Quick links are affordable, quiet, and strong. That’s why I like to use them on my floatlines when spearfishing! I did have an issue with disconnecting them to move my floatline from one speargun to another.
Pros
As I mentioned before, quick links are affordable compared to other types of rigging equipment such as tuna clips and D-rings. Check out the link below to purchase them at a cheap price. Usually a pack of three will cost around $3.00 which is not bad considering tuna clips run about double the price. Another benefit to Quick links is that I find much quieter than tuna clips with swivels. This is especially important when hunting White Sea Bass where being quiet is the most important trait in your spearfishing equipment. The last benefit that I will discuss about using quick links on my gear is their strength. This is number one thing that I require from my spearfishing equipment. It's simple. If the fish of my dreams shows up while I'm out diving, I want to know that when I pull that trigger on my speargun, my equipment will not fail. Remember, your gear is only as strong as the weakest link. If you have 400-pound mono shooting line, but your connection, tuna clip, swivel, etc., is only rated to 250-pounds, the entire setup will fail at 250-pounds. The quick links that I use are 1/8" stainless steel and have a breaking load limit of 900-pounds. When hunting tuna, the weakest link in my whole spearfishing setup is my 600-pound dyneema shooting line.
Cons
So far I have found two negatives with using quick links with spearfishing for large tuna and other gamefish. The first issue is not being able to clip into your floatline in order choke up as you fight the fish. I remedy this situation by keeping an extra tuna clip attached to my float that I can use to clip into the floatline. This is really only necessary for larger fish, smaller to medium size fish do not require an extra tuna clip. The next issue I had while using quick links spearfishing was that I could not grip it with wet hands in order to detach it from the floatline. This problem is easy solved by using heat shrink to coat the keeper screw. The video above shows how coat your quick link with heat shrink. This does two things:
1) It make the keeper screw a larger diameter giving you better leverage when attempting to unscrew it from your spearfishing setup.
2) The heat shirk provides better grip than trying to grip wet stainless steel.
Specifically, I use clear heat shrink so that I can see if any corrosion is happening under the heat shrink.
Conclusion
Quick links are a great tool to use when hunting big game. This simple and quick modification should help your overall experience in and out of the water while fishing for these large beast. Remember, your spearfishing equipment should feel like an extension of you. Give yourself every possible advantage.
PURCHASE QUICK LINKS https://amzn.to/2HSq6lh
DIVE GEAR:
Riffe Floatline https://amzn.to/2ZHP9m8
Strong Spectra https://amzn.to/2zZQ5D6
Sportube for speargun travel https://amzn.to/2NAteaz
CAMERA GEAR:
Akaso Camera https://amzn.to/2MX63Xf
