Tag: Wahoo
La Paz Spearfishing Question
by admin on Jun.20, 2010, under How-To, Spearfishing Travel, Underwater Videos
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
La Paz Dorado from the NW side of Cerralvo. Craig Clasen
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La Paz Sailfish
Bahamas 2010: Pelagic Action
by admin on Mar.02, 2010, under Spearfishing Travel
Brad with Wahoo in the Bluewater with Pole Spear
With terrible weather throughout the SE United States we have been waiting for a weather window to run across to the Bahamas to practice with our Riffe Pole Spears we have been developing. The water has been so cold for so long at home no one has even been in the water for the last few months.
When the weather finally broke we left at 0400 in the morning on a 34ft Yellowfin with Twin 275 Outboards and hauled ass across the Gulf Stream to the Bahama Bank. 4 hours later we were at our destination, checked through customs and assembling our pole spears for the week.
Over the next few days we saw plenty of good fish and dove patiently together videoing and diving safely together taking the time to work each fish out of the holes and only shoot the ones we really wanted.
The very first dive I dove to 30 feet to clear the bubbles out of my wetsuit and turned to find a 10ft Hammerhead checking out my fin tips. “Ok so its going to be like that,” I’m thinking the whole trip is going to be shark infested but amazingly we only saw a few others the rest of the week.
It is so cool hunting with a pole spear. With the guns we have now anyone can take a shot from 20 ft away and get fish but with a pole spear you have to learn the fish and gain their trust to get within 3-6 feet to get a good shot on them. Then when you do get them you have to get your hands on them and wrench them to the surface before the sharks get there or they carry all your gear over the drop off into the Abyss.
This is a lot easier when you have hogfish and lobsters that most people shoot in the Bahamas but we always push the limits of what people deem possible and I want to see what my gear is capable of.
Turns out, almost anything is possible with the right patience and equipment.
I watched Brad in 2000feet of water stalk a school of Wahoo that until a few years ago I’d never believe possible to take with a Pole Spear. On the video you can see Brad dive and the one fish he has picked out come off the rest of the school to within only a few feet of the end of the spear and then in a flash the fish is gone and the float line is running through his hands and the buoy screaming by. That shooting pelagics with a pole spear is possible still blows my mind. That is two wahoo I’ve seen shot with a pole spear in the last year and this one I have on video!!!
The drift before that the same drama had unfolded with Brad shooting a nice Dolphin (Mahimahi) stoning it with a shot to the spine in the open blue.
Bradhoo
Another day found us on the reef breathing up to shoot a nice hogfish in a hole. Just as I was to leave the surface an Amberjack comes past and I dive to only twenty feet and wait as he changes course to investigate. If it had been two minutes earlier I would have easily shot him with the float line attached and just fought him from there but hunting in the holes we had already detached it.
Got to stone him. Got to stone him. Got to stone him.
Thats all that was going through my head as he comes close and I can see those strong shoulders flexing for a fight.
Whoosh! I release the pole spear and the tip hits him just behind and above the eye.
STONED!!!!!
Oh shit. Never mind. He takes off spiraling down to the bottom 50 feet below with me hanging on to my precious equipment. As we are falling I’m working my way down the shaft to the tip and the fish and first try to grab him at about 45 feet. Immediately he head butts me and my mask is now affixed to the side of my face over my right ear and I’m blind. On the video all of this is captured perfectly but I think Brad was either laughing or coming to help either way he doesn’t get out of the way and the fish knocks the camera from his hands and all you can see is whitewater on the surface as I skull drag him to my precious air. IN the midst of it all he also managed to impale my leg with the spear puncturing my leg and wetsuit in the process.
That was the first and last amberjack we shot on the trip. At only 25lbs he was small but feisty and I was kidding myself thinking it was a good idea to shoot him without a float line.
