any spear fisherman out there?

i'm down with speaking to fish

yep - pm'ing you

yeh mate open water means u can dive to 18 metres

i didnt think it was legal to scuba and spear?

yeah i spear basically when theres no surf and no wind the spear guns can rande from 150 to pritty dear (not sure the price) you can get short ones for shallow waters like me or long ones for deeper waters and more acuracy. you can spear fish with guns any where thats not inland like river mouths or creeks or just look for signs.

lindsey

Great supplies here spearfishing.com.au/ based in Brisbane, but post anywhere. Aslo a forum where you can get info for your area. Don't dive without a dive buddy also. Not sure if you can scuba and spear in WA, not allowed anywhere else - not really fair either....
Good luck

No, no and again no.

^^^^^^^ I second that :D

H20

easy, go a 1.2m "woody" - ~ $150, durable and most good dive shops or online options ?

make sure you change the spear to hardened steel for improved accuracy and tensile strength

keep your fishing "very selective"

cant give you the fishing spots or I'd have to kill ya !

mf

It really gives me the ****s listening to uninformed people who bag out on someone who scuba dives with a speargun. I have been a keen scuba diver for 13 years and iI have always used a speargun. The facts are that it is a much more sporting way to catch a feed of fish for my family, you actually get into the water with the fish and all other posible dangers asocciated with diving and select a targeted fish rather than indiscriminatly bouncing a hook across the ocean which could catch any bloody thing including undersized or protected species.Also most divers are passionate about the ocean and only take what they need.
Any way to answer the question asked. the best spearguns for scuba diving are- Mares air powered guns ive had mine for years and are very reliable.
Safe diving!

Hi Ben,

A lot of interesting comments on this thread. Here's some info.

In W.A. you can use SCUBA and a spear gun, but don't expect to make any friends in spearfishing clubs, we all freedive and won't dive with a bubbly. It's not considered sporting. Most freedivers have a SCUBA ticket, but don't use it unless retrieving stuck anchors in deep water etc.

We generally dive for 4-8 hours a day on weekends or good days. You can't do that with a tank. You may be able to whack a Baldy or some other dumb (and tasty) fish, but anything sporting that is a bit cluey or flighty and the bubbles and all the racket made by the reg scares them off.

Forget a woody, no serious spearo uses them, same with pneumatic guns. Every diver in our club and the other main spearo club in Perth use rubber powered rail guns, there are good reasons for this.

You may think you can only dive to 4 or 5 metres on a breath hold and stay down for 20 seconds or so, but with correct training, practice and fitness, 20m is easy and 1-1.30 min is a standard decent dive. Some of our club members can do more than 2 or 3 minutes and can dive to over 30m.

My advice is to join a club before you buy anything. Ask the members what gear you should look for. They will often know cheap places to get it, or may have discounts for their club with some of the local retailers, and often sell their surplus used gear cheaply. They will take you out on a boat and teach you to dive properly, safely and how to hunt fish.

I started with a 1.0m Rail gun and a set of Picasso Black Team plastic fins and a surfing wetty. They did me to begin with, but I could have saved much money and time by joining the club earlier. I couldn't dive below 3 metres due to ear clearing issues and lack of mental fitness. I now dive with a 1.4M rail gun, glass composite long fins, freedive suit and other more "appropriate" gear, have no problems at up to 20m and have a good breath hold and no clearing issues and it didn't take long (this aint blowing my bugle as it's considered very average in dive circles).

Contact Bluewater Freedivers of WA www.bluewaterfreediversofwa.com/ and come to the next meeting (3rd Tuesday of every month). You're welcome to come along with me if you like.

There are a couple of good forums too. Try Spearoz, Deeper Blue, spearfishing.com.au (just google the names)

Leave your tanks behind and experience the deeper blue naturally.

