How to Make a Fishing Spear Quickly: Your Complete Step-by-Step Guide

To make a fishing spear quickly, find a straight sapling about 5-6 feet long and 2 inches in diameter, split the tip 6-8 inches down the middle using a knife, insert a small stick to spread the prongs apart, and sharpen both tips. This basic two-pronged spear takes 15-20 minutes to complete and works effectively for catching fish in shallow waters.

Whether you’re stuck in a survival situation, planning a bushcraft adventure, or just want to connect with ancient fishing methods, knowing how to craft a fishing spear ranks among the most practical outdoor skills you can master. This isn’t some theoretical exercise—people have fed themselves using handmade spears for thousands of years, and the technique still works today.

The beauty of spear fishing lies in its simplicity. You don’t need fancy equipment, expensive gear, or even much time. With just a knife and the right piece of wood, you can fashion a functional fishing tool in under half an hour. This guide walks you through everything from selecting materials to actually landing your catch.

Why Making Your Own Fishing Spear Makes Sense

Before diving into construction, let’s address the obvious question: why bother making a spear when you could use a rod and reel?

The answer depends on your situation. Traditional fishing requires bait, hooks, line, and patience. A spear gives you immediate hunting capability. You’re actively pursuing fish rather than waiting for them to bite. This active approach works particularly well in clear, shallow water where you can see your targets.

Survival situations make this skill invaluable. If you find yourself stranded near water with only a knife, you can create fishing capability from scratch. Emergency preparedness experts consistently rank spear fishing among the top primitive food-gathering techniques because it requires minimal tools and works in diverse environments.

Beyond survival, bushcraft enthusiasts and outdoor educators appreciate spear fishing as a way to understand how our ancestors lived. There’s something deeply satisfying about catching food using methods that predate modern civilization by millennia.

Understanding Spear Design: Two-Prong vs. Four-Prong

Not all fishing spears work the same way. You’ll encounter two main designs, each with distinct advantages.

The two-pronged spear represents the fastest, simplest design. You split a single stick down the middle, spread the halves apart, and sharpen both ends. This takes minimal time and works surprisingly well. The main advantage? Speed of construction. You can build one in 15-20 minutes.

The downside? Less margin for error when striking. You need decent aim to pin a fish between two prongs.

The four-pronged spear offers better fish-catching ability at the cost of construction time. By splitting the tip into quarters instead of halves, you create four sharp points that increase your chances of hitting the target. Think of it like a wider net—you don’t need pinpoint accuracy.

For fish smaller than 10 inches, four prongs give you a significant advantage. The multiple points create more opportunities to strike the fish, compensating for the fact that fish move quickly and unpredictably. However, you sacrifice some penetration power. Larger fish might slip off a four-pronged spear more easily than a two-pronged version.

The choice depends on your target. Hunting small fish in streams? Go with four prongs. Pursuing larger specimens in deeper water? Stick with two prongs for maximum penetration.

Selecting the Right Wood: Material Matters

Your spear’s effectiveness starts with material selection. Not all wood works equally well, and choosing the wrong piece can mean the difference between success and frustration.

Length and Diameter

Look for a sapling or straight branch about as tall as you are—typically 5 to 6 feet for most adults. Some experienced spearfishers prefer slightly longer shafts for extended reach, but longer spears become harder to control. The diameter should measure roughly 1.5 to 2 inches at the thick end. Too thin, and the spear lacks strength and weight. Too thick, and splitting becomes difficult.

Living Wood vs. Dead Wood

Always choose living wood over dead branches. Live wood contains moisture that keeps it flexible and resistant to splitting beyond where you want it to split. Dead wood cracks unpredictably and snaps when you apply pressure. The difference becomes obvious when you try to split the tip—live wood splits cleanly and stops where your lashing holds it, while dead wood shatters randomly.

Best Wood Species

Different woods offer varying properties, but you don’t need to be a botanist to pick good material. Here’s what works:

Bamboo stands out as the top choice where available. It’s lightweight, incredibly strong, and splits with satisfying precision. The natural hollow sections of bamboo make it easy to create uniform prongs. Many survival experts consider bamboo the ideal spear material because it combines low weight with high durability.

Ash, oak, and hickory represent excellent hardwood options in temperate regions. These woods provide the strength needed for repeated use while maintaining enough flexibility to avoid snapping. Oak particularly offers good weight, which helps the spear penetrate water and fish more effectively.

Pine works in a pinch but ranks lower on the preference scale. It’s soft, which means it damages more easily, but it’s also easier to carve and shape. For a quick survival spear that you’ll only use once or twice, pine gets the job done.

The key characteristic to look for: straightness. A perfectly straight shaft flies truer and handles better than a crooked one. Spend extra time finding the straightest piece available—it makes everything else easier.

