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Paradise Island
- Thread starterAlexF
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Nice pictures!
PhilLJCA:
I don't know if its the same place but there is a Paradise Island besides Nassau in the Bahamas. Thats were the huge Atlantis resort is.
Daniel
PhilLJCA:
I don't know if its the same place but there is a Paradise Island besides Nassau in the Bahamas. Thats were the huge Atlantis resort is.
Daniel
Guys, he hinted the location few weeks ago. :mute Nobody dives there. :ban Try Pacific Ocean, somewhere in Mexico. 
People do dive at Paradise Island The Atlantis Resort is owned by Kerzner International and i used to work for them.
they have an amazing aquarium at Atlantis.. see this
http://www.atlantis.com/flash.aspx
The Atlantis Resort is owned by Kerzner International and i used to work for them.they have an amazing aquarium at Atlantis.. see this
http://www.atlantis.com/flash.aspx
So here's the whole story of the trip:
The trip started in Mazatlan and we set off at night to arrive early in the morning to the Islands. We woke up to a very calm sea and clear sky.
My diving equipment was to arrive the same day on another boat as space was restricted on the plane from Mexico City to Mazatlan. While I waited for my equipment I went fishing with the rest of the family and as soon as we got to the drop off, which is only about a mile away from where the mother boat was anchored, we started getting some nice tuna up.
I could not believe that all I could do was watch all the tuna jumping everywhere while my fins, mask, float line, buoys and knife where somewhere else. That was a long day and the other boat never showed up.
The following day went the same way, and on the evening I decided to borrow equipment from everyone else (scuba equipment) to try my luck with the tuna. I got some soft fins, clear mask and a snorkel that seals itself when you go underwater. The deeper I went, the furthest my tong was pulled into the tube. I used a Walmart line and took one of the boat fenders as float.
I tried chasing the tuna schools, but every time I would dive in the middle of the school and birds, the tuna would run some other place and could only see lots of jellyfish all over the place.
The following morning, on the third day of the trip, the other boat arrived carrying all my stuff. I geared up and decided to go chase more tuna, but it was the same story again, lots of tuna jumping out on the sea but I just couldn’t get to them once I was in the water. Demoralized and tired I decided to go to the shallows of the drop-off, 50 to 60 feet deep. I soon found a smallish cubera snaper (10Lbs) and took a long shot that landed the fish.
I continued swimming and my new mask was getting so fogged that I had to go on the zodiac to fix it. In the meantime I gave the speargun to my brother. A few minutes afterwards, he started yelling at me because a large tuna had just passed in front of him and he was not prepared to take a shot as he was carrying the gun by the middle. I went into the water, took my speargun and started swimming.
Not 5 minutes passed when I saw a large school of small tuna go past me and I went after them, I picked on a 10 – 15 Lbs tuna and aimed at the center of the fish. After I pulled the trigger the line started moving fast, and the buoys came soon afterwards. The last float went in so fast that it was moving from side to side like a fishing lure at 45 degrees into the deep.
As soon as I got my head out of the water I started screaming in joy and my brother and boatman came to pick me up and wait for the floats to appear. That took about 20 or 30 seconds. I went into the water and started pulling the float line, but instead of retrieving line I would sink. I hopped onto the floats and started pulling again.
In a few minutes we had the tuna 12 feet below and while I pulled, my brother dove and stabbed the tuna on the gills to bleed it out. After that the tuna came up fast. When we got the tuna on the boat I realized it was much larger than what I thought, weighing 30Kg (66 Lbs) and was shot 3 inches over the lower fin in the tail. I obviously could not judge distance or size.
That evening I went to the drop-off again, and found some tuna, got close and shot, I hit it on the spine and the tuna started shivering and swimming without much control, then the tip came off and I saw the tuna splashing in the surface away from me. Visibility was so low that I lost sight of the tuna very fast. It was a shame because that tuna was going to die and it had barely pulled the float line.
My next tuna was on Wednesday evening, my brother had left with most of the family and it was only me diving and a cousin and a friend fishing.
Some time after going in I saw a single tuna pass under me, I dove and started to chase it but realized there was a whole school of 40 or 50 behind the first one, so I waited for the first one and shot from a close range. This tuna seemed big, but I was guessing it was between 80 and 100Lbs. After I hit the tuna I held on to the float line and then to the last float. When the tuna felt my weight it started accelerating and I was up for a fast ride on the surface of the water. I must have been pulled some 1,500 feet before the tuna got tired and I started retrieving the line. By now, I was using one of the boat fenders to mount and pull from there, it made things so much easier as I would not sink while pulling.