Brad Thornbroughs 18 lb Pole Speared Wahoo
The Protege: Aaron Kirkconnell Scott Bluewater Spearfisherman
by admin on Nov.22, 2009, under Spearfishing Travel
Aaron Kirkconnell Scott and his big cousin Cameron. Same stoked smile on the first big yellowfin Tuna he has seen up close on his first bluewater trip
Yeah there were a few sharks around too....
Aaron and one of 8 Blackfin Tuna he shot in the few days we dove. He got the hand of it pretty quick and was only picking out the 25 lb'ers. Spoiled Rotten.
Aaron's first Wahoo at 50 lbs. I was on the surface beside him watching the whole thing screaming in the snorkel to swim towards them. On the drive over I had talked for 6 straight hours on how to hunt them and all the other bluewater fish, telling him things I don't even let on to my friends. He listened, and he already had a lot of raw skill and 15 years under his belt of being surrounded by the sport. He shot this first one from about 6 feet away and had his choice of the entire school. Mad skills. I'm scared he is going to be better than all of us...
Still smiling 6 months later I'm sure
Admittedly this one was a fluke. I was looking for Wahoo and a school of 10 big Yellowfins came up. I had the camera in my left hand and made the dive following them to a whopping 56 ft to take the shot. They all had long sickle fins back to their tails so I knew they were 130+lbs and was praying they were bigger. With a single Riffe 2 Atmosphere float and a 100 ft bungee I had him up within three minutes and Aaron put the second shot in him. Chad had the video camera so for fun I brought him up while he was very much alive and as he came to the surface snatched his tail out of the water. Predictably he went batshit and made a circle of whitewater about ten yards wide. His tail beat against my left bicep so fast and hard it was like getting hit with an axe. When I finally let him go my glove and my brand new dive knife got caught in the cable and I lost them both. Could have been my hand, or my leg or my neck. Just goes to show (practice what your preach) always kill your big fish before you try to get your hands on them. It happened the very next day with Lindsey grabbing a feisty one the same size and he lost all the bungee he had worked so hard to get to him and it took another 5 minutes to get the fish in.
I won't be doing that again. It didn't even make my muscles look bigger
Chad Morris with a stud Wahoo. WE never seem to have a bad trip when we go together.
[caption id="attachment_482" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="32lb Blackfin Tuna shot with the pole spear. NEW WORLD RECORD!!! Super stoked. even more so because it was with a pole spear and I had the video camera in the other hand. I\'ll put it up on here asap so you stop calling BS on it. (For good measure I shot a 24 and 27 lb on video too. Not a bad day!)"]
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Nothing better then seeing your friends happy. Chad Morris with the biggest fish of the trip and a huge smile on his face
Pictures
by admin on Aug.31, 2009, under Photos
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119 lb Wahoo from last year. Just a few lbs short of the World Record. The visibility was about as bad as it gets. On the surface was less than a few inches. I had to put my watch against my mask to see it.
A fins free ascent in the Grotto in Saipan. Another DJ Struntz Photo
11lb Lobster Freediving last month in North Carolina
11lb Langosta Freediving
- My second biggest Dogtooth Tuna Indonesia
Big Bull Dolphin in Gulf of Mexico
Dolphin Camoflauge. Riffe Cryptic suit and this fish fit perfect.
A nice Pacific Cubera Snapper dragged up on a deep dive off Mexico. Brad got this one on film from start to finish then I filmed him stoning the smaller one with a Hawaiian sling. I'd put him up against anyone with a Hawaiian sling he is arguably one of the best in the world with them for sure.
Nice East Coast Cubera Snapper shot by Chris Gardinal. I'm claiming the assist since I saw it floating a half mile from the Wreck enroute to the next spot and then we gaffed it to land it. 63 lbs.
Nice Black Grouper in the Florida Keys. This is one of the first trips with the 130 Euro and the results were pretty good.
119lb Wahoo.