Tools You’ll Need (And Improvised Alternatives)

The good news? You don’t need a fully stocked workshop to build a fishing spear. The bad news? You do need at least one sharp tool.

Essential: A Sharp Knife

A fixed-blade knife represents your primary tool. It needs to be sharp—dull knives make clean splits nearly impossible and dramatically increase the risk of injury as you apply more force to cut. A blade length of 4 to 6 inches works well, giving you enough reach for deep cuts while maintaining control.

Helpful Additions

Cordage or rope helps secure your spear’s components. Natural materials like plant fibers work, but modern paracord or jute twine make the job easier and faster. You need about 3 to 4 feet of strong cord.

A saw speeds up the initial cutting if you’re harvesting a sapling from a living tree. However, you can create a pressure cut with just your knife—it simply takes longer.

If You Have No Knife

This gets challenging but remains possible. Sharp rocks, particularly flint or obsidian if you can find them, can split wood and sharpen points. Our ancestors managed with stone tools for thousands of years. The process becomes more time-consuming and requires significant patience, but it works.

You can also sharpen wood using friction against rough stone surfaces. It’s slow, but it creates serviceable points.

Building a Basic Two-Pronged Spear: Step-by-Step

Let’s build the fastest, simplest design first. This two-pronged version takes minimal time and delivers solid results.

Step 1: Prepare Your Shaft

Start by removing bark from the thick end of your stick, working down about 12 to 18 inches. The bark comes off easily on fresh-cut wood—just score it with your knife and peel it away. Smooth wood gives you better control when handling the spear and makes lashing easier later.

Step 2: Create a Stop Point

Tie your cordage tightly around the shaft about 6 to 8 inches from the tip. This lashing serves a critical function—it prevents your split from running too far down the shaft and ruining the spear. Wrap it multiple times and tie it securely. Make it tight enough that it bites into the wood slightly.

Step 3: Make the Initial Split

Place your knife blade on the exact center of the tip. Apply firm, steady pressure downward. Don’t hack at it—use controlled pressure to push the blade through the wood. The split should follow the wood grain naturally.

Keep splitting until you reach your lashing. If you’ve tied it tight enough, the split will stop there. If the wood tries to split further, add more wraps of cordage.

Step 4: Insert a Spreader

Find a stick about the diameter of a pencil—roughly half an inch thick. This becomes your spreader. Push it into the split you just created, driving it down toward the lashing. This forces the two prongs apart, creating the gap that will trap fish.

The spreader stick should fit snugly. Too loose, and it falls out. Too tight, and you risk splitting the shaft further. Aim for a spreader that requires moderate force to push into place.

Step 5: Secure the Spreader

Lash the spreader stick in place using more cordage. Wrap above and below it, then crisscross over the top. This lashing takes significant stress when you strike fish, so make it strong.

Step 6: Sharpen Your Points

Now comes the detail work that separates functional spears from useless sticks. Using your knife, carve each prong to a sharp point. Work carefully, carving away from your body. Create a gradual taper over the last 3 to 4 inches of each prong.

For the outside edges, use pushing cuts away from you. For the inside surfaces (the gap between prongs), carefully pull the knife toward you using the curved part of the blade. This requires concentration—a slip can result in a nasty cut. Take your time.

The sharper you make these points, the better your spear performs. Dull points slide off fish scales. Sharp points penetrate.

Step 7: Optional Improvements

If you have time, add small barbs by cutting shallow notches along the inside edges of your prongs. These help hold fish once speared. Cut the notches at slight angles pointing toward the tip—this lets the spear enter easily but makes it harder for fish to slide off.

Some builders add a stone weight just above the spreader by tying a smooth rock to the shaft. This adds mass, helping the spear sink faster and hit harder underwater. The extra weight makes a noticeable difference, especially in current.

Constructing a Four-Pronged Spear: The Advanced Version

Ready for the upgrade? Four prongs take longer to build but catch fish more reliably.

The process starts identically to the two-prong version, but after your first split, you make a second split perpendicular to the first. This creates four sections instead of two.

Here’s where it gets tricky: you need TWO spreader sticks, arranged in an X pattern where your splits cross. Position them carefully so all four prongs spread evenly. If one side spreads wider than the others, your spear becomes unbalanced.

The lashing becomes more complex with four prongs. You’ll wrap your cordage around the base of all four sections, then add cross-wraps to hold the spreaders. This takes practice—don’t be discouraged if your first attempt looks messy. Messy but secure beats pretty but loose.

Sharpen all four prongs using the same technique as the two-prong version. This takes longer because you’re working on twice as many points. The upside? Four sharp prongs create a deadly fish-catching tool.

