bluewater in the med

[atherianos]

does anyone have any advice/tips on how to successfully hunt in the blue? I am used to reef hunting and know almost nothing about blue water

what method works best to attract fish? chum/flashing etc
how do you find a good spot (since you cannot see the bottom w/o sonar)?
what months is blue water hunting most successful in the med?


thank you in advance

 

[metelin]

im assuming you have already seen this [ame=http://www.youtube.com/user/Apneank#p/a/u/0/6_OWkVqyAZM]YouTube - Apneank's Channel[/ame] and i assume that you already know that bluefin hunting is illegal in greek waters so i would advise being careful if you plan on doing it in greece as the fines are steep.

chumming and flashers work well for aj's but not as well for tuna. in the video you see the use of sonar to find tunas after locating birds diving on bait, so looking for surface action is essential if you don't have sonar and then you can work chum/flashers to bring fish close for a shot.

lastly, proper setup is essential, don't think that you can land even a 30k fish with your reef setup. you should have a multi band gun with at least a 8mm shaft rigged with cable connected to a bungie and float.

good luck.

 

[octopus]

This is rather extensive topic. I can start it off and some other people will contribute. You also have blue water hunting threads, but you have to do a bit of search.
You can also narrow it down and ask questions, rather than me writing a book.

You do not need to go for tuna only. There are other fish that are legal, amber jacks, dorado, bonito.

I would suggest Atlantic bonito (sarda sarda) or you will probably easier recognise it as palamide. It can grow up to 10-ish kg.

Sarda sarda, Atlantic bonito : fisheries, gamefish

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaR7zRGSTXU]YouTube - Palamide / bonito[/ame]

It is good eating, especially if you like sushi. You can catch it not far from shore and you can sort your blue water setup and master your technique.

 

[octopus]

You do not even have to go far from the shore in order to catch it. They often approach shore in their hunt for small fish. Finding good spot is rather important task, but I am afraid I cannot help much you there. You have good chance at underwater pinnacles, drops and similar underwater features. It is usually that current brings minerals from the depth to the surface at such places and phytoplankton likes it. Then everything else hangs around this base of food chain. Fish seem to congregate around these. Following schools of small fish is good strategy. Find fish rich area, with the slope on the see floor and then go little bit beyond the slope into the blue. Although it is possible to fish during the day, fish seem to be more active in the morning/evening. Both swordfish and dorado seem to have a taste for needlefish (I do not know if swordfish is legal in Greece). For dorado, you can just hang around large school of needle fish on the surface. Easy work.

 

[octopus]

As far as gear goes, usually I tackle fish up to 5kg without using the reel. I like to use a reel for fish 5kg-20kg. Anything more than 20kg, you are probably better off with a float attached to your spear (break away rig). This is of course only rough idea, but some weight overlap is probable (for example if the shot is bad - in the belly, then you would want to use reel even for lighter fish. Let the fish bleed and take a ride. It'll get tired and then it is easier to handle it. Actually give it 10mins and it'll probably die. If you put too much tension on the rope, you'll just lose the fish).
Do not underestimate big fish - fish heavier than, say 20kg, is stronger than you in the sea.

 

[octopus]

You will probably experience complete lack of distance judgement on the first day or two. Everything is blue, there is no reference (is it big fish far away or smaller fish close by? (reminds me of Father Ted)), so it takes some getting used to. Later you tend to estimate distance by what detail you can see on the fish and the tip of your gun. You just have to do it few times until your neural nets are trained.

 

[octopus]

The guy in the video moves too much for my liking, but maybe he does it so he can film the action better (I am sure he is great spearo, but I am entitled to my opinion). If you do not move as much and have perhaps reflective coating mask, fish will approach you to only couple of meters. Then you can have very precise shot.
The other thing I do not like in the video is that he leaves the rope all over the place while he pulls the fish in. For me this is big no-no. I am of opinion that fish should be pulled in by winding the reel up. Too many ropes around you is asking for trouble.

 

[atherianos]

thanks for the info everyone

it appears i might have to investigate some more before trying this