Best overall dive float?

[jrucker23]

I've been looking for the best all around dive float that can take some big fish and smaller fish. The ones that keep popping up are the sporasub bluewater which has a pretty good price, Spearmaster float 3 atm which I've heard some negative reviews about, and the riffe 3 atm which I know can take big tuna without any issues. Let me know what you guys think or have experienced with your floats, I'm open to all suggestions.

Thanks in advance, Jackson

[chris oak]

There is no true overall dive float, you have to either go big and carry something you won't need most of the time, or go small and lose big fish.

If you ever are thinking of going after bluefin or big yellowfin I'd recommend a Gannet Bluewater 100. For wsb no one really uses a float because it would be getting caught up in the kelp all time, but some guys carry a kelp carrot or a snake float.

I pretty much have two floats that get used most often. A small hard float that I made out of big lobster buoys (about the size of a rob allen hard float) or a big Gannet. This year during covid I only used the big Gannet most of the time because I was trying to keep all the boats from running me over when I dove for yellowtail.

If I had to just chose one float for everthing, I'd get the big float and just get used to towing it anywhere I hunted bluewater. Keep in mind though that takes up a bit of deck space over a smaller inflatable float and is heavier overall.

[Jon McMullen]

I have 2 Riffe 3atm floats. Are they the best? Don’t know - but they’ve worked well for me so far. They deflate to a pretty flat profile that can be rolled and stashed for travel. Anytime I’m diving outside of the kelp I use it for safety (like Chris). For those cases when I’m going for yt off the boat I leave it deflated for the trip out and just blow it up on my own - then it fits well into my trashcan next to the guns. In the situation where more lift is needed I just add the second one to my bungee.

Also, if I’m trying to keep a fish from tying up I’ll roll onto my float under my armpits to help me fight it (you can add a tuna clip to one of the handles too). The shape of the riffe float works well for me in that situation.

I saw neptonics is advertising them for 30% off and free shipping today.

Curious to know what route you end up going. It’s a fun purchase and you really can’t go wrong w all the good available options.

[jrucker23]

I have 2 Riffe 3atm floats. Are they the best? Don’t know - but they’ve worked well for me so far. They deflate to a pretty flat profile that can be rolled and stashed for travel. Anytime I’m diving outside of the kelp I use it for safety (like Chris). For those cases when I’m going for yt off the boat I leave it deflated for the trip out and just blow it up on my own - then it fits well into my trashcan next to the guns. In the situation where more lift is needed I just add the second one to my bungee.

Also, if I’m trying to keep a fish from tying up I’ll roll onto my float under my armpits to help me fight it (you can add a tuna clip to one of the handles too). The shape of the riffe float works well for me in that situation.

I saw neptonics is advertising them for 30% off and free shipping today.

Curious to know what route you end up going. It’s a fun purchase and you really can’t go wrong w all the good available options.

Thanks for the response, I'm leaning towards the riffe 3 atm considering the neptonics deal and that it's a bigger float that can handle bigger fish and it doesnt require an air compressor to fill to the right size. I'll make sure to let you know what I end up with, my choices are narrowing.

jackson

[jrucker23]

There is no true overall dive float, you have to either go big and carry something you won't need most of the time, or go small and lose big fish.

If you ever are thinking of going after bluefin or big yellowfin I'd recommend a Gannet Bluewater 100. For wsb no one really uses a float because it would be getting caught up in the kelp all time, but some guys carry a kelp carrot or a snake float.

I pretty much have two floats that get used most often. A small hard float that I made out of big lobster buoys (about the size of a rob allen hard float) or a big Gannet. This year during covid I only used the big Gannet most of the time because I was trying to keep all the boats from running me over when I dove for yellowtail.

If I had to just chose one float for everthing, I'd get the big float and just get used to towing it anywhere I hunted bluewater. Keep in mind though that takes up a bit of deck space over a smaller inflatable float and is heavier overall.

Thank you for your input, I am leaning towards most 3 atm floats but I'm probably going to eliminate the spearmaster float due to exploding in some instances. The gannet float looks clutch, I've seen some divers going for tuna that use those floats and they don't need any tow floats or extra help. I'm most definetly going to get a bigger float, Better safe than sorry This upcoming tuna season i'll definetely try to get a trip out to san clemente, cortez bank, or tanner bank and try to shoot my first tuna hopefully. I appreciate the advice I'm definetly set on these bigger floats now and i'll probably wait for a couple more responses until i pull the trigger on a float.

[Jon McMullen]

I have 2 Riffe 3atm floats. Are they the best? Don’t know - but they’ve worked well for me so far. They deflate to a pretty flat profile that can be rolled and stashed for travel. Anytime I’m diving outside of the kelp I use it for safety (like Chris). For those cases when I’m going for yt off the boat I leave it deflated for the trip out and just blow it up on my own - then it fits well into my trashcan next to the guns. In the situation where more lift is needed I just add the second one to my bungee.

