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Hawaiian Islands Aloha - Paradise exists for the shooters of the Hawaiian Islands

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Old 05-05-2009, 12:15 PM   #31
Daryl Wong
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Re: Diving with friends

Aloha SB,

Well, the weather is still beautiful or "Malia" as the locals say. Light winds, flat seas. With our usual gang reunited again we ventured across the channel to our favorite hunting grounds. Our crew was Diver Joe, Kaipo, Little David,Ron, and Claude. The ride over was smooth and Claude didn't even get sick like he usually does.

Our first dive was a short one. We didn't know which way the current would be running so we didn't drop off the divers too far from the boat. With crystal clear water, the bottom was alive in color. The fish were all over the place. We got back to the boat with nice stringers of various parrot fish, snappers, goatfish and jacks.

On the second dive Kaipo saw a nice ulua following the drop off. It went into a small ledge and Kaipo dropped down and shot the Ulua in the head, just missing the brain. It went nuts, not to mention that it bent his shaft into a 90 degree bend. This was Kaipo's biggest ulua yet!

Joe, on the third dive, not to be out done, swam over to another ledge with a cave and it too had two nice uluas. With careful aim Joe quickly stoned the smaller of the two. Not a bad start! It was fun to have the gang back on the boat. We ate a good lunch and then worked out way back home drift diving. This was a going to be a short day so we could get back home early. One of our friends was coming through town and we were going to meet for dinner. There was one last spot to check out before we headed back.

The last spot, which we called Lionel's rock was a favorite of ours to finish up. It has two slabs to check out. My cousin Ron wanted to try out his new sony camera so I grabbed the ulua hybrid with 600lb cable and we swam on over. Little David brought his gun to second shoot if we needed. At the first slab two Uluas were playing around the entrance and then went inside. The first drop they were on the other side. The second drop the bigger one was right there and a head shot didn't stop it, but with David's gun it was put away.
Back at the boat we took it off the shafts and with one more hole to check. Ron, David and Claude were down for the count with ear squeezes. Its been a while since they've been out. So I reloaded and at the second slab a small one way playing around. When it went under the slab I got down and shot it as it was trying to leave on the other side. It went out of the hole and then back in. It was all tangled and spinning around. Diver Joe got down and put a nice head shot. Good thing, because it spun the slip tip adaptor right off and ended up on Joe's shaft. After untangling the lines we got back to the boat. The sliptip was still in its head, but I lost my adaptor.
Great dive, nice fish and great company. Good to have the gang back on the boat. As Pete would say...."Lets go Diving!"

We'll wait for you Matt!

Aloha,Daryl
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Old 05-05-2009, 01:43 PM   #32
Bill McIntyre
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Re: Diving with friends

Daryl said he ran off to work without posting the photos, so here they are from his post to the freedivelist.
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Old 05-05-2009, 06:44 PM   #33
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Re: Diving with friends

Very nice Daryl! I can't wait to make that crossing again. That's awesome the Claude didn't get seasick!! I bet he was stoked!! Bummer about the ear squeezes. Sounds like me getting a thoracic squeeze when I went over with you! No fun ruining your day of diving on the first dive!
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Old 05-07-2009, 12:13 AM   #34
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Re: Diving with friends

I was out that day as well, but am still not cleared for diving so I was stuck trolling around Kahala for not even a nibble. Lots of boat traffic out there. On my way back in, the motor mounts broke and I had to swim/walk the PWC back to the ramp. Ugh. Very relieved I was not way out there or at Molokai.

Glad to see you guys did well.

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Old 05-11-2009, 12:14 PM   #35
Daryl Wong
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Re: Diving with friends

