View Full Version : Labor Day with Team DTT and CW


Skinydiver
09-05-2007, 11:09 PM
Alright, I know this is a lot delayed, but my computer crashed, and so I was busy trying to fix that, and didn't get around to editing the photos so that they would fit on Planet.

I was invited to go out to a remote island for the labor day weekend with team DTT and CWW180. CW and I hit the road on the way to Motabu port early on Saturday morning, and got on the fairy. The fairy ride was about 2 hours and some change. I couldn't wait to get in the water so I was mostly unsuccessful in trying to make the trip go by faster by sleeping. We got to the island at about noon, and I assumed we'd be in the water fishing by about 3 in the afternoon. I was right. We went out on DTT's small inflatable boat to do a reef hunt at the break which was about 1000 meters away. I was very excited, and was the first one in the water. The first thing I saw were two Ulua sitting in a crevasse. They looked like horses to me, and they were just sitting there. I was waiting on DTT to get over there because he had way more fire power than I did, plus a reel. After a couple of minutes of trying to get close enough to take a pic without scaring them away, they ended up leaving before DTT could get over with the big gun. At this point I had a feeling this trip would be a good one.

The fishing began. The vis was great, about 40 to 50 feet I would assume. The deepest drops were at about 35 feet, and there were large fish everywhere. We decided to try to stick together, and that didn't exactly happen. We split up in a matter of minutes. The first day my intentions were to shoot whatever I could that was good. There were trevally and what I thought to be giant trevally all over the place. I wasn't trying to hunt anything too big because I knew i didn't have a reel, and I noticed a cut about half way through my mono line just before we got in.

I was hunting in sandy areas with coral all around, and the fish were very interested in what I was doing to try to get their attention. On my second or third dive down, I hit a descent sized trevally of about 2 or 3 lbs tied him off and then continued on. Next I saw a larger trevally in the distance coming my way, so I dove down and did my thing. After about 30 second of holding my breath this dude swam right for me opening his mouth like he was ready for some food. The only thing he got was a 50 inch shaft right through both sides of his gills. He shook rattled pulled me down making it hard to surface, and swam me around in circles at the surface until I was able to get him between my legs to shove a knife through his brain. After that I was pretty well satisfied.

With 2 good sized trevally on my stringer. One of 2 or 3 lbs, and the other of at least 10 lbs. I headed for the boat to off load. Headed out for another hour or so shot a grouper and ran into some more giant trevally that were withing a few feet of me. I wasn't gonna shoot them with my questionable mono line being that I didn't bring any extra shafts. We packed up cleaned fish and headed for home. This Japanese dude that ran the restaurant across the street was more than happy to cook up that 10 lbs fish I caught free of charge and man was it good. We ate some other fish there that the other guys caught. It was a feast!

Skinydiver
09-05-2007, 11:11 PM
Day 2 we went to basically the same spot a few hundred meters North of yesterdays spot. It wasn't as good, and I was having trouble with fish getting away. I shot one trevally in the beginning of the day, and then all the fish I shot after that wiggled their way off. Another probably 5 lbs trevally a good sized coral trout grouper. After that. I decided that I was going to focus all my efforts on learning how to hunt the elusive Tamon and Mu. They may not be as elusive to some as they seemed to be to me and my 90cm aimrite. They seemed to just know to stay right outside of my range. I managed to get close enough to hit one mu and one tamon, but all that happened was a few scales flew off. I took quite a few shots on Tamon with minimal success, the vis was getting low due to the sun setting, so I thought it'd be a good time to pack up for the day. I headed towards the boat, and little did I know the current had pushed me probably at least 500 meters south of the boat. So I had quite a swim ahead.

I made it to the boat thinking that both DTT and CW were waiting on me, but DTT hadn't arrived yet. The water on the other side of the break was like glass so I decided to go out and see if I could see DTT. He was nowhere in site. I came out of the break on one of the "honey holes" that had consistently been littered with Taman so I took one last dive to attempt to land one. I got down, and after about 45 seconds of holding my breath I was about to give up when out of the corner of my eye I saw this huge yellow sweet lips looking at me like "What's up?" I had to turn my gun a full 90 degrees to my right to aim in on him, and he didn't even budge. So I fired. One flip of the tail turned a head shot into a low gut shot, but he wasn't going anywhere. Man did that little dude bleed. Not much of a fight though. I think he was at least 10 lbs. I have a color print waiting to be picked up, and he weighed in at 2.6 kg a day later without guts. That was the last dive and the last shot I took for the day and the weekend. I'd say that's a good way to end a good trip. 6 or so hours in the water that day, and 4 or so the day prior.

Thanks DTT and CW for the good time.

Note: The 2 fish towards the end of my fin are the ones that I shot. The others were captured by DTT and the Lob was CWW180.

Skinydiver
09-05-2007, 11:45 PM
Here's a better pic of the Ulua.

Skinydiver
09-06-2007, 01:25 AM
The sweetlips was 2.9kg gutted. I'm sure I removed at least a half pound of gills and guts out of that thing.

Brownsuit
09-06-2007, 02:13 AM
Nice :)

Choke Fish
09-06-2007, 04:30 AM
Awesome skindawg! I like the bluefin trevelly those are good eating. Ya man my sweet lips was about 4kg, he was big, fat, and stupid!
That is one lucky shot on that Taman! Nice Permit too!

Jabroney
09-06-2007, 04:36 AM
The one on the left...Pompano?

Choke Fish
09-06-2007, 04:38 AM
The one on the left...Pompano?

Permit!

Jabroney
09-06-2007, 04:41 AM
We saw those at Yoron, are they good eating?

CheekyBastard
09-06-2007, 04:41 AM
Permit? I think thats a pompano.

Choke Fish
09-06-2007, 04:44 AM
http://spearfishingplanet.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1994&d=1189044635

:lol: Get that ridiculous grin off your face :D :fish:

Look man, with a bud of mine reaching 175ft this week I have been inspired. I really want to reach 120ft before I leave this island... Actaully I want to hit 150ft and Im thinking about doing that freediving class here at Maeda with that Freedive Champ. But if you would be interested at some eye pleasers and some freediving after work next week let me know. Try to give me a day in advance so go straight from work and hopefully be in the water at 430pm or 5pm at the latest. You like to freefall, well a freefall to 100+ft is Freakin "A" Awesome!

Choke Fish
09-06-2007, 04:45 AM
Permit? I think thats a pompano.

What I have found is the Permit is a light colored fish with longer Dorsal and Pectoral fins. It could be a snubnose Pampano but from what I have seen those are different in color and the fins arent as long.

PERMIT!

http://www.reefnews.com/reefnews/news/v05n06/permit.jpg

joelovesfishin
09-06-2007, 06:19 AM
Permit

http://www.fish4fun.com/images/Adv-graphics/permitpin.jpg

Pampano

http://research.myfwc.com/images/subcategories/4689_4201.gif

Mystery Fish???

joelovesfishin
09-06-2007, 06:20 AM
Awesome catch!!!

Jabroney
09-06-2007, 06:33 AM
I see I started a huge debate...solid. Anyway, I was more curious how it tasted. ?

Skinydiver
09-06-2007, 06:38 AM
The shot on the Taman was actually an accident. Team DTT had a gun malfunction, and went to fix it and the gun fired on it's own, and just happened to nail that fish on the tail. Like I said the top 2 fish weren't mine. Team DTT shot those 2.

I say it's a Permit. The head of the other fish is too narrow top to bottom. We thought it was a different kind of Ulua. Guess not. He shot one about 15 #s.

That Trevally meat was very tasty. It almost tastes like beef. Amazing.

UltimateDepth
09-06-2007, 11:54 AM
Pretty sweet catch bro. Can't wait to get back out there this weekend!

Skinydiver
09-06-2007, 05:38 PM
How about that stupid grin? haha I didn't know until this morning you were talking about me. Those pictures turned out really shitty for the most part because it was dusk. I'm down for some freediving. You have to understand that Maeda is a little farther away for me than it is for you. Is there a closer place that you could think of that is a bit more of a mid way point that is a good dive? If not, it will probably take me a bit longer than that to get there. Especially with traffic and such. Maggy and I might be staying on island a bit longer than expected.

http://spearfishingplanet.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1994&d=1189044635

:lol: Get that ridiculous grin off your face :D :fish:

Look man, with a bud of mine reaching 175ft this week I have been inspired. I really want to reach 120ft before I leave this island... Actaully I want to hit 150ft and Im thinking about doing that freediving class here at Maeda with that Freedive Champ. But if you would be interested at some eye pleasers and some freediving after work next week let me know. Try to give me a day in advance so go straight from work and hopefully be in the water at 430pm or 5pm at the latest. You like to freefall, well a freefall to 100+ft is Freakin "A" Awesome!

Choke Fish
09-06-2007, 06:36 PM
How about that stupid grin? haha I didn't know until this morning you were talking about me. Those pictures turned out really shitty for the most part because it was dusk. I'm down for some freediving. You have to understand that Maeda is a little farther away for me than it is for you. Is there a closer place that you could think of that is a bit more of a mid way point that is a good dive? If not, it will probably take me a bit longer than that to get there. Especially with traffic and such. Maggy and I might be staying on island a bit longer than expected.

Glad to hear that you will be staying on island longer!!! Well there is no where that I can think of where the water is clear enough to safely dive. I could be wrong since I havent been in the water lately around Chatan. But either way I dont know of a place that is as deep as that area. Not to mention there are some good looking Japanese gals there sometimes :D

parker
09-06-2007, 09:01 PM
Maybe it's a Trachinotus blochii ??

This is the current IUSA World Record 10.88kg Pompano, Snubnose speared March 2000, by John Iwaniec in Okinawa.
http://www.freediver.net/iusa/world_record_list.php