Good speargun setup for scuba
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Diving
Forum Name: The Scoobie Gang
Forum Description: Tanks thanks! - SCUBA diver's here
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=41585
Printed Date: 29 Jan 2026 at 4:39pm
Topic: Good speargun setup for scuba
Posted By: 3rnzir
Subject: Good speargun setup for scuba
Date Posted: 30 May 2009 at 8:51am
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As above.Many times whilst cray diving I have seen good table fish well within range of a speargun.Many spearos around the world use scuba.Any ideas on guns brands, length ect would be helpful.
Cheerz
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Replies:
Posted By: CJnatan
Date Posted: 02 Jun 2009 at 8:33am
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Hey mate, not many ppl encourage spearfishing on tanks in NZ eventhough its legal at this stage. As far as spearfishing for scuba goes... I think that any speargun will do... . Do you freestyle spearfishing as well? ------------- Have you ever lent someone $20 and never seen that person again? It was probably worth it... |
Posted By: 3rnzir
Date Posted: 02 Jun 2009 at 4:39pm
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Hi CJ.No mate,I don`t freedive.Too old,smoke,unfit.Plus I have all the scuba gears now.Can`t really afford to tool up and train for freediving.I`ve read plenty about the ethics of spearing on scuba v FD.Fish should taste the same to my family.Was planning on only using the gun in deepish low viz dive sites.Should not conflict with any FDers.Seldom see any FDers where I usually dive anyways.Web searchs are pointing me in the direction of a gun 100cm -80cm.6.5 dia shaft.Single rubber.Confused as to either getting a railgun,open or closed muzzel,Free-shafting,reel or standard 3x shaft length with mono.or tip type.Target fish would probaly be greenbone,porae,blue moki,perch,male parrot fish,octopus.Never see the clamour fish on air,apart from the curious Kingies.Not worth a rookie losing his gear or worse on those bigger KF.
Cheerz
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Posted By: Narcosis_prince
Date Posted: 02 Jun 2009 at 6:23pm
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Have a search for those pneumatic ones you can holster on your leg, they are small but enough grunt for the odd green bone etc.
------------- "Going down is a way of life" |
Posted By: CJnatan
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2009 at 8:24am
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I am currently using 90cm attached to floatline, i guess if you are not targeting big kingfish you can easily use 90cm, single rubber with 65 shaft no problems. I think a railgun or a floatline will be risky on scuba tanks... You have higher chances of getting tangled with your line. You want to keep it simple... also watch out for these sharky, I dont think they often attack divers but if you carry fish close to your body, that can be a risk to you too. Where do you intend to dive? ------------- Have you ever lent someone $20 and never seen that person again? It was probably worth it... |
Posted By: Wanda_Ra
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2009 at 11:48am
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I carry a Hand spear with me at all times now while on scuba.Only have the use of 1 1/2 lungs so cant free dive.Take some kina berley or similar and shake a tin of it around on the bottom and you will be surprised what turns up.Those who say spearing on scuba is no challenge,each to their own, and trying to stop being dragged around and up to the surface when you stupidly nail a kingfish hat is practically looking in your mask is quite a challenge in itself especially when only using a hand spear. ------------- If you think you are too small to make a difference,try sleeping with a mosquito in your tent. |
Posted By: CJnatan
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2009 at 1:07pm
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I think if you carry a proper speargun it might be really risky because if you nailed a big fish it can take you to different depths which can cause you real troubles... (if you run out of oxygen etc). Where do you normally go to? How deep do you dive(while one scuba or when you free dived)? ------------- Have you ever lent someone $20 and never seen that person again? It was probably worth it... |
Posted By: smelly nelly
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2009 at 7:08pm
| why not just use a gun with a reel,most reels will hold a good 40mts of line, |
Posted By: CJnatan
Date Posted: 04 Jun 2009 at 8:15am
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3rnzir is trying to make a setup for spearfishing on tanks... having a gun on a reel increasing the chances of getting tangled i believe. I would have tried keeping it simple if it was me... :-) ------------- Have you ever lent someone $20 and never seen that person again? It was probably worth it... |
Posted By: _Jimmy_
Date Posted: 04 Jun 2009 at 9:00am
| 70cm reel gun. Wild blue has one all set up at the moment, that i think they would do for a good price. |
Posted By: 3rnzir
Date Posted: 06 Jun 2009 at 9:24am
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Hi men.Nice to here from others that spear on air tanks.I dive the Manukau Hbr mostly.Usaually dive in the 14-22 mtr mark.Belive a shorter gun is better moving thru kelp etc.Plenty of kina around to berly up with.You guys got any advice to improve ones accuracy wiyh the gun.I was thinking of flooding a few milk containers and setting them up over the sand.Any type of spear tip better for shooting around reefs.And what extra gear would you have on hand.IE shaft,rubber,trigger parts.See the odd shark down there.Just fake charging them seems to work OK.Will need to know more about this floatline fish stringing system.Not keen on a Bronzie dragging me around by my catch bag.Got a beauty fright one dive the Manukau.Struggling to extract bugs from a hole for a few minutes,then backed out turned my head and a good sized bronzie about 3 mtrs away was observing me.It just slowly moved away when we eyeballed each other.My bowels nearly moved as well.There are times that the crays are soft or are they are in berry or not around at all.Almost everytime I see table fish.Be a shame not to bring a feed home.It`s an expensive sport.Need to justify that expense.
