Shooting line and breakaway rigging
Tackle · Last reviewed 2026-08-10
How the fish is connected to something that is not the diver — and the single most important decision in blue-water rigging.
Safety: entanglement — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply here.
Never dive alone, dive one up one down, and never extend a dive for a fish.
- Category
- Spearfishing equipment
After the shot, the fish is attached to something. What it is attached to is a safety decision before it is a fishing one.
A FIXED LINE runs from the shaft to the gun and stays there. It is simple, it is fine for reef fish that can be controlled, and it means the diver is holding the fish. That is exactly what must not happen with anything large.
A REEL mounted on the gun lets line out under drag, so a fish can run without towing the diver, and lets the diver surface while remaining connected. It adds a mechanism that can jam.
A BREAKAWAY RIG separates the shooting line from the gun entirely on the shot. The fish is then attached to a float line and floats, and the diver is attached to nothing. The floats absorb the run, mark the fish, and tire it — and, critically, a diver who lets go of everything is out of the system. This is the standard for large pelagic fish and the reason blue-water divers are not towed.
The principle underneath all three is one sentence: THE DIVER MUST NEVER BE THE ANCHOR.
What it does
Connects the shaft to something that will absorb a fish's run. In a fixed rig that is the gun and therefore the diver; in a reel rig it is a drag; in a breakaway rig it is a float system that the diver can release entirely. It also determines what a diver has to do in the seconds after a shot goes wrong.
How to choose one
- Size the system to the largest fish you might genuinely shoot, not the average one.
- Fixed line only for fish you can physically control. Everything else goes to floats.
- Keep every line as short as the job allows. Slack line in the water is the entanglement hazard.
- Bungee sections absorb surge and stop a shaft being torn out; they are function, not luxury.
- Practise releasing the system on land until it is automatic, because you will do it under stress or not at all.
What the numbers mean
SHOOTING LINE is quoted by material (monofilament, Dyneema) and breaking strain, and is the shaft-to-gun connection. FLOAT LINE length should relate to the depth being dived plus a working margin — longer is not safer, because excess line in the water is the thing that entangles. BUNGEE float lines quote a stretched and unstretched length. BREAKAWAY SLIDE or clip describes how the line separates from the gun. FLOAT BUOYANCY, in kilograms, must handle the largest fish plus a resting diver.
Care, and how it fails
Lines abrade against rock, coral and the boat, and a frayed line parts under exactly the load it exists for. Inspect along the full length rather than at the ends. Check crimps and swivels, which are small parts carrying everything. Bungee perishes. Replace rather than repair, and rinse everything in fresh water after every dive.
Three ways of staying attached to a fish, and what each one attaches it to
Three ways of staying attached to a fish, and what each one attaches it to
Rig · Draft — not yet checked against an external reference
This drawing has not been checked against any reference outside FishingHQ. It shows how the components are arranged; it is not a certified tying sequence. Follow the written steps.
Describe this diagram in words
Three arrangements drawn side by side beneath one sea surface, each headed above it, each showing a speargun, a shooting line and a fish, and differing only in what the line connects to. In the first, headed REEL, the line runs from a reel mounted on the gun down to the shaft in the fish, so everything the fish does is transmitted back to the gun the diver is holding; it is labelled as the fish pulling on the diver, and the line stays on the gun. In the second, headed FLOAT LINE, a line runs from the gun up to a float on the surface as well as out to the fish, so the gun can be let go of and the fish is pulling against the surface. In the third, headed BREAKAWAY, the gun sits with nothing attached to it at all, marked by an arrow and labelled as free, while a single line runs from a float on the surface straight down to the shaft in the fish — the fish tows the float and is joined to nobody. The heading says these are three answers to one question rather than three grades of the same thing, and the question is what the fish is pulling against once the shaft is in it. The concluding note adds the consequence the figure does not draw: a reel keeps the line beside the diver. No line length, breaking strain or float size appears anywhere.
How this drawing was produced
Drawn from coordinates written by hand for this figure and rendered by the site's own diagram component, using the shared element vocabulary rather than any per-diagram styling. No diver appears in any of the three panels, deliberately: the subject is a connection rather than a person, and the one place a body genuinely matters — that a reel leaves loose line beside the diver — is stated in the concluding note instead of drawn, because drawing it would mean drawing an entanglement. Nothing is traced from any manufacturer's drawing and the figure carries no numbers of any kind.