Aloha,

I had the pleasure of meeting Al Laguno a few years ago at the Blue Wild dive Expo. www.thebluewild.com It was his gun that I was working on in the shop when Sheri Day's Speargun hunter filmed me working on a gun in the shop.
Fast forward a year later, Al's in town here for some R&R with his lovely wife. Of course we had to get out diving. What better excuse is there to go on Mother's day!
This time Little David, and Pete were up to diving a short day.
The weather was a little windy in the morning and we gave it a good try for the Onos but the season is pretty much over till next fall. So we had to take Al to visit out buddy Chomper. He's our local greeter to all the visitors who come through. As usual within 5 minutes of anchoring he pops his head up, sees the boat and motors on over to us. By then we have a few nice fillets of fish from our last dive trip to feed him Al had a blast with Chomper and we got some great shots and video. But Al was here to see what the big thing was about hunting Uluas like on the Spearhunter show.
So we pulled up and did the Ulua hunt. The water was staring to get a little less choppy and the wind laying down. It was also the second day after the full moon and the start of Ulua fishing season. This means that chances are pretty good that we might see something. Better yet if we can land one.
Al is mainly a scuba diver who loves to freeshaft and is looking to start into freediving. I recommended he take the Performance freedive course from Kirk Krack. www.performancefreediving.com
It will help him gain years of experience rather than learn by trial and error. Its made a difference in my diving.
Today was lesson day. We are going out again Wed and Al wanted to see and learn how to hunt Uluas. The first ulua house was empty, but he got to see how to approach the Ulua hole and look into it. Hunting uluas is similar hunting on land. You want to use all the cover you can and not let the uluas see you first.
At the second spot, there was a small Omilu ulua or Blue star trevally. These uluas don't get very big, but are prized for their great tasting fillets. Sheri Daye owns the womens World record at 20. lbs and A local diver here named Kama Kobayashi owns the men's world record at 25 lbs. Both were shot with a hybrid. The Ulua in the hole came out the other end and then returned back. It felt safer in the hole rather than leaving it. This gave me a second drop on the hole and I got a nice shot on it. Lesson one , be patient.
At the next spot the current was ripping due to the moon phase. After what seemed like hours swimming in place, David and I got a good drop on the hole. Inside the dark ulua house I could see three small Omilus about the same size as the first one we landed. When they came down to my end, a stone shot brought it down. Lesson two, be patient.
This was going to be a short day since Pete had to get back early to take care of his dog and his neighbors dog who he was dog sitting. So it was onto the last house.
There are many ulua houses to check, but we try to not always hit the same spot. We hadn't been to this spot in about six months so I was curious to see if anyone was home. The water by now was glass and super clean. After a short swim to the spot and breathing up correctly like we learned in the PFI course I made my way down to the Ulua house. At first glance it looked empty until I dropped down furhter to look all the way across the slab. On the far side I could see a dark shape swimming in a small circle. I waited a little bit and it slowly circled to my side of the slab un aware of my presense. It swam right up to me and I stoned it. Lesson three, be patient.
We took a few pictures and then it was back to the pier. On our digital scale the uluas were 11,12, and 53 lbs. Wed is Al's final exam.
Later that evening a few of the dive gang met Dave, Al and I at our favorite all you can eat Korean BBQ. Sharing stories, pictures and good times with friends is what its about.

Aloha,Daryl
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Old 05-11-2009, 12:20 PM   #36
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Re: Diving with friends

Damn, I'm going to have to spring for a ticket one of these days. Flying standby is cheap, but I can't bring diving gear in a carry on.

I sure can vouch for that Korean BBQ place. Nancy and I loved eating there with the gang on our trip a few months ago.
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Old 05-14-2009, 09:42 PM   #37
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Re: Diving with friends Ulua hunting Hawaiian style

Aloha,


My friend AL Lugano from Miami has been here to learn about Hawaiian style diving and hunting Uluas. He hopes to convert over to freediving to go along with his scuba diving. He now knows that if he can shoot fish in Hawaii, he can shoot fish anywhere. The water is still nice and we decided to go out one more time before he leaves. Lucky for us, Little David is on vacation and would be coming along too. He's my good luck charm and he's been there to help land some of my biggest fish.
The plan was for Al to check out the shallower houses and I'll get to the deeper ones. The first house in 44ft was empty. Sunday we shot a 12 lb one but today no one was home. The next stop was the deep hole as we call it, but compared to some of the wrecks my Florida buddies take me too, it is shallow. Its 65ft to the top of the hole and 75ft to the bottom. A few weeks ago, it was full yet my other partner, Diver Joe forgot to rebend the shaft straight from the last ulua and he had a shot that went around the fish! Today it was empty, but thats how it goes.
The third house is called Pete's house because it only had a number before Pete came back to the boat and said there was a huge ulua in the hole. Its on the deep side for Al, so I went down to check it out.
On the far end of the hole I could see a shape making slow circles. There was an ulua hanging out. Rather than swim through and spooking the ulua, I returned to the surface and took a few minutes to breath up and get ready for the nest dive. No matter how many uluas I've shot over the years, it still makes my heart speed up and it took a few minutes to calm down and make a dive. After peeking into the long tube, I could see the ulua was now on the other end! Rather that go back up and hae the ulua leave while getting ready to go back down, I decided to swim through. There was small pillar in the tube that i used for cover and swam right up to the ulua. It was already starting to leave and I hit it just behind the gill plate. Blood came out of its mouth and it took off past me while I went in the other direction back out of the hole. On the surface we could see that it was hung up on the coral and on its side. With little David's help, I got back down and put a kill shot. Without the help of a reel, and 600 lb cable, hunting uluas would be a crap shoot. These fish are so strong that they snap 500 lb cable quite easy.
Later on our way back home we checked out the last house that we got the 53 lb ulua Sunday. I peeked under and there was a small one in there. Al could just make it to this house so he took the side the ulua was and I went over to the other side to wait. when we both got down, the ulua had moved to one side and Al couldn't see it.; I could so I swam over and got a nice head shot. Another one for the reel vs floatline argument.
We came in early so that we could take AL to eat Hawaiian food, try a shaved ice cone and have a Malasada for desert. Before picking up his lovely wife Ida, We stopped for a refreshing Shaved Ice cone. All got a Rainbow and I my favorite is strawberry. It is so refreshing and hits the spot after a long day in the sun.
I hope to see Al again and we''ll have to get him a big one next time.

