Chronicles of a Blue Water Hunter

[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 rofl 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]

opening can of worms!!!

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/showthread.php?threadid=37967&highlight=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

 

[Dick Splash]

Ive been instructed to comment again :chatup
Fair dinkum those are bleedin awsome fish I would love to see them being caught

 

[Iyadiver]

Miles,

Try to use a 6mm plywood for penetration test. Take one of your gun with a known and proven range on the 71kg tuna and shoot the 6mm plywood or maybe thicker plywood. Once you know the penetration level at "X" distance, use that as a reference power level. Next step is to shoot further by 0.5 meter increment, see how much power is lost there after. 6mm is good thickness, not too thick.

I had done similiar experiment with different shaft diameters coming out of the same gun with same number of rubbers, it is quite interesting. The heavier shaft always win.......provided you use at least 4 x 14mm bands.

If there is a rest tab on the shaft, it will be more difficult for the shaft to penetrate completely. Since we don't have the tools to measure shaft speed in water, penetration test is the least we can do.

My confidence speargun power level is when I can penetrate the 6mm plywood entirely ( 55" shaft and longer and with Ice Pick Slip Tip ).

Keep those fish coming boy....

 

[fuzz]

:waterwork :waterwork :waterwork :waterwork :waterwork

 

[rigdvr]

The Wongs are as good shooting as they are beautiful. The bigger guns(bluewater) have and enclosed track and most come with an alexander aluminum muzzle. Each one is weighted and balanced by Daryl in the water before being shipped. Ive never been let down by any of his products and he has by far the best warranty on the market....a lifetime guarantee

Im not trying to sound like an infomercial but getting to know Daryl has been one of the highlights of my diving career. Never have I met a man more willing to help other divers and steer them in the right direction.

Id imagine it is similar to having Tommy down the road

 

[icarus pacific]

awww...

Miles....you're killin' me! :waterwork Very nice work and my earlier statement about getting together still applies. And it's easier to bring some teak and purple heart on my person than to ship it.

 

[mjacobs]

Wow.

 

[Brutta Borsa]

Have a look at this http://www.cetacea.org/lfpilot.htm. a useful site.Do have a shoot at them with the camera and post here. Great pictures love them and the others you post, thanks for sharing.

 

[Brutta Borsa]

Sorry another thread

 

[rifmaniac]

hi

Miles (or any one else):
do you think it unwise trying to shoot that kind of fish with a Riffe Competitor 3XS, and two reels(one on the gun and one on the belt) with 50m of line on each of them;
or will I just risk wounding the fish then loosing my gun(or shaft) ?

IMG:http://img82.exs.cx/img82/6822/moulinetsRiffe0009.jpg

 

[rifmaniac]

IMG:http://img82.exs.cx/img82/8659/moulinetsRiffe0012.jpg

 

[Memo]

Rifmanic, without bungee and floats, you cant land that kinda fish, it will rip or sink you to death!

 

[miles]

Hiya

After all that YF Tuna action, preperations were made for the week-end. Unfortunately a 28knot wind prohibited us from making the 40nm journey.....

Well, after leaving at 3:30 in the morning, we travelled the 80 odd km's to the slip, only to get blown away. Now, being very stressed out at work, i just HAD to get my weekly fix of spearing!! A couple of phone calls later, and off we go back home to get out Yellowtail Kingfish guns. Then the 70km trip to the OTHER slip started. Water was a decent 15 degrees with horrible 2-3m viz with most of the fish staying right on the bottom in 15-20m water. RABITECH'D them!!!!

We had a blast none-the-less, and one of my friends who'd been spearing for almost 10 years now, finally got his first Yellowtail Kingfish.

Feels good to be recharged and ready for another weeks stress!!!! Once again, can't wait for NEXT week-end!!!

Regards
miles

 

[Amphibious]

well this years winter travel is Cancun for two weeks, I think nextyear will have to be South Africa......

Miles you're one serious predator - good show!!!

 

[defofthecrown]

Are those smaller tuna in the skiff albacore or still yellowfin? Are you shooting tahitian shafts or slip tips? And stop making everyone jealous, okay? Not to mention 20nm offshore arrgghhh so close you can taste the wasabi...

Also, are you using that float w/ the boat 'quick cleat' on it that you posted earlier? Any comments on how thats working (aside from the obvious"refer to the photo of my 75kg tuna dummy")?

 

[miles]

Hiya

Riffemaniac, as Memo said, DON'T DO IT!!!!! The problems with reels are that they jam quite easily and you'd probably be using dyneema or equivalant as reel line. They're extremely abrasion resistant and is a pain to cut, should you get entangled in it. Rather stick to the float/floatline/bungie setup. If you're on scuba and the water isn't too deep, it could work, but once again, watch the reel for jamming up.

defofthecrown, that is indeed albacore tuna (called Longfin tuna here). That one we guess-timated at 25kg's. Only found out a couple of days ago that the current IBSRC WORLD RECORD is 22.8kg's!!!! Tommy has one of 27kg's in his freezer. Oh well, next time!!!! They average between 8-15kg's with a good fish being 15-20kg. BIG albacore is between 20-30kg's, of which quite a few are caught on roand reel each season. Will definitely have to look at modifying my gear so as to comply with IBSRC rules. By the way, any idea on how to measure the amount of flotation a specific float has?

All my fish was shot with a slip tip, but my one buddy did take his 72kg fish with a tahitian. That boogie board with cleat is AWESOME on the big fish. WIth-out them, its probably take an hour if not longer to land those fish.

Looks like horrible weather whole week, so i'll just be patiently waiting...................................


Regards
miles