ralphthehalibut
06-23-2008, 05:52 AM
It's kinda strange - after shooting only 2 different guns for the past 10 years, this year I've somehow ended up with a brand new affinnity (need to post porn for that) a super tricked out gat-ku (again porn needs to be posted) and I've gotten to try out a whole bunch of really amazing guns. This afternoon I was suddenly free so I grabbed my ski, an absolutly amazing ********** gun by Gil Gacula (sp) that Todd P. loaned me to try, and punched out of PL in search of paddies.
About 10 miles out in the big blue I came across a pretty hard current line holding lots of kelp. First two held only bait, on the third one I slid over the side of the ski and was greeted by the beautiful sight of a swarm of YT charging towards me to investigate. Quick breath, drop down, and to my dissapointment I see they are all pretty darn small - maybe 5 pounds. Almost feeling guilty, I shoot one because I haven't gotten one yet this year and I am FIENDING for YT. Better yet, the ********** gun shoots like a lazer on it's first shot - no kick whatsoever - pretty impressive for a 60+" gun, and I stone the little guy.
Despite the risk of jinxing myself, I'd brought a filet knife, wasabi, and some soy sauce packets. Within 5 minutes of swimming in the ocean, the fish had been gilled, gutted, and I was devouring the freshest Himachi sashimi there is! If anyone had rolled up on me, I'd of made a strange sight: some guy on a ski, 10 miles offshore, hunched over his seat, chewing the flesh straight off a filet, smacking my lips, laughing to myself like a madman and muttering the phrase "mmmmmm soooooo gooood" to myself over and over.
I love diving:D
From there it only got better: I swam with a small group of risso's dolphins as well as a massive school of tiny little dolphins I didn't recognize. On top of that I kept finding kelps holding fish - no monsters, but I did take two more YT - biggest one weighed just over 15# gutted. An epic day, to be sure, and by 5 I was ready to head in so I pointed my ski back towards the beach. I hit the point at about 530 and almost on a whim I decided to hop in at the kelp.
GLAD I DID.
The second I jumped in I was overwhelmed by a constant drum of croaking. The water was blue - almost top to bottom - say 40 foot vis - and just walls of big barracuda swimming by. There were barracuda EVERYWHERE - all through the kelp, all depths. Huge schools of salema, calicos and sandies swarming all over, and tons of bait too. I made my way to the outide edge and just lay there watching thousands of log barries swim by. There was only one problem - the water was so warm I was only wearing a wetsuit top and my weight belt kept riding down and was annoying the hell out of me, so I stop, hold the gun between my legs, and start to adjust my belt. About midway through, I glance left, and not 5 feet away one of the most massive WSB I've ever seen, just crusing along.
Talk about feeling like a dork. Monster WSB so close I could kick it in the side of it's head and where is my gun? Oh yeah, that's right, it's pinned between my legs, dammitt!
The fish sees me as I slowly reach down and grab the gun. It doesn't bolt for some reason, merely takes a lazy turn and starts slowly cruising away. MISTAKE! I dive down behind it and start to follow about 10 feet back... we cruise along in a straight line for maybe 50 feet..... maybe 100 along the blue border. It keeps acting like it is going to turn, but it does't... my lungs are starting to burn.... decision time comes and I realize I can't responsibly take the shot. Just as I make the decision to let the fish go it breaks left, giving me the broadside I've been waiting for. The ********** bucks the tiniest bit in my hand and I watch the shaft impact the fish midbody.. GAME ON!!!!!
Rather than head into the kelp, the fish tears off into the blue, with me swimming in hot pursuit. My floatline is screaming past me despite my best efforts to keep up and I have to put on the breaks as it reaches the end. Fortunatly the fish has tired itself so I don't have to put too much pressure. Still out in the blue, I begin to make some progress up the line a few feet at a time. 10 minutes later I am at the shooting line and staring at a MONSTER WSB. Only one problem. The shaft didn't go all the way through the fish and I can see the slip tip toggled just under the fish's skin. In fact I can see the base of the slip tip about to pull through. All that's holding the tip in is the welded on tab at the base of the slip tip. Even worse, at that moment the fish makes a hard turn and heads into the kelp. I follow, swimming like madman, trying to keep all pressure off the line so the tip won't tear out. the fish is getting more and more tired, but every time I dive on it it booms out and rips off tons of line, leaving me no option but to follow and try to keep it from tangling and ripping off.
This WSB was so powerful that it felt like it would never wear out, but after about 20 minutes I could tell blood loss and fatigue were beginning to take a toll. Every new attempt to dive on it, I got closer and closer. Finally, the beautiful creature starts to swim in short spurts, and sink in between. I dove down, shove my hand through it's gills, grab it's lower jaw, and begin the long swim back to my ski. On the way back, the fish throws up 2 BARRACUDA! This fish easily has the most massive WSB head I've ever seen. The swim back to the boat was pretty exciting - I couldn't stop looking at the fish. Unfortunatly it was pretty skinny and spawned out (when I cleaned it I found 2 tiny egg sacks). I can only guess what she would weigh stuffed full of eggs. At home that night, bled out and minus the two barries she weighed 70.7# - I think that works out to like 70# 10oz and one of my top 2 fish ever. Funny thing was, once I got to the ski, I couldn't get the slip tip out - that skin holding it was like iron and I finally had to cut the tip out.
Story's not over, but if you don't like gore, stop reading here:
So, the fish kinda got it's revenge. As I was dragging the fish along to where I hung the scale, my foot kicked back up and into the dorsal spines. At first I thought I'd just cut myself on them and went about my buisness. 20 minutes later I finally actually LOOK at my foot and realize that about a 1 inch length of spine has imbedded itself in the back of my foot so deep I can't get it with tweezers. It REALLY REALLY hurt so I go inside, sharpen up the filet knife, and cut the ****er out.
