Is it possible that storm can actually make better fishing ?

[Iyadiver]

I had info from my charter captain who operates on the Indian Ocean side of my place. He said the past two weeks been YelloFin tuna craze in the bay where the pier is. 60kg yellowfins been landed by anglers ( big for local standard ) and the fisherman been bringing YF by the tons daily.

I notice that the past few days and also for the next few days there is a Storm Fiona some 400 miles South of this bay. Wind in the center expected to be 100 knot and the rain clouds been causing floods in many parts of my Java island.

The bay where the YF tuna hang out is about 1000- 2000 feet of water and only some 5 miles out of the pier. This is not my regular hunting zone.

Is it possible that the fishes are hiding at this bay to get protected water or is it the massive rain run off from the river to this bay being the attraction.?? I heard some anglers say that after or before a big storm fishing is good ???

I will be diving there tomorrow, hopeful the waves are not big after travelling some 400 miles from the eye of the storm. If I am lucky I might do my first real 2000 feet of water in the middle of nowhere freediving for YF Tuna. I heard the tuna cruise surface water last week, that sounds so good for my 20 feet capability.

My question is, say I nail and can't stoned a 50kg YF tuna, do you guys think my Riffe torpedo float will survive the pull and not dissappear into the abyss ?? Currently I rigged a second float, it is a 7 liter Riffe surface market float and space it 5 meters behind the bigger 17 liter float. I am calculating that if the tuna drag it down to 5 meters, the big float will loose 30% bouyancy and the second float will help to compensate that. I have access to boat fenders but not anymore extra floats.

My friend is rigging his Riffe torpedo float along with a Picasso +-12 liter float.

Any helpful info appreciated.

I hope to spot those tunas on the surface. There is no rocks or whatsoever as a waiting or attraction point.

 

[SASpearo]

What I'll suggest is a loooooong floatline on your second float - loop it into a pocket that you can tie onto your smalll float, or sew it on, or glue it, whatever, so that once the big float gets pulle dunder, the second float will release the line and you'll have some line to play with. I've used this system hunting the big tunny of the cape, and it works pretty well.

Only problem is if you've got 100m of line in the pocket, you have to retrieve all of that again ... and it sucks pulling in 100m of line.

Try using flashers - I've noticed that very bright flashers works well on tunny in clear water - which you should get that deep. Try something like orange and silver 'cuda dusters' and some metal plates .....

Have fun, and be carefull of the big tunnys - rather rig your gun as a complete breakaway than trying to go after it when a tunny sounds and takes it with him ... not fun either.

Regarsds,
Riaan

PS: a good shot on tunny is one where you shoot from the side and behind, and hit it into the gills - they can't swim too well this way, unless you use a drop tip, then it's useless. Another good shot is from directly below, shoot it between the gills, you should be able to brain it from there if it's not too big and your gun's big enough as well ....

 

[Iyadiver]

Thanks SA......

Since there are 3 of us divers, I think we will take turn and this way I can rig 100' float line + Riffe float + 100 feet Float line + Riffe Float + 50 feet float line + Picasso Float. All the set up is complete breakway, no way I want to loose my gun this way.

One more gun with Riffe big and small float combo get to shoot under 30kg fish..... if we ever see any YF...

So how's FrankerGun doing ??

 

[ivan]

hi

Iya keep us posted and tell me how good your vis is in 2000ft of water

cheers

 

[Iyadiver]

Ivan,

The weather was OK but the YF Tuna craze have subside. The deep water is very close to the main river and believe it or not it was green on top. I spotted a school jumping some 2000 meters from shore and I trolled with a Rapala to test first, looks like the school is only 10-15kg size. I was not even ready to gear up my wet suit, 7 traditional fishing vessels were swarming read to net them. In fact they chased off my boat because I trolled in the middle of the school, disturbing their netting procedure.....$holes !! If I ever jumped in the water, i will die entangled on their net. Anyway the tuna sounded deep and gone.

Yesterday water was very cloudy at surface to 60 feet. In fact at 60 feet it was crazy, the viz drop to about 1 meter, after that to 120 feet it was 70 feet viz. Quite a number of doggie but small only up to 10kg. I lost one cause I got only the tail, it was 6-8kg species. Out of 5 dives only two was productive, the rest even the bait fish were gone....funny.

So I ended up hunting the spanish mack, got two. 8 and 12 kg. I pulled my trigger only 4 times in 5 dives, not too good. My buddies were not so lucky, one kept missing the shots and a few torn off.

4 charter boats went out trolling but my boat got the best fishes even only 2 mack and 1 doggie. I guess they should have used a deep down rigger to make their lure swim at 70-80 feet but they probably will it get snagged more than once.

The flasher I made did not seems to work because of the murky water.

