Speargun reels

Tackle · Last reviewed 2026-08-10

A drum of line on the gun that lets a fish run instead of towing the diver — the middle option between a fixed line and a full breakaway rig.

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.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

Category: Spearfishing equipment

A reel bolted to a speargun does two things a fixed line cannot. It lets a fish take line under drag rather than pulling on the diver, and it lets the diver surface while still connected to the fish.

That second point is the one that matters and is rarely stated first. On a fixed line, a diver who has shot a fish that will not come is choosing between staying down and letting go. On a reel, they can go up, breathe, and deal with the fish from the surface — which removes the single commonest reason divers extend a breath-hold past sense.

Compared with a full breakaway rig it is less capable and much more convenient. A breakaway transfers the fish to floats and takes the diver out of the system entirely, which is what large pelagic fish require; a reel keeps the diver in the system with a drag between them and the fish, which is fine for reef and rock fish and is not fine for something that can tow a buoy.

The cost is a mechanism. A reel can jam, the line can bird's-nest under a fast run, and the drag can be set wrongly — none of which a length of line attached to a gun can do. It is a real trade, and which way it goes depends almost entirely on the size of fish being engaged.

What it does

Holds a reserve of line on the gun and releases it under an adjustable drag when a fish pulls. It converts a fixed connection into a yielding one, so that a fish can run without towing the diver and the diver can surface without disconnecting.

How to choose one

Reel for reef and rock fish you can control. Breakaway and floats for anything that could tow you.
Carry enough line for the depth being dived plus a genuine working margin — running out mid-run loses the fish and frequently the shaft.
Set the drag before the dive, not during a run. It should yield before anything else in the system breaks.
A reel is a mechanism in salt water: it needs rinsing and servicing or it will jam at the worst moment.
Keep the line on the reel tidy. A loose loop is both a jam and an entanglement.

What the numbers mean

CAPACITY is quoted in metres of a stated line diameter, and should comfortably exceed the depth being dived. LINE is usually Dyneema for thin diameter and low stretch, or monofilament for abrasion resistance and a little cushioning. DRAG may be a simple friction adjustment or a proper clutch; what matters is that it is smooth and repeatable rather than strong. MOUNTING — side or bottom — changes how the line leaves the gun and whether it fouls the muzzle. LINE-RELEASE ARRANGEMENT determines whether the line runs cleanly on the shot or snags on the gun, which is where most reel problems actually begin.

Care, and how it fails

Salt is the enemy: rinse thoroughly after every session, and service the mechanism periodically rather than when it stops. Check the line along its whole length for abrasion, because it is chafed by rock, coral and the shaft notch and it parts under exactly the load it exists for. Re-spool it evenly; line laid on badly jams under a fast run. The failure that matters is a jam mid-run with a diver connected to a moving fish, so a reel that has become stiff is a reel to service before diving, not after.

Reel or breakaway: what you are actually choosing between

Both answers solve the same problem — a shot fish has to be attached to something that yields — and they fail in opposite directions.

A REEL KEEPS EVERYTHING ON THE GUN. Nothing trails, nothing is dragged through kelp, nothing snags on a boat, and a diver can move through confined ground and between holes without managing a float line. That is why reels dominate in ground that is broken, weedy or tight, and why they suit shore diving where the swim out and back is long.

ITS FAILURE MODE IS THAT THE DIVER IS ATTACHED TO THE FISH. If the fish is bigger than expected, or reaches structure, the diver is holding the gun that is holding it. The answer is to let go of the gun — which only works if the gun floats or is attached to something that does, and which is a decision a diver has to have made before it happens rather than during it.

A BREAKAWAY PUTS THE FISH ON THE FLOAT INSTEAD. The shooting line detaches from the gun at the shot and the fish fights a buoy at the surface, which is the only arrangement that reliably works on fish large enough to tow a person. The float also marks the diver's position for boat traffic, which is a second and independent reason for it.

ITS FAILURE MODE IS LINE IN THE WATER. A float line is a rope through the water column with a diver at one end, and it is the specific thing that entangles people. It also snags on structure, catches on boats and demands management every dive.

SO THE HONEST RULE IS ABOUT FISH SIZE AND GROUND, not preference. Small fish in tight ground: reel. Fish that can run, or open water, or any traffic: float and breakaway. Many divers carry both and rig for the day.

AND WHATEVER IS CHOSEN, THE KNIFE IS NOT OPTIONAL. Every one of these systems puts line in the water near a person who cannot breathe, and a cutting tool reachable with either hand is the mitigation for all of them.

Official guidance — why, and the sources (3)

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

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 and rigging choice, shot placement, 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
DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety guidance including the buddy system, weighting, positive buoyancy at the surface and the management of equipment failure.States this directlyPassage read and verified

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

A reel keeps the diver connected to a running fish. Loose line coming off a reel under load can loop around a hand, an arm or the gun, and a jam turns a yielding connection into a fixed one at the moment a fish is pulling hardest.

What reduces it: Keep the line tidy and the reel serviced. Set the drag so it yields. Carry a cutting tool reachable with either hand. Be willing to let go of the gun entirely — it is replaceable and the float will usually recover it. For fish large enough to tow you, use a breakaway rig and floats instead, which takes the diver out of the system rather than cushioning them inside it.

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.

Further safety reading

Entanglement while breath-hold diving — A reel puts a length of line in the water that can wrap a diver, and entanglement while breath-holding is a hazard with no time in which to solve it.

Where to go next

Where it is used

What it works with

Understanding it

Instead of this

Sources and evidence

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 extending a breath-hold to deal with a fish is a principal contributor to hypoxic blackout — the problem a reel exists to remove.States this directlyPassage read and verified

Why the 12 connections on this page are here, and the sources

Where it is used

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.

Shore diving
A dependency between a format and the rigging that suits it.
- 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

Official guidance — 1 connection

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

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 — 2 connections

Spearguns
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
Shafts and tips
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

Official guidance — 2 connections

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

Spearguns
Diving body guidance on line management and entanglement risk in the water.
- BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Guidance on lines and entanglement hazards for divers.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Speargun power systems
An equipment claim whose justification is a safety mechanism rather than a fishing advantage, which is why it is not labelled as practitioner preference.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That extending a breath-hold to deal with a fish is a principal contributor to hypoxic blackout.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- 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 hazard and the equipment practice addressing it.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation 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.

Line and float-line tangles
The architecture most associated with 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, line management and emergency cutting equipment.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

What experienced anglers do — 1 connection

Reel jams, clips and the rigging that fails quietly
One record resolves a question the other raises and cannot answer alone.
- 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

Instead of this

Official guidance — 3 connections

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

Reels, float lines and breakaway systems
The component record and the architectural decision around it.
- 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 surface marking, dive flags and diver visibility.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Shooting line: monofilament or Dyneema
Line choice interacts with the connection architecture.
- 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
Shooting line and breakaway rigging
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

What experienced anglers do — 3 connections

Reels, float lines and breakaway systems
An explainer carrying a mechanism the equipment record depends on.
- 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
Shooting line: monofilament or Dyneema
An explainer carrying a mechanism the equipment record depends on.
- 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
Dive floats and float lines
A comparison a diver is genuinely choosing between, joining two records that resolve one another.
- 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

Safety reading

Official guidance — 1 connection

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

Entanglement while breath-hold diving
Diving and freediving body guidance on entanglement hazards.
- DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Guidance on hazards to a breath-hold diver, including entanglement.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.

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