Hi, I want to start hunting this summer and will probably start with a simple spear with band attached to it and move up to spear fishing later. Any tips or pointers?
To learn to hunt, doesn't involve a spear, it requires learning. . . Every dive you should be learning to hunt. Watch the fish in their habitat, everywhere you dive. There are fish that are hunters, eating other fish. There are fish that are eaten. The behavior will be very different and it is important to look at fish and tell which category they fit into.
The easiest fish to find and watch are usually the fish that are eaten. . . They frequently swim in schools and are wary of anything that approaches them head on. Predator fish are more often solitary or in small numbers. . . hanging outside the bait fish. As your skill grows in finding fish, learn what the predators are and how they hunt. In my area, sunfish swim in schools in areas with food for them, the depth may change depending on sunlight, waves, or time of year. Their predator is the bass. Small bass will hang around the deeper margins of the sunfish, and will usually not be successful in grabbing a meal. A straight ahead charge of a bass will be defeated by a quick circling of the smaller fish. The bigger bass of the area "king of the mountain" will dominate any ambush places that give the advantage to the predator. . . smaller bass will be attacked if they get too close to the ambush spot.
A side note: even the largest predator is still wary of being attacked by something bigger, so your behavior must look innocent to your quarry. Fish attack head on, good spearfishermen attack sideways. Swim at an angle to your target, and when close, hold the speargun across your body to make the shot, something another fish can't do.
On your first dives swim with the schooling fish and learn what behavior "spooks" these easy to find fish. . . If you swim waving your hands, that will scare fish, If you breathe slow and steady you can move among the fish, if you breathe fast and irratically, you'll scare fish. If you bounce around the bottom, kicking up mud, you won't be able to get close. Watch your behavior and become comfortable, then you can hunt. When you can be close or in the middle of these small baitfish. Look around the edges of the schools, there you will find the targets. You can learn a lot before you buy any kind of pole spear or speargun.