I just finished my 120 CM double roller, with Vecta 2 handle and a MVD double roller head.

I was going to run 2 14mm bands at 300-325% should be around 200-220 lbs of tension with a VECTA 2 rated for around 600+ LBS do you think that the setup should be safe?

Would have 4 separate bands all around 75-80cm each anchored to the handle.

I’m more worried about the gun misfiring or releasing the shaft.

I have a 115 single roller right now on 350% pretension.

Over the years I’ve tried different mask but no matter what, they all fog up. I’ve used scuba masks, Rob Allen, premium top shelf masks. I I’ve used frog spit/ defogging/fog off. Shaved/ Vaseline. Lighter burning the film away. Trust me. I’ve tried everything. My masks always fog up. Frequently. Does anyone have any useful tips for preparing to go diving? I’m getting sick of diving with water in my mask and de fogging every couple of dives down.

Just joined this sub. Headed to Kauai in July and staying in the Poipu area. My brother in law and I want to take our spearguns and get dinner one night we are there.

I’m from the Oregon coast so I mostly fish for Salmon and steelhead.

Does anyone have any recommendations on areas to go where it is legal to spearfish on that side of the island? I’ve done some research but not entirely sure if it’s legal in a couple of the spots we have been to before. We have snorkeled Lydgate pool and salt pond beach and seen lots of fish.

Any tips or advice is welcome to this “Mainlander”. 😂

Thanks!

What are your recommendations on spearfishing within a couple hours of Panama City? Preferably with shore access.

Islands welcome as well, just looking for a spot to try out for a few days

Who I am / What I wanted:

I have 14 years of spearfishing under my belt, mostly in the cold and murky waters of northern California where I use a 75 cm Seac without a reel. I frequently travel for work to places with clear water and wary fish. My 75 has proven itself to be too long to easily pack, requiring me to bring a sportube, and too short to be effective in clear tropical waters. I wanted a longer speargun that would easily pack down into a less clumsy bag for travel. The two options I was considering were the Riffe travel euro, and the TAG pack hunter. I decided to go with the TAG Because of:

-lower price

-simpler attachment mechanism for the two halves of the gun

-lighter weight

-TAG’s takedown spears have the shooting line attached forward of the takedown point, so there is no chance of a fish getting off by unscrewing the two halves.

-excellent customer service

-it looked way cooler

The buy:

I had several questions for Cam at TAG before I pulled the trigger on the purchase, and he was always friendly, quick to respond, very informative with his answers, and even threw in a few tips and tricks for me. Buying on the website was a piece of cake, just like any other online retailer. I ordered the pack hunter 120 with 2 extra spears, and a reel.

Receiving the speargun:

The speargun arrived packed in a cloth sock that I still use when packing the speargun. Everything came as ordered in one box. Fit and finish is excellent. The gun was fully rigged with high quality dyneema, the 14mm bands were perfectly tied, and the shaft floppers were already tuned.

Assembly / disassembly:

The two pieces of the gun slide together smoothly, and once the shoulders of the two halves make contact, it's like one solid piece. I never had any problems with flexing, or any rotation of the two halves during use. The two halves of the spears screw together, and from there it's like loading any other speargun. The dyneema that Cam uses has a slight stiffness to it that makes it tangle much much less than other floppier dyneema varieties that I have used. Disassembly is the same process in reverse. Cam mentioned that the speargun halves can be harder to take apart when warm, and this was true. The easiest thing to do is put a little ice or an icepack on the joint area for a few seconds, and it will come apart. If you are in the middle of nowhere baja without ice or an icepack, fret not. Splash a little water on the joint area and set it somewhere shady and breezy. Sit down for a minute or two to ponder the wonders of evaporative cooling, and when you come back to the gun it will slide apart, no problem. The threads on the spear can get a bit stiff too, so pack a pair of channel locks or vice grips or something. Now that I am writing this, I am realizing that the evaporative cooling would probably work just as well on the spear as it does on the gun. Give it a shot.

Travel:

I have a Mako backpack that is long enough to fit my full length fins. The TAG speargun fits in there with all the rest of my dive gear, and I still have room enough for my work stuff and clothes. I pack the clothes and wetsuit around the speargun and fins to protect them. I don't get oversized baggage fees, and it is so much easier to deal with a backpack than with a sport tube. Traveling with my spearfishing equipment used to be a pain, but now it's just so dang easy.

In the water:

My first chance to shoot some fish came on a trip to baja. I had been emotionally preparing myself to miss several times before figuring out the aim point for the new gun, but upon getting in the water, I promptly stoned the first 4 fish I took shots at. Suffice to say, the gun is a laser beam. It feels like an extension of my arm. The spear just goes where I want it to. Despite the length, it is so light that it remains very maneuverable in the water. The trigger is light and crisp, and it is clear that Cam has thoroughly tested his setups, because the speargun had excellent power and range with minimal recoil, while maintaining pinpoint accuracy. 

