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Question for Spearblog.com
We are planning a trip in October to hunt big tuna. How do you rig your shooting line for large tuna(over 200 lbs)? Do you use heavy mono or cable?
Thanks,
Fred C.

Thanks for the question Fred.
In the bluewater you first need to look at the size fish you are hunting and the gear that you will be using. For Tunas over 200lbs you should have at least a 5/16 shaft and 60″ gun rigged with an Ice-pick Slip tip or similar tip.
The tip should be rigged with 1/16″ coated or uncoated cable although some people prefer to use spectra or Dynema on their slip tips I have seen to many fish lost with this type of rigging due to the bones in the fish cutting the line, accidental cuts in the line in the boat, improper rigging and other issues. Again, I would prefer to use as light of rigging gear as possible to keep the weight of the tip and shaft and the amount of drag low but Cable is very reliable for slip tips on big tunas when crimped properly.
Our group of divers that hunt big tunas with consistency use 400lb Mono. With 400lb we have landed dozens over 200lbs and had no problems. Some people like having double crimps but I have yet to see a properly crimped 400lb mono double crimp allow the line to slip.
So in short the answer is 400lb mono is exactly what I would use for hunting big tunas.
As many tunas have been landed with Cable as with mono so it is personal preference. In my experience and in talking to the 30 or so divers that have hunted and been successful with big tunas in the past 20 years… mono is the way to go for hunting big Yellowfins.
When you beef up to hunting Bluefins over 400lbs… You have to step it up again and rig differently but that is for another day.

White Sea Bass, aka the Grey Ghost
As a West Coaster you have heard of them, hunted them, fished for them, heard them croak eerily somewhere in the distance and painfully smiled as you’ve seen your friends and other boats land them right beside you.
There are many secrets to hunting and fishing for WSB. The most successful divers have paid careful attention for years and taken mental notes each and every time they catch a glimpse of a tail or are lucky enough to glimpse the hazy off white shade of a big Croakers side.
I’ve made two WSB dive trips.
But I’ve hunted them a thousand times over in my mind and been preparing for them long before I first pulled on that 5 mil green camo suit.

Preparation:
Be ready.
When you arrive on the spot, have your gear set. Don’t be messing around with it at the last minute. Have your booties in your fin pocket and your gloves in your other fin pocket with your mask and snorkel around them both and your weightbelt right here with them. Have your wetsuit out and ready to put on and your gun you are going to use already out and ready.
If the space in the boat allows it, find a corner that no one else is using or a spot on the rail you can keep your gear organized and neat.
Now you can get in the water when you are ready knowing your gear is all in one place. This gives you time to help anchor, get other peoples gear, put up the dive flag, and you aren’t stressing at the last minute getting your heart rate up.

Scope it out:
You’ve reached the kelp bed and you are rushing to get in the water but you are about to blow it if you don’t pay attention. When you are approaching the area you are going to dive, do so slowly, quietly and courteously to the other boats that are already there. If you can hear WSB croaking hundreds of yards away imagine how far they can hear the unnatural sound of an outboard, inboard or jet ski engine.
As you approach, look at the direction the kelp stalks are flowing and take note of the current direction. Look for birds working or bait ripples on the surface. Make a mental picture in your mind how the whole scene looks from your vantage point in the boat. Use other boats, headlands, and anything else that helps you pin point where you are in the kelp bed with just a glimpse above the water.

Always hunt:
As soon as you touch the water you are hunting. Within 10 feet and ten seconds I have already made my first dive. Get the bubbles out of the suit, dive to 20-30 ft and cock your gun while you are there, stretch your lungs and work your way over to the area you are diving.
Too often divers, especially bluewater and WSB hunters who spot 90% of their prey from the surface don’t ever dive until they see something because they don’t feel the need. When a fish does come their first dive they aren’t stretched out and they blow a big fart bubble out the back of their suit and in a flash they’ve blown their first shot of the day.

Shut the %$%^ up!
You know where you want to go, go there quietly.

Keep hunting:
On the surface or underwater you are looking above, below, behind, and in every direction. The Kelp forest is 3 dimensional and the fish can be anywhere so keep your head on a swivel and be ready to shoot in any direction.

Soldier up:
Your looking everywhere so you need to be able to shoot anywhere when you do see a fish. Keep the gun underneath you and with both hands on it when the water is dirty. No matter how good you are the fish aren’t always going to be right in front of you so reduce your profile and keep the gun in a position where you can easily swivel to shoot anywhere at any time.
This means even when you are heading for the surface. if your gun isn’t pointing up when you are heading for the surface you might as well have left it in the boat. It is very difficult and way to much movement to change the from trailing a gun to pointing it forward again when a fish is sighted on your way up. Whoops you just missed that sleeper just under the surface.
Remember you are in the water, you are hunting. That means while you are on the surface or diving up or down.