Also, if I’m trying to keep a fish from tying up I’ll roll onto my float under my armpits to help me fight it (you can add a tuna clip to one of the handles too). The shape of the riffe float works well for me in that situation.

I saw neptonics is advertising them for 30% off and free shipping today.

Curious to know what route you end up going. It’s a fun purchase and you really can’t go wrong w all the good available options.

Thanks for the response, I'm leaning towards the riffe 3 atm considering the neptonics deal and that it's a bigger float that can handle bigger fish and it doesnt require an air compressor to fill to the right size. I'll make sure to let you know what I end up with, my choices are narrowing.

jackson

Just to be clear - you should be fine by filling w your lungs if you’re going for yt. You’ll want to use a compressor if you want the max advertised lift. You can get one on Amazon for very cheap and you can plug into the wall or your car.

[Matthew Rice]

The big gannet is very popular for bluefin in part due to the fact that it can be towed better than anything else, as far as I know. It is definitely much bigger than the floats folks use for smaller fish, but people use smaller floats as fighting floats for chasing big fish. This also allows you to put successive pressure on the fish. At least that's the idea...

[jrucker23]

I assumed that if I were going for yellowtail or anything under 50 pounds i would just manually inflate it with my lungs but if I was going for bigger fish I would need as much strength in that float that I can have. It also says you can use a bicycle pump to inflate it but i don't know how accurate that is.

thanks for the response, jackson

[jrucker23]

The big gannet is very popular for bluefin in part due to the fact that it can be towed better than anything else, as far as I know. It is definitely much bigger than the floats folks use for smaller fish, but people use smaller floats as fighting floats for chasing big fish. This also allows you to put successive pressure on the fish. At least that's the idea...

Appreciate your input, Gannet also are flat which I think is an advantage compared to the riffe 3 atm floats which kind of half dive when being towed by the fish. The Gannet float kind of glides across the top and once the fish takes all the float line it then dives unlike the riffe 3 atm. I see people using many different sized ones but I would assume if your chasing some big tuna you would want the 100, am I correct? I would think it would be hard to pop one of these floats on accident or something but I do notice the gannet doesnt have a bladder and the riffe does. Does that play into any different results from fighting the fish if the float has a bladder or not?

Thanks, jackson

[Bill McIntyre]

If you want to get by with just one float for everything, then you have to go with one of the big ones. And you have to pump it to full pressure, which is a pain in the ass. After a while I got tired of my big Gannett taking up so much room in my boat. If I'm just going to the islands for yellowtail, I just take the Rob Allen 12 liter hard float. It doesn't take up much room and doesn't need to be inflated while my buddies beat me into the water. I just hook it to the line and throw it overboard. They still beat me into the water but at least I'm not as far behind.

https://neptonics.com/product/rob-allen-floats/

[Schwaman]

Like others have said, there really isnt one best float, like there isnt one best speargun or one best golf club.

What you need depends on your target species, environment ( bluewater, kelp...), need to travel by airplane etc. Inflatable or hard float? Do you need for shore or boat diving?

Coatesman has a pretty good video on yourube discussing some basics to start on different big fish species.

For YT, a smaller float like 11l RA hard or remora is sufficient.
For tuna, marlin etc you likely want multiple floats with the first designed to go under (hard float or x atm).

For soft, fast fish like wahoo, i like to use a small float that is designed to being submerged connected to a bungee to a bigger stopper float - a set up to minimize the initial shock on the fish and apply gradual pressure.
I have had gool luck with Rob allen remora floats - a 11l and a 35, that combo is good for tuna up to 200lbs at least.

I recently got an ulusub 25psi float on sale for $150 and am really happy with it. The gannet floats look really nice, but expensive and overkill on fish under 100-150lbs.

Then again, if you are diving jeavy boat traffic, you are better off with a bigger float than the fish your targeting might need.
Hope that helps.

[gringo sushi]

Like others have said, there really isnt one best float, like there isnt one best speargun or one best golf club.

What you need depends on your target species, environment ( bluewater, kelp...), need to travel by airplane etc. Inflatable or hard float? Do you need for shore or boat diving?

Coatesman has a pretty good video on yourube discussing some basics to start on different big fish species.

For YT, a smaller float like 11l RA hard or remora is sufficient.
For tuna, marlin etc you likely want multiple floats with the first designed to go under (hard float or x atm).

For soft, fast fish like wahoo, i like to use a small float that is designed to being submerged connected to a bungee to a bigger stopper float - a set up to minimize the initial shock on the fish and apply gradual pressure.
I have had gool luck with Rob allen remora floats - a 11l and a 35, that combo is good for tuna up to 200lbs at least.

I recently got an ulusub 25psi float on sale for $150 and am really happy with it. The gannet floats look really nice, but expensive and overkill on fish under 100-150lbs.

Then again, if you are diving jeavy boat traffic, you are better off with a bigger float than the fish your targeting might need.

Hope that helps.

I second all of this... Well Said!!!

And like Bill says, on a small boat that big Gannett float takes up a lot of space. Good luck making your decision.