Spearfishing Course 1 Day

£200.00

2024 COURSES NOW AVAILABLE TO BOOK

If you are wanting to get into the sport, this one-day course is designed to get you up to speed with all the basics of spearfishing so you are ready to head out and hunt safely.

The course will focus primarily on shallow water hunting and surface stalking in order to remain as stealthy as possible and ambush your prey. Covering safety, gun handling, dive planning, fish ID and lots more.

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2024 COURSES NOW AVAILABLE TO BOOK

This 1-day course is designed to give you all the basics you need to hunt effectively and safely.

If you are simply looking to get an intro into spearfishing and have a go at trying to find some fish then please see our experience days, this course is about setting you up to be a proficient hunter and able to put food on the table safely. It is NOT about being handed a speargun and shooting anything that moves.

All courses include full gear hire for no extra cost and a 10% voucher to use on gear, in store or online.

The primary objective of the 1 day course is shallow water stalking primarily from the surface aiming to cover safety, dive planning, fish ID and target practice. As most of the main target species such as Bass, Mullet can be shot from the surface this course is designed to give the hunter an in depth introduction to spearfishing enabling you to go out safely and hunt effectively.

Before the course you will be sent a booklet to study in order to bring every diver up to speed to the same level. This will include the core safety aspects of species ID, safe practice of using a speargun, dive planning and hunting techniques.

This means when everyone arrives to the course you will have a short recap and be ready to enter the water.

The Cornwall 1 day course meeting point is Delphy Pool dive centre, this is in order to be given your equipment and go through the classroom learning, then depending on weather you will head to either the North or South coast of Cornwall.

The courses consist of 1 instructor and 4 students as this keeps the course safer and more concise for the students. We have found more than 4 students isn’t the best value for money as it does not give enough time to help each student and answer questions that arise during the day

Course template and structure

  • Completion of course book before attending the day
  • Safety briefing and course overview
  • Dive planning
  • Equipment introduction/familiarization
  • Weighting/Buoyancy
  • Speargun handling and target practice
  • Shallow water hunting at the surface.
  • Ambush, stalking and stealth
  • Species identification and fish sizing

When you arrive to the course the instructor will do a quick recap/test on the booklet to make sure everyone is up to speed and has time to ask any questions. We’re more concerned about your knowledge on the safety side of the course here and this is what the test will be mostly be about.

The instructor will then do a recap on the core safety and species ID so it’s fresh in your mind for entering the water.

Once you’re in the water we will make sure everyone is comfortable with their kit and test your weighting and buoyancy to make sure everyone is comfortable.

Now the fun part – we set up a fish target underwater and you have to approach shooting the target in a few different scenarios. Once everyone has had a turn of this you will then shoot the target from the surface to experience how it changes when dealing with swell and the movement of the water.

We will then move onto surface hunting and stalking as there is plenty of fish to be found right at the surface and in the first 5m such as Bass, Mullet, Garfish and Mackerel. This is the most common and easiest hunting style for most spearos but to stalk fish effectively without spooking them isn’t as easy as it sounds – you will have to stay calm, move slowly and take the shot before the fish senses you.

The instructor will tutor the students on the correct finning techniques and how to stay quiet and use as little movement as possible in order to stalk and ambush the target species. Using the terrain as cover to remain as stealthy as possible and maximise closing the distance to the target.

We have a policy on our courses of maintaining the sustainable nature of spearfishing and will only allow students to shoot fish of legal size that they intend to eat – this will be reiterated on the day.

What you need to bring/what is supplied:

All the equipment is provided for the course – however if you have any gear already that you would like to use, such as a mask, snorkel or fins then please bring it with you.

Please bring food, a towel and money for parking. There are facilities nearby such as a Café and toilets.

Disclaimer*

You will need to sign a health declaration form and safety waiver which we will send out before the course in case there are any medical issues that require a doctor’s sign off before the course.

Catching fish on the day is not guaranteed so please do not turn up expecting to come away with fish or crustaceans – the primary function of this course is to enable you to hunt and dive safely and progress your skills to a level you are comfortable with so you can go away and hunt effectively.

The cancellation time for booking a course is 21 days before, if you chose to cancel within 21 days from the start of the course we cannot refund you. If you wish to change the date this time frame also applies, as we cannot run a course with less than 2 people it is unfair on other students to have their course cancelled by someone else changing their preferred date so please bear this in mind when booking a course. If a change in date is requested within 21 days from the start date we will try our best to reschedule bookings if possible depending on how full the course is this may not always be possible.

Exceptions to this can be made for medical reasons

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