Speargun Help (Spearfishers share your expertise)?

Question

Hey everyone,

I just recently took interest in the sport of spearfishing. I've been freediving for a while but never spearfished. I live in Southern California, so ill be fishing off the coast and at catalina island. I need help choosing a gun, i want something powerful with good range that can easily take yellowtail,wahoo, as well as bottom fish: sheep head, rockfish etc.

Can someone please recommend a few good spearguns that are suited to the above.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Since you're diving mainly in California water, visibility is going to limit how far of a shot you can make, so you really don't need a high dollar pnuematic spear.  

First choice  would be a "Hawaiian" style pole spear. Those are relatively cheap to get new @ $50 - $90, and you can find them used for around $20. Simple construction, easy to use, great for freediving,with an effective reach of  6 - 7 feet . You can change the tips depending on what sort of game fish you're going for.

Next choice would be an entry level, rubber band powered speargun like the "Explorer 23 ",  price runs around $130 - $140 and can take fish out to a range of 21 feet.

If you want more than that, prepare to spend over $200+ dollars.  The "Magnum XHD" series of spearguns are well built.

If you plan on taking a charter dive boat to a dive site ( like Catalina ) a lot of them won't allow anything more than a Hawaiian spear on board due to safety considerations.