100+lb Yellowfin Tuna in the Gulf of Mexico. On my fourth drop of the day he came up and coaxed me deeper. I pulled the trigger at 77 feet and it was a long drop for so early in the day at 1:34. Just goes to show that being in shape is important so you can be ready at any time.
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- A solid 200 lb Yellowfin Tuna in Central America. This one came through with a big school in about 3000 feet of water. When the shaft hit him it snapped his spine and he did a back roll and jumped all the way out of the water. When he jumped again I grabbed him by the tail and and held his tail out of the water while the boat backed down on us and gaffed it and pulled it into the boat. I had so much adrenaline from it I dragged him into my lap for this picture less than a few minutes after he’d been shot.
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- Tavarua Fiji, Epic visibility, ripping current and a nice Cod. This picture was my inspiration for the Riffe Cryptic Wetsuits. I figure Nature has Camoflauge design down to an art and these type of grouper are invisible on the bottom. I love the design it works amazing and it all started with these pics.
There is so much to this photo it goes to show why DJ Struntz is one of the best photographers in the world. This is Craig diving down to get his hands on a nice Rainbow Runner, It had just started raining and we were rushing to get some pics in the clear water before the sun disappeared. The angle of the pic is just right so that he is facing the part of the sky away from the black ominous cloud that is sending the rain to sprinkle the surface and give it that amazing texture. The Yellow/orange glow in the upper left is actually the oil rig through the surface of the water. Amazing picture. Craigs posture and the action that you can feel through the picture doesn't happen every day.
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- Note to self: Every sailfish I have ever seen speared has turned and come back after the diver. GR grabbed me one time and had my arms locked behind my back and used me as a human shield to fend off a big one now charging within inches of us. Since then every single one I’ve shot or see shot has come back at us. Damn things are scary. This one was in the Sea of Cortez and around 100 lbs. I love this angle from below.
I first met Stevo in East Nusa Tengarra (Indonesia). I was there with a few of my buddies hunting Dogtooth Tuna and Waves and he was there with Wes Mannion and his cameraman catching snakes and monitors and anything else that moved. The first afternoon I surfed with just the three of us out and we talked about all the different travels we'd had and he said he was jealous at what a good life I'd been able to lead. Hearing him hooting on the shoulder as I dropped in on a wave and doing the same for him was one of the coolest experiences. As it turns out two Cyclones trapped us all on the little island and we were stuck together for 2 weeks trading stories and catching snakes and waves. We all became good friends and when we finally escaped back to Bali we had some big nights out on the town together. Steve and Wes were one of the big reasons I started going to Australia. Great people. He was as passionate about life off camera as he was on and the smile on his face in the mornings when he'd meet us to get on the boat to take out surfing and spearing couldn't do justice for how stoked he was to have spent the last four hours chasing cobras in the Rice Paddies while we were out shooting breakfast. And he thought we were nuts! Classic Steve, we're surfing double overhead Nusa Dua and he suddenly bails off his board to chase down a sea snake that has surfaced in the lineup.
My first Mulloway (Jewfish) Australias version of a White Sea Bass. Not the smartest fish in the ocean. If you can find them you can get them most of the time. This one was in a huge school of fish on a drop off. The swim so tightly together its a wonder more doubles aren't speared. Its difficult to choose the big ones out of the school. A week later we were diving the coast in 6 foot vis and I crept up on a school of 10 lb ones that were schooled up in front of a big rock. Waiting trying to figure out which one was the biggest the rock suddenly turned and I realized it was a Mulloway that was easily 80-100 lbs. I sent a hail mary shot into the dark but to no avail. I'm still bummed I missed out on that one. I've never even seen one like that in pictures.
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- World Record Hogfish. I was lined up on what is still the biggest Sheepshead I’ve ever seen in my life. I hate shooting the damn things but I thought it would be hilarious to bring home and break Ritchie Zacker’s record he’d shot on our boat. It must have been 17 lbs. So I’m looking at this convict trying to convince myself to shoot it and here comes this monster Hog fish. The decision was easy and we brought this guy home instead.
