I won’t call spearfishing my “current” obsession, but I’ll call it an ongoing one. Most of my trips have been in rather shallow water, using only a mask, snorkel, and pole spear. Occasionally I wear flippers, but for the most part, I’m in sheltered areas in and around downed trees and mangrove roots.
This tends to lead to a problem of maneuverability. With a pole spear almost 80 inches in length, I tend to have trouble getting into the tighter areas and moving around trees and roots to get to my quarry. No, they aren’t typically huge fish, but they ARE legal sizes, and I’m just getting started. Don’t judge me. (Probably should have said that in the Sand Flea post too…)
Anyway, back to the problem at hand…I needed (wanted!) a shorter pole spear, I just didn’t want to pay for one. I’m a handy guy, and my dad would just go build one.
So I did, and here’s how.
Short version: I took a ski pole (snow skiing type, no need for it here!), cut off the ends, added an eye bolt on the sling end, and a 6mm bolt on the terminal end (terminal end = killing end LOL!). Done!
Long version:
I wanted a slender, yet strong pole of around 4 feet. The only thing I had handy was several lengths of bamboo, and a couple snow ski poles. Since bamboo floats, mostly, I opted to re-purpose one of the ski poles. I purchased the longest 6mm bold I could find, and luckily, it had a low-profile head. I also picked up two nuts and a couple washers for the project. Of course, all were of stainless steel. (6mm is the size of the connector on my spear tips)
Using a bandsaw, I cut the bottom end off of the pole, as close to the tip as possible. I then removed the handle, it slid off with some persuasion. I then dropped the 6mm bolt down from the handle end to see how much of the bolt stuck through. None! I trimmed off a little more and re-tested until I had all of the threads and only the tiniest bit of the bolt’s shoulder showing. (The shoulder is the part below the head that does not have threads.)
Once I had the bolt showing through, I then added an over-sized nut to act as a spacer (yes, I cut off too much of the pole, so I adjusted!), and then two 6mm stainless steel nuts back to back, tightening the first one down very snug, then jamming the second tightly to the first. This was my base for the screw-in spear tip. I then cut a leather washer with an undersized hole and stretched it over the bolt to act as a jam washer to keep the spear tip from coming loose.
On the handle end, I found a piece of bamboo that just fit into the end. I cut it to about 6 inches, plenty of room to sink the threads of the stainless steel eye bolt I purchased to act as the connection point for the sling band. I screwed the eye bolt in snugly. I will eventually seal this with epoxy. I’m not so worried about it as the tension is always pulling against the lateral line towards the far end (pushing the threads IN rather than pulling them out), it will probably never come out as it is.
I then added some hockey stick friction take, camo of course, with a line of paracord underneath. This acts as a handle to allows some relief to my hands as I grip the spear waiting for a fish to prove itself dumber than I am.
That’s it! I now have a spear 30 inches shorter than my other, and it should allow me to maneuver better in the submerged treetops as I try to spear some dinner.
Here is a video, I apologize for the bad audio.
Peace,
db
I have looked at several sstups and like yours the best. How do you make the tip to screw on. A and how do you attach the sling.
Thanks Stan
I used a hollow ski pole. For the tip, I found a stainless 6mm bolt (Click the link to see an example – they are NOT cheap!) with a socket head (it would slide in further with this type of head) and started cutting the end off of the pole until I had enough of the bolt sticking through to install a pair of 6mm nuts, with leather washers between them (makes them stay in place – lock washer would also have worked, didn’t have any though)
With the bolt sticking through, I simply installed the paralyzer tip with another leather washer in front of it to keep it secured.
THe other end was simply cut off to a manageable length, and a dowel inserted in the hollow end. I drilled a hole in the center of the dowel (like a bulls-eye) and installed a 3/8inch stainless lag eyebolt.
I like the short length for quick drop ins around shoreline rocks and private docks….a great place to pick up snapper and sheepshead.
Hope that helps!
I tried this and it worked great. Thx