When the tuna was close and I was able to grab on to the mono line I held it for a few minutes for it to tire a bit more and then I started pulling again. When I was able to grab the shaft, the tuna started swimming in circles and I got all tangled with the float line. Fortunately the tuna was tired / hurt and it never pulled down (I was also over the boat fender that must be over 100 liter). When I had the chance, I took knife out and bled the tuna on the gills, I was in a pool of blood when my cousin got to me on the Boston whaler and helped pull the tuna out with the gaff. First he tried by himself and could not lift the tuna, then with help of his friend they loaded the fish and it was only then that I realized how big it was. I jumped into the boat and saw that the tuna was my size!! Again, so much for my size judgment, with all the emotion I noticed I had dropped my knife into the blue while the tuna was being lifted.
On Thursday I was only able to spear a smaller tuna that tip the scale at 44Lbs and it seemed very small, I had been spoiled the day before!
I was able to shoot another tuna but decided to try a gill shot and I aimed too high, hitting the tuna on the head and the shaft almost bounced out.
Water visibility deteriorated after that and I never saw another tuna. Cousin would get lots of bites where I floated, but with 10 – 15 feet visibility, I never saw them and after a long morning I decided to change diving spot. I headed to the northern tip of the island and as soon as I was in the water the first amberjack came up to say hi. Five minutes after getting that 55Lbs AJ on the boat a second one came up and went all the way into the boat without even moving a fin. That one was a little smaller and weighed 51Lbs. I felt bad about how easy those were to spear and called it a day. I still tried for tuna in the evening but never saw them and got out of the water when I started shivering without control. Water temperature was 73 degrees and I would stay in the water from two to three hours.
The last day went the same way, with no tuna on sight, but I got to what must have been a pinnacle and got some red snapers on the boat, then it was back to the boat to get everything ready for the long trip back to Puerto Vallarta.
Looking back, the hardest fish to spear must have been the red snapers, the hardest to land was a 44 Lbs cubera snaper that I didn’t hit right and went into some caves at 45 feet of water and I had to dive 12 or 13 times to first subdue the fish and then to disentangle it from the coral and rocks (had to cut the mono line first from the shaft, then from the float line). I promised never to spear another grouper like that while freediving alone. By far the most fun were the tuna, getting close to them was not that hard, but finding them and then riding the surf behind the tuna was incredible.
Sorry for the long story.
Alex
The trip started in Mazatlan and we set off at night to arrive early in the morning to the Islands. We woke up to a very calm sea and clear sky.
My diving equipment was to arrive the same day on another boat as space was restricted on the plane from Mexico City to Mazatlan. While I waited for my equipment I went fishing with the rest of the family and as soon as we got to the drop off, which is only about a mile away from where the mother boat was anchored, we started getting some nice tuna up.
I could not believe that all I could do was watch all the tuna jumping everywhere while my fins, mask, float line, buoys and knife where somewhere else. That was a long day and the other boat never showed up.
The following day went the same way, and on the evening I decided to borrow equipment from everyone else (scuba equipment) to try my luck with the tuna. I got some soft fins, clear mask and a snorkel that seals itself when you go underwater. The deeper I went, the furthest my tong was pulled into the tube. I used a Walmart line and took one of the boat fenders as float.
I tried chasing the tuna schools, but every time I would dive in the middle of the school and birds, the tuna would run some other place and could only see lots of jellyfish all over the place.
The following morning, on the third day of the trip, the other boat arrived carrying all my stuff. I geared up and decided to go chase more tuna, but it was the same story again, lots of tuna jumping out on the sea but I just couldn’t get to them once I was in the water. Demoralized and tired I decided to go to the shallows of the drop-off, 50 to 60 feet deep. I soon found a smallish cubera snaper (10Lbs) and took a long shot that landed the fish.
I continued swimming and my new mask was getting so fogged that I had to go on the zodiac to fix it. In the meantime I gave the speargun to my brother. A few minutes afterwards, he started yelling at me because a large tuna had just passed in front of him and he was not prepared to take a shot as he was carrying the gun by the middle. I went into the water, took my speargun and started swimming.