Visualize the fish:
It is rare in dirty or clean water that you’ll see an entire fish. Usually it is just a fin or outline or different movement in the distance.
When I’m hunting my mind is making a fish out of everything I see. Every kelp stalk or shadow or light spot I’m automatically visualizing a fish made from that one tiny part as if I’ve been given the first piece of a puzzle and I have to put the rest of it together.
You are already good it this, you do this every time you see a hot girl or guy and are trying to imagine what they look like with a lot or all (Brandon’s mind) of their clothes off.
This will be one of your most valuable tools as a Spearfisherman or hunter if you can master it.

Fact: WSB are unpredictable as hell
Go up current and see if there are any bait and hunt the edge of the bait on the kelp side for WSB and outside for Yellowtail.
Work the edge of the kelp all the way around from the bottom to the surface looking for the fish. If you spot one at 45 feet then thats probably where the rest of them are so make your dives to that depth and keep your eyes open.
If they aren’t deep then they might be shallow, or midwater, or in the next kelp bed.
There is nothing better than time in the water. Even the biggest Cones shoot WSB and consistently at that. (a derogatory term short for Coneheads used in exchange for the term Touron (tourist-moron), Jackass, Domer, or Kook) They spend a lot of time in the water and eventually you are going to come across a fish. If you are ready you will get a shot.
Listen to reports and network with the divers and fisherman in your area. When the fish are there you need to be as well but its the guys that don’t say anything about it and instead keep their mouths shut and put the time in the water year after year shoot fish because they were there before the crowds putting the time in the water.

Shoot straight, stay out of sight, see clear:
Gear up properly. All the fish I shot were with a 120cm Riffe Euro rigged with a horizontal reel. When the water was clearer, 130 Euro with a 100′ Armor spectra float line with no buoy, I took the clip off the end of the floatline so that the line could slip easily through the kelp and not hinder my diving by catching on everything and anything. Carry a blow up float on your belt so when you shoot a fish you can clip it off to work him and you are set.
I had good shots on all three fish I saw and stoned each one with a shot to the spine from about 12 feet in only 15 feet of visibility. WSB hunters usually use slip tips because of fish wrapping up in the kelp and soft flesh so the Mini ice pick tip is the best choice paired with a 9/32 or 5/16 shaft. 400lb Mono or cable is plenty for anything that he’s going to wrap you up in.
Green water means Green Camoflauge. I designed the Riffe Cryptic camo with this in mind wanting to fade into the distance when fish see something that doesn’t look right, and by then its too late!
I tried both the Amber lens and a clear Naida mask and both worked well. I preferred the clear lens as there is already so much brown in the kelp and the clear I felt didn’t overload my eyes.

On the two trips I’ve made for WSB:
The first time, I made over 200 dives as did one of the best hunters on the California coast that same day beside me and we were both skunked while a relative rookie diver landed one.
The second time I was “lucky” enough to take a limit of three fish over 40 lbs while the other 8 divers on the boat didn’t even get a glimpse of the Ghost.
This just goes to show that no matter how prepared you are there is always a bit of luck involved. Put everything in place so that you can keep luck on your side and you will be successful when the time comes.

I just got an email from Will who just got back from diving in California, here’s his story:

Just returned from Dana Point. Long story short, I lost a shaft on a big AP on the trip to NC with Bullock. Got a replacement, but didn’t have time to rerig the shooting line before I left. I searched for a dive shop around Dana Point when I arrived and realized how close we were to Riffe. We went over to see the shop and ended up having lunch with Jay and Jackie. They came by our hotel the next evening for cocktails, then took us to their house for a tour. Jay found out I was planning to dive in a 3 mil, and demanded I borrow his personal 5 mil. As you can see in the pics, the suit was a bit big, but definitely sealed the deal. Water was 59 degrees, so I would have frozen in my Cryptic 3 mil. Jay and I spent lots of time talking about your recent trip, and his suggestion was to stay silent and work the outside of the bed, diving to 30 feet then swimming in. I did so all day, and it finally paid off with this nice 51-pounder. I tried to repeat the shot placement you discussed on the blog, but I was shooting down on the fish and I missed the spine by 1/2 an inch. I was warned the E100X was a little small for the job, but with 8-10’ vis, it turned out to be the perfect gun. Great penetration, flopper toggled, and the fish tangled up at about 25’ after making a jump out of the water.

