First real freediving trip

  • I finally got a chance to see what this "freediving" fad is all about. :thumbsup2:


    There were three of us on Chad's boