• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

The season has started

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.

Bill McIntyre

San Clemente, CA
Staff member
Forum Mentor
Jan 27, 2005
3,717
1,365
368
86
Unfortunately, it started without me, but a friend brought this white sea bass by and made me weigh it.
 

Attachments

  • blaine30.jpg
    292.7 KB · Views: 189
lucky dog!well thats good just more motivation to keep me training for getting my first whitey this season. im gonna hunt em until i shrivvle up. Just curious was it from the mainland coast or the islands and how much did it end up weighing. Nice Fish!
 
Mainland coast on a paddle board at a spot too far offshore to swim, 30 pounds.
 

Attachments

  • WSB2 02-1.24.10.jpg
    127.7 KB · Views: 160
Last edited:
Mainland coast on a paddle board at a spot too far offshore to swim, 30 pounds. Attached Thumbnails Quote: Bill McIntyre.

Great early season WSB... and I trust the weigh master 100%.
I have a unshaped vintage Clark Foam paddle board I may have to get shaped and glassed.
Thanks for the post Bill.
Cheers, Don
 
For what its worth, Blaine's board is a converted wind surfer.
 
Bill McIntyre said:
For what its worth, Blaine's board is a converted wind surfer.
Click to expand...
Thanks Bill, I have a poly WS board, now can leave the Clark for my kid to ride some day. I have to get a look at Blaine's converted WS board one of these days.
Cheers, Don
 
He has done a nice job. Here are some photos from last year when he paddled over to my boat and made me take photos and weigh fish.

It was sort of humiliating. He called on the cell phone and asked how the conditions were. I told him the water looked blue and we were about to jump in, so he said he would be out in a while.

So me, Dam, and one other guy worked the hell out of the bed. Then I saw Blaine paddle up and tie up to my swimstep. After a while, I spot him trying to get a wsb onto his board, so I swam back to the boat and helped out.

He paddled off toward the beach, and the three of us never saw a thing.
 

Attachments

  • blaineboard.JPG
    81.5 KB · Views: 178
  • blaineboard2.JPG
    103 KB · Views: 176
My Benz is going look funny with a roof rack, but I'm feeling inspired.
Thanks for the cool images Bill.
Don
 
Reactions: glowworm
They are great pics bill, sort of retro colour black & whites if you know what I mean!
 
So how do you paddle a paddle board? With a paddle (don't see one in the photo's) or like in the old Cal spearing pics of Jack and Wally on their paddle boards paddling with their arms.

How far can you paddle one of those boards and in what conditions? How do they compare to a kayak?

Just wondered?

Dave

PS Nice fish and nice reporting.
 
The way Blaine paddles it is kneeling on the board and paddling with his hands.

As far as how far that can be done- I guess it depends on the paddler. I might make it about 50 feet before my back and shoulders gave out, but Blaine is an animal who flies to Japan to compete in these international lifeguard ironman contests. I forget what all is involved, but I think they swim, paddle a dory, paddle a surf ski, etc. He is truly an exceptional athlete. According to my GPS, that spot where he got this fish is about one nautical mile from the beach.

He just started spearfishing summer before last. On his first attempt, he swam out from shore and shot a 25 pound sheephead, which is a really nice fish.

His second trip was on my boat, and he shot this 43 pound white sea bass. A lot of guys go years without seeing one, much less shooting one. And just to make it better, he had lost his long fins in the surf on that first day of spearing, so he was wearing these little orange lifeguard fins. When I saw him swimming back to the boat with that fish, I alternated between sobbing and giggling.
 

Attachments

  • Image001.jpg
    73.1 KB · Views: 174
  • Image006.jpg
    71 KB · Views: 176
Last edited:
Bill im reading a book called "The Last of the Blue Water Hunters" at the moment what a fantastic book.
 
Reactions: Erik
Spear0Joe said:
Bill im reading a book called "The Last of the Blue Water Hunters" at the moment what a fantastic book.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's a good one, and really captures the flavor of Southern California diving. I do think it gets a bit spacey and spiritual, but its entertaining.
 
Heh, Yeh I agree on the spacey + spiritual bit but it makes it all a better read, after all a book is supposed to be entertaining! It gave me abit more of an insight into the kind of diving you get upto, we dont get those kind of blue waters in the UK nor do we get those kind of fish! Out of interest, Bill, Do you spear calicos, or just soley after those WSBs?
 
From an old thread about "What do you do for a living?"

"For most of my adult life I've been trying to fit into a society that has made littlie sense to me. And I have undoubtedly made even less sense to it. You see, I was born a hunter. Some folks are born musicians, or artists, or athletes. Others are born to make money, heal people, design buildings and bridges, tend bar and sail ships. There are those born to no particular calling at all, and slide through life untroubled by such pullings. Although I find it hard to believe that there are men (and women) born to be accountants, sell insurance, be ushers, or in general wear wing tip shoes, they are at least able to make their way in life. When they are out of a job they can, with a degree of assurance, run down to the unemployment office and ask "Have you got anything for me today?" There is no employment for blue water hunters; take my word for it.
I've tried all sorts of jobs, white collar, blue collar, no collar. I've even worn wing tip shoes. Every serious job I had ate me alive. The more money I made the bigger chunks it took out of me. Not chunks of flesh, I could have lived with that. What is taken cannot be seen with the naked eye. What is taken is pieces of the spirit, slices of the soul, cuts of the heart. What is taken is who you are.
In all my time spent in the ocean wilderness, it has never once asked for nor taken a piece of me. Quite the reverse: it has healed that which was wounded; it has given freely of its gifts and asks only that I pay close attention to it. Upon my entry into the ocean, it fills my spirit, cleanses my soul and repairs my tattered heart."

With aknowledgement to Carlos Eyles "The last of the blue water hunters"

For more info on this and other books check out http://forums.deeperblue.com/beginner-hunting/64516-spearo-books.html.

"I was born a hunter" Old Man Dave
 
Last edited:
Reactions: spaghetti
Spear0Joe said:
Bill im reading a book called "The Last of the Blue Water Hunters" at the moment what a fantastic book.
Click to expand...

Carlos and I have been friends going back to 1980, we had gentleman's agreement not to hunt the same coves in Laguna Beach. I never dove his spots and he never dove mine. He always shared all his fish with his friends
as I did. Even then he was a accomplished underwater photographer.
I have always enjoyed his writing and photography,his dolphin images are amazing.
Cheers, Don Paul
 
I think I've read that Carlos is now a vegetarian and doesn't shoot fish any more. Is that true?
 
Don Paul may well know a lot more than me as I have never met Carlos but I was a huge fan pricipally through that one book. He used to publish articles as well as a couple of other books, all of which I read avidly. He did/does have a web site and was offering freediving training/trips where he now lives - Bahamas, I think. It says that he suffered from ciguatera poisoning which left him with a permanent inability to eat seafood. It was because of this he gave up spearing.

I still think his book was a classic and I still respect the man but strangely I felt let down by his giving up spearing for whatever reason.

Dave.
 
Bill McIntyre said:
I think I've read that Carlos is now a vegetarian and doesn't shoot fish any more. Is that true?
Click to expand...

Yes that is correct Bill. Carlos has suffered almost deadly bouts with Cig on two different long hunting trips, one for them I helped him plan.
I told him to never assume that a fish that is safe on one side of a island will
not give you Cig on the other. Well, some one didn't have their antennas up.
He would never pull the trigger on a fish that he was not going to eat, so he
is done as a spero. I believe his photography will be much more important to
him. He is a very skilled stalker in the sea.
Cheers, Don
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…