 

[ivan]

hi

Iya its sad to see that 7 commercial fishos were flogging out the area, the commercial fishing must be fairly heavy in your area . At least you got a 12kg Mack thats okay . And did you say you saw doggies in 2000ft of water. I thought they like to hang around some kind of structure but not in open ocean :duh

cheers

 

[Iyadiver]

Nope, the doggies were at my regular rocky dive area. The YF Tuna hang around at the 1000-2000 feet water. However I remembered once I trolled near one of my dive site and hooked on a small YF Tuna. In other parts of Indonesia, I have seen quite a few times yellowfin tuna but they cruise by away from the pinacle or rock in deep like 300+ feet of water. Spotted one once at 170 feet, even with a reel and on scuba I probably will never shoot one at such depth. Now I limit my scuba to 40 meter/130 feet and enjoy 60-90 feet most, decompression reason.

I think any freediving spearo who can do 100 feet and 90-120 seconds is good enough, more than enough to be deadly to any fish and will out shoot any scuba hunter anytime & anyday.

Well this area I hunt has heavy fishing pressure since the deep water is very close to shore, even small canoe like boat can be used the traditional fishermen. 20 years ago there it will need only 2 hours to boat 20 spanish mack regularly with rod & reel. Imagine what kind of heaven it was. The last 5-7 years I have seen a few of my usual hunting area have transformed from "not bad" to lousy. Soon I probably will be lucky to pull a trigger once per 3 dives. :waterwork

 

[ivan]

hi

Iya that is sad to hear about your local area. We have a lot of commercial fisherman but these are what we call live trout fisherman they linefish for Coral trout and send them over live to places usually Hong Kong. And for a freediver to dive to 100ft with a speargun and floatline and sit on the bottom for 2mins and wait for fish would be pretty rare to find maybe Abri can do it he can hunt up to 40m, or even Sven, Andrsn, Aquiles. Some of those freediver freaks like Fattah can dive to 34m and stay on the bottom there for 3:45 but hes not a spearo so no good. You are lucky Iya you can hunt at 40m without any training whilst im still learning and it will take many years of training to hunt at those depths that Abri does

cheers

 

[donmoore]

IYA,
Can’t give you any advice on floats for yellow fin. I have done good both fishing and spearing after a storm, but just before a storm it is usually bad. We have several hard to find rock structures here were resident fish, like snapper grow big. After a storm that will get blown off and end up at oilrigs for a few days.

It seems like the problem with tuna spearfishing in deep water, is the chances of coming in contact with them are small. Seems like the people who are successful have a structure, like a rock cropping coming up from deep or a floating oil platform.

I’m still kicking myself for not getting in the water my one and only trip to a floater. I meet someone on the news group who sounds gutsy enough to make the trip with me. We were going Saturday, but a cold front came in and the high was only 44 degrees with rain and waves. We are thinking of trying it again in two weeks.
Good spearing,
Don

 

[Iyadiver]

Hi Don,

U r right about YF tuna is hard to find since it is not reef/rock friendly like Doggie or Spanish Mackerel.

When I used to troll for them, either I get lucky when trolling near a rock or I must wait till they feed on small fishes, causing splashes on the water and better yet inviting birds to feed. With birds, I can spot them from far away.

We don't have any oil platform or anything floating in deep water of the Indian Ocean near my place so splashing tuna on the surface is the only way I will ever find it.

There is submerged rock far away but I still can not visit the place, weather and logistic reason for the +- 140 miles away from my marina. The last time my friend went there, the viz was 5 meters and green water. Imagine 40 miles from the nearest land in the middle of the Indian Ocean and still such bad viz. The submerged rock is supposedly some 5-8 miles long and 40-50 meters being the shallowest. What I have learnt so far is that, it is better to fish ( & spear ) near or on a submerged rock which is not too big ( say 500 meters long ) than those super long ones. If a rocky underwater terrain gets too long/big, locating the potential spot will be difficult. Unless the fishes are as plenty as bacteria ( very unlikely in my waters even that far offshore ), I rather hunt smaller rocky areas.

What's ur fishing experience on this matter ?

 

[Iyadiver]

Ivan,

You will be a much better hunter and safer ( if done correctly ) if u are a freediver. I talked to Eric Young who can do 40 meters freediving but does not hunt and he is also a scuba instructor. He told me that he will choose to freedive if he ever wants to hunt, not only because of the extra stealth but he finds the deco and slow ascent requirement of a scubahunter is not to any advantage, in fact dangerous when fighting a fish. Of course his opinion is based on his good freediving skill & instructor level scuba training.

The same comment I heard from a freediver friend who is not very seasoned scubadiver. He went hunting with me with tanks and he kept swearing how dangerous it was. He doesn't like it.

I don't know if freedivers get splitting headache from fast ascend ( I guess not ) but scuba divers do. Even chasing and fighting a fish have caused me great pain on the head from over exertion (over breathing). The pain can last to an hour, if not less. Remember I fight fish from the speargun, no reel and no float. This is why I want a reel now, so that I do not need to swim fast along with the fish to lighten the load on it's flesh, like how I always have to do. If a scubahunter uses a float, he fires and forget, this I suppose can be very safe hunting. There are times when over breathing and too much swim have caused me almost feeling like I want to black out even in water as shallow as 60 feet. Breathing from a scuba regulator is good if you are not under working load and stress.