The four-prong design shines when hunting small fish in streams or shallow pools. The wider spread means you don’t need perfect aim—just get the spear in the general vicinity of the fish, and at least one prong usually connects.

Fire Hardening: Making Your Spear Last

Want your spear to hold up to repeated use? Fire hardening makes a significant difference.

This technique drives moisture out of the wood while slightly charring the surface, creating harder, more durable points. Hold each sharpened prong over flames (not in direct contact, but close enough to feel intense heat) while slowly rotating it. You’re aiming for a golden-brown color, similar to a perfectly toasted marshmallow.

Don’t let the wood catch fire or turn black. That means you’ve burned it, which makes it brittle rather than hard. The goal is controlled heating that hardens without destroying the wood structure.

Fire hardening takes an extra 10 to 15 minutes but extends your spear’s useful life considerably. The hardened tips resist dulling and damage from rocks and fish scales.

Only harden the tips and prongs—leave the main shaft with its natural moisture content. The extra weight in the shaft provides beneficial mass for striking.

Actually Catching Fish: The Technique

You’ve built your spear. Now comes the hard part: using it effectively.

Spear fishing requires understanding a basic physics concept that trips up beginners: light refraction. When light passes from water into air (or vice versa), it bends. This makes underwater objects appear in different positions than where they actually exist.

Fish appear closer to the surface than their real location. If you aim directly at where you see the fish, you’ll miss almost every time. The spear passes harmlessly over the fish while you wonder what went wrong.

The solution? Aim low. For every foot of depth between the fish and the surface, aim approximately 6 inches below where you see the target. This compensates for refraction.

The angle matters tremendously. If you’re looking almost straight down at a fish near your feet, refraction causes minimal distortion. You can aim nearly directly at it. But if you’re viewing a fish at a shallow angle—say, 45 degrees—you need to compensate more significantly.

Practice helps immensely. Try this exercise: place a target (a rock or can) in clear, shallow water. Practice striking it from different angles. You’ll quickly develop a feel for how much you need to adjust your aim based on depth and viewing angle.

Hunting Technique

Move slowly and deliberately. Fast movements spook fish. Wade carefully into the water, watching for shadows and shapes. Fish often rest in eddies, behind rocks, or in slower-moving water near banks.

Hold your spear with both hands—one near the butt end (this hand provides your striking force) and one toward the middle (this hand guides your aim). When you spot a fish, position yourself for the best angle possible. Directly overhead is ideal but rarely achievable.

Lead your target if the fish is moving. Estimate where it will be when your spear reaches that depth, then strike at that projected location. Remember to account for refraction—aim lower than instinct tells you.

The strike itself should be firm and committed. Don’t jab tentatively. Drive the spear down with authority. The combination of sharp points, speed, and mass should pin the fish to the bottom or impale it on your prongs.

Best Conditions

Clear, calm water provides the easiest spear fishing. You need visibility to spot fish and calm surfaces to minimize additional distortion. Early morning and late afternoon often offer the best conditions—lower sun angles create less glare, and many fish species feed actively during these times.

Slightly shaded areas work well. Direct overhead sun creates harsh glare that makes it difficult to see into the water. Overcast days can be excellent for spear fishing because the diffused light eliminates glare while maintaining good underwater visibility.

Shallow water of 1 to 3 feet depth represents the sweet spot for hand-spear fishing. Deeper water makes it harder to reach fish, and the additional depth intensifies refraction challenges.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Even with good instructions, first-time spear builders make predictable errors. Let’s address them now so you can skip the frustration.

Splitting Too Far

Without proper lashing to stop the split, many builders crack their shaft down too far, sometimes splitting it completely in half. This ruins the spear. The fix? Better lashing placed before you split, and controlled pressure while splitting. Stop frequently to check your progress.

Using Dead or Rotten Wood

Dead wood looks convenient—it’s already on the ground—but it performs terribly. It cracks unpredictably, breaks under stress, and generally disappoints. Always start with living wood, even if it means cutting a sapling. The extra effort pays off immediately.

Dull Points

A spear with dull points bounces off fish instead of penetrating. Many builders stop sharpening too soon, leaving their points merely pointed rather than truly sharp. Keep carving until each point could puncture thick leather. Test them on wood—if they dig in easily, they’re sharp enough.

Poor Grip

Without bark removed from the gripping area, the spear slips in wet hands. Take time to smooth the section where you’ll hold the spear. Some builders wrap this area with cordage to create a textured grip surface.

Aiming Where the Fish Appears

This might be the single most common mistake. Refraction is counterintuitive—your brain insists the fish is where you see it. Trust the physics: aim lower than your target appears, especially at shallow viewing angles.

Legal Considerations: Know Before You Fish

Here’s something many guides skip: spear fishing regulations vary widely by location, and violating them can result in serious penalties.

