With the happy hunting of two weeks ago, I practically dream of those tunas....restless sleep. Like a virgin having first happy sexual experience....I craved for more fishes.
Been monitoring the weather sattelite as days goes closer to last Thursday. Wind report predicted no worse than 15 knots wind, gee that must be as good as my succesful trip....I thought.
On Thursday, I confirmed all requirement and we end up with a charter boat of 28 foot aluminum using 115 Hp x 2 Suzukis. Three of us on the trip. Spend Friday night close by the marina after 3 hours drive from my city and left at 5:30 next morning. The distance to go was 50 miles. Wind were blowing from the south in the evening and it doesn't look good. The boat was making good speed at 26 knots out of the marina. Later 1/2 way down the journey at a big bay we were hit with waves. The lousy small non offshore boat was pounding and aluminum was realy noisy. All of us we salt prayed every seconds, it was cold and wet. At some stage we could only progress at maximum 8 knots. What a lousy bone breaking ride.
Arrived at the only pier of the location 3 hours later, 1 hour behind schedule. Get rooms and lunch pack and head for the favourite rock. The wind picked up with occasional gust of 25 knots thrown in every few minutes. It was a stern wave ride to the rock, not too bad. We reached the rock only to find ( as expected ) that it was too rough to dive. Any experienced spearo with strong swimming skill might survive the 2 meter swell + confused waves smashing on the rocks, but not us scuba dudes. We can dive safely but no way we can surface and fight the surface current, our small boat was also thrown all over the place. If anything happens to the small boat while waiting for us, we will be doomed. So we sadly left the rock and head for the protected reef where the mass of land protect it from the wind, only 1-2 knots current will be the problem.
What a lousy trip. This 60 feet reef span like 1 x 2 kilometer wide. I know this place very well. The only fish to expect here will be trevalies and great barracuda. Sometime if in luck we might see jobfish. I did not dive this reef two weeks ago, no way, the rock pinacle was heaven. So we dove with so little excitement. We drift among the reefs. I came to my favourite spot only to find it was so lifeless. The holes under the rock has become shallower cause some bombing took place and have shifted the sand in front of the holes......DAMN !!! S.O.B fisherman. My last visit to this reef was over a year ago. It is degrading badly. A school of 5 Permits ( pompano ??? ) came, +-3 kg size, a common size to this area. Hit it and that was that, not much fight.
Look at my secret ledge to find lobters ( didn't bring any stocking ) but all I could see was the antena, no shot possible and seems the single lobster was not so big anyway.
I was frustrated and keep thingking of two week's ago..TUNA !!!!
The viz was 30 feet and degrading deeper into the reef area. No big trevalies...how how how ? I promised the boat crews that if I see a good size barracuda I will shoot for them, my MT Zero has only shot one Trevaly 2 weeks ago and I need bigger ones. The midget gun was lovely in this kind of current, doesn't feel like I am holding a gun. I armed it with the 3/8" shaft.
It realy sucks to dive a place that I don't intend to dive knowing there is a fish heaven some 8 miles away and I can not dive there. But on the other hand I realized that since my attitude is like " I don't realy care about the fish and not excited about them", they actualy wants to get closer to me.
After drifting from two of my regular spots, I need only to drift to one final place and that should end the dive. Then along the way to my final spot, I spotted this great barracuda. I already had my 5 bands loaded, took aim at maximum distance about 4.5 meters, I was aiming the shoulder but the shaft landed a micro bit lower on the middle small fin behind the gill. S*it, not a very good shot but I had total penetration. The cuda took off to the surface, I hang on tight, one hand on the rock I hand on my gun, I don't want the risk of air embolism. It drag me around for at least 5 minutes, I dare not grab it and drill the head with my knife cause it was still rather powerful. I was afraid it will bite me, I never shot a cuda this big before and 2 of my friends been bitten, not serious but it was smaller cudas.
The body was tearing and only a few more centimeter it will split open, I play the fish gently, I don't want to loose it. If I had a reel or a float, the flesh won't tear this bad. I kept my gun in front of me just in case it comes to attack me. This short gun only has about 60 cm of forward stock after my hand, I feel defendless if it come to attack me. The 4.8 meter shooting line plus the 90 cm shaft was not far enough to keep me away as far as I want from the cuda. I kept swimming away from the cuda as far as my shooting line allows.
I thought to myself, when will this cuda die ? As soon as I seen its power dropping, I head for the surface. Along the way, I tied my surface marker float to the gun, it has a 7 meter line. I feel safer now the fish is further away from me. There is no gaff on the boat, my spearhead is about to split the flesh, so I shouted for another gun. I don't want anyone to get bitten if they try to board the fish onto the boat. The boat crew pass me my #4 Riffe. I loaded 1 band and aimed for the head. The fish stoned immediately and the ice pick secured the fish.