Anyway, the Riffes were unbelievable. What a great family.

Thanks for all the pointers on the blog. Keep them coming.

Cheers,

Willie

Subscriber Taylor wrote:
I’m going to cabo next week in pelapas ventana. I saw some pictures of you on the website. What do you recommend bringing? I’m 17 and willing to shoot fish in blue water as big as possible (no bigger than 100# though) and have been diving consistently around the globe for 2 years now. Anything important I should bring down there? Any pointers would be much appreciated. How many float lines do you use if your shooting wahoo and dolphin fish? Also, how thick of a wetsuit did you use down there? I use a 56″ steve alexander gun and have 3 bands on it right now. Your blog is awesome too by the way! thanks! Taylor Thorne

Taylor thanks for the question and you are already on the right track. Your gun is perfect for the type of diving you will be doing and it is versatile enough you can hunt anything you encounter.
You can expect Wahoo from 25-75 lbs, Dolphin 2-45lbs, Sailfish(Pez Vela), Striped and Black Marlin, Amberjacks (Pez Fuerte) in the Bluewater and Pargo (Cubera Snapper), Rooster Fish, and Awa or Milkfish in the areas near the rocks and ledges)
Wahoo video from La Paz way back… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2RJii6WYmQ
For the gun you have I’d take a minimum of 2 shafts, 4 if you can. Rig your guns with 400lb Mono, one and half wraps. That means from the crimp at the back of the shaft, to the front of the muzzle, back to the line release near the handle, back to the front and then to the line release again. When you get about 6 inches from the line release make a loop of line and within that loop put a womens hair tie, or breakaway rig from one of the spearfishing companies that is pre-made.
Attach your float line to that loop and then have at least 50 -100 ft of float line running to your buoy.
When you are hunting blue water there is no substitute for having a good, long bungey. It is even more important than your float. It is expensive but well worth it to land the fish of your dreams. It acts the same as a drag on a fishing reel and when a bluewater speedster makes his first run it will put slow pressure on him instead of the instant shock that happens when a float line comes tight on a fish and usually tears out.
If you have a bungey you can get away with shooting all the above fish with a normal 30+liter float.
If not don’t despair just make sure you have a 75 ft float line and play him lightly.
When you shoot a wahoo let him run his first run and don’t touch anything unless you know you have a good shot.
The following is my La Paz set up for Bluewater
130 Riffe Euro
4 shafts with 400lb Mono (two flopper, two mini ice pick tips)
100ft Bungey
Riffe 2 Atmosphere float
3mm two piece Cryptic Blue wetsuit
1mm Riffe top

The surface temp will be warm and comfortable but if it is overcast it can get cold quickly. Also the water temp on the bottom this time of year can be very very cold so if you are diving 75ft or more you will get cold fast.
Good luck down there and be sure and dive with a buddy especially when you are hunting Pargo. The best plan for them is to have one guy dive and shoot the fish while the other holds on to the float line and pulls on the fish as soon as you here them shoot to keep them out of the rocks. It is the most fun way to dive helping your buddy with the fish and you will be much more successful then you would by yourself and have the story to tell together. The chance for a record Cubera in La Paz is about nil and they kill by far the most people of any fish in the world so be careful. If you get a big one in the rocks. take your time, go down and second shoot him carefully in the head and kill him, then take turns diving down to get him out and do it safely.
If you can’t get him out or it is too deep, cut the line or just unclip the breakway and leave it. Its not worth it.

Good luck and let us know how your trip goes!
Cameron Kirkconnell

[caption id="attachment_633" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="La Paz mixed bag. Pez Fuerte, Wachinango (sic), Pacific Bonito, Leopard Grouper (golden phase)"][/caption]