Aloha,Daryl
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Old 05-15-2009, 12:35 PM   #38
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Re: Diving with friends

Awesome!!!
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Old 05-16-2009, 11:30 PM   #39
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Re: Diving with friends

Currently in Iraq myself cant wait to get back to oahu so i can get back in the water! Way to dry out here! Nice Story and Great looking fish!
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Old 08-10-2009, 11:48 PM   #40
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Re: Diving with friends

Aloha Guys,

Finally got to get out after 7 weeks of no diving. Did a short stint in Kona with the Performance freedive Advanced class, but no spearing. The gang was over on Sat and everyone wanted to have a fish fry. Only problem with a Hurricane slated to pass by on Tues, no one wanted to go out to shoot fish. Diver Joe Strona and I were the only two to chance it. Good thing.

The weather was beautiful. Light winds, small swells and clear. Since its the moon phase for Uluas, we could three prong fish and check out ulua houses. We first stopped on our Kole (small surgeon fish) spot. We quickly loaded up two gallon baggies of Kole. Yes the fish are small, but tasty. In ancient Hawaiian days, they were reserved for the Alii or royal family. No commoners were allowed to eat them. To describe Kole, It would be like shooting a bucket of Crappie or Bluegills and then having a big fish fry with them. Tasty!

After we loaded up, we went to a few houses. Most of the Ulua houses were empty until the last house. Joe dropped down one side and I took the other side of the big round slab. Before I could stick my head under, a big black head came up to me and slowly turned. I didn't even aim, just put the spear by the head and fired. The shaft went all the way through and I now had a pissed of fish on the cable. Diver Joe came by and with his help we got a second shot to quiet the ulua down. I pulled his shaft out so it wouldn't get bent, while he held the fish. The second the shaft came out, the ulua went beserk! Joe was doing the boogie with the Ulua as they spun around in the water. Later on the boat, Joe asked me if he had a scratch on his head. Not only did he have a scratch, it was 1 1/2 inches long and looked like a hatchet did it. The ulua have huge sharp scutes on the side of their tails and this one slapped him around. I was wondering why he pulled his knife and was stabbing the fish while I cranked up his reel line. Later that night he had a nice lump to go with the scratch. Good thing he has a Wong hat to cover it.

Diving with friends is fun. Not only does it make the day go by quickly, you also dive better knowing your partner is there to help out. We both took the PFI course together and know what to do and what to expect of each other when we dive. Thanks to Joe, most of the fish I shoot are taken with his help and back up. Another of the gang (Smudge) should be here soon from his deployment and we be back in action again! We'll give him first dibs on the best ulua house.

The fish was 50 lbs and thick. We cut it up and the gang all took some slabs of fish home. The Kole were fried crisply and we ate that along with Steamed MU (a progy and Parrot fish that Diver/Chef Joe made up on the grill. Hope the weather is better next week and we'll all get out to shoot more fish to fry. If not, we'll BBQ like we do every weekend.

Aloha,Daryl
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Old 08-11-2009, 08:10 AM   #41
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Re: Diving with friends

Nice one! I'm almost home! Stopping in Guam tomorrow. We were only supposed to stay one night but now it looks like we'll be there 2 days. Only thing is I have to work till about 3 or 4pm each day so I don't know if I'm going to get to dive! Got any friends on Guam who can do a quick afternoon hop??
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Old 08-18-2009, 12:51 AM   #42
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Re: Diving with friends

Nice fishy! I was on the Big Island for my 1-year wedding anniversary that weekend. Of course I went looking for uluas, but only found a papio... Bleh.

-Paul
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Old 09-03-2009, 05:32 AM   #43
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Re: Diving with friends

I will be in Honolulu next week for 2 weeks working.
Any chance of getting a day to hook up on someones boat.
I will be doing a bunch of work at the Buca Di Beppo so i have the place to cook the fish.
just PM me.
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Old 10-05-2009, 12:45 PM   #44
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Re: Diving with friends

Aloha,

Thought I'd squeeze a dive report before I head up to Florida to help instruct on a spearfishing course. The weathers been nasty lately and with two days of intermittent rain, it didn't look that good even with variable winds forecasted. But since it was my last weekend before I leave, Diver Joe and Chad Sutton decided to get out and see how it was. There's that saying..."you never know until you go!"
Driving to the pier it wasn't the prettiest weather. Rain and more rain beat down on my truck. We hurried and launched the boat and then waited in the cab for the pouring rain to stop. After five minutes we said lets go. The winds had died, but there was a big East swell which isn't good. You could see huge areas of white off colored water. Finding some clean water was going to be tough. After roaming around, we decided to hop on some ulua holes. They don't move and are easy to find if you know where they are.
The first stop was a hole in 44ft of water. Joe loaded up and I drifted to it and he slid in to check. He came up with a "one sign'" and I got my gear to help out. By the time I got to the hole it had ripped off. Joe said it was a solid shot to the head. These uluas have thick armored gill plates and bone in the head. Some times the slip tips don't penetrate all the way through and this is what probably happened.

Discouraged I said we'll check out another one a mile away.
This next hole is one of my favorites. It has produced the biggest uluas this year and also had the ulua I shot on the spearhunter show last year. Its a nice hole that has a lot of exits. Anchoring up seas of the hole, Joe and I found it and he took the ocean side exit and I took the land side. Its not deep and by the time I hit the edge, I had a big black head stick out from under the ledge. It saw me and quickly turned. By the time I hit the bottom, it was coming back at he to pass me on its way out. I didn't have time to aim and just point the gun "three prong style like a pole spear" and fired. It hit it in the head and was so close all the cable was bunched at the muzzle as the ulua passed me and then went back into the hole. The cable got caught in the muzzle and then the fish went nuts in the hole . I let go of the gun to get up and as I was watching, the gun on the edge of the ledge was being slammed into the ledge. Before I could get Joe's gun to put a kill shot in, the muzzle was ripped out of the CF barrel. Late I found out the handle was damaged too. The second shot did the fish in and I limped back to the boat with a muzzle less gun, cracked handle and the fish. Theres a great waranty on the gun so I'm not too worried.
Lucky our friend Kaipo had his gun on board so we had another gun to use.

Not wanting to break two guns, I told Joe on the next hole its all his. I'll go down and back up. The next hole called the round slab, is another producer. It had Sheri Daye's state record ulua when she came over to dive one year. Since then it has produced regularly. The last time I almost lost my gun when an ulua took all the line and then dragged the gun into the hole and out the other side, but thats another story.

At the round slab, Joe went down on one side and I went down on the other side. Inside the hole there was a big black ulua that was on my side, but as it turned and headed towards Joe's side I heard his gun go off and all hell broke loose. As the ulua came back around towards me, I shot it with Kaipo's gun and sliptip. It was still frisky, so I went back to the boat and got Chad's gun and put a kill shot into the ulua.
Joe started to pull his line out and his shaft came up without a fish. The Ulua had come off and was one Kaipo's line. Partnering up is the best way to make sure the success rate is better when hunting Uluas.
Joe went down and we got the fish to the boat. It was a fatty. With two fish and the water pretty green, we decided to get in early, meet the gang at the house an BBQ some ribs.
We got some nice shots of the fish and then headed home.
Joe's Ulua was 61 lbs and my gun breaking ulua was 60. Tough day on gear but you never know until you go!

Aloha,Daryl
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Last edited by Daryl Wong; 10-05-2009 at 06:34 PM.
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Old 10-05-2009, 01:25 PM   #45
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Re: Diving with friends

Quote:
Theres a great waranty on the gun so I'm not too worried.
LOL great story Daryl!
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