Finally got out to dive this year

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha gang,

The weathers been terrible for the last five weeks. So our gang hasn't been able to get out . When we did get desperate enough to go on a nasty Sunday two weeks ago I ended up with a blown out tire on the way. We pulled over and were able to get all the lug nuts off except two. One sheared of and the other just spun it the hub. This prevented us from taking the tire off to change. We finally ended up taking the whole hub off the spindle, grinding the stud off from the back and then going back and putting on the spare. Meanwhile while Joe and I were doing this, my cousin said two crack heads came by to rip off the boat seeing that there was no truck hooked up and no one around. They didn't realize he was under the trailer checking out the other tires. He could see them get off their bikes and when they approached the boat, he got out from under the trailer with a hammer. They got surprised and then said got a flat? DUH.....then they left.
By the time we got the spare back on it was almost noon. We ended up back at my place and took off all the tires and did maintenance.

The following weekend the weather broke and was dead calm. I had a rare Saturday of and Monday was a holiday. Pete our living legend at 71 years old and I decided to get out to see if the Onos were still in. We launched at 7:30 am and went to our favorite spot. The bait were everywhere and I could tell it was perfect conditions. I saw a few nice AJ's or Kahalas as they are called here and watched them cruise the bottom. Very few people eat them here. Pete has a friend that eats them and loves shooting them. So rather than waiting to see if the onos were around he dove and shot a nice 20 lb AJ. It was a nice center mass shot which is Pete's favorite shot. It gave him a struggle. When he finally got it up, here comes the Ono school.... there must have been a dozen or more. I lined up on the nearest one and pulled, and pulled and pulled. What??? When it finally went off I ended up jerking and missing! The Ono wasn't even fazed. I reloaded and had another one come in. I pulled, and pulled and then hey, what the hell? I turned my gun over and found that my push rod had come out and was jammed on the side of the trigger mech.

Wait, this isn't supposed to happen to me! I make these damn guns and this one is mine. I even let my friend borrow my super magnum and she shot a world record tuna on film with it!
***** I missed a second time. This time I got my knife out and pushed the rod back in place. Pete was still getting his fish off and the onos were very where. They were milling around because of the blood and the chum we were chumming with. I finally reloaded and then shot a nice one. I strung that fish up and put it on my stringer. The onos were still around and I saw another one nearby. I got that one to come in and shot it. This time when I got it up, I dragged it over to Pete so that the school would follow it. One fish went right across and in front of Pete and he shot it. Center mass of course! We took our fish to the boat, took a few pictures and then went back in. It's a good thing I have a good warranty for my guns. I had to fix my own gun this time. So if your push rod ever gets jammed some how, I apologize in advance. It's called Shit happens.

Within a half hour another one came by. It was pretty good sized for Hawaii standards and I got a nice shot on it. I took that back to the boat and went to check on Pete. We waited a few hours and no fish came by so we called it a day.
I was taking the boat out on an overnight trip the following day with Joe Strona, and Kaipo, so I had to refuel and get supplies for the next two days. Back home the four Onos went 53,48,36,32 lbs. We cut up the two smallest and I took the two biggest to our local auction block.

Sunday, Joe Strona, Kaipo and I left for our overnight trip. We arrived around 8:00 am and the water was crystal clear and calm. The ride over was like sliding on ice it was that smooth! Normally our ride is 3 hours and we got there in 1 1/2 hrs. We got there so early we decided to troll until the sun got higher. No takers.
We had a blast spearing our favorite Parrot fish and I took Kaipo to an Ulua house where he got his first ulua. I ended up trashing three shafts on three uluas. Joe got a personal best Kumu or goat fish of 4.6 lbs. The record is 5.2 lbs so it was a huge one. We all had a blast exploring new grounds and finally getting back into the water.

Wednesday I had a Dr's appointment but the water was still dead calm and Pete had the Ono itch so we went on a late morning dive. We got to our usual spot. I got in first and while waiting for Pete, two nice onos came by and I got the biggest of the two. Pete finally got out and I dragged the ono over to him and the mate followed. Pete took a long shot but the ono gun I made for him doesn't shoot 50 ft. He was 20 ft short! I asked what took him so long to get out and he said he was feeding our pet turtle chomper. Later while waiting for more Onos, a big 12ft tiger shark came up on us. It got within 8 ft of me and then turned. It wasn't aggressive and was just checking us out. By then the current was running due to the full mood tide so we came in early.