There is nothing better than good bait. If you are a fisherman you have likely spent thousands of dollars and hours through the years making sure only the best is in your cooler or livewell when you leave the dock.
As Spearfisherman somehow we forget everything we learned from fishing when we should be using it to our advantage.
Fish are going to be where there is bait and you can adjust your tactics as the time of year and conditions allow to maximize your chances and capitalize on what is going on beneath the surface.
We’ll start with two scenarios:
You are offshore working a weedline and want to shoot dolphin or Wahoo but don’t know where to start. If you aren’t seeing any flying fish or little baitfish under the weeds I’d run down the line a few hundred yards and see if I could find anything floating like a bucket or Pallet. Check for bait there and if there is some jump in and spend 15 minutes in the water watching their reactions as you swim around and look for the larger predators. If there bait comes out and swims with you chances are there isn’t much around and they are overly brave from lack of predators. I’ll give it a few more minutes then run further offshore in search of the next weedline and start working that one.
If once in the water the bait is acting shy and won’t leave the shelter of the debris I’m on high alert and will usually spend a little more time then at the last spot. If the Dolphin are there sometimes you can shoot them straight away but there are times when they roam up to a few hundred yards away and have to wait for them to come back. Be patient, look up along the surface no matter how bad it hurts your neck and be constantly looking behind you for the ones that sneak up. Make a few dives to 30 then 50 feet deep below the structure if your cojones will let you and keep an eye out below for Wahoo and tunas. More often then not a school of Dolphin will have a few Wahoo with them even if it is just the summer snakes of Weehoos. My first wahoo was about 4 lbs and I could not have been happier having shot him out of a school of equally miniscule peanut dolphin while bouncing around from weed patch to weed patch off the Florida Keys.
For bluewater paddy hopping or Bluewater hunting for Dolphin in Wahoo like this anywhere in the world where you are in and out of the water constantly I use an easy rig that I can shoot almost anything that comes by from 20lb Dolphin to 100+lb tunas and the occasional Billfish.
I use either a three banded 120 or 130 Riffe Euro for most areas with Dolphin, Wahoo and tuna less then 125 lbs. When I know there is the chance for bigger Tunas and Billfish like in Central America I usually take the Riffe Island with three bands and a flopper shaft. This lets me reload quickly and shoot almost anything that comes through at 12-15 feet and feel confident of a penetrating shot.
A single 2 atm Riffe Buoy can land any of the fish above as long as you rig it with a bungey so it doesn’t put too much pressure on them too fast. a 50 ft Bungey is usually the easiest for jumping in and out of the boat all day. ( a 50 ft Bungey has a hollow bungey tubing that has 150 feet of 500-1000lb Tuna cord inside so it can stretch to triple its original length therefore “playing the fish” like the drag on a fishing reel)
More to come….

I need your help, those of you that do a lot of boat trips or have lists that your check before you head out please let me know what I’ve forgotten!

Planning another trip the Bahamas and I have a few weeks to make all the preparations… except I’m on the other side of the world and when I get back I will have less than a few hours to pack the boat, my gear, girl, food, water, gas, etc etc etc for a week long trip.
So what have I been doing to get ready?
Sending a ton of emails and being a bit bossy apparently but it seems to be working.
The number one ingredient for a good trip is the crew you pick to go with you.
Most of us have a short list of people that we ask to go depending on where and when the diving will be. There are guys I call when I want to go international and try new things that are iffy, third world, off the beaten track, malaria ridden, and sometimes down right foolhardy.
Thanks to all the guys that indulge me and usually come up with some of the same ideas or even gnarlier. That is part of the fun is planning the trips and gathering information and talking about gear before we go.
Then there are the last minute guys. The ones that you know will drop everything the night before when the weather goes perfect and the conditions come together and be there waiting with plenty of ice, guns, beer, lunch and more gas money then they should be paying. They are good houseguests, they clean up after themselves and thats why they get invited back.
Obviously those are the ones that get invited back the most and I wish that I could say that I was one of those people all the time but I’m definitely not. I have pissed off more than one friend leaving early and not helping clean the boat enough or leaving my credit card in another state or messing up the house or shooting their fish. Sorry doesn’t do it so I hope to make up for it in the future!

So back the Bahamas…
I will get home, load the boat with my mental checklist that I say over and over in my head when I’m trying to concentrate or relax (works better than thinking of baseball actually)
Mask, snorkel, fins, booties, weightbelt, gloves, knife, floatline, gun (pole spear in this case), float
1. Naida Mask with Amber and a spare with a clear lens (low volume great vision and amber lens makes things stand out better in lower light and blue water hunting)
2. Stable snorkel for choppy water
3. Riffe Carbon and Fiberglass fins
4. Riffe booties
5. Rubber weightbelt with good stretch, 1 lb Adreno weights and black nylon pin type buckle
6. Riffe kevlar glove with extra pair
7. new (unnamed as of yet) knife we have been working on… don’t know if it will even be legal in the states its pretty badass though and exactly what I want…
8. Armor Spectra Floatline 50 and 100ft
9. Pole spears:
a. Three prong 8 ft hybrid
b. Riffe Slip tip rigged 9 ft Hybrid
c. Same as above but rigged for pelagics
d. Mr Miyagi Japanese pole spear 12 ft
e. three prong 6ft Lionfish killer

10. Riffe 2 atm float

Thats my basic list then I start adding on depending what time of year it is
11. Green cryptic Rash guard
12. Blue Cryptic two piece rash guard/jelly fish suit (don’t know if these are out yet)
13. 1.5mil Blue Cryptic full suit
14. 1mm Riffe Top with cocking pad
Thats a lot of gear for one person. When we dive deep I get cold easily but would prefer to just wear the 1.5 mil top.