Safety
Never dive alone, dive one up one down, and never extend a dive for a fish. The full set of breath-hold essentials — training, the buddy system, conditions, equipment and visibility — is on the spearfishing safety page.
Entanglement — Can cause serious injury or death
Shooting line, float line and a running fish combine into a system that can take a diver with it. A limb inside a loop as a large fish runs is a diver being pulled down on a breath-hold, which is a time-limited emergency.
What reduces it: Breakaway rigging so the load leaves the gun and the diver. Keep lines short and in front of you. Carry a cutting tool reachable with either hand and practise reaching it blind. Let go of everything — the float system is designed so the diver does not have to be the anchor, and using it means actually releasing.
Worse when:
- Large, fast fish that run hard
- Kelp, reef and structure that the line can wrap on
- Long float lines with slack in the water
Precautions that always apply here
- Never spearfish or freedive alone.
- Dive one up, one down: one diver down, one on the surface actively watching, every single dive.
Where to go next
Where it is used
What it works with
Understanding it
- Entanglement, and the knife that is not a weaponA breakaway separates the gun from a fish running into structure, so the diver is not connected to both.
- Grip leads, plain leads and holding bottomA breakaway lead grips while fishing and returns streamlined, which is one of the genuinely good pieces of design in shore tackle and only makes sense against the holding problem it solves.
- Rig components, and what each one is forBreakaway arrangements are a component question before they are a casting one: the clip, the link and the wire grip each have a failure mode, and the rig depends on all three.
Instead of this
- Shooting line: monofilament or DyneemaDyneema's lack of stretch raises peak shock loads, which is why a shock element is often added.
- Speargun reelsThe choice is about what the fish is attached to. A reel keeps the diver in the system with a drag between them; a breakaway takes the diver out of it entirely. Anything that could tow you needs the second.
Sources and evidence
Why the 8 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Where it is used
Official guidance — 2 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Blue-water spearfishing
An equipment claim with a direct safety rationale, held above practitioner level because the failure mode is a diver being towed on a breath-hold.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Entanglement as a recognised diving hazard and the equipment practice that addresses it.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That breath-hold emergencies are time-limited in a way compressed-gas diving emergencies are not.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysPassage read and verified
Spearfishing
A membership assertion rather than a topical one: this page teaches the discipline or its equipment, so the discipline's mandatory safety posture applies to it.
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing as a defined discipline with its own technical, equipment and safety standards, set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That the safety requirements of breath-hold diving apply across the discipline rather than to particular equipment or techniques within it.States this directlyPassage read and verified
What it works with
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Dive floats and float lines
A dependency between equipment, recorded because choosing one of these constrains the other. Convention, recorded as convention.
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Understanding it
Official guidance — 1 connection
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Entanglement, and the knife that is not a weapon
The equipment answer to the hazard.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on entanglement hazards and emergency cutting equipment.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What experienced anglers do — 2 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Grip leads, plain leads and holding bottom
Why it works, resting on shore-fishing practice reported consistently across independent practitioner sources rather than on experiment.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including shore technique, terminal tackle, regional ground and species behaviour.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Comprehensive angling practice including terminal tackle, casting, leaders and the reasoning behind the choices.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Rig components, and what each one is for
Why it works. How knots and rigs behave is established practitioner knowledge converging across independent angling traditions, and is described as agreement between them rather than as a tested result.
- Angling Times — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK coarse and match angling practice as reported by practitioners, including rig and knot convention.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK sea angling practice as reported by practitioners, including rig construction, leaders and line choice.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Instead of this
Official guidance — 2 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Shooting line: monofilament or Dyneema
The same trade as braid against mono in rod fishing.
- FAO fishing gear types and fishing technology information — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Line construction and material properties, including monofilament and high-modulus braided line.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Speargun reels
A safety-consequential equipment comparison: choosing wrongly means being connected to a fish capable of pulling a person down on a breath-hold.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Entanglement as a recognised diving hazard and the equipment practice that addresses it.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That a breath-hold emergency is time-limited from the moment it begins, so a diver attached to a running fish has no margin to resolve it.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.