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Herby
09-12-2008, 01:19 AM
Four of us just went to Tonga for a week of diving and had an awesome time.
We met up with a guy who lives there (Ben) who is a super keen spearo and he was keen for a week of non-stop diving too.
He guided us all over the place and showed us kiwis up big time.
Over the week we shot around thirty species of edible fish, dog tooth, emperors, trout, sweetlips, trevally, basu, napoleon wrasse, groupers etc etc etc..... Personally I had a shocker of a trip, I couldn't hit many of the fish I aimed at - my shots were going all over the show. Very fustrating!
We also dived with Humpbacks numerous times, which were the highlight of the trip for me.
Viz was up to 40+ metres and water temp 24-25-26 deg C, which was a welcome change from the dirty cold water we have in NZ at the moment
syrespect
09-12-2008, 07:28 AM
:thumps:Let's see some pics!
njspearo
09-12-2008, 11:20 AM
yeah man pics would be sweet
Herby
09-12-2008, 06:22 PM
I will add pics directly on to here when I have time, but in the meantime heres a few pics my mate put on a different forum.

http://www.fishing.net.nz/asp%5Fforums/forum_posts.asp?TID=32270&PN=1
offduty
09-12-2008, 07:52 PM
:beer: Brilliant! Pics were awesome. :beer:
kjflyfish
09-12-2008, 08:05 PM
You boys put the red tide to Tonga. What did you do with all the snapper species? In Vanuatu, they are a cig hazard, so I didn't shoot any.
Herby
09-13-2008, 12:02 AM
Aparently there isn't any ciggy where we were so all fish were fair game.
We ate some of the most notorious ciggy fish and had no ill effects.
We saw a coral trout down deep that would have been well over 20kg (maaaaybe approaching 30, mid 20s anyway) but it eluded us. It will only be bigger next year. It shares a hole with a 40kg cod/grouper thing.
kjflyfish
09-13-2008, 12:45 AM
Dang. WR aspirations, anyone?
Herby
09-13-2008, 01:12 AM
As soon as we got home we checked the record and it sits a shade over 20kg.
I missed it..... ON VIDEO!
kjflyfish
09-13-2008, 05:22 PM
Doh! I'd love to see that footage. Heck, I need to get up north more often and dive with some of you guys.
Judge
09-22-2008, 07:46 PM
What size were the biggest dogtooth tunas you saw?

Judge
Herby
09-24-2008, 04:41 AM
Up to about 30kg I guess.
Not huge but there were plenty.
Gerald C. Perry
09-28-2008, 01:58 AM
Nice trip! I'm so jealous. Those are the same species of fish we have it's just that in
Tonga there are more of them. We are from Guam and are reefs are becoming over-fished. In Tonga spearing on scuba is illegal if I'm not mistaken. We are trying to pass such a law in Guam. Not that I have anything against scuba spearing but there are those (night divers) who severely abuse it.

Skip Perry
Coral Sniper
10-04-2008, 05:15 AM
Hey ''Herby'' went out today and had a blast with the trouts and cods,also stoned a 20lb dog tooth(puppy tooth Ha) with my pneumatic great fun!
Just trying to make you jealous jk.


Gerald, we have a law against nightspearing with scuba but no law of scuba while spearing in the day (from what I know).

But man I do feel your pain,
Our night divers are doing a good job of caring for the parrots and unicorns if you know what I mean.
z1taz
10-04-2008, 02:58 PM
in FP scuba spearing is illegal/night and day..
but night free diving spearfishing is not..i wish it was..
cause all unicorns and parrots are nearly eaten already in the main islands such as tahiti or moorea because from this stupid thing...no sport..just monies..purposes..
Coral Sniper
10-04-2008, 04:28 PM
I really do wish it was illegal here,I heard that in Hawaii they stopped parrot spearing at night.

The reef needs those parrots and unicorns.
kill shot
10-09-2008, 10:37 AM
Very nice photos.
Gerald C. Perry
10-14-2008, 07:29 AM
Hey ''Herby'' went out today and had a blast with the trouts and cods,also stoned a 20lb dog tooth(puppy tooth Ha) with my pneumatic great fun!
Just trying to make you jealous jk.


Gerald, we have a law against nightspearing with scuba but no law of scuba while spearing in the day (from what I know).

But man I do feel your pain,
Our night divers are doing a good job of caring for the parrots and unicorns if you know what I mean.

Thanks for that information. We might have an easier time trying to sell that (banning scuba spearing at night) than a ban on scuba spearing alltogether. Whatever the case we need to act. I'll bet fishing got better after the law was past or is there an issue about enforcing it like there is in so many places?

Skip