For the boat I make sure we have a full fuel tank as soon as we get within a few miles of the dock because I don’t want to fill up to early and be driving on the highway with all that extra weight.
Plenty of extra Outboard oil.
Foul weather gear
2 bean bags
Safety gear: EPIRB, flares, etc.
Boat documentation for customs

2 long sleeve shirts
1 short sleeve shirt
one nice button shirt for dinner out one night
light pants for mosquitos and hot nights
2 pairs of boardshorts
Yeti Baseball cap which is my favorite right now
and absurdly large straw hat for sahara hot days in the bahamas sun
basic toiletries:
1. tooth paste and tooth brush
2. deodorant
3. 2 in 1 shampoo
4. bodywash (also use this for cleaning suits to get the smell of fish and me out)

Supplies:
figure 6 waters per person per day so a few cases of water
case of gatorade
case of beer
pre made mojito mix
few dozen Uncrustables for easy meals
ceviche mix pre-made. just add fresh fish for on the boat
chips and crackers for ceviche
Spices, butter, tin foil, tongs, sauces, for grilling fish and steaks
Steaks
We also try to plan out at least half of the nights meals and pre-make most of it so we don’t have to do much more than throw some stuff on the grill or heat up some pasta at the end of the day.
2 gallon and 1 gallon Ziploc bags

Cleaning knives (serrated blade Dexter Russell and Riffe Filet knife)

Three trolling rods (Penn 30′s for Tuna)
2 light spinning rods for Yellowtail
1 heavy spinning rod for dolphin and tuna on poppers
rigs for all three types of fishing

Yeti 155 cooler with 6 slabs of dry ice and the rest filled with regular ice. Try and save this for at least the first day or two.
Yeti 65 cooler with 6 blocks of chum, 3 boxes of squid, and ballyhoo if the Tuna are around

Suntan lotion!

Fill the rest of the spaces on the boat with Ice and dry ice and try to keep it as long as possible. Ice is hard to come by in the Bahamas and it is as expensive as Gasoline and sometimes more so it sucks to buy it!

Lastly your camera, charger, batteries, tapes, cards, underwater housings etc.

There is so much stuff that goes into a trip we tend to forget how giant the list can get. When you add 9 people on the ride across it makes you try and think of everything because it gets crowded fast.
A bit of planning goes a long way. We have been dividing up the jobs of getting stuff ready and I’ll think of more stuff to bring and let you know…
Cameron Kirkconnell

I appreciate you helping me out. I’ve been to the Bahamas a few times this year but there are boats that run over every weekend and any help or suggestions that you have are always welcome from those that take long trips in their boat or plan meals for the boat etc.
Can’t wait to hear the words of advice and put the plan in action!