Cheers,

KH

I mainly use a rob allen single rubber rail gun. Cost a few more$, but I can do a head shot from 3m. Length depends on what you're comfortable loading. Double rubbers are for experienced spearo's and specialist hunting. Anyone with double rubbers can tell you a story about nearly taking their finger tips off loading; or watching something swim by as you strain to get the 2nd rubber on. Get, or make yourself a good float line and do a search on flashers, a good option to/with burley. I agree with hicky about spearing being the most selective form of fishing; and wotzy about keeping techniques and catches quiet on the web..

Hi Ben,

Phrase is right, there are lots of no-go zones with Spearfishing so you either need to travel or own a boat, or join a club and let others take you out with them.

Perth no spear zones are Cockburn sound (all of it), Cottesloe Reefs, Trigg Pt to Burns Beach (Marmion Marine Park). You cannot even take a spear gun onto Rotto, let along dive in the sanctuarys. There is an 800m no spear zone around all of Rotto, hence the need for a boat. Lots of good reef around there and you can take crays, just can't spear fish until you're in deeper water. I do a bit of photography and freediving without a gun around Rotto coz water is usually clear and great reef structure/caves/swim throughs etc.

Pearl is onto it, a single rubber Rob Allen with say a 19mm or 20mm rubber will give you all the hitting power you need. Length is determined by what you want to shoot and in what water. If you want to potter around places like stragglers a 1.0m gun is ideal for caves and shallow reef. 1.2m is a good general purpose size. 1.3-1.5 is a bluewater gun. Most of our club members use 1.4m bluewater guns as we do most of our spearing in 12-20m of water (where most of the decent fish are).

Floats and float lines aren't used much in our club unless diving around Rotto (boat traffic) not that it helps as most boaties are morons and ignore the buoy and flag in any case. We all usually use a reel on our guns with 40m of line to fight bigger fish. No tangles with floats and the float lines usually spook some fish so you can be freer and more deadly [}:)]

Clearing ears is just a matter of getting accustomed to it. For days and weeks, I would go and dive 4-6m of water out off Mettams (no gun of course) and just practice getting to the bottom and staying down. Don't rush it and take your time,pushing to depth can lead to big problems. Relax and try stretching the muscles below and around your ears by tilting your head as you gently equalize.

You just need to let the body acclimatize, like using muscles for the first time, they need to be stretched and conditioned to become flexible enough. Good thing is once you get over the difficulties, it seems to stay open.

A great book on freediving technique is "Manual of Freediving, Underwater on a single breath" written by Umberto Pelizzari and Stefano Tovaglieri. Also look for "Bluewater Hunting and Freediving" by Terry Maas. These two books have the best information for learning about hunting and Freediving.

Again, join a Freedive/Spearfishing club. They can help you more than you know, especially if you don't have a boat. BWFA have about 70 members many of whom are always looking for crew for mid week and weekend dives around Perth and as far away as Shark Bay or Esperence if conditions are good.

Freedive Spearing is awesome but can be very dangerous (makes kiting look like a stroll through the park). Sharks are the least of your worries so make sure you learn with a buddy who knows what they are doing and take it easy. Shallow Water Blackout (SWB) is a real and present danger even to experienced spearo's. Have a look on You Tube and see what SWB is all about. Several Spearo's die each year around Australia from it.

Cheers,

KH

Hey au_rick,

Actually he was asking about spearfishing, not SCUBA, he just mentioned he got his Open Water ticket. Most people that Spearfish do it on a breath hold, hence the relation to Freediving and the info that I and others put forth

Cheers,

KH

darren thanks mate. Your info was really helpful

Ill take you up on that and come along to the next meeting. Ive never really done much freediving but i can swim a 50m pool underwater one breath no fins :) brilliance of never being a smoker. :) Im really keen.

It was just complete lack of knowledge that made me think scuba and spearo was the norm. But the freedive sounds much more intense and rewarding so i would love to give it a go. Leave the scuba for photos and dives with the misses :)

ill send you a pm and organise it.

Thanks again everyone for the info im pumped