GR Tarr and Hammerhead Shark

Hey Josh, Thanks for the comment on Spearblog.
The picture above you are talking about is one of my favorites as well and was a magical day. GR Tarr and I were diving together in Florida and it was the sharkiest day we had ever experienced up until that point. On every dive we were seeing at least a dozen Bull, Dusky and Hammerhead sharks and GR is actually looking down in this picture towards the school of Bull Sharks that were below. We would have to dive down each time the other was surfacing to discourage the Bull Sharks who would follow you up from the depths each time. It was scary stuff but it taught us a lot about dealing with Sharks and remaining calm. We shot close to three dozen fish this day and lost so many to sharks it was unbelievable. I think we ended up with 9 Wahoo and almost as many Tuna with a few snappers and Reef Fish scattered in for good measure. We earned it though. The first Wahoo I shot was swimming with this group of Hammerheads that you see here. He was a few feet off the back of one of the sharks right in the middle of the school. Pretty cool sight. The Hammerheads didn’t chase him but the Bulls came up from the bottom in 200 ft of water and were chasing it all over the surface. Scary stuff.
There have been plenty of times over the years where I have seen people freak out in the water and it does nothing but excite the sharks and drive them to their worst behavior. I’ve found that if you are super chill and act like you are supposed to be there they will leave you alone as long as they don’t think they can eat you. The only two times I’ve had to pull the trigger on a shark were when we were chumming in Micronesia and a big shark came in and the guy chumming got spooked and dropped the entire fish we were berleying and the shark ate that and went nuts trying to bite us and the other time was in Louisiana at the Midnight Lump which is notorious for big aggressive sharks.
MY friend Craig had just shot a big Wahoo and we were taking pictures on the boat and when we were finished he got in the water behind the boat to wash the scales and blood off. I was just cocking my gun (while inside the boat because there are so many sharks there we always get in cocked) and caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and beside the boat going underneath to where Craig was in the back was a 14+ft Hammerhead Shark. Me and Brandon Wahlers (Who famously screamed like a 12 year old girl “Ahhhhhhhh Craig!!!!!!”) both yelled and I shot the shark in the side from the boat. The slip tip had not been put on the shaft yet and the shaft still penetrated so deep that all we could see was the back 12 inches of the spear sticking out of the near side and nothing from the other. That means the shark was upwards of 6 feet thick.
It was a monster. Those are the only two times I could say I have ever been forced to spear a shark out of total last resort. Someone was going to get bitten and hurt badly. I have had hundreds and hundreds of encounters that when I was a kid I would have considered “an attack” but now that we have spent so much time in the water we see that it is just the initial inquisitive “swim right up to you and check you out” that almost every shark regardless of size does.
They are out there looking for food and depending on where they are in the world and what they feed on they will have ideas on what it is they can eat and what it is they need to avoid. Something as big as we are usually is something they don’t want to eat but I believe they see us as a large predator as well and if we are there then there must be a food source that could sustain them as well and maybe they can take part in that same feeding if and when it happens. Unfortunately, Shark Chumming Charters and places that we spearfish often has conditioned sharks to know and understand that when they see divers and boats it means food and those sharks will not hesitate to come and take a fish right out of your hands. Those are the ones that I fear. The ones that don’t fear me.

Check out the video from this week in the Bluewater off Florida

Big King Mackerel and a well placed shot in Bluewater

Not heeding my own advice in “Slow Summer Spearing Solutions”, we headed out early this week and hit a few of our favorite “secret” spots on the East and West Coast of Florida. In both cases within a few minutes of arriving at the spots another boat was on it and pushy as could be to anchor right on top of our heads. In the morning everyone is so fired up to get right on their GPS numbers and all manners seem to go out the window even though you still have 10 more hours of dive/fishable time.
The spots in the morning produced a few good fish but things didn’t really start to turn on until the afternoon.
From 2 miles out we could see the flotilla of boats and as we motored in slowly one and then two left leaving us with the wreck all to ourselves. Despite having been dove countless times during the day and one of the last boats leaving full of Scuba Spearfisherman, we had high hopes for a shark filled adventure and big Gag Groupers.
Anchor down at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the sea was like a lake. On each of our first dives we were greeted by swarms of Groupers both Gag and Black as well as Big Dusky and Hammerhead sharks. Because of the sharks GR had encountered the week before (upwards of 15 big pissed off Bulls, Dusky and Sandbar) he volunteered to cover the two of us while we made the first couple of dives and push off the toothy critters so we could land our fish.
Well the sharks must have been sleeping because on the first 4 dives we made we landed 4 groupers and didn’t lose a one. There were Permit and Mangrove Snappers on every dive as well and you would never have guessed a dozen boats had already hit the spot that day.

A few days and few hundred miles earlier in the week I had made another trip in search of pelagics wide on the East Coast of the US. With the Labor Day crowds we opted to go long and after covering more than 40 miles of ocean we came across a floating buoy that had a section of line hanging off of it. We quickly suited up and once in the clear water were surrounded by Dolphin (mahimahi, Dorado) from 1-15 lbs. With the school circling I watched the perimeter and down below for in the summertime and with a group of fish this size there was surely to be other predators in the area.

On countless occasions we have found schools of small dolphin and learned the hard way that it pays to be patient and wait for what might be eating the dolphin to come up instead of wasting a trigger pull on a 4 lb Peanut watching and waiting for the ever present Wahoo, Tuna or Marlin that was sure to be lurking in the distance.
For this reason it is always good to get in the water with a gun suited for shooting Wahoo when you are checking out flotsam, weedlines, or kelp paddies in warmer climates. When the wahoo do come they are usually just out of reach of your normal reef gun and the trend towards bigger more reliable equipment and bluewater set ups has allowed more divers to land good fish in the past few years.
The setups used this day were 50′ Riffe Bungey and 50′ Armor Spectra Float lines and single 33 liter buoys, 130 Riffe Euro, Wong Hybrid 60 and Horizontal Reel rigged with 200ft of Spectra line.

These same rigs with an added length of floatline or Bungey serve well for hunting the drop-offs and deep wrecks for pelagics all over the world when the fish are less than 100 lbs. (figure one 2 Atmosphere float per 140 lbs of fish you are hunting to be safe or 1 regular float per 75 lbs of fish)
Rig smart for bluewater fish.
Unlike reefs and wrecks in shallow water, there is unlimited room to run for Pelagic fish and in deep water a Tuna or Amberjack can run down and out of sight and never return. Once they get your buoy under water and have momentum and are heading down it is likely they won’t stop because the buoys will begin crushing and lose their buoyancy. (hence the reason for the 2 atm Riffe Floats)
The solution to this is using Bungey and stronger buoys. With bungey you have ample time to get a hand on your floats and the stretch of the bungey acts as a drag and slows the fish down reducing their forward(downward) force.
There is nothing like hunting in the bluewater but at the end of the day its nice to come in to the shallows and relish in seeing the bottom at only 75′. Get out there and enjoy the warmth of the summer and the cool of the evenings and sweat at the end of the day with a heavy cooler full of hard earned fillets of your bluewater fish.

GR and Ben with the days catch on the West Coast of Florida

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

La Paz mixed bag. Pez Fuerte, Wachinango (sic), Pacific Bonito, Leopard Grouper (golden phase)

La Paz Sailfish

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

Brad Thornbroughs 18 lb Pole Speared Wahoo

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.

Nothing better then seeing your friends happy. Chad Morris with the biggest fish of the trip and a huge smile on his face

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.