At one point I had a surprise encounter with my first ever yellowtail. I rushed to take a long shot at what I thought was a small yellowtail, and hit it in the shoulder. After fighting it and getting dragged all over hill and dale by this thing for a few minutes, it abruptly tore off. I was gutted, and spent the next several dives berating myself for pressuring the fish too hard, taking a bad shot, etc. Everyone knows the feeling. Then, surfacing from a dive, I saw the yellowtail flopping around on the surface. I swam over and finished it with a shot through the head. When I got it in my hands I realized two things. Firstly, that it was enormous, and secondly, that my first shot had not penetrated quite all the way though. The fish was fading into the murk when I took my first shot, and the shot took nearly all of my shooting line. The gun comes rigged with a double wrap, and there is 19 feet or so of shooting line. That yellowtail was probably 20 feet away when I hit it. I had fully expected it to be less than two feet long when I pulled to trigger, but later we measured it at 46 inches. The post mortem revealed that it had nearly gotten through. I think I may have been stretching the capabilities of the gun a bit with that one. Cam has set the gun up in the sweet spot of power, accuracy, and recoil, and I had no problems with penetration at any other point, including on some cabrillas at longish ranges. If you intend to take long shots at big fish, it might be worth experimenting with bumping up the band size a bit. The spear remains unbent.

This is my first reel gun, so I don't have other reel experience to compare it to, but the reel withstood the yellowtail and every other fish just fine. I like how simple it is.

The trigger mech that Cam uses is very open, which I was initially concerned about, but I have realized that it is an advantage, because it is extremely easy to wash out. It is showing no signs of rust.

The muzzle of the gun feels very ergonomic and easy to load/ wrap the shooting line, and the grip is comfortable. My trigger finger can rest outside the trigger guard, or on the trigger with no hand strain.

In conclusion:

I am beyond stoked with this speargun. It has met and exceeded all of my requirements and expectations. The two issues ( stiff disassembly and not quite getting through the yellowtail) are either easily worked around, or due to my own inexperience with big fish. Cam has clearly put a lot of thought, work, and testing into his design and it shows. I can't imagine ever buying a non-takedown speargun again. I would love to give Cam more of my money, but after buying this speargun, I don’t think I'm going to need another for a long time!

Has anyone ever eaten mullet sashimi? I've heard it should taste fishy but i can't really say it tastes different than snapper.

Reason for tying this is that i'm staying in a hotel unwilling to cook my fish so i had to resort to more primal ways of processing fish. I used a lot of lemon and the proteins coagulated, essentially cooking the fish.

Also it was a decent sized mullet, about 500g but all i got was 100g of good white boneless meat for my little experiment.

Hopefully i won't get sick:)

So yeah short and fat, them charts telling me to keep losing weight whenever I've looked at different brands for my first spearfishing suit. I was 232 in November, so getting there losing some of my natural rubber. I don't want to wait till it's warm enough to send it without a suit, besides I could plateau around this weight, and I'll need a suit eventually anyway. Water is pretty cold in the north Atlantic 5mm open cell seems to be the consensus in my area.

Wondering if there's any brands that someone with similar height weight has tried that fit good enough for spearfishing in cold water without it being way too long.

As it is my first one ever I'd rather stay away from anything custom or too fancy if possible. Probably going to wreck it.

Looking at getting Cressi Gara Carbon Camo blades. Any recommendations on stiffness?

I'm 90kg, will be used for spearing and freedive training. Reached out to a couple of stores and got wildly different takes on this. Hoping to hear from someone that has this particular blade.

Hey, I’m planning a to make my own rack/storage for my spearguns. I saw few on YT but preferred to see your DIY project. Thanks!

I’m moving to Pensacola Florida next month, and spear fishing is #1 on bucket list and hobby to get into. However, I have quite literally 0 experience and would appreciate a ton of advice

I don’t plan on doing the big “wetsuit/speargun/rebreather” but rather a fins, snorkel and pole spear. Would love recommendations on what to get, what brands, and what additional gear I need

I also need advice on licenses, if I should take a class or two, legal things to be aware of, and where/when I am allowed to spearfish

Overall, is this something I could hop into and enjoy while also getting some dinner on the side?

I read its forbiden to spear during May do people follow that rule? can you atleast spear lion fish? whats the rule for octopus during May, can you kill them?

going to Greece soon and would love some help with rules

Anyone else just sick of sharks?

Every time I go out I have some kind of run in with a shark, get in the water, might get 2 fish between us before we have something checking us out.