Cheerz
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Posted By: JRDO
Date Posted: 14 Jun 2009 at 5:46pm
| Go to a spearfishing store, they get scoobies often enough so will know what has worked for others |
Posted By: Wanda_Ra
Date Posted: 14 Jun 2009 at 6:51pm
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Quote - "Not keen on a Bronzie dragging me around by my catch bag." Most likely it will be dragging you around by the leg or arm.Never keep fish on you.Have seen plenty of Great whites caught by commercial fishers to not want to have fish on me anytime let alone in a shark haven like the manukau.Ask at any spear fishing shop to learn about the floatline system.quite simple.Never had a bronzie in nz show much aggro when i have not had any fish around me,they can be curious though. -When you berly up try this for laughs..maybe drop a berley pot from your boat with kina etc in it and have hooks and line off it,I often have one of these out while diving and get fish,all you have to do is iki them if the sharks dont hit them first. ------------- If you think you are too small to make a difference,try sleeping with a mosquito in your tent. |
Posted By: TheSnapperWhisperer
Date Posted: 17 Jun 2009 at 10:10pm
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My old man takes a small ??70 cm?? pneumatic gun in his catch bag and whacks the odd porae or JD for dinner. It doesn't need a reel in NZ unless you start hitting kingies. Pneumatic guns do not have the rubbers and stuff so are a bit tidier to take in your cray bag than a rubber powered gun (although they need more maintenance). The scuba shops mostly sell these guns from what I can see, althouh Wild Blue or Ocean Hunter or other spearfishing retailers might stock the odd pneumatic gun.
I reckon it's Ok to spear on scuba like that - for the table - as long as you limit your catch as most do. Catching fish on a line takes no skill whatsoever and we don't spend all day telling fisho's they shouldn't do it, so I'm at a loss to explain the big anti scuba spearing feeling really. I guess the risk is that scuba bunnies could wipe out a school of goldies, take too many reef fish in one area, or shoot a Queensland Groper or something out of ignorance, but that is an education issue not a sporting one. ------------- http://www.facebook.com/TheSnapperWhisperer |
Posted By: Sea Wolf
Date Posted: 18 Jun 2009 at 2:26pm
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Well said Reid. Totally agree with you.
In fact I'm sure it's the most sensible post I've read concerning spearing on scuba.
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Posted By: long john
Date Posted: 18 Jun 2009 at 7:06pm
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Agreed. A dead fish is a dead fish is a dead fish. Self righteous condemnation will get no-one nowhere
------------- Proud member of the Glen Innes Spearfishing Club |
Posted By: DeKay
Date Posted: 18 Jun 2009 at 8:58pm
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Agreed. As a freediver/kayak fisherman I say you are as entitled to feed you whanau as anyone else. Dead fish taste nice. I don't care how you gather them as long as you take only enough for your needs, stay within the rules and don't let any go to waste. I have no experience spearing on scuba (only used UBA for recreational voyeuristic diving). Nor have I used a pneumatic gun but they sound good if you only want to use the spear occasionally (small and easy to carry around). If you want to shoot a few fish each dive it would be worth considering a rubber band gun. They are simple, low maintenance, relatively cheap and reliable. No reel or floatline needed for general table fish, only for big snaps, kings and such. 90cm, 16mm rubber, mono shooting line is all that is required. For general table fish you do not need a slip tip, open muzzle, rail gun etc. Where to keep the fish is the problem if in sharky waters. I've only had the odd problem with seals (wellington). |
Posted By: Kingihunter
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 5:49pm
| There are NOT many Spearos use scuba!! Scuba diving with a speargun is not spearfishing |
Posted By: johnny_A
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 6:32pm
Good on ya for dredging this one up and commenting without reading (or appearing to read) the balanced discussion above.  
