Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

[miles]

Tommy Botha and friends!!!!

[Alison]

Originally posted by miles
The SMALL fish turns out to be a 71Kg !!!!! Lesson learnt, those big fish LOOK small in that clean water. Especially when they're far from you!!!!

Tut Tut! You really should take more care!
I'm really impressed with you guys, I'm sure shooting a fish as small as 71Kg is no small thing, something I could never do thats for sure Just have to content myself with looking at the piccies you post
Keep them coming Miles they're the best fish any of us are catching!

[shaneshac]

Jeez Miles, you are really putting me under pressure now

Whats that gun in PIC2?

Keep it up bro.

Shane

[Memo]

Superb hunt miles! congratulations!

[Iyadiver]

Damn..........I am drooling this moment.......... ....as buckets and buckets being filled, I am still drooling.......

Well done Miles and friends.........visibility 100 feet or more has done me the same damage.....

Keep them stories coming.....Bravo !!!

[Murat]

very very nice pictures miles,i saw all of the crew preffer to use same guns for these monsters You just need to practice your aim with them

[Mikko]

Oh boy.......
Miles, you guys are having it too good down there.

Great fish again! Congrats!

Cheers,
Mikko

[frogman]

UNBELIEVABLE! Congats, Miles!
I am thinking about taking a trip to Costa Rica for some of this YF action. Do you think a RA 130 would work? What kind of set up did you end up using for these monsters?

BTW, Tommy Botha has a similar boat to mine: I have a 26' cat with twin Hondas 130's too. I guess he knows to pick good boats

Angelos

[miles]

Hiya

Thanx every-one!!

Ali, actually not all that difficult to shoot one of them. Landing them how-ever takes a bit longer!!! Next time you're in this part of the world, i'll make sure you get to shoot one of 'em!!!

shaneshac, that fish was taken with my 47" Woodie. Lost the spear on my 62" woodie........(lonnnnnng story!!!)

murat, my aiming is just fine!!! Simply because we're so used to dirty water, the clean water had us baffled. 70-80kg fish that are swimming 20m from you look like 40-50kg fish swimming 5-6m in front of you. Thats the reason we were missing those fish!!!!

Frogman, thats not Tommy's boat. He's got a 6.5m Mako Semi-rigid with 2x50hp yahama's 4strokes. For this class fish a 1.3m Railgun might work if the water isn't too clean. For clean water definitely invest in a mid-handled wooden gun. Railguns are awesome, and certainly are more than adequate for 90% of spearing. How-ever, trophy hunting BIG blue water pelagics require specific gear. Look at a Riffe or something similar. Tommy also sells his guns fairly cheaply, and as you can see from the pictures, there's no doubt that they do work!!!

Regards
miles

[rigdvr]

Miles...ever wanted to shoot a Wong? I might need to fly over with the collection to show them to you personally.... Nice fish.

[Alison]

Originally posted by miles
Ali, actually not all that difficult to shoot one of them. Landing them how-ever takes a bit longer!!! Next time you're in this part of the world, i'll make sure you get to shoot one of 'em!!!

Exactly my point any fool can jump in and get lucky with a wild shot but then its a different ball game. I remember a 6Kg Bass dragging me around No mate Im impressed!

While Im here, Colins asking what the wings on Tommy's gun are made from? are they Ebony?

Take care

[miles]

Hiya

Ali, those fish do drag you around a bit. Maybe just a little bit strong than that seabass. Yip, its true, .....................
Oh, the side stocks on Tommys gun is made out of plastic. I prefered the wooden ones on my gun!!!

Kapitan Rig, please do tell me more!!!!!! I've seen their website and their guns look sweet!!!!! Will definitely look into getting some more WOOD!!!!!

Regards
miles

[Alison]

LOL Im sure they do! An action picture from the boat would be good

[Murat]

i found this while surfing on the net, fishes are 65-70 kg range. The guns you are seeing background is TOTEMSUB tahiti and pelagos

[miles]

Hiya Murat

Those are some nice fish!!!! I've got one here for you as well, its an old thread i started a while back called Rabitech vs Tuna:

http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthr...=rabitech+tuna

Ok, to start off with, marlin has been shot with a single banded euro-gun. Any BIG fish can be shot and landed with a small eurogun if the conditions allow. How-ever, to sucessfull hunt your quarry, you need to be properly geared. I love spearfishing, but on the other hand, i take absolutely no joy in losing/maming a fish. Every effort is made to land ALL fish shot.

Our local guys have landed fish on 1.3m Rabitechs, even the SA record of about 90kg's was taken with a 1.3m Rabitech. But the spearo's here found that many occations the fish were just too shy to come in. Here a gun with longer range was required. Hence the mulitiple rubber band woodies. These fish are unbelievable quick under the water, so a mid-handle design was eventually used.

I'm looking for a gun with the power to penetrate deep enough to toggle the slip tip on a 70kg+ fish that is swimming maybe 20-25' (6-8m) away from me.

I'm no rocket scientist, but in my opinion, a 7 or 8mm spear propelled by 2x16mm or even 2x18mm's just isn't good enough. No disregard to Totem guns (they DO build BEAUTIFUL guns!!! ). Same with the Rabitechs. They both will work in certain conditions, but neither will work as good as a multiple band woodie.

I LOVE WOOD!!!!!!!

Regards
miles