A polespear (hand spear or gidgee) is an underwater tool used in

spearfishing Spearfishing is a method of fishing that involves impaling the fish with a straight pointed object such as a spear, gig or harpoon. It has been deployed in artisanal fishing throughout the world for millennia. Early civilisations were familia ...

, consisting of a pole, a

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastene ...

tip, and a

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

loop. Polespears are often mistakenly called

Hawaiian sling The Hawaiian sling is a device used in spearfishing. The sling operates much like a bow and arrow does on land, but energy is stored in rubber tubing rather than a wooden or fiberglass bow. Description Mechanically, the device is simple: the only ...

s, but the tools differ. A Hawaiian sling is akin to a slingshot or an underwater

bow and arrow The bow and arrow is a ranged weapon system consisting of an elastic launching device (bow) and long-shafted projectiles (arrows). Humans used bows and arrows for hunting and aggression long before recorded history, and the practice was common ...

, since the spear and the propelling device are separate, while a polespear has the sling (rubber loop) attached to the spear.

Description

The pole is usually between four feet and ten feet long and made of

fiberglass Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on la ...

, or

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

. Longer versions often break down into two or more pieces that screw together. The tip is either threaded to accept different kinds of spear tips or already has a fixed tip attached. The most popular spear tip on polespears are the paralyzer (often called a three-prong), and the Tahitian shaft (a single pivoting barb). Some more serious hunters will equip the polespear with a slip-tip (tip removes from the end and tethers to a fixed point). At the butt end of the spear is an elastic loop, usually made of surgical tubing or a band of rubber (a

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. B ...

inner tube An inner tube is an inflatable ring that forms the interior of some pneumatic tires. The tube is inflated with a valve stem, and fits inside of the casing of the tire. The inflated inner tube provides structural support and suspension, while the ...

, for example). The spear is operated by placing the rubber loop in the crook of the thumb, then reaching up the spear shaft to stretch the elastic band and grabbing the polespear to hold the band in tension. On flimsy spears, it's useful to twist the spear as the band stretches to keep the spear from bending. Shooting the spear involves releasing the grasp of the hand but still using the hand to guide the spear like a barrel to a gun. The firing distance of a polespear can be divided into two ranges. First, there is the overall distance of the stretch or the 'travel range'. This second range is the distance that most are interested in as it is more relevant to penetrating fish. For this reason, it is called the 'penetrating range.' Not all the travel of the spear being fired has the 'punch' to penetrate through fish. Depending on the polespear's attributes such as mass, drag, band strength, band stretch, etc., the penetrating range can be from a scant few inches to several feet. Other factors may include fish orientation, fish width, density, skin composition, etc. One would need to take all the attributes into account before firing a polespear towards a target. For example, the band pull on a 10-foot polespear may stretch up to 6-feet of the polespear. It actually requires about 8-feet of polespear, measured from the rear, to do this because the stretch doesn't start till the band begins to provide tension (typically, about 2-feet loop length on a 10-footer). However, the penetrating range may only be half of the pull. This equals about 3' for a 10 footer. Some fish, however, are thicker/denser and may require much closer shots. The more mass a polespear contains, the more band power it will require to move the same speed as a polespear with less mass. However, some fiberglass or extremely lightweight polespears will have so little mass that there is little velocity or 'punch' behind them when it hits a fish. A hybrid polespear combines aluminum with a more flexible material such as a fiberglass rod. These polespears offer rigidity for loading, but still some flexibility in the front end to absorb the lateral movements of a fish once it is attached to the end.

External links

* * * {{Underwater diving, frediv Fishing equipment