I’m so honored that you are visiting my blog and hope that the pictures and stories here will bring you closer to the feeling that we as spearfisherman, divers and fisherman enjoy in our lives. As of now we have more than 30 stories and dozens of pictures on the site as well as a good youtube following. I wanted to give you a bit of background on myself and how I started into this sport, working for Riffe, and traveling the world spearing so many places and so many great fish and meeting so many good people.
In brief:
My family is from the Cayman Islands and diving, fishing and ships have been at the center of our lives for almost as long as the islands have been on the map.
I’m 33 years old and work as a Captain on huge ships getting paid to travel around the world and with a four months on and off schedule I’ve been able to spend months at a time in the best known dive spots in the world. Even better, I’ve been able to travel with my friends and family and discover the newer and better dive spots that have been the envy of the rest of spearfishing world.
We are always looking for that which hasn’t been done, specializing our gear and finding the perfect recipe for every location and fish we pursue.
I work year round with Riffe International (www.speargun.com) developing the latest and most hard core spearfishing equipment so that I can have the best gear perfectly suited to our hunting and abuse we encounter in third world countries and in less than ideal conditions.
I’m lucky to have scored some great fish along the way with my top ten favorites being:
#1 has to be Steve Bennet. 155 lbs. Speared at 75 feet after he had blacked out and was sinking to his death. Luckily the shot was true and the story you’ve likely already read. Steve glad you are with us my friend.
50 lb Wahoo shot by my father this past year diving together and I got it on video. One of my favorite days in the water ever.
119 lb Wahoo
Blue Marlin 280 lb (WR) (shot in the open water NOT TROLLING)
280lb Yellowfin Tuna
201 lb Dogtooth tuna (WR)
102 lb Spanish Mackerel
105 lb Amberjack
60 lb King Mackerel (WR)
28 lb Blackfin Tuna (WR)
35 lb African Pompano (Diamond Trevally) with a Hawaiian Sling
I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the original hosts of the show SPEARGUN HUNTER by Terry Maas. I took the team overseas to a secret spot and within the first two days shot and landed a World Record sized Pacific Blue Marlin. On that first trip we also landed more than a dozen big Dolphin (Mahi Mahi), Wahoo, giant Trevally and Yellowfin Tuna. Terry captured all of the action on video and but the video has never made it to TV and I obviously am not the host. It was a great experience but my refusal to let the video of shooting the record Marlin be shown on National TV did not go over well with the producers. It worked out good, they have a great host and I believe we kept even more restrictions and bad publicity for the sport from coming down on us by keeping the fish private. I have nothing against shooting billfish, but the hypocritical Sportfishing World will only bring more harm upon our sport we value so much.
It also worked out well because I can still go to all the best spots in the world and not worry about giving them away on national TV!
Over the years I have always written for different magazines and put videos up on the web and through Riffe, Spearboard, Spearfishingplanet, Facebook, my seminars in dive shops and emails answered hundreds of question on everything from gear to girls around the world and the best combination in between for spearfishing.
I don’t know everything there is to know about the sport but I have gathered information from every corner of every ocean and retained it and I hope that I can help every diver out there dive safely and enjoy the sport for years to come.
I will constantly work to make the blog better, more navigable, more informative and useful to you. As my internet connection allows while I am traveling overseas (which is about 8 months out of the year) I will download pictures and video for you to check out and enjoy.
I encourage everyone to participate in the blog and ask questions and get out of it what you want. This is my way of sharing my life with you and sharing my knowledge with you as well to make you a better, happier and safer spearfisherman or woman.
You can email me at cameron@speargun.com
On the Riffe Website: www.speargun.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=32
On YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/cameronkirkconnell
Thanks for visiting and stay in touch. The best part about this sport is all the people you meet around the world and learning from every diver you encounter whether they are in Alaska or South Africa or an inland lake in Missouri.

More long winded about me:
My parents had us in the water at and early age and we started freediving for conchs and lobsters in the shallows and holding on to our parents while they searched the reefs and drop offs for hours on end hunting Groupers and Hogfish in the crystalline waters of the Caribbean.