Usually just deal with the whalers and lemon sharks, just give them a jab and they’re usually alright. Still abit annoying. But inevitably some large bull shark, or tiger always seems rock up eventually. Or we have about 5 whalers all trying to steal a feed, which is abit much to deal with.

Anyway bit of a rant, anyone have any luck with a shark shield or those shark eye stickers? Not expecting it to stop the sharks rocking up, just hoping they’ll give me a little space rather than almost nibbling my toes as a return to the surface with a fish.

Cheers

Anybody know any spots semi near Hope town? Heading down in a few weeks for the first time with my pole spear. Also wondering how to get a permit?(if needed). Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Probably other people have done this. It's 18 lbs vs 13 lbs of a banks board, so not that heavy and the back already has a slide to lay on and kick... I've sat on it and it still floats (on a lake). I already have one that's why I thought of it.

https://preview.redd.it/75nohhc9avwc1.jpg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35cf64f63d8ecb2146be94c49eda2884c587a059

I am buying my first gun. I visited few shops in my area. My budget is around 200€ and found these two spearguns. Cressi cherokee fast 90 and Sigalsub nemesis pro 92. Price is almost identical. What will you recomend?

https://youtu.be/2DxpoeqC0mM

​

​

https://preview.redd.it/zupwr3061uwc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46bc80dde8057f9d23c17a615419b9d10ead3b95

So i have never dived before but im a good swimmer and im planning to buy an speargun my brother said he knows an spot with alot of fish thats around 20 meters deep He has never dived before too I have done some research about diving and ear equalizing So the plan is that hes gonna drop me at that location and hopefully i dont drown😂 Is there anything that i should know before diving alone?

Edit: i have came to the conclusion that my brother is trying to kill me

But today ... got my heart rate up a little when I shot my first fish 5 minutes later. Palm Beach, 80 feet.

https://youtu.be/8vJqxXmEZ7s

​

​

I'm going to vanuatu and I'm looking to target dogtooth tuna, I've got a slip tip, break away rig, 30m hardline with a 45l 2 atmosphere float. The float seems massive and its hard to imagine a fish pulling it underwater but watching videos of people shooting doggys have me questioning wether its enough.

Xhale spearfishing in Jupiter, FL set this up for me.

I've been in the mangroves a lot, pretty much need to hold the spear back continuously and it was beating up my hand.

This is 1000x more comfortable. We also made a doubled up band that the loop can go on as well, but this seems to work really well so far.

Complete noob to spearfishing here (not freediving). I've never worn any kind of Wetsuit, but my research on here and google fu indicates 5mm open cell is the way to go for most of the year. Is there a store I can buy/try on stuff near Northern Jersey? I went to a dive store nearby, and it was all scuba stuff. I'm not even going to get into spearguns yet as the first few times I go it is basically to figure out wtf am even doing, what are the conditions get eyes on the fish etc... Any helpful wetsuit tips I didn't think to ask would be appreciated. Thanks.

Fish twisted off the flopper tip of my seac sting speargun shaft. For the life of me I can't find it for sale anywhere online. Anyone got a source?

I recently got a Marlin Carbone Beuchat (Pedro Carbonee II). It has a spear of 6.5mm and 130cm Rockwell.

Since it's my first time spearfishing I find it a bit tough to load the gun with just one 16mm rubber. I've two 16mm rubbers but I never try loading the second at all. I've shot two small fishes yet, however lost a lot of opportunities since I couldn't load the gun.

I was think to replace both the 16mm rubbers with two 14mm rubbers, do you think it'd be a good idea? Or should I stick with 16mm and master the loading further?

This is the image of the gun I've;

https://www.tradeinn.com/f/13707/137077783/beuchat-marlin-carbon-sling-speargun-125.jpg

PS: So far this group has been super helpful!

Thanks!

I’ll be sailing around BVI and planning to bring a pole spear I’ve read through the government regs and protected areas, I plan to get a license. Any recommendations on spots? Is it very sharky like I’ve read about the Bahamas? How prevalent or least prevalent is Ciguatera? Thanks ! Looking to just hunt for a meal or two, and enjoy the marine life.

I recently purchased a pair of used Alchemy S fins which I had planned to put into my Omer Stingray pockets. However, according to the serial number on them, Alchemy told me that they are actually not Alchemy S, but rather Alchemy S30, which is just the Alchemy S with a 30 degree angle, rather than 20ish. This made me panic a bit, as that would mean they wouldn't be useful in my Stingrays, which have a 22 degree angle. However, the footpockets that are currently attached to them are C4 400's, which according to C4's website have a 3 degree angle... And the suggested footpocket for the blades according to Alchemy is the Pathos Fireblade, which is a 22 degree pocket...

Am I missing something? Is it possible/a good idea to mix the two? Or are C4 400s and/or Pathos Fireblades designed in such a way that they can form to a larger blade angle? Any help is appreciated!