft for the metalwishbones. i had these shafts break right at the notch by shooting 15pound barras or jacks. and even saw them break there from fish running into caves and trying to go around some corners, bending the shaft and finally breaking it. waste of time.
using riffe shafts with sharfintabs for a good while, this problem never happened again. but i seen 7,8 and 9.5mm riffe shafts bent in all shapes, circles, snakes, spiral etc.
and still loosing fish because the flopper and specially the flopperpin will break. i have to change my flopper and pin every week on my two shafts. one of my spearo friends, only using 9.5mm bluewatershafts, with two floppers, one up one down and 3 inches distance with extra big holes to fit the extra fat pins cut out of wishbonematerial. now the pin will hold up but sometimes the whole flopper break off the holding pin.
would be interesting to hear of other peoples expierience and storys about how fishes can damage your equipment, and how people trying to solve these problems.
as well how people that only shooting "small fish" finally ended up with the surprising monsterfish.
Spearshafts and the "Power Of Fish"
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I have never lost a single fish due to a broken shaft or flopper. I've shot barracudas and cobias in the 45lb range, groupers in the high 20s and jacks up to 65lbs but I've never broken a shaft or a flopper. Not sure why that is but it could be shot placement, environment I fish in or just luck I guess. The shafts I used the most were double flopper pinned shafts from Demka/Spetton in the 7mm thickness. I've had my shaft bent a couple of times but not seriously enough to the point I couldn't fixed it back up. When I said that I don't shoot "big fish" I was referring to the huge muttons, dog and cubera snappers they shoot in Puerto Rico along with some good size kings too. They are just not as common in the areas I fish.
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The biggest cubera I've ever shot was during a competition in Venezuela. Water was murky in the surface, but clear enought in the bottom. I made an aspetto in like 60 feet of water and this monster came to me directly. I was using a Omer 96 cm single band speargun with a 6.5 mm notched spearshaft. I was reluctant to shot, but it came so close that I took a frontal shot. The shaft entered by the "shoulder" and passed all the way through to the tail area, but didn't touch the spine or any vital organs. I surfaced keeping some tension to the line (was using reel) and didn't let the fish hole up. It felt like I had a seal in my shaft. I kept pulling it from the surface and when finally I had the mono in my hands and could see how big it was, suddenly I heard a "click" and the fish swam away and all I had was the rear part of the shaft broken ant the notch...
That cubera was at least 80 pounds heavy, but could be even more.
I dove like 30 more times in the area but couldn't find him. Sad...
Then, I learned to drill a hole in front of the notches and never again i lost a fish for that reason.
Now I use either Rob Allen shafts (I don't care about rust) or Riffe. -
Good story Marco.
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great thread Tinu, i personally dont shoot big fish
and often because my gear is not up to itI use south african shafts (rob allen style) and they are tough as nails, I am sure that a fish can destroy one, but they have to work hard to do it...I usually dive in 50 ft or less and use a 65 ft floatline...with this rig I wont shoot a big fish that might run on me simply because I dont have enough range to play and land them...I have started adding a 10 ft bungee right behind my gun add some extra length and playing ability but since I switched, no monsters have passed in front of me daring me to test the gear
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I have never lost a single fish due to a broken shaft or flopper. I've shot barracudas and cobias in the 45lb range, groupers in the high 20s and jacks up to 65lbs but I've never broken a shaft or a flopper. Not sure why that is but it could be shot placement, environment I fish in or just luck I guess. The shafts I used the most were double flopper pinned shafts from Demka/Spetton in the 7mm thickness.
adrian, placement of shot,the environment and just luck/or no luck , are three good reasons to get,
or loose fish. as well the quality and mantainance of your gear.
maybe these spetton/demka spears are well made.just some weeks ago, i bought a new riffe spear 8mm for my competitor 3x. told the person who brought it over for me, to check in the shop that the flopper and the flopperpin are well mounted. when i got it, i checked and it looked well made.
i shot "2" snappers with the spear on the first day of use, and then a 20pound barra. i hit him in the center body, the spear stucked inside the fish half way out on each side. probably hit the spine a bit because the fish didnt run too hard and kinda circling around. before i started to put pressure on the line i realized that the flopper was completely gone. i was lucky still getting the fish because the spear stucked kinda hard in the body, and i went down quick to grab the tip of the spear.
i have very bad expierience with the riffe flopperpins. they bent and break very easy.i started using jbl pins, the ones with the hollow part to hammer down easy. they work better for me. but still, not good.
of course i have to admit that i tend to put a lot of pressure on the floppers/shafts. -
The biggest cubera I've ever shot was during a competition in Venezuela. suddenly I heard a "click" and the fish swam away and all I had was the rear part of the shaft broken ant the notch...
That cubera was at least 80 pounds heavy, but could be even more.
I dove like 30 more times in the area but couldn't find him. Sad...
Then, I learned to drill a hole in front of the notches and never again i lost a fish for that reason.
Now I use either Rob Allen shafts (I don't care about rust) or Riffe.marco, thats a great/sad story. sure would have been the monster of that competition.
things like that happened to me, and it was always very hard to get over it.
specially when you can already see the fish and then just have to watch him swimming away to die.
hey, wasnt it you who recently said in the thread :" best spearfishing brand", definetely NOT OMER ! -
great thread Tinu, i personally dont shoot big fish
and often because my gear is not up to it
with this rig I wont shoot a big fish that might run on me simply because I dont have enough range to play and land them...hey LB,
at least you try to prepare yourself and your gear good. and when the monster comes, take this advise:
at second 0:40:attack1::fishswim: -
Some marine animals could tax heavily on diving gear, that is the case of some local sea lions, They pop as a candy the crimp and wire off the stringer
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Just in case you didn´t get the picture
lol! -
wow, that is all the reason in the world never to attach fish to your body!!!!! :@
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Some marine animals could tax heavily on diving gear, that is the case of some local sea lions, They pop as a candy the crimp and wire off the stringer
that look like serious power. do these seals attack and take your fish of the spear as well ?
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It was me about "not Omer". It used to be one of my favorites brands, but about 10 years ago was sold and now everything is very cheao quality "Made in China" stuff. The only Omer thing I still have is a wetsuit I paid like 80$. It was supposed to be a 3 mm, but now is less than 1.5, which is good because water temp here is very warm.
They release a lot of new stuff, but they don't test it well, so EVERYTHING fails.
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that look like serious power. do these seals attack and take your fish of the spear as well ?
There are a couple of big bulls that snatch your catch from your very hands, those are aggressive and daring. We loose our share of fish to the wolves .. (in México we call them Lobos= wolves)
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