As I got older we continued to spearfish and scuba dive in Florida from Jacksonville to Key West and up to Tampa.
When I was 14 years old I started saving for my first speargun and after two years I bought my first gun, a Riffe Hawaiian with a reel. One of the first days out on the water we found a school of cobia and I jumped in to be surrounded by more than a dozen and shot a 45lb one.
I self proclaimed myself a bluewater hunter on the spot and knew that there was nothing more I wanted in life then to be near the water and enjoying all it had to offer.
With my cousin I applied to the US Merchant Marine Academy and after a long selection process we were both accepted and began 4 years of military school life studying the sea and how to be professional mariners. I graduated in 1999 and went to work as a third officer on a cargo ship and set off to the Indian and Pacific Ocean. With all the charts of the world at my fingertips for 4 months at sea I saw the world of spearfishing shrink to a million possibilities and my mind started racing at the potential.
With no car, no house, no girlfriend I paid the ships agent $100 when I disembarked in Singapore and convinced him to delay my ticket back the USA for two months.
A new ticket in hand I set off for Bali Indonesia and fell in love with the incredible waves and huge fish that lived there.
For the last ten years I have traveled to spearfish in Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and half a dozen islands in Indonesia searching for bluewater fish and learning techniques and meeting the best in the world in their home waters. Whether it is your first day or your 60th year there is something to be learned from everyone you meet.
Diving in Australia I met Robbie Lewis and Tim Neilsen of Adrenaline Spearfishing in Brisbane and Robbie and I became instant friends. they set me up with my first sponsorships and quickly my emails to my friends telling them the latest tall tales of big fish and crazy shark encounters started showing up in Spearfishing Magazines which I had no idea even existed.
For so long we had dove just to hunt dinner and to think that there were spearfishing clubs and competitions seemed completely foreign to us.
I made a lot of friends and slept on a lot of couches and didn’t pay rent for about 8 years and owe more favors to more people in more countries than I can possibly ever repay.
From all of it I gathered more knowledge than I ever would have imagined from so many different situations and waters that have led us to be able to plan trips any month of the year any where in the world and with high rates of success.
In my travels I’ve been blessed with some memorable fish and a handful of world records and record size fish that were just short of the mark or disqualified for one reason or another. The most common cause was being in the middle of nowhere in Fiji or Indonesia without a proper scale (or refrigeration.)
Some of the most memorable records or near records: King Mackerel 58 lbs, Blackfin Tuna 27lbs, Hogfish 21lbs, Golden Trevally 34 lbs, Pacific Blue Marlin 272lbs, Wahoo 119lbs, Blackfin Tuna 32lbs, Spanish (Narrow barred) Mackerel 102lbs, Dogtooth Tuna 201lbs, and a few other close ones.
We’ve figured out how to be in the right place at the right time. How to read the weather and water and where to be in the water and how to approach fish and how to get the biggest one to come close to you even in the middle of the blue 100 miles from land.
I’ve only entered a few tournaments but have had decent success.
In three visits to the Hatteras Bluewater open in Cape Hatteras North Carolina I’ve won twice and finished 4th on the other. I enjoy tournaments for the main reason that it brings together like minded people together and gives you a chance to rag on your friends and for them to give it right back to you.
No one believes me but I am happier when someone else gets the fish of their lives or the fish of the day then I am for myself usually. Through my work with Riffe, dozens of dive shops and thousands of divers around the world I’ve had a smile on my face doing what I love for as long as I can remember. Even when I’m not there every email from a young diver telling me how stoked he is on my new camo pattern or some bands or a tip on shooting black groupers that helped him get the fish of the day makes me so happy.
I can’t wait to meet every one of you and hope that each can get something out of these pages if only a laugh or a temporary escape from normal life.
In the coming months I will be opening a few other sections of the website that are VIP access. This will be How-to videos and detailed trip advice for divers around the world who are ready to take it to the next level. Planning trips is one of my favorite things and doing it right and being successful having done it with your friends help and all your hard work is by far the most rewarding way to go. It pays to have someone on your side that has been there, done that, and has the scars and fish scales to prove it.

Dive safe and send me pics of your adventures anytime

Cameron Kirkconnell

One of my first memories is of the East End of Little Cayman in the Cayman Islands. I must have been about 3-4 years old and small enough that I couldn’t keep up with my father and mother who were snorkeling on the surface on either side of me. Holding on to my dads arm as tight as possible my eyes worked quickly across the bottom trying to spot a grouper or snapper or the massive hogfish that lived there.
If you asked me then if I believed I’d ever be able to dive 90 feet and spear fish as big as my dad I’d probably boast and say I could only hope to be as good as him and my mom one day but hopefully better.
In those days their were no records, no float lines and no reels in our vocabulary and each fish was shot and dragged to the surface on the same breath of air. That we never had any blackouts is amazing and a testament to how good of shape we were in each summer visiting the Islands and diving for lobsters in the Keys.

This blog is a work in progress that I’ll try and keep you up to date on our trips and adventures around the world. Bear with me I do have a real job!

http://www.youtube.com/user/cameronkirkconnell for the full video

It has been terrible visibility for so long in the USA between the rough weather and oil spill it has been a difficult past few months. This day was supposed to be 3-4 ft waves and poor visibility again but as my cousin Blake would say “Cam read the bones” (referring to my less than dependable internet visibility and weather forecasting abilities) and we went out anyways.

After some hunting around we pulled up to a spot with a lot of bait and a 11 ft hammerhead shark on the top to greet us and we slipped into the water to find this. The other guys with me were good enough to have patience and let me take pics and video and shoot a cobia with the pole spear.
It was an incredible day. I think we made about 20 dives on this school of cobia who were more than happy to swirl around each time we made it to their depth.

Earlier in the day at another spot I dove down on a 6ft Silky shark that was coming in for a look and he allowed me a short ride on his dorsal fin. As I let go I looked to my left and a 7-8 ft Bull Shark almost yellow/white came cruising up from the depths. I stopped in the water and threw my arms up in a “What’s Up!” and he came straight to me and then turned only inches away allowing me to run my hand down his side and then grab onto his tail. With my fingertips on his flank he had no problem but as soon as I grabbed him by the tail he did a quick kick and luckily went away instead of snapping back on me. I looked to the surface to see if the other guys had seen what had just happened so I wouldn’t be the only one dreaming and they both had their heads out of the water. Dammit!
I hit the surface and they both said, “You’re and idiot.”
“But you saw that right?!?!?!”
“Yeah you are and idiot.”