Not 5 minutes passed when I saw a large school of small tuna go past me and I went after them, I picked on a 10 – 15 Lbs tuna and aimed at the center of the fish. After I pulled the trigger the line started moving fast, and the buoys came soon afterwards. The last float went in so fast that it was moving from side to side like a fishing lure at 45 degrees into the deep.
As soon as I got my head out of the water I started screaming in joy and my brother and boatman came to pick me up and wait for the floats to appear. That took about 20 or 30 seconds. I went into the water and started pulling the float line, but instead of retrieving line I would sink. I hopped onto the floats and started pulling again.
In a few minutes we had the tuna 12 feet below and while I pulled, my brother dove and stabbed the tuna on the gills to bleed it out. After that the tuna came up fast. When we got the tuna on the boat I realized it was much larger than what I thought, weighing 30Kg (66 Lbs) and was shot 3 inches over the lower fin in the tail. I obviously could not judge distance or size.
That evening I went to the drop-off again, and found some tuna, got close and shot, I hit it on the spine and the tuna started shivering and swimming without much control, then the tip came off and I saw the tuna splashing in the surface away from me. Visibility was so low that I lost sight of the tuna very fast. It was a shame because that tuna was going to die and it had barely pulled the float line.
My next tuna was on Wednesday evening, my brother had left with most of the family and it was only me diving and a cousin and a friend fishing.
Some time after going in I saw a single tuna pass under me, I dove and started to chase it but realized there was a whole school of 40 or 50 behind the first one, so I waited for the first one and shot from a close range. This tuna seemed big, but I was guessing it was between 80 and 100Lbs. After I hit the tuna I held on to the float line and then to the last float. When the tuna felt my weight it started accelerating and I was up for a fast ride on the surface of the water. I must have been pulled some 1,500 feet before the tuna got tired and I started retrieving the line. By now, I was using one of the boat fenders to mount and pull from there, it made things so much easier as I would not sink while pulling.
When the tuna was close and I was able to grab on to the mono line I held it for a few minutes for it to tire a bit more and then I started pulling again. When I was able to grab the shaft, the tuna started swimming in circles and I got all tangled with the float line. Fortunately the tuna was tired / hurt and it never pulled down (I was also over the boat fender that must be over 100 liter). When I had the chance, I took knife out and bled the tuna on the gills, I was in a pool of blood when my cousin got to me on the Boston whaler and helped pull the tuna out with the gaff. First he tried by himself and could not lift the tuna, then with help of his friend they loaded the fish and it was only then that I realized how big it was. I jumped into the boat and saw that the tuna was my size!! Again, so much for my size judgment, with all the emotion I noticed I had dropped my knife into the blue while the tuna was being lifted.
On Thursday I was only able to spear a smaller tuna that tip the scale at 44Lbs and it seemed very small, I had been spoiled the day before!
I was able to shoot another tuna but decided to try a gill shot and I aimed too high, hitting the tuna on the head and the shaft almost bounced out.
Water visibility deteriorated after that and I never saw another tuna. Cousin would get lots of bites where I floated, but with 10 – 15 feet visibility, I never saw them and after a long morning I decided to change diving spot. I headed to the northern tip of the island and as soon as I was in the water the first amberjack came up to say hi. Five minutes after getting that 55Lbs AJ on the boat a second one came up and went all the way into the boat without even moving a fin. That one was a little smaller and weighed 51Lbs. I felt bad about how easy those were to spear and called it a day. I still tried for tuna in the evening but never saw them and got out of the water when I started shivering without control. Water temperature was 73 degrees and I would stay in the water from two to three hours.
The last day went the same way, with no tuna on sight, but I got to what must have been a pinnacle and got some red snapers on the boat, then it was back to the boat to get everything ready for the long trip back to Puerto Vallarta.
Looking back, the hardest fish to spear must have been the red snapers, the hardest to land was a 44 Lbs cubera snaper that I didn’t hit right and went into some caves at 45 feet of water and I had to dive 12 or 13 times to first subdue the fish and then to disentangle it from the coral and rocks (had to cut the mono line first from the shaft, then from the float line). I promised never to spear another grouper like that while freediving alone. By far the most fun were the tuna, getting close to them was not that hard, but finding them and then riding the surf behind the tuna was incredible.
Sorry for the long story.
Alex
Awesome story Alex. Nice tunas! That's the stuff dreams are made of! A school of tunas all to yourself and learning how to hunt them by starting with 66 and 165 pounders. That will speed up the learning curve Nice going!
Mark
Nice going!Mark