Bluewater Gear Guide
Bluewater season is here! Now's the time to update your gear and make sure you're ready to take that shot on your next adventure. Speargun Smith and Freedive Instructor, Christian, gave us the run down of what to look for in bluewater gear. View the full gear guide here.
Spearguns
When it comes to bluewater hunting, everything is bigger. While you can absolutely land a nice wahoo or tuna on a standard Rob Allen gun, the range and power behind a beefy blue water gun provide an impressive advantage. I prefer a gun 130cm (51inch) gun or larger with an 8mm slip tip shaft.
Floats and Floatlines
Floats and floatlines help you target bigger fish than you ever could on a reel. If you plan on targeting species notorious for their ability to burry floats and wreak havoc on spearfishing gear, such as dog tooth tuna, you’re going to want to string several 3atm floats up together and use a healthy amount of bungee float line. But if you’re targeting fish local to Florida, you can get by with a much smaller setup, like our FLF float and float line.
Reels
Reels are a great way to create distance between you and your spear if you need to get to the surface, or just let a big fish wear itself out. I typically don’t bother bringing a reel with me when specifically targeting blue water species- I run a float line instead. However, I use a reel for every other aspect of spearing in South Florida. Aussie reels and Rob Allen reels are my current favorites.
Slip-tips
The unfortunate reality is that slip-tips are a pain… it’s probably not worth running one if you’re targeting most snapper or hogfish species. But when you start targeting larger and stronger blue water fish, slip-tips become a must because it is much harder for the fish to break free from a well placed slip tip.
Flashers
Simply put, flashers work wonders in deep water. They attract baitfish, which in turn attracts much larger fish. I’ve shot some of my biggest fish off of my murk crew flasher set, and/or a cheap throw flasher.