Aimrite
02-28-2010, 02:47 AM
Aloha everyone
Well I just got back from another hard working trip! Caroline Islands. You see I am one of those rare few folks that love what I do so much that it is not only my career but also my hobby. I spent the majority of my adult life in the military and what does the Government do when I retire but hire me as a consultant! One of my jobs is finding salvage projects around the Pacific for our active duty Navy Divers. The idea is simple, it provides not only valuable training for our Divers but it also fosters a good nieghbor approach by helping these RIMPAC countries and territories out. Of course while I am traveling out and about I get to do just a little spearfishing. :thumps:
One of my good friends and diving partners came along on this trip, Jeff Alberts. Jeff is a good guy to have not only on a boat but in the water. You see he is a commercial fisherman up in Alaska 6 months out of the year and the rest of the time he is trying to slay fish. Hard working, quite and never complains the perfect dive partner!
Our main target was Dog Tooth Tuna aka (doggies). Shooting doggies for those of you that have never experienced it is like shooting a hybrid fish that has the power of a Yellow Fin Tuna (Ahi), excellerates like a Wahoo (Ono) but fights dirty like a Giant Trevally (Ulua). Once shot this fish takes off straight down for the reef and tries it's best to break you off. Many times when you finally land the fish it has scars all over it from smashing the coral below.
Doggies are one of the largest reef preditors in the world but tend to live down past 100', but they are very curiuos and always hungry. On this trip Jeff and I both used flashers and had them down about 70'. The drill was to find the bait (rainbow runners) and when we were on a dropoff and saw them with multiple sharks it was business time! The doggies being curious would come and investigate the flashers and in many cases would not see us dropping down. The first diver would shoot and in almost every case this would bring in a larger one to see what was going on!
On this trip we shot 2 fish that were larger than I. The largest one Jeff shot and looked prehistoric, it was truely larger than any Ahi that I have ever shot. While I was bringing up a smaller one this creature rose to investigate. Jeff planted the shaft in the kill zone and hurt the fish bad, it limped off into the depths but as we both were screaming in excitment we found out that even 700 lb mono can be broke by a fish of this size. The second big one came on the last day it was over 180 lbs and I got a solid shot on it but it took down 2 floats (150 lbs of floatation) at the speed of light. Like I said these fish have a reputation of trying to cut you off on the reef and nothing came back! Good thing it was the last day!!!
We did manage to shoot and land 27 Doggies beteween 40-80 lbs and countless smaller ones. We lost a couple to sharks but that was to be expected for the most part they were very manageable. Here are some pictures of the trip. BTW, if we have any PITA folks out there every ounce of fish was consumed by the 230 fine folks on the island that hosted us.
Untill next time!
Well I just got back from another hard working trip! Caroline Islands. You see I am one of those rare few folks that love what I do so much that it is not only my career but also my hobby. I spent the majority of my adult life in the military and what does the Government do when I retire but hire me as a consultant! One of my jobs is finding salvage projects around the Pacific for our active duty Navy Divers. The idea is simple, it provides not only valuable training for our Divers but it also fosters a good nieghbor approach by helping these RIMPAC countries and territories out. Of course while I am traveling out and about I get to do just a little spearfishing. :thumps:
One of my good friends and diving partners came along on this trip, Jeff Alberts. Jeff is a good guy to have not only on a boat but in the water. You see he is a commercial fisherman up in Alaska 6 months out of the year and the rest of the time he is trying to slay fish. Hard working, quite and never complains the perfect dive partner!
Our main target was Dog Tooth Tuna aka (doggies). Shooting doggies for those of you that have never experienced it is like shooting a hybrid fish that has the power of a Yellow Fin Tuna (Ahi), excellerates like a Wahoo (Ono) but fights dirty like a Giant Trevally (Ulua). Once shot this fish takes off straight down for the reef and tries it's best to break you off. Many times when you finally land the fish it has scars all over it from smashing the coral below.
Doggies are one of the largest reef preditors in the world but tend to live down past 100', but they are very curiuos and always hungry. On this trip Jeff and I both used flashers and had them down about 70'. The drill was to find the bait (rainbow runners) and when we were on a dropoff and saw them with multiple sharks it was business time! The doggies being curious would come and investigate the flashers and in many cases would not see us dropping down. The first diver would shoot and in almost every case this would bring in a larger one to see what was going on!
On this trip we shot 2 fish that were larger than I. The largest one Jeff shot and looked prehistoric, it was truely larger than any Ahi that I have ever shot. While I was bringing up a smaller one this creature rose to investigate. Jeff planted the shaft in the kill zone and hurt the fish bad, it limped off into the depths but as we both were screaming in excitment we found out that even 700 lb mono can be broke by a fish of this size. The second big one came on the last day it was over 180 lbs and I got a solid shot on it but it took down 2 floats (150 lbs of floatation) at the speed of light. Like I said these fish have a reputation of trying to cut you off on the reef and nothing came back! Good thing it was the last day!!!
We did manage to shoot and land 27 Doggies beteween 40-80 lbs and countless smaller ones. We lost a couple to sharks but that was to be expected for the most part they were very manageable. Here are some pictures of the trip. BTW, if we have any PITA folks out there every ounce of fish was consumed by the 230 fine folks on the island that hosted us.
Untill next time!