Snapper fest. Epic two days.

  • It must be because it's my birthday tomorrow.
    Went out to Turneffe Atholl Saturday and lucked into a spawning session of about 2000 cuberas...at least. Also had a school of 200 or so dog snappers hanging close by AND numerous muttons cruising through. Not to mention a school of about 50 nice size permit and a few big horse eye jacks.
    We went back today and jumped in the same spot...no fish. I drifted about 400 yards south and lo and fricken behold...there they were again. Not near as many cuberas but more dogs with muttons still hanging around.
    We each got a couple cuberas, I got a mutton and a jack.
    I'll post more pics when my buddy emails them to me.
    These were days we dream about as spear fishermen. Un frickn' real. We could have got so many more but....I'm just thankful to have seen this at least once in my life. We left plenty behind.


  • That's the stuff dreams are made of! Congrats on experiencing that. I'm sure shooting a few fish was just a bonus after witnessing the spawning aggregation...


    Get ready for lots of PM's of people wanting to set up trips for next years spawn. ;)

  • Sunday. My buddy, "the Spaniard" got a couple nice ones.
    The fish were staying on the bottom at about 50 feet near the reef drop off. We would dive down looking away, get to the bottom and slowly look up to see them circling around. At first I was hiding my gun but when I'd slowly draw it out for a shot, you could hear a "whump" sound as they spooked and would move off a bit. After that, I'd just go down with the gun extended and ready to shoot.
    The dog snappers were circling above the cuberas. Jorge shot one so we could get a "grand slam". A dog, a mutton and cubera on the same day.
    PS The scuba tank is for emergencies. We had a stuck anchor at 90 feet. All fish are shot free diving. It's the law here.



    Edited once, last by hank ().

  • CAme back from Hawaii with my new gun. Daryl made me a hybrid GR 55 with a reel and showed me some techniques he uses to sneak up on spooky fish. The lessons I learned from him were worth the price of the gun. Great guy and nice gun too.
    Anyway, we got back and went back to our cubera spot. Same big school there in spawning mode. WE filled the cooler pretty fast. Strong current and had to get down to about 50-60 feet to get at them.
    The big one was hiding in a different spot. I coaxed him out of his hole with a chopped up cero mackerel. Then waited about 15 minutes and dove down on top of his hole from behind. Snuck up, peaked over the edge and there he was, looking out into the channel. I had a hell of a time with the single barb shaft. He was trying like hell to get back into his hole...but a 60 inch shaft doesn't fit well into a 3 foot wide hole. Lucky for me.




  • Couple more pics. My buddy the "Spaniard and his cubera and cero. :My buddy Boy, Matt, Daryl and me and a 63 lb ulua in Hawaii in Aug 10-20. And my son and spearing buddy, Wilian, come 2025 or so.




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