Later on the boat I realized that it is actualy bigger than I first estimated underwater. No wonder it dragged me with much more power than my Spanish and my small Tuna 2 weeks ago.
The 3 boat crews were happy that they have some meat to bring home. My other friend landed a 9kg trevaly. After only two dives, we call it the day. We were still sad not able to do the rock pinacle. Sleep well and ate like pigs in the evening. The wind died down late at night. We were happy cause tomorrow we might be able to do the rock. At 7 AM the wind picked up again till 9 AM and grew even stronger. Every other boats already left the island first thing at 6 AM to avoid the nasty sea.
So what did we do ? Dive the shallow reef again, hell no way, we did not come this far for that reef. Get all our stuff ready and head home. So we were pounding and all wet again half way home.............sad sad sad :waterwork.
The only consolation was that my US$500 midget Riffe did what I expect it will do. It will be one hell of a close quater ( 4-5 meter ) , murky water gun. However the 7mm Hawaiian shaft looks like it will never see any service. With the blue water muzzle installed, I will stick to 3 bands at least with 8mm shaft. Since Riffe does not have any 8mm Hawaiian shaft shorter than 44", looks like I got to modify one for my midget. 8mm shaft at short length of 32" or even 34" does not deserve screw on bulky spearhead like the Riffe type, the penetration is poor cause the shaft does not carry enough mass.
It also got me thinking if the expensive floater wing kit is any use on my midget, the gun still sink anyway with the aluminum muzzle. One thing for sure, it looks like a Riffe blue water wing kit on a small scale, very small scale.....
.....cute is the word.
I think on my next tuna hunting trip ( if ever go again soon ), I will carry this midget as a second gun on me permanently. It so light to carry around. If I ever get to do bad shot on a big one, without reel & float I will either loose my gun or the fish, this midget could be a fish saver. Like a Desert Eagle .45 on a sniper ????
Now I regretted I bought the Mares 85cm Cyrano. It will probaly never see any hunting service...ever again...too weak. Keep if for lobster-ing only.
The photo shows the happy crew carrying my fish. I should have fill in flash for the shot, bright background ruins the resolution. I think the cuda is only 13kg or something and about 140-150 cm long.
Been monitoring the weather sattelite as days goes closer to last Thursday. Wind report predicted no worse than 15 knots wind, gee that must be as good as my succesful trip....I thought.
On Thursday, I confirmed all requirement and we end up with a charter boat of 28 foot aluminum using 115 Hp x 2 Suzukis. Three of us on the trip. Spend Friday night close by the marina after 3 hours drive from my city and left at 5:30 next morning. The distance to go was 50 miles. Wind were blowing from the south in the evening and it doesn't look good. The boat was making good speed at 26 knots out of the marina. Later 1/2 way down the journey at a big bay we were hit with waves. The lousy small non offshore boat was pounding and aluminum was realy noisy. All of us we salt prayed every seconds, it was cold and wet. At some stage we could only progress at maximum 8 knots. What a lousy bone breaking ride.
Arrived at the only pier of the location 3 hours later, 1 hour behind schedule. Get rooms and lunch pack and head for the favourite rock. The wind picked up with occasional gust of 25 knots thrown in every few minutes. It was a stern wave ride to the rock, not too bad. We reached the rock only to find ( as expected ) that it was too rough to dive. Any experienced spearo with strong swimming skill might survive the 2 meter swell + confused waves smashing on the rocks, but not us scuba dudes. We can dive safely but no way we can surface and fight the surface current, our small boat was also thrown all over the place. If anything happens to the small boat while waiting for us, we will be doomed. So we sadly left the rock and head for the protected reef where the mass of land protect it from the wind, only 1-2 knots current will be the problem.
What a lousy trip. This 60 feet reef span like 1 x 2 kilometer wide. I know this place very well. The only fish to expect here will be trevalies and great barracuda. Sometime if in luck we might see jobfish. I did not dive this reef two weeks ago, no way, the rock pinacle was heaven. So we dove with so little excitement. We drift among the reefs. I came to my favourite spot only to find it was so lifeless. The holes under the rock has become shallower cause some bombing took place and have shifted the sand in front of the holes......DAMN !!! S.O.B fisherman. My last visit to this reef was over a year ago. It is degrading badly. A school of 5 Permits ( pompano ??? ) came, +-3 kg size, a common size to this area. Hit it and that was that, not much fight.
Look at my secret ledge to find lobters ( didn't bring any stocking ) but all I could see was the antena, no shot possible and seems the single lobster was not so big anyway.
I was frustrated and keep thingking of two week's ago..TUNA !!!!
The viz was 30 feet and degrading deeper into the reef area. No big trevalies...how how how ? I promised the boat crews that if I see a good size barracuda I will shoot for them, my MT Zero has only shot one Trevaly 2 weeks ago and I need bigger ones. The midget gun was lovely in this kind of current, doesn't feel like I am holding a gun. I armed it with the 3/8" shaft.
It realy sucks to dive a place that I don't intend to dive knowing there is a fish heaven some 8 miles away and I can not dive there. But on the other hand I realized that since my attitude is like " I don't realy care about the fish and not excited about them", they actualy wants to get closer to me.
After drifting from two of my regular spots, I need only to drift to one final place and that should end the dive. Then along the way to my final spot, I spotted this great barracuda. I already had my 5 bands loaded, took aim at maximum distance about 4.5 meters, I was aiming the shoulder but the shaft landed a micro bit lower on the middle small fin behind the gill. S*it, not a very good shot but I had total penetration. The cuda took off to the surface, I hang on tight, one hand on the rock I hand on my gun, I don't want the risk of air embolism. It drag me around for at least 5 minutes, I dare not grab it and drill the head with my knife cause it was still rather powerful. I was afraid it will bite me, I never shot a cuda this big before and 2 of my friends been bitten, not serious but it was smaller cudas.
The body was tearing and only a few more centimeter it will split open, I play the fish gently, I don't want to loose it. If I had a reel or a float, the flesh won't tear this bad. I kept my gun in front of me just in case it comes to attack me. This short gun only has about 60 cm of forward stock after my hand, I feel defendless if it come to attack me. The 4.8 meter shooting line plus the 90 cm shaft was not far enough to keep me away as far as I want from the cuda. I kept swimming away from the cuda as far as my shooting line allows.
I thought to myself, when will this cuda die ? As soon as I seen its power dropping, I head for the surface. Along the way, I tied my surface marker float to the gun, it has a 7 meter line. I feel safer now the fish is further away from me. There is no gaff on the boat, my spearhead is about to split the flesh, so I shouted for another gun. I don't want anyone to get bitten if they try to board the fish onto the boat. The boat crew pass me my #4 Riffe. I loaded 1 band and aimed for the head. The fish stoned immediately and the ice pick secured the fish.
Later on the boat I realized that it is actualy bigger than I first estimated underwater. No wonder it dragged me with much more power than my Spanish and my small Tuna 2 weeks ago.
The 3 boat crews were happy that they have some meat to bring home. My other friend landed a 9kg trevaly. After only two dives, we call it the day. We were still sad not able to do the rock pinacle. Sleep well and ate like pigs in the evening. The wind died down late at night. We were happy cause tomorrow we might be able to do the rock. At 7 AM the wind picked up again till 9 AM and grew even stronger. Every other boats already left the island first thing at 6 AM to avoid the nasty sea.
So what did we do ? Dive the shallow reef again, hell no way, we did not come this far for that reef. Get all our stuff ready and head home. So we were pounding and all wet again half way home.............sad sad sad :waterwork.
The only consolation was that my US$500 midget Riffe did what I expect it will do. It will be one hell of a close quater ( 4-5 meter ) , murky water gun. However the 7mm Hawaiian shaft looks like it will never see any service. With the blue water muzzle installed, I will stick to 3 bands at least with 8mm shaft. Since Riffe does not have any 8mm Hawaiian shaft shorter than 44", looks like I got to modify one for my midget. 8mm shaft at short length of 32" or even 34" does not deserve screw on bulky spearhead like the Riffe type, the penetration is poor cause the shaft does not carry enough mass.
It also got me thinking if the expensive floater wing kit is any use on my midget, the gun still sink anyway with the aluminum muzzle. One thing for sure, it looks like a Riffe blue water wing kit on a small scale, very small scale.....
I think on my next tuna hunting trip ( if ever go again soon ), I will carry this midget as a second gun on me permanently. It so light to carry around. If I ever get to do bad shot on a big one, without reel & float I will either loose my gun or the fish, this midget could be a fish saver. Like a Desert Eagle .45 on a sniper ????
Now I regretted I bought the Mares 85cm Cyrano. It will probaly never see any hunting service...ever again...too weak. Keep if for lobster-ing only.
The photo shows the happy crew carrying my fish. I should have fill in flash for the shot, bright background ruins the resolution. I think the cuda is only 13kg or something and about 140-150 cm long.
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