| On August 4, 1997, we set our due west of Cape Blarro, Oregon to fish for
and hopefully spear albacore tuna. The weather was foggy, but calm, as we cruised
offshore. At ten miles from the coast we had a dramatic water color change and according
to the temp gauge we had water temperature of 60 o F, as
compared to 52 o near shore. We cruised another ten miles
and finally came in to 64 o F water, clear skies and
sunny attitudes. Several schools of fish were spotted on the surface and we approached
near, trolling our jigs. Every school we approached, I also slipped in the water and tried
to swim and get close to no avail. On my seventh try to swim close I was able to see the
school and at the same time the boat had three hook-ups on the jig. This brought the
school closer and I spotted two stragglers to my left and twenty feet below. They seemed
curious and were not swimming as fast as the school. Visibility in this area was about 70'
and water temp was 64.5 o. I picked out the second, it
seemed a small bit longer, swam another 5' toward them and fired. At this time I was
approximately 15' below the surface and the tuna were 15' from the tip of my gun. I shot
at an angle and downward as they swam from my left to my right. It was a mice shot, and
after several runs the fish soon tired. I had control of my 50' float-line and buoy at all
times and the fish managed to pull me down from the surface three times. Amazing power!
After returning to the boat, with tuna by the tail, I learned of the fish staying near the
boat when the hooked fish were on the lines. We have also had in the past, tuna school the
boat as we pulled our lines in. This was a very successful day for me, since I have been
trying to shoot one of these fish for 4 years.
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Andrew Ruddock
Meritorious award for albacore, Andrew Ruddock—14.44 kilograms (31.8
pounds) by Andrew Ruddock
On 31st May 1998, Rob Torelli Mark Scicluna, Mathew Barber (skipper), Mark Cull and
myself boarded the MV Margarita at 5:00 a.m. to head out to Bay Canyon on the Continental
Shelf of Batemans Bay NSW a trip that would take us approximately 3 hours.
At daybreak we started trolling some lures behind the boat to catch some burley and
also find the area where the Albacore would be congregating. After a couple of hours we
hooked a striped marlin approximately 100kg and then started trolling again half an hour
later we hooked a couple of Albacore. We then decided to stop the boat and start drifting
and burleying, with the Albacore we had caught and some that were caught the previous day
by Rob and Mark.
Rob (with video camera) and Mark (speargun) entered the water first and I stayed
onboard to setup the burley bag (open mesh bag filled with cubes of Albacore and hung off
the side of the boat) and keep throwing pieces of burley into the water until some
Albacore were sighted, once sighted I then stuffed some cubes up my wetsuit and entered
the water.
The Albacore were racing in and taking the burley released from the burley bag about 5m
to 10m below the surface, I dived down and lined up a piece of burley and waited for a
tuna to take it, when one came in I fired and landed a tuna 9kg.
I then reloaded my gun, released some burley that I was carrying allowed it to drift
down about 5m and then dived down and lined up on a piece and waited for them to come in
again. When they started feeding they took the pieces that I was not lined up on first,
then finally it was my chance, a large Albacore spotted the last piece and raced in to
take it, I fired and hit the fish halfway down the back from the top the spear penetrated
all the way through and the flopper opened up, the fish was secured and landed without
taking too much effort.
The speargun and equipment used was a slightly modified Picasso 1.2m with a 1.2m carbon
fiber barrel, single band 20mm by 30mm surgical rubbers, articulated bridal, 1.4 by 8mm
single flopper stainless shaft, Demka trigger mechanism and handle with a Demka reel
attached holding 200m of 300kg breaking strain cord. No float attached to gun.
When we arrived back to shore the fish were then taken to Australian Fish Pty Ltd
(abalone processing factory owned by John Vairy) and weighed in at approximately 7:00 p.m.
on May 31, 1998 by Brian Stephenson an employee of the company
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Phillipe Virgili
Meritorious award for albacore, Phillipe Virgili—30.94 kgs (68.1 Pounds) by
Phillipe Virgili—A
68lb lonfing tuna caught off the Cape Town coast (South Africa).
THE STORY OF THE CATCH :
It was my second spearfishing trip to South Africa
and at the time, I was pretty keen on seeing my friend W. Bernardis in Durban. I have been
planning for months to freedive again with african tiger sharks there.
On the 12th of April 2009, , as soon as the 28ft
boat left the Hout Bay harbor (Cape Town area), D. Christie the « Obsession »
sportfishing boat skipper headed on early morning to the offshore waters
It’s well known that you can get there the
four seasons in the same day, but we were pretty lucky to get a stable sunny weather, a
sea becalmed and an exceptional blue water. D. Christie the skipper has a great expertise
in tuna fishing. My trip mainly targeted to catch one good size yellofin tuna and do
underwater video of the fish. After 1h1/2 boating, we explored a specific area wich is
located at about 20 to 25 miles off the coast and where seeing the fish was probable.