Sweeeeeeet.

 

 

 

 

 

Back to La Florida we have been waiting for a good weather window to make the long run offshore to hunt Yellowfin Tunas.   Brandon Langel from Fort Pierce has the fishing for them down pat and when the seas lay down we were poised to go long.

Weather the night before was less than appealing with solid 15-20 knot winds while we were catching bait and it kind of set the standard for the next day. ie. If it could go wrong it would….

First things first, we had planned to catch a bunch of bait so we had chum but of course it was blowing a gale and the bait was running scared as hell and we only got about 150 or so.  

 Next morning we wake up to find calm winds and plenty of left over swell and only three of the original 6 man crew showing up therefor assuring us of a hefty gas bill. Bastards.

We slammed our way out and hoped that when we hit the gulfstream it would calm down but I think it was more mental than anything else and we got punished for 3 straight hours.

Once on the tuna grounds it was so rough that we had trouble hitting the pods of birds with the radar and ended up finding only some small schools of tiny yellowfins and lots of skipjacks.  

Excitement spiked when we were putting out the baits enroute to one of the schools and I caught a movement in the wake out of the corner of my eye and immediately identified it as a big blue marlin!

I freespooled the bait he was looking at and after seeing him turn pushed it up slightly and he immediately took to the air as Josh  set the hook when I handed it to him.  The sight of a solid 250 lb Blue Marlin clearing the water and tailwalking for 100 yards had us all hooting and enjoying the lack of Tuna for a few minutes.  As soon as it began it was over with only 60 lb Fluorocarbon leader the big fish and rough bill wore through and left us laughing at the spectacle. 

 

 

 

Giving up on the tunas in the building seas we headed in and crossed an excellent weedline and before long came upon a good looking spot.   

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!

That wonderful sound of a screaming reel and a nice bull dolphin dancing at the other end and we were back in the game.  Gaffing it and bringing it into the boat thinking our luck had changed I held the gaff while Brandon removed the hook and four foot of golden fish came alive and smacked me in the face sending my Costa Del Mar sunglasses sailing into the purple blue.

Son of a !!!!

 

“Go Go GO! Dive in there!!!”  As Brandon is screaming at me to go I’m trying to figure out what I need to take off before I dive in. Fumbling around for a quick few seconds I realize that the only thing I need to take off  IS MY SUNGLASSES and they are already gone so I dive in fully clothed and with my shoes on and start stroking down and catch them at about ten feet which luckily is only a fraction of the 2500 ft of water that we are in.

Good guys that they are they stopped the boat and I jumped in water logged but determined to get in as soon as possible with the proper gear and actually enjoy the good vis.

Working the weedline with the baits we caught sight of a huge shape below the surface and as I went in to turbo mode and started putting on my gear a 12 ft Tiger shark coasted under the boat and wouldn’t stick around for me to film despite copious amounts of chum being thrown in the water.

Back trolling another 200 yards down the weedline we come across a good school of Dolphin and within seconds of the first strike, the boat is in neutral and I’m in the drink avoiding a trio of hooked fish looking for the big bull which I know to be amongst the 20 or so fish 15 lbs and greater surrounding me. 

Brandon and Josh are yelling at me to shoot and I’m doing my best to hold off as 20 and thirty lb Dolphin surround me and the other hooked fish.     Just as I’m about to cave in and shoot a great fish on the outskirts I see the one I’m looking for and he makes a Bee line straight for one of the hooked fish just meters away from the boat.  INtercepting him to the guys on the boat are cheering as I pull the trigger in full view of them both and the big Bull is in my hands in seconds and raising hell on the surface!

Trophy in the boat and some quick pics and I’ve got Brandon in the water with the 120 EuroX and a float line and he is swirled by the school and selects the best one taking a practiced shot in the head and securing a solid 30 lb bull!

Over the next hour we landed 10 fish from 12-40 lbs and enjoyed some crystal blue waters below the giant weed patches. The bait wasn’t nearly as thick as I would have like to have seen but the fish were there and the day was definitely worth the run across.

here is the video from the trip 

 

 

Gear:

Riffe Euro 130 with new Horizontal Reel and Riffe Green Cryptic Rash Guard for Cameron

Riffe Euro X 120 for Brandon with a 100 ft bungey and single 2 ATM float. ( this is the rig that I had brought  to use on the Yellowfins which we had guessed would  be in the 40-110 lb range)