Thinking about a reel for my gun . . . . which one ?

G.R. I'm not clear about how you see it. Is a spearfishing reel used to recover line under pressure, like with a fishing rod, or just to recover line with little of no pressure after the fish has been subdued? I'm saying it's the latter.

Quote from Dan

G.R. I'm not clear about how you see it. Is a spearfishing reel used to recover line under pressure, like with a fishing rod, or just to recover line with little of no pressure after the fish has been subdued? I'm saying it's the latter.

Definitely the latter. The only time I really use the reel is after the fish is in the boat or on the stringer. I guess you could fight a fish with your reel if you were trying to qualify for The Special Olympics.:D

Thanks

Quote from red tide

Definitely the latter. The only time I really use the reel is after the fish is in the boat or on the stringer. I guess you could fight a fish with your reel if you were trying to qualify for The Special Olympics.:D

:laughing3::laughing3::laughing3:

In my case, little or no pressure at all.

A reel in a speargun is a "line storage device". You shot, let the fish run, make some resistance with your hand against the barrel, fight it with your hands, brain it, put it in your stringer and THEN, you reel the line. If you reel needs to have the line under pressure to coil it well, is not a good one.

Only because I have been considering getting a reel; but I also like my float-line. Would the two of these be redundant/unnecessary? It seems for the reef fish it would be fine alone; but what if you were to happen across that big Cobia that spools you? Wouldn't a float be beneficial in that instance or or would the reel give you enough line to get topside for air and not lose your gun?

If you have a floatline the reel is redundant.

I tie my gun to my float line(its not a floatline, just the line that goes to my flag float) mostly in case I need to anchor my flag while lobstering or if I want/need to let go of my gun. which has been useful when attaching fish to board/stringer I can just drop the gun and pull it back to me when I've sorted out what I need to do. also keeps me from having to hold my float's line or tie it to myself.

Floatlines are such a PITA :rolleyes1:
to benefit from a reel it really does need to be working properly, though. A floatline wont ever seize up and has no drag to worry about setting.

I may have to get a reel and try it out; see which one I like better I guess. The FL is a huge PITA sometimes.

The floatline only seems like a problem for those who don't use it properly. To me a floatline is freedom from many worries. In any case you have to have a flag and a float, unless you want to be stuck by your kayak to be under the protection of its flag.

We make a few Big Reels for Tuna which hold 1OOmtr+ of line.. when fishing with these, I'll often use a Floatline attached to my belt with an easy clip to an easy to access Loop which stands out a bit on the front side of my belt. There is an easy to access loop on my shooting line where my reel line is clipped on. We often dive deep and in strong currents. If I see a particularly large fish, ie over 75lbslbs, I can easily unclip the Floatline from my belt and then clip it to my Shooting line. I leave both the reel and the Floatline attached. The benefits of this system:
-95% of the day I can dive with a Safety Line attached to my belt and a Float. If ever there was a problem, my buddy would not need to divebomb me at 8Oft in strong currents and downdrafts and attempt to pull me up... he could just hoist me up from the surface.
-I can dive using a smaller float. If the Fish does take my float under, I still have 1OOmtrs of line to fight with.
-For smaller fish I can still enjoy the fight using just a reel.

Floatlines are very important in high current, wild conditiions. You can use the float to signal a boat. A few times, I have been caught in whirlpools where if I didn't have my float to hold on to.. I would probably be sucked down 75ft in a few seconds..

Quote from Dan

The floatline only seems like a problem for those who don't use it properly. To me a floatline is freedom from many worries. In any case you have to have a flag and a float, unless you want to be stuck by your kayak to be under the protection of its flag.

You can have the boat driver follow you with the boat flat\g if its a small group of people and they are diving relatively close to each other or you can just team up with someone that has a float and flag set up. I don't want this to become a reel vs. float thread but I've seen boaters go right pass divers WITH FLOAT AND FLAG too many times. This is solved by having a boat driver getting between incoming boaters and divers. I've tried the float and line but could not get used to it, to me its a PITA. Specially when there is more than 2 divers with it. I like the freedom of being able to dive down asap if I have to without having to coil up some of the line to create slack and avoid resistance from the float. Is faster to change spots when you don't have to wait for people to coil up their lines and the boater doesn't have to worry about running the lines over. If you need more line than your reel can hold then get one of those belt or arm reels with a quick clip to connect it to the gun jajajajaja that's a joke I don't like those either.

Staying on topic, find a reel that works for your specific needs (target species and size) and then just work on your shot placement.

Quote from behslayer

We make a few Big Reels for Tuna which hold 1OOmtr+ of line.. when fishing with these, I'll often use a Floatline attached to my belt with an easy clip to an easy to access Loop which stands out a bit on the front side of my belt. There is an easy to access loop on my shooting line where my reel line is clipped on. We often dive deep and in strong currents. If I see a particularly large fish, ie over 75lbslbs, I can easily unclip the Floatline from my belt and then clip it to my Shooting line. I leave both the reel and the Floatline attached. The benefits of this system:
-95% of the day I can dive with a Safety Line attached to my belt and a Float. If ever there was a problem, my buddy would not need to divebomb me at 8Oft in strong currents and downdrafts and attempt to pull me up... he could just hoist me up from the surface.
-I can dive using a smaller float. If the Fish does take my float under, I still have 1OOmtrs of line to fight with.
-For smaller fish I can still enjoy the fight using just a reel.

Floatlines are very important in high current, wild conditiions. You can use the float to signal a boat. A few times, I have been caught in whirlpools where if I didn't have my float to hold on to.. I would probably be sucked down 75ft in a few seconds..

Holy crap (I have a fear of whirlpools, how do they form?)!

I like the analysis and sounds like a good setup. I'm keeping this info in my bag of tricks in the future. You didn't mention that you can ditch your weightbelt at any time, too!

Whirlpools form when you are in a spot where the Pacific Ocean empties into the Indian Ocean and the Seafloor goes from 2O,OOOft deep to above surface where a few little islands stand in the way of all of that water moving through. The upside is the fish life. The Downside are the currents, whcih sometimes do produce Whirlpools. Ditching your weightbelt in a strong whirlpool wouldn't do much.. the best thing to do is to err on the side of safety when you see radical currents and not get in the water. If you do get caught in one, try hard to swim sideways out of it, and keep your Buoy IN your hands.