Neritic Lionfish Eliminator Pole Spear (Gear Review)

A thorough gear review of the Neritic Lionfish Eliminator Pole Spear. Read this before you buy!

Neritic is a spearfishing and freediving company specializing in high end pole spears. Their “Big Blue” roller pole spear is their trademark item making huge splashes in the spearfishing market.

Given their reputation, we were ecstatic when we won their rendition of lionfish hunting gear through the FWC’s Reef Ranger program (a state sponsored initiative aimed at removing invasive lionfish) – a fine prize for removing 100 lionfish from Florida’s waters.

The prize arrived in the mail straight from Tallahassee – a blue, 36″ inch aluminum sling. The sleek design, rippled grip and lasered logo made for a good looking product upon arrival.

We couldn’t wait to put it to the test.

Reviewing the Neritic Lionfish Eliminator Pole Spear

We’ve done our fair share of lionfish hunting and love to compare different pole spears – I was particularly excited to test this one out. The 36″ length is my ideal size with a thick and sturdy aluminum shaft.

Balance

Balance is the weight distribution around the center of gravity on the spear. Ideally, this point is on the shaft towards the spear tip. Why? That’s where the weight needs to be as it flings forward producing more force into your prey.

The Lionfish Eliminator Pole Spear has a well-balanced design with enough weight towards the front end to do some damage to your lionfish prey.

Shaft

The shaft is the best thing going for this pole spear. The aluminum design is sturdy yet light. I’ve owned a flimsy aluminum Hawaiin sling before, only to have it bend in the car with the tiniest amount of pressure placed on it.

I don’t foresee that happening to the Lionfish Eliminator. It’s a solid piece of equipment with an ideal length for lionfish hunting.

Band Strength

The band that comes stock on the spear is small and not all too powerful. I’d recommend purchasing a thicker band to get some more oomf behind your spear.

3 Pronged Tip

My biggest bone to pick with this spear was the tips. The design is flawed. They’re too shallow- allowing pierced lionfish to easily shake off. In fact, on one dive I had all four that I shot shake off! I only bagged one after hitting it three times.

Not to mention, they completely got bent and mangled after a single use. We do most of our diving in Fort Lauderdale, so we often find lionfish invading our shipwrecks. One shot on a wreck backdrop and these prongs were bent in every which way.

The more solid straight tipped prongs work better. What’s good about this pole spear, though, is you can swap out the spear tips. So I’m sure you could find the longer spear tips to use instead of Neritic’s.

The threading for a replacement is a female, 6mm

Looks

The sleek design, ocean blue, and rippled grip make the Lionfish Eliminator one of the best looking pole spears in the game.

Look good. Feel good. Shoot straight. Or something of the sorts…

Length

36″ is the upper limits of what I’d prefer in a lionfish pole spear. I have a lot of success with my 18″ spear, but sometimes it just doesn’t have that extra length to get the lionfish who like to hide in really deep holes or shipwrecks.

Once you get used to this length, you’ll love it.

Final Thoughts On the Lionfish Eliminator Pole Spear

At first I was a bit conflicted with this pole spear. My first hunt with it was wildly unsuccessful with 3 out of the four lionfish I shot escaping. Simply mangling lionfish isn’t the type of ethical hunting I aspire.

However, once swapping out Neritic’s spear tip with a longer one, I started having more success.

Our Recommendation

Between the sturdy design of the aluminum pole spear, the looks, and the length, we recommend purchasing the Lionfish Eliminator One Piece Spear from Neritic Diving.

However, do not purchase their spear tip. Go a different route with Scuba Choice’s three prongs. You’ll stick your lionfish and they’ll stay there. Not to mention, it seems nearly impossible to bend these spear tips (don’t quote me on that, now).