PICS:
1) mixed bag.
2) huge head.
3) the spearduiver speargun
4)scale
5)minor surgery
6)what I finally pulled out.
About 10 miles out in the big blue I came across a pretty hard current line holding lots of kelp. First two held only bait, on the third one I slid over the side of the ski and was greeted by the beautiful sight of a swarm of YT charging towards me to investigate. Quick breath, drop down, and to my dissapointment I see they are all pretty darn small - maybe 5 pounds. Almost feeling guilty, I shoot one because I haven't gotten one yet this year and I am FIENDING for YT. Better yet, the ********** gun shoots like a lazer on it's first shot - no kick whatsoever - pretty impressive for a 60+" gun, and I stone the little guy.
Despite the risk of jinxing myself, I'd brought a filet knife, wasabi, and some soy sauce packets. Within 5 minutes of swimming in the ocean, the fish had been gilled, gutted, and I was devouring the freshest Himachi sashimi there is! If anyone had rolled up on me, I'd of made a strange sight: some guy on a ski, 10 miles offshore, hunched over his seat, chewing the flesh straight off a filet, smacking my lips, laughing to myself like a madman and muttering the phrase "mmmmmm soooooo gooood" to myself over and over.
I love diving:D
From there it only got better: I swam with a small group of risso's dolphins as well as a massive school of tiny little dolphins I didn't recognize. On top of that I kept finding kelps holding fish - no monsters, but I did take two more YT - biggest one weighed just over 15# gutted. An epic day, to be sure, and by 5 I was ready to head in so I pointed my ski back towards the beach. I hit the point at about 530 and almost on a whim I decided to hop in at the kelp.
GLAD I DID.
The second I jumped in I was overwhelmed by a constant drum of croaking. The water was blue - almost top to bottom - say 40 foot vis - and just walls of big barracuda swimming by. There were barracuda EVERYWHERE - all through the kelp, all depths. Huge schools of salema, calicos and sandies swarming all over, and tons of bait too. I made my way to the outide edge and just lay there watching thousands of log barries swim by. There was only one problem - the water was so warm I was only wearing a wetsuit top and my weight belt kept riding down and was annoying the hell out of me, so I stop, hold the gun between my legs, and start to adjust my belt. About midway through, I glance left, and not 5 feet away one of the most massive WSB I've ever seen, just crusing along.
Talk about feeling like a dork. Monster WSB so close I could kick it in the side of it's head and where is my gun? Oh yeah, that's right, it's pinned between my legs, dammitt!
The fish sees me as I slowly reach down and grab the gun. It doesn't bolt for some reason, merely takes a lazy turn and starts slowly cruising away. MISTAKE! I dive down behind it and start to follow about 10 feet back... we cruise along in a straight line for maybe 50 feet..... maybe 100 along the blue border. It keeps acting like it is going to turn, but it does't... my lungs are starting to burn.... decision time comes and I realize I can't responsibly take the shot. Just as I make the decision to let the fish go it breaks left, giving me the broadside I've been waiting for. The ********** bucks the tiniest bit in my hand and I watch the shaft impact the fish midbody.. GAME ON!!!!!
Rather than head into the kelp, the fish tears off into the blue, with me swimming in hot pursuit. My floatline is screaming past me despite my best efforts to keep up and I have to put on the breaks as it reaches the end. Fortunatly the fish has tired itself so I don't have to put too much pressure. Still out in the blue, I begin to make some progress up the line a few feet at a time. 10 minutes later I am at the shooting line and staring at a MONSTER WSB. Only one problem. The shaft didn't go all the way through the fish and I can see the slip tip toggled just under the fish's skin. In fact I can see the base of the slip tip about to pull through. All that's holding the tip in is the welded on tab at the base of the slip tip. Even worse, at that moment the fish makes a hard turn and heads into the kelp. I follow, swimming like madman, trying to keep all pressure off the line so the tip won't tear out. the fish is getting more and more tired, but every time I dive on it it booms out and rips off tons of line, leaving me no option but to follow and try to keep it from tangling and ripping off.
This WSB was so powerful that it felt like it would never wear out, but after about 20 minutes I could tell blood loss and fatigue were beginning to take a toll. Every new attempt to dive on it, I got closer and closer. Finally, the beautiful creature starts to swim in short spurts, and sink in between. I dove down, shove my hand through it's gills, grab it's lower jaw, and begin the long swim back to my ski. On the way back, the fish throws up 2 BARRACUDA! This fish easily has the most massive WSB head I've ever seen. The swim back to the boat was pretty exciting - I couldn't stop looking at the fish. Unfortunatly it was pretty skinny and spawned out (when I cleaned it I found 2 tiny egg sacks). I can only guess what she would weigh stuffed full of eggs. At home that night, bled out and minus the two barries she weighed 70.7# - I think that works out to like 70# 10oz and one of my top 2 fish ever. Funny thing was, once I got to the ski, I couldn't get the slip tip out - that skin holding it was like iron and I finally had to cut the tip out.
Story's not over, but if you don't like gore, stop reading here:
So, the fish kinda got it's revenge. As I was dragging the fish along to where I hung the scale, my foot kicked back up and into the dorsal spines. At first I thought I'd just cut myself on them and went about my buisness. 20 minutes later I finally actually LOOK at my foot and realize that about a 1 inch length of spine has imbedded itself in the back of my foot so deep I can't get it with tweezers. It REALLY REALLY hurt so I go inside, sharpen up the filet knife, and cut the ****er out.
PICS:
1) mixed bag.
2) huge head.
3) the spearduiver speargun
4)scale
5)minor surgery
6)what I finally pulled out.