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- 39lb Bull Dolphin off Key West. My buddy hooked me up with some guys that had a boat and wanted to go trolling. I think this was the day after one of the Key West Tournaments so I showed up to the weigh in to visit everyone and see what was caught. Went out the following day and ran the boat while these guys slayed the big dolphin. When they’d had enough I found a likely looking weed patch and hopped in to find a school of big boys. Shot the best one and he came off but was hurt pretty bad. I chased him about 200 yards down the weedline and in about three circles around the big patch praying he wouldn’t dive deep and finally ambushed him from underneath a big patch to get the second shot in him. Santa Claus there in the background was still laughing at me getting my ass kicked on the surface by this guy when I finally got my hand on him.
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- Arguably my favorite spearfishing photo. This was a few days after the 200lb Dogtooth. There was no current this day so we didn’t expect much, taking it easy diving deep and the same school showed up. In the back of the school there were two like this and even with a good shot through the shoulder he kicked my ass for the next 45 minutes. I love Doggies. By far my favorite fish to hunt.
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- This is one of the best Yellowfins I’ve landed. A week later the World Record was shot so we were dead on with the planning but at only 260 lbs this guy still wasn’t big enough. Awesome fish though. When I shot this one the shaft went through him so that it was half sticking out of either side of him and he ran so hard it bent back on both sides to form a U with the shaft that was almost symmetrical to his long Trailer fins.
Big Black Grouper and Amberjack Pole Spearing in the Bahamas. Brad Thornbrough hit the AJ with a hawaiian sling and it took us 10 minutes to chase him down and get him in the boat. I know you could care less about where the fish came from though. Not too shabby for a crew huh?
Myself, world record Pacific Blue Marlin, Paul from Okinawa, and Terry Maas.
275 lbs Pacific Blue Marlin World Record
GR (RedTide) Tarr and my dad Kirk Kirkconnell with a good day of Wahoo in Florida. One of my favorite days on the water watching my dad shoot his first hoo. This was also one of the best 5 minutes of my spearfishing life. GR and I let my dad shoot all day and we filmed until he was ready to take a break for a bit. Next drift the school came by and I stoned one, reached the surface and yelled for dad to get in the water, strung the first one, reloaded, stoned another one, strung him, reloaded and had the third within 3 minutes. The boat was only about 150 yards away and it happened so fast I don't think the wahoo, me or anyone else really believed it when I handed the gun and 150 lbs of fish into the boat. What a blur. This same day GR shot a big one and stoned it but it fell off the shaft. While he was reloaded we drifted over the fish which was laying on the bottom at 100 ft. GR dives down and grabs it in the gills and it instantly comes to life and like a striped underwater scooter, shot him to the surface so fast I could almost hear him laughing underwater and his eyes were bugging out of his head it was so hilarious.
I think it was the Saint Pete Open that was coming up the next day and I couldn't get anyone that wanted to dive it with me. The day before I went out and took pictures and video of each of the fish that I wanted to shoot and sent them to a few of my friends trying to convince them to do the tourney with me. This is a 15 lb Mangrove Snapper. We took 1st and 2nd Place in the Tournament. Nole Karcher couldn't handle seeing this one and made the drive to the east coast...This Amberjack was the same day that Steve blacked out and I ended up shooting him. In all that day I shot an 85 and 105lb Amberjack and Steve Bennet who was around 165. One of the best and worst days of my life.
Craig and the Tiger Shark. This was a gnarly day as you can imagine. I spent most of it in the boat so DJ and Ryan could get some time in the water spearing. This is the only pic we have with both me and the Tiger shark in the same frame. If you look really closely you can see a little white speck over craigs shoulder. That is me, swimming with a beer in my hand, no fins on, chasing the boat which is drifting close by.