In the United States, many states prohibit spear fishing in freshwater entirely or restrict it to specific seasons and water bodies. Some states allow it only for certain species considered invasive or nuisance fish. Always check your local regulations before heading out.

The reasoning behind these restrictions relates to fish population management. Spear fishing is highly selective—you target specific fish you can see. This can result in overharvesting of popular species if not regulated. Rod-and-reel fishing involves more chance, spreading pressure across fish populations more evenly.

Many areas that restrict spear fishing in freshwater allow it in saltwater with fewer restrictions. Coastal areas often permit spear fishing year-round, though size and bag limits still apply.

The penalties for illegal spear fishing can be substantial, including hefty fines, confiscation of equipment, and loss of fishing privileges. The five minutes it takes to check regulations can save you hundreds of dollars and legal headaches.

If you’re practicing spear construction purely for bushcraft skills or emergency preparedness, consider building your spear without actually using it to fish, or practice on private property where regulations differ.

Alternative Materials and Modern Upgrades

While this guide focuses on primitive methods using wood and cordage, modern materials can enhance your spear’s performance significantly.

Bamboo Stakes

Garden centers sell bamboo stakes cheaply. These pre-cut, uniform poles make excellent spear material. They’re straight, strong, and already dried to optimal moisture content. A 6-foot bamboo stake costing a couple of dollars provides better raw material than most saplings you’ll find in the wild.

Metal Tips

Attaching a purchased spear tip transforms your wooden shaft into a serious fishing tool. Many outdoor retailers sell three-pronged or four-pronged metal tips with barbs that screw or attach to wooden shafts. The metal tips stay sharper longer and penetrate more reliably than sharpened wood.

Synthetic Cord

While natural cordage adds authenticity to primitive spears, nylon paracord or braided fishing line offers superior strength and durability. These materials don’t rot, can be tied wet, and hold knots more securely than plant fibers.

Weighted Shafts

Some commercial fishing spears incorporate metal bands or weights along the shaft to increase mass and improve underwater performance. You can add similar weight to a wooden spear by attaching smooth stones or metal washers with cordage.

These modern additions defeat the purpose if you’re trying to create a purely primitive survival tool, but they dramatically improve performance if your goal is simply to catch fish effectively.

Maintaining and Storing Your Spear

A well-built spear can last for years with proper care, or it can fall apart after a single use if neglected.

After each fishing session, rinse your spear with fresh water if you’ve been in saltwater. Salt corrodes metal components and degrades cordage. Dry the spear thoroughly—trapped moisture encourages rot and weakens bindings.

Check your lashings regularly. Cordage loosens with use and exposure to water. Tighten or replace loose wraps before they fail at an inconvenient moment. This takes two minutes and prevents frustrating malfunctions.

Store your spear in a dry location out of direct sunlight. UV radiation degrades both wood and cordage over time. A garage, shed, or covered porch works well. Store it horizontally or suspended vertically to prevent warping.

Re-sharpen points as needed. Even fire-hardened wood dulls with use. A few minutes with a knife restores cutting ability. This maintenance step makes the difference between a tool that performs consistently and one that becomes progressively less effective.

The Bigger Picture: Why This Skill Matters

Learning to make and use a fishing spear connects you to human history in tangible ways. Archaeologists have found evidence of spear fishing dating back hundreds of thousands of years. This technique fed our ancestors long before agriculture, written language, or permanent settlements existed.

In practical terms, spear fishing represents a foundational survival skill. Water sources attract both fish and humans, making waterways likely locations for emergency situations. The ability to create a fishing tool from available materials could literally save your life.

Beyond survival scenarios, spear fishing teaches patience, observation, and understanding of natural systems. You learn to read water, identify fish behavior, and move quietly through aquatic environments. These skills transfer to other outdoor pursuits and deepen your connection to wild places.

There’s also something deeply satisfying about catching food with tools you made yourself. Modern life insulates us from the direct relationship between effort and sustenance. Eating a fish you caught with a spear you built bridges that gap in profound ways.

Your Turn

The spear design described here represents thousands of years of human innovation distilled into simple, proven techniques. You don’t need to reinvent anything—just follow the steps, practice the method, and trust that these approaches work because they’ve worked for countless people before you.

Start with the basic two-pronged design. Master that before moving to more complex versions. Build several spears, experimenting with different woods and dimensions. Your first attempt might feel clumsy, but your third or fourth will feel natural.

Most importantly, get out there and actually try spear fishing. Reading about refraction and aiming techniques pales compared to the learning that happens when you thrust a spear at a real fish in real water. You’ll miss more than you hit at first. Everyone does. But each attempt teaches you something—about fish behavior, about water physics, about your own abilities.