It takes a little training to be able to do 40M with scuba tanks but to do it safely without reel and float on a pelagic bigger than 20kg and to be able to get close to shy fishes with noisy bubbles, it will take much longer. If the place is fish heaven like Texas oil rigs, I don't know how long one must adapt but their extreme depth alone make me shiver. Their black out risk is real if a big fish is fought without float or reel. The more I dive the more I fear depth, I guess I am being cautious.

If you keep practicing right, I am sure you will hit a 100 feet soon. That will be the day all scubahunter will envy any freediver hunter.
In the mean time I envy all the big Spanish in ur location..... . If you ever hit 100 feet, I will double that envy.

 

[ivan]

hi

Iya Scuba hunting sounds more dangerous than freediving :naughty . When we linefish in 30-35m is where the biggest fish are found in my area so thats why I want to hunt at least 100ft. Cobia, Red Emperors etc are always found out in the deep water rubble patches and rarely on the shallow coral reef . But yeah the Spanish macks are usually no deeper than 40ft so these are easy to get.

BTW Im getting bored of Mackeral so naturally I want to try new species in deeper water with bigger sharks more exciting

cheers

 

[rigdvr]

Iya,
when fishing for YF some things you may want to try are ...
1. look for breaks whether they be temp or color...usually they are both. A good sounder is necessary, it only takes a degree or two to make all the difference.

2. Since you are monitoring the temp on your sounder and looking for color break you will be more apt to mark schhools of bait and tuna! Track your findings in a log and soon you will notice patterns as tuna are seasonal migrators.

3. Tuna tend to really like twilight hours...and they usually stay deeper midday.

4. Try chunking at night in areas near canyons and ledges...also chunk a school on the surface during the day and they will come right to you. Keep chunking or they will leave.

5. You cant find them if you arent looking!

 

[Iyadiver]

Thanks Kapiten,

Unfortunately this charter boat only has a VHF ( they did not even usually bring that ) and a lousy LCD sounder ( if the remember to bring it on board... ).

Will try ur method once I send my friend's 53 Ocean Yacht over to this side of the sea for a month stay or so. I have succesfuly convinced him to just do that. Hopefuly by mid March when the weather is better. This boat got all the gears, but believe it or not, there is no single rod holders on the gunwhale.......wha ha ha, and it has the US$6.5K Rupp outrigger, cause it looks cool....:head.

I hope I don't have to chum to spearfish......I have secured my balls in a deposit box, so me might try other methods...ha ha ha.

All this time the trolling method been always pinacle and spotting birds in the very early morning and late near evening.

 

[donmoore]

IYA,
I don’t have much experience or advice for you on YF. I am sure Rig and other have far more. All I know is this: I feel uncomfortable being in water with no structure around and have never seen a fish in such water; when I made my one floater trip there were 6 other boats there and I believe they all had yellow fins on and I believe they all hooked on, just like I did, right next to the platform. That is why I am excited by the concentration around floaters.

If I remember right, the yellow fin world record freediving spearfishing was done by a rock cropping in about 25 meters of water. Somewhere on the web is great story by the guy who did.

If I was you I would definitely give that 140 mile out rock cropping a try, even if it is larger than perfect. There may be no perfect structure in your area. You just need some good days and pull some strings, which you sound like you have a special gift for, to get there.
Don

 

[Erik]

Thanks for mentioning me Iya!
And thanks for buying the last 2 pitchers of Beer on Friday night....I was hurting on Saturday:yack
Cheers,
Erik Y.
ps, it's raining so hard here that I think I might have to put the fin on and swim home from work!

 

[ivan]

hi

Erik when are you gonna go spearing

cheers

 

[rigdvr]

Originally posted by Iyadiver
it has the US$6.5K Rupp outrigger, cause it looks cool....:head.

Heres one you might find humorous Iya...I have a friend who just bought a 42 Bertram with 36' Rupps...thats almost as big as they come...they are the same size as SF in the 60+ft class...but he thinks they make him look cool. They look real cool until he asks me to help him take them off and wax them about once a month...:head

 

[Erik]

Hey ivan, me and Iya are trying to get it together for next month....it's difficult to arrange a boat with all the right guys, etc....and the weather is not great up here. I wont SCUBA, so it has to be a place that's relatively relaxed at the surface, without current. That's hard to find around this end of Jawa.
I am looking forward to it though! One of my life's greatest experiences was with Freediver48, spearfishing for hours near Nanaimo, Canada. I caught nothing, but it was a great experience.
Cheers people,
Erik Y.

 

[Amphibious]

I'll be Nanaimo on Monday - Diving The Saskatchewan and CapeBreton, and a bunch more. Possiblities of Halibut hunting on the last day - will see what my N2 Saturation looks like. 8 dives in 72hours...

Erik - next time your in BC we should hunt...

Willer