Shafts and tips

The shaft is a steel rod, 6 to 8 mm thick and a little longer than the gun, with a tip that penetrates and a flopper or barb that stops the fish sliding off. It carries the shooting line to the gun or the reel. Everything about the shot ends here: a shaft that is too thin for the bands bends and misses; a tip that is blunt bounces off a scaled shoulder; a flopper that sticks shut lets the fish tear free.

A spearo carries spares. Shafts bend on rock, tips dull, floppers break, and a session ends when the last shaft does.

Diameter:

• 6 to 6.5 mm: fast and flat, for short guns and small to medium fish. Bends easily on rock.
• 7 mm: the all-round diameter for Moroccan rock and the fish on it. Stiff enough for a big sar or a seabass, not too heavy for an 85 cm gun.
• 7.5 to 8 mm: long guns, big fish, hard-hitting rollers. Heavy and slow on a short gun.

Tip:

• A single flopper on a pencil-point shaft is the standard: simple, strong, nothing to unscrew. A flopper on top (Tahitian) or underneath is a matter of habit; underneath tends to hold better on a fish shot from above.
• A threaded shaft with a screw-on tip takes a single or double-barbed tip, a rock point, or a slip tip for big fish. Threads are a weak point on rock.
• Double floppers hold big fish better and penetrate slightly less.

The rest:

• Notches or shark fins: the tabs the band's wishbone catches. Shark fins are welded on and take a dyneema wishbone; notches take a metal one. Match the shaft to the gun's wishbone.
• Steel: spring stainless resists bending and rust; galvanised steel is cheap and rusts. Sandvik or equivalent spring steel is the standard.
• Length: the gun's length plus about 35 to 45 cm; the manufacturer specifies it.

Sharpen the tip. A blunt tip on a scaled fish is the commonest cause of a lost one.

Match the shaft to the gun: the length the maker specifies, the diameter the bands can push. One rule of thumb: one 16 mm band per 6.5 mm of shaft on a short gun; two 16 to 18 mm bands for 7 mm on a long one.

Rinse, dry, check for bends by rolling it on a flat surface, and straighten small bends by hand over a knee or a rail. Keep the tip sharp with a file, from the base of the point towards the tip, keeping the original angle. Oil the flopper pivot. Retire a shaft that has bent and been straightened more than twice.