It was great to get back into the water. A good friend of ours Bob Bachmann has been waiting to come over and visit. Pete called him the other week but he had business to take care of. So I'm sure Pete will rub it in when he calls Bob.

I hope the weather holds and I can give another report next week. The weathers nice but the water is still cold. It is 72 degrees. I had my new Yazbeck 3mm suit and it was good enough to keep me warm.

Aloha,Daryl

 

[Pastor]

Glad you managed to get in and brave the chilly 72 degrees rofl you're my hero! rofl I dream that one day the waters here might warm up enough to something similar All relative I suppose but you do make me jealous

I'm surprised that your push rod managed to get itself back there, looking at mine just now it would look to be just about impossible. I guess the design has evolved a little over the years or tolerances have got even tighter. Either that or you have just managed to wear it out with too much spearing!

Thanks for the story, you just brought a little bit of Hawaiian sunshine into a cold wet and dark February morning

 

[Mongrel454]

Your my new hero

Love your reports mate

 

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha DB Gang,

My wrist is grayish yellow and except for the gouge that is healing I can load bands now and thats the main thing. Nothing a new boat winch and Motrin couldn't fix.
Yesterday there were only two of us. The others had Easter brunch, and kid stuff to do. Pete has a nasty cold and a bad cough so he's laid up. Kaipo and I decided to give the onos one last try. So we went out.

The winds are still blowing, so there wasn't' much bait around and the water was pretty choppy. With the full moon it was hard to anchor and swim in place so we decided to jump on Ulua houses after a few hours of seeing only blue water.

The fist hole was empty and then it was onto the deep hole. It's actually 68ft but looks deeper since its on a drop off. When we swam up to the archway, there was a school of omilus and one big ulua just leaving. The timing was wrong and they must have seen or heard us. Back to the boat and onto the next spot.

The next spot has been productive. It is a large ledge that I shot an ulua on the spear hunter show. Since we only had one shaft with cable, I gave it to Kaipo and told him to go on the side that the uluas hang out. I was going to cover the exit. We both dropped down and when I got to my end, there was two uluas circling. I waited for them to go to Kaipo's side but they just stayed there. The bigger of the two, came up to me and I thought better stone this one or end up with nothing. I dropped it and the other one slowly headed to the other side. I was hoping Kaipo was still there and a second later, I heard his gun go off. I saw him hanging onto his reel line as I brought my fish up. It was going crazy and he had lined the fish. I pulled the shaft out of my fish and reloaded. A kill shot later and we pulled off a rare double out of an ulua hole. This is one of the few times we've done that. Most times its who shoots first that gets the fish.
With only two of us, we took turns taking pictures and then onto the next hole.

The next hole was empty, but had fish around so we changed out Kaipo's shaft and speared some Uhus and Reef fish. The wind was starting to pick up more and I thought we should go and check the deep hole again to see if Joe's theory of them coming back in a few hours was true.

The deep hole was loaded with uluas this time. It had a few in the 30's and three or four in the 60 plus range. But they were swimming agitated when we got there and before we could breath up, they started leaving single file in a hurry. We'll you can't always have your way. As we were swimming back to the boat along that drop off, I saw three uluas mid water. I looked to my right to see if Kaipo saw them and he was already lining up. I dropped down and when Kaipo shot, he missed! They looked closer than they were and his shot was short. The Ulua that got shot at made a big circle and came back to see what happened. Only problem, I was there with my gun and shot him with my barbed shaft. Lucky we were on the drop off and he took me out to the deep. It was a crappy shot but enough that Kaipo could reload and put another shot into it. This Ulua was a Kagami ulua or African Pompano to most of you.
That was it for the day. Kaipo and I both found our Easter fish!

Aloha,Daryl

 

[Mongrel454]

Great story as usual Daryl

With a great c atch also