Choosing the Right Float Line
It’s important to dive with a float and you attach your speargun to your float using a float line. A float line enables you to to drop your speargun and retrieve it from the surface simply by pulling the line up.
Adrenos Sam talks us through some helpful float line tips.
Float lines are made using a variety of materials and come in different colours. It is important to have a float line to suit the diving you are doing. So here’s the lowdown on float lines to make sure you get what you need.
Colour Float lines come in a range of colours but a dull green or black is the best as it will make you less obvious to your prey. Red is also useful as it is highly visibility to boats on the surface, but loses its color and turns a dull grey in the water spectrum as you dive!
Ski rope style float lines
Pros
- If you are hunting smaller species or on a budget, then a ski rope style float line is an ideal option.
- Ski rope float lines are highly durable, UV resistant and won’t puncture on rock, coral or oyster shells.
- Ski rope float lines are easy to splice and get a strong grip on.
- Ski rope float lines tend to get more tangled and are prone to catching on the rocks.
- A ski rope float line has less buoyancy, which means it won’t come back up as quickly to the surface giving it more time to get tangled.
- All the advantages of ski-rope float lines but with the added advantage of floating better, so less chance of tangling.
Pros
- PVC covered Dyneema float lines are ideal for underwater hunting in Australia.
- Float line is stiffer and less prone to tangling, which makes it ideal if you want a longer line.
- Often rgged with a speed spike on one end and a shark clip on the other.
- After a while the PVC can wear through and once there is a hole the line can fill with water and sink.
- Sharp fish teeth can bite through the PVC so be careful what fish you string on this line.
- Very similar to the Dyneema PVC float lines but with a heavy duty shark clip each end.
- A Riffe PVC float line is designed to go more between a breakaway setup on a speargun and one of the larger floats for bluewater hunting of large pelagics.
Pros
- Float lines made of high-quality bungee cord are great for hunting larger pelagic species weighing upwards of 30 kg.
- Float line is designed to stretch, reducing the pressure on your rig and stopping the fish from tearing off.
- Great for blue water hunting.
- Not so good for a fish like Dog Tooth Tuna as allows the fish to get to the reef. Once they get to a reef they’re more likely to breaking you off or getting eaten by sharks.
- More suitable for Yellowfin, Bluefin tuna or Billfish.
