DIY halibut harpoon

After reading about halibut harpoons and their use on the long and educational thread at http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=7725.0 , I decided to make a halibut harpoon. A picture of the harpoon I made is below.  A friend made the metal shaft and slip-tip for me.  I made the rest of the harpoon.



The metal shaft and the tip of the slip-tip are made from 5/16” stainless rod.  The rest of the slip-tip is made out of 3/8” outside diameter stainless tubing which is silver-soldered over the tip.  An O-ring is set in a groove in the end of the metal shaft to keep the slip-tip from falling off the shaft.





The shaft of the harpoon is a replacement shovel handle with a maximum diameter of 1.5.”  I chose a fairly large diameter wood shaft in order to provide enough floatation so the harpoon won’t sink.  A 1.5” shaft has more than twice the floatation of a 1” shaft.

The most difficult aspect of making the harpoon was to drill an accurate hole in the wooden shaft for the metal shaft, which is epoxied into the wooden shaft.



The metal ferrule at the end of the wooden shaft is the tip of the metal ferrule from a rake handle.  I shortened the ferrule to about a third of its original length to reduce the weight of the ferrule.



Before I added a float to the harpoon, it floated vertically in fresh water with about six inches of its butt sticking out.  Although it will float higher in salt water, to be sure that the harpoon won’t sink and be lost, I attached a float to the butt end of the wooden shaft.  The float is far enough from the butt end of the shaft that I can stick the butt into the cast-in rod holders in my Revolution.  I painted the butt orange to make it more visible when the harpoon is floating vertically in the water. 



The buoy is a Polyform G-3 fender.  I attached the fender with a “Y” shaped bridle so a fish will pull the the fender through the water sideways. 



I’m using this fender as a buoy rather than the round Polyform A-0 and A-1 buoys used by many kayak fishermen because it is easier to bungie it on the back of my kayak.  When I get ready to harpoon a fish, I can pull the fender out from under the bungie with one hand.



The volume of this fender as compared to some other Polyform buoys is shown below.  If I have hopes of catching really large fish, such as halibut in Alaska, I’ll replace the G-3 fender with a larger buoy.

A-0 - 1.6 gallons
A-1 - 3.0 gallons
G-3 - 1.4 gallons
G-4 - 2.2 gallons
LD1 - 3.0 gallons

The slip-tip is attached to the buoy with 6 mm climbing accessory cord.  The cord is attached to the slip-tip’s cable with a stainless steel quicklink, so after the fish is dead I can detach the cord, pull the cable through the fish, and then re-attach the cable to the cord.



I know from spearfishing that an un-sheathed spear tip can poke holes in vehicle upholstery, body parts, and pretty much anything else in the area.  I jam a piece of plastic tubing over the tips of my speargun spears when I’m transporting them.  However, you need to be able to remove the sheath from a harpoon with one hand while fighting a large fish with the other hand, and the sheath has to fit loosely, so it won’t pull the slip-tip off its shaft.  I made the sheath for my harpoon out of one inch outside diameter PVC pipe which is held on by a length of shock cord.  When I’m transporting the harpoon, the shock cord from the sheath is clipped to the buoy.



The end of the sheath is open, so water can drain out.



When the harpoon is in a paddle holder on my kayak, the shock cord from the sheath is attached to the kayak.



When I slide the harpoon out of the sheath, the sheath hangs from my kayak by the shock cord.



The rope to the buoy is held against the shaft of the harpoon with a piece of bicycle inner tube.



The ring of inner tube has a tongue extending from it to make it easier to grab the inner tube with cold hands, or while wearing gloves.



Bike inner tubes come in various diameters, and you can adjust the strength of a ring of inner tube by making it wider or narrower.  You can get used  bike inner tubes for free from a bike shop, which will usually have an assortment of old ones in its garbage can.  An advantage of the shovel handle which I chose for the shaft of my harpoon is that it tapers towards the rear of the harpoon, so I can adjust how tightly a ring of inner tube holds the rope by sliding it up and down the shaft.





I’d appreciate any suggestions for improvement of this harpoon from any of you who have actually poked a lot of fish with harpoons.  Until I get out to the coast and can try to catch and harpoon some big fish, I’ll have to practice harpooning on kokanee here in Montana.

Lol. Wow. You really took in ALL the info. Looks good. The only pic I looked at a second time was how the wire is attached to the harpoon head. If you think that is solid, I think you are good to go.

I will say I store my harpoon tip up in the factory rod holder. That's my main method of keeping the tip on. Love the inner tube idea!

What size bouy on that fish Pete...... That thing looks sick wicked !!!! Props man!!!! Been hanging out with my kids too much. How much you going to sell them for I want one.

Looks good.  Perhaps the only question I have is if that red buoy is really needed.  The concern is that it presents another opportunity for something to snag on.

-Allen

Looks good.  Perhaps the only question I have is if that red buoy is really needed.  The concern is that it presents another opportunity for something to snag on.
-Allen

If the harpoon floats high enough in salt water, I may take off the red float.

When are you heading to the coast?

When are you heading to the coast?

I'm coming out for the May Day Tournament at Tillamook, and am trying to make arrangements to hook up with people for some fishing in the area before and after the weekend.

Nice, should be a good trip!

I’ll have to practice harpooning on kokanee here in Montana.

Oh those poor little kokanee!

When are you heading to the coast?

I'm coming out for the May Day Tournament at Tillamook, and am trying to make arrangements to hook up with people for some fishing in the area before and after the weekend.

I may have missed it somewhere in a previous post, but where/when do you plan to fish for halibut?

I may have missed it somewhere in a previous post, but where/when do you plan to fish for halibut?

I don't have any halibut fishing lined up yet.  I have some sturgeon/salmon fishing lined up, and if the weather is suitable want to fish at least one day at Pacific City.  If anybody is going halibut or salmon fishing around the weekend of May 2-3, I'd be grateful for an invitation.  Personal message me.

check the regulations for the areas you will fish...make sure that harpooning is permitted for that species (I dont think it's legal to 'poon or gaff salmon at Pacific City).   

I want to see the harpoon working on video.  Looks very cool.

As one of the guys that took Pete out at PC I got to lay my hands on it and let me say if it were sitting on a shelf at the tackle store you wouldn't know it's home made. It feels as good as it looks and is very well designed and put together.