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Posted By: Wanda_Ra
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 7:33pm
Please, do go on (without ranting like a lunatic,if possible) and explain how spearing fish with a spear/spear gun whilst diving is not classed as spear fishing. Id be delighted to know the imagined difference.  ------------- If you think you are too small to make a difference,try sleeping with a mosquito in your tent. |
Kingihunter wrote:Posted By: Scuba Skip
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 9:24pm
| id be keen to hear too!? |
Posted By: spearfisher916
Date Posted: 11 Feb 2011 at 10:04pm
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I use a 90cm pnuematic from time to time freediving and they have excellent power, accuracy and much tidier than a rubber gun. Prolly easier to load with BCD, gauges and crap in the way too. Mine is 25years old and going strong. |
Posted By: FishBOY78
Date Posted: 03 May 2011 at 10:47pm
| Simple, if you want to spear fish for sport, do it freediving - if you are only interested in getting one for the table feel free to use scuba, its perfectly legal. I've done both. What gun you use depends on what you want to shoot. gun length 1m or less is easy to load and not so much of a hassle around the kelp when on scuba. Make sure you carry an easily accessable SHARP knife with you encase of entanglement |
Posted By: Diver Dan
Date Posted: 12 May 2011 at 10:24pm
| I've never spearfished on scuba, but I have done plenty of scuba diving in the past. I spearfish on snorkel because to be honest, I hate scuba diving now! All that gear is so uncomfortable! Good luck to those of you who do spear on scuba, but in my opinion, freediving is the way to go. The only exception would be if I was seriously into photography. |
Posted By: Unclejake
Date Posted: 12 May 2011 at 10:50pm
Consider the fact that others have a life that is different than yours. If guys want to spear on SCUBA then good for them.
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Posted By: Seashepherd
Date Posted: 16 May 2011 at 8:39pm
I've done a bit of it. I normally hit my fish, then bounce back to the boat with it on the spear where my boatboy takes care of it. It's a good, clean way to get a feed, and considering that I've used trawls that are 100mtrs wide and 30mtrs deep at the mouth, still pretty sporting.
------------- procul piscaturam mox terga |
Posted By: Slicker
Date Posted: 16 May 2011 at 10:19pm
| Kinginhunter was just doing a bit of grave digging |
Posted By: Recluse
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2011 at 9:01am
| That scuba spearo on coastwatch taking undersize red moki could use a lesson or two |
Posted By: tom1
Date Posted: 20 Jun 2011 at 8:58am
As long as they don't go out and buy a rebreather and start snapper snooping
(Or clean out the goldie spots before I can improve my depth to actually get to them)
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Posted By: Wanda_Ra
Date Posted: 20 Jun 2011 at 10:25am
lets face it,there are lunkhead idiots in every sport or recreational activity. personally i would lump a guy like that in the same category as the idiots who went spotlighting and shot that poor teacher in the head in a campground. Not by any means the same sort of crime but the same sort of idiot. ------------- If you think you are too small to make a difference,try sleeping with a mosquito in your tent. |
Posted By: 3rnzir
Date Posted: 16 Jul 2011 at 8:47am
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This reeks of eleitism. Like the whole fly v bait trout fishing thang. Cornholers to a man Can anyone do a blind taste test on the following fish flesh catch styles of harvesting ? Free dive,scuba,trawling,long line,illegal any means of harvest,rec line fishingt? And tell which piece fo fish flesh is which? Be tuff I bet?Taste wise all things being equal with th e above. |
Posted By: JESUSFREAK
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2021 at 9:06pm
| There is aTV show on prime about commercial spear fishing on scuba. Looks like it offers something different to freediving |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2021 at 9:49pm
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It's an interesting one. I have no problem with it. First thought is that SCUBA would actually be a disadvantage for spooky fish like snapper re: noise/bubbles. Second thought is the shark thing. This guy does some interesting stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSRYDRhsbX0&ab_channel=DanMacMahon" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSRYDRhsbX0&ab_channel=DanMacMahon
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