Tuna Aggregation Continued... Part 2
Spearing Sickles - Part 2
Continued..
I've been on several blue water trips before where we have come across something floating in the water, trees, logs or another type of object and usually they are loaded with pelagic fish and have an entire ecosystem around them. If you’ve never experienced something like this it's hard to fathom how something so small like a plastic chair can attract so much life but they do and this meant it was on for young and old!
In moments like this my eyes are peeled and I am in full focus mode scanning the arcs to the right and left knowing that if we do find something floating in the middle of nowhere we could have one of the best trips ever and that's exactly what happened.
Out to the right about 300m away I see a splash which matches my eye and instantly I think YELLOWFIN TUNA! I tell Ant to change course and head in that direction. As we get closer it looks like there are 4-5 birds sitting on the water which is another sign that there could be something in the area. As we get closer 3 of the birds take off and it looks like there are still 2 birds on the water not moving but to our surprise it's a plastic chair floating with 2 of the legs sticking up. I honestly don't think I’ve seen 4 guys get this excited over a chair in my life haha!
Panic mode sets in, adrenaline levels climb and we are trying to get our gear on as quickly as possible knowing what this could potentially hold. Myself, Josh and Dylan gear up and because we have removed our sunnies we no longer have the ability to see through the water and after about 30 seconds Ant says - "WOW you boys should see how many dollies there are around the boat”. With this being said the excitement levels went through the roof and we jumped in to see what we were faced with.
Immediately I spotted a big school of Mahi Mahi with over 40-50 fish, multiple small wahoo up to 10kg, rainbow runners, silky sharks, small amberjacks the list goes on. It was unbelievable to see. I was in such a hurry I forgot to put my gloves on (which would bite me in the ass later) and grabbed Ants 140 Aimrite reel gun as I assumed that we would mainly see dollies and small wahoo all of which can be landed on a reel gun with ease. Bang! Josh shoots first and puts a shaft into a nice sized bull Mahi of about 8kg. After a short wrestle he gets the fish in his hands and I can be confident it doesn't need a back up shot or require a shark to be fended off.
My focus then turned to see what fish I could have a crack at and I began scanning just under the surface of the water where you’ll find these fish swimming. I didn't see any big bull mahi (which was my main target) or any big wahoo and after this I looked down to see what was swimming below and was greeted with a school of BIG Yellowfin Tuna with sickles that immediately caught my attention. Looking through the school I could see that these fish ranged between 40-60kg with a few looking more like 70kg plus. I literally couldn’t see a fish that was small enough to land on a reel gun but you only live once and I wasn’t going to head home wondering what might have been. It's not everyday you get this opportunity in your own backyard!
I took a breath, dived down to about 8m and sat there watching a wall of tuna. It was unbelievable to see this many big fish at once, something I have never seen before in my life. As I sat there a decent sized fish of about 40kg peeled off and swam towards me almost head on. As it got closer it turned away slightly and my shot would be aimed on a slight downward angle. I aimed for the brain and let the shaft fly only to see the shaft fall short and be a complete miss. Gutted but lucky. Out in the blue where the visibility is really good, say 30-40m plus fish look smaller than they are and seem closer than they appear. My guess is that this fish was much bigger than I thought, possibly 60kg hence why it looked close enough when I pulled the trigger.
Josh and Dylan were on the boat and Ant drove over to pick me up with my tail between my legs… We got some footage and pics of Josh's fish, regrouped and jumped back in for round 2. This time I grabbed a big bluewater gun and some floats as I wasn’t going to make this mistake again. Within minutes Josh had shot a nice Wahoo and was in the process of landing it when the silky sharks realised that it was dinner time and they would be taking the full tax on this one. With all the commotion of a sharknado going on it brought in a lot of fish that were sitting out wider from us including a few really big Mahi Mahi. I wasted no time, did a small duck dive and drew in the biggest Bull close enough for a shot. The shaft hit its mark right behind the head and I was very confident we would land this fish however the sharks and my stupidity would make sure that wasn’t the case.
Remember earlier when I said that I forgot to put my gloves on? Well when we rig up our Bluewater guns we use a 1.6mm steel wire cable shooting line so that if we do have sharks eat our fish we don't lose the shaft and slip-tip worth $400. So with the Bull Mahi going absolutely ape shit swimming between myself and Josh I am frantically trying to get it under control but this is impossible with no gloves and wire. At this moment I knew I had made a big error and luckily Josh was able to get his hands (and gloves) on my shooting line and start to pull the fish up. Unfortunately my lack of initial control allowed the sharks to get clued on and once that first bite was taken I knew that this dream fish would not be landed whole.
We kept pulling the fish up and finally Josh got his hands on the head which was massive. He continued to hold it out of the water and we swam back getting a few bumps from the tax man on the way in. Definitely not recommended but if you’ve ever dived these floating logs or debris with the silky sharks that range from 40cm long to 2m you’ll know that they are absolutely harmless and swim around you without a care in the world. It's only fair we act the same. Once back at the boat we had a whole heap of mess going on. I got a quick pic with the Bull Mahi head which we later weighed at 8kg so estimates would be that the fish was around 16-18kg whole. I said that I would go Boaty on the next one and Ant, Josh and Dylan hoped in. I told Ant to take a big gun in hopes the Tuna would show up again as there was every chance that our day on the Yellowfin wasn’t over yet.
By this time the Northerly winds had picked up a fair bit and were blowing us South with the chair. I dropped the boys about 30m up from the chair and then they would eventually end up right on it. It wasn’t long before I could see some commotion on the surface and changes in body posture. This normally indicates that the divers have seen something and are preparing to dive and I alerted Ocean that something is about to happen. For those wondering, Ocean is Ant’s 5 year old son who goes on every trip with us when we dive with Ant. He is an absolute frother when it comes to spearfishing and is out there with us rain, hail or shine in search of big fish. This season he has been up here with Ant for 6 weeks total and done some trips most guys can only dream of. He loves every minute of it and gets in the water to dive with us any chance he gets. This season he shot some big Coral Trout all by himself and made Dad very proud!
We both looked on as Ant took a dive with the other two boys eagerly looking on. If you’ve ever done Bluewater or seen it for yourself, you’d know that we use 1 or 2 big floats to pull these big fish up. So when a diver descends, that's what you watch as the floats take off and get buried under the water before the diver resurfaces and that's exactly what happened. “FISH ON” I yelled out to Ocean as I put the boat in gear and steered towards the direction of the boys so that I could be close by if something went pear shaped or the sharks went nuts. The first float was at the surface and the fight was on. The boys were pulling this fish up and making some ground on it. Josh then took a dive for a second shot and to secure the fish as quickly as possible.
My gut instinct said Yellowfin and I was right. Ant had managed to spear and land his PB Yellowfin which went 28kg and everyone was absolutely pumped. We got the fish on the boat and celebrated with some serious high fives and a few man hugs haha! Personally I don’t care who shoots the fish, as long as it's in the boat I am just as happy as if i'd shot it myself. To see Ant finish the trip off this way was incredible. We capped off the day with Dylan landing his first Wahoo of about 12kgs and then called it as the winds had gotten a bit more intense and we still had about 50nm to run in. With a run out tide and big northerly winds I copped two waves at the back but I couldn’t have been happier knowing we had an esky full of Yellowfin and memories that will last forever...