After ½ hour the crew effectively spotted on a fish finder a tuna school swimming very
deep and the mates did chuming with sardine in order to tease up the school. Half an hour
boating and chuming later, I got with the gun in the 22C degree clear water. I was told by
the skipper that the school could stay there a couple of minutes to a couple of hours, and
that I should better first to hunt. I made during about 1/2h several dives and I could finally observe some medium size restless
tuna ( 70 to 100lbs) swimming at about 80ft
depht and sometimes coming racing up to the chum line, then racing fast to the deep. I
spotted a medium size fish wich was swimming like a rocket to the surface. But at about
60ft depht it changed its path and swam less fast and diagonaly to the deep. I dove as
fast as I could in following the fish wich seemed to ignore me. At about 15ft range I
aimed instinctively and shot. The shaft hit the fish on the
lateral line, penetrated it half way and probably broke the spine. The tuna
took off to the deep an I swam back to the surface while holding on the bungee. Then I
grabbed the buoy while playing the fish. I yelled the skipper to inform him of the
capture. The fish did’nt resist a long time and after about 5min I felt less
resistance. As I pulled in the float line the fish came into view : I was sure the
fish could’nt rip away because my shot
was a solid mid body shot. A couple of blue sharks showed up, followed the fish then swam
to the deep. I pulled easely the exhausted fish to the surface and the skipper gaffed it
on board. It needed not to do a second shot. Retourning to the boat I took a quick break,
got back the shaft and the line, then dove staight away again to catch an other fish.
During the break on the boat the skipper told me I caught a record longfin tuna. I was
surprised, because at the time I spotted the fish I identified it as if it was a big
eye : the body colour, the shape, the eyes…
About one hour later I caught an about150lb
yellofin tuna and I could do video of the small school
and of blue sharks.
Back to the dock the I.G.F.A. certified skipper
weighted the fish : a 30,94kg longfin tuna/ thunnus alalunga. He told me I smashed
the south african spearfishing record…
THE EQUIPMENT :
-a T. Botha tuna gun equiped with a 9mm/ 1800mm long spear with a S Alexander style slip
tip.
-five 16mm elastic bands.
-a T. Botha float system equiped with a 75ft bungee.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Greg Tellis
Notable catch for albacore, Greg Tellis—40.5 pounds by Greg
Tellis
It was Sunday morning July 15 and I had planned to
go diving with my son to look for He'e for his wedding reception. Weather was kind of
gloomy but the water was fairly smooth. I headed down to a local spot we call Pine Trees
where I met up with my son Alika. Alika and his friend had already did a morning dive and
he was planning on jumping in with me again. Alika realized that he was too tired after
his first dive and decided to not do a second dive.
I decided to still go diving so I jumped in my truck and drove further to the end of
Pine Trees where there were no boats or activities in the water. That's where the
adventure began.
The first 2 hours of my dive was fairly slow. I was disappointed that there wasn't any
He'e around that I was hoping for. I decided to start shooting for reef fish. As I zig
zagged from shallow waters out to the ledge, I continued to search for He'e. 3 hours into
the dive, I found myself south of Kaloko Fishpond and about 1/2 mile from Honokohau Harbor
when I ran across an opelu kala school. I shot 6 of them and decided to turn around and
make my way back to shore. I knew I had a long swim ahead of me and my stringer was
feeling heavy.
I lined myself up from the point of Kaloko Fishpond to the point of where my truck was
and started to head back. I continued to spear reef fish on the way back. I started to
feel disappointed because I had only caught one He'e at that time for my son's wedding.
As I looked ahead of me I saw a shine in the water and I thought it was a big Omilu. I
was in about 20 to 25 ft. of water and this shine was moving parallel & away from me.
After seeing his side fins wide open, his dark back and silver sides I realized that it
was a tuna. The tuna then took a turn and came towards me. I was really excited & I
took a good breath and went down. The tuna was moving fast but I was able to get off a
good & steady shot.
I shot him about 12in. behind the head, a spine shot. My shaft totally penetrated the
tuna all the way through. I knew it was a good shot & I braced myself for the run of
my life, but like I said, I spined him. As the tuna quivered, I went down to stab him in
the brain with my knife to secure him. As I brought him up to the surface, I had one arm
holding the knife in him and my other arm wrapped around the tuna. My arm barely made it
around the tuna. I removed the knife and put the tuna on my kui. I never really knew how
dense weight a tuna is in the water. At this point all I could think about was getting
this tuna back to shore.
After 1 1/2 hours of swimming & watching if any sharks would come and take this
tuna, I finally made it to shore safely.
When I got out of the water I saw a young man & I asked him to take my picture with
my camera phone. He couldn't believe his eyes. He thought my fish was a large Aku at
first.
I then called my wife and told her that she wouldn't believe what I had caught. As I
told her the story, she suggested that I go to Honokahau Harbor to weigh my fish. So I
did. I stopped by the charter desk and they weighed my tuna in at 40.5lbs. As I went back
to my truck to put the tuna in the cooler, I met Mark Barville. He couldn't believe that I
had speared this tuna free diving from offshore. He thought I was pulling his leg. He
asked where did I spear it and I told him and he still didn't believe me so I opened my
cooler to show him the rest of my catch and then showed him the picture on my cellphone
that the young man took when I first came in to shore.
I showed Mark my spear gun and told him it was a Daryl Wong gun with my own home made
shaft. Mark gave me his card and asked me to send him pictures along with a story so that
he could share it with Daryl.
I am very proud to own a Daryl Wong gun, it has been very reliable and has caught many
different fish for me. This spear gun has caught 10lb Uku's, 35lb. Ulua, many Uhu's and
lots of reef fish to name a few and not to mention the75lb ulua that got away. I may not
have caught the He'e that I wanted to but I did have a great day in the ocean.
Thank you Daryl, I really enjoy your spear gun and the sport of free diving.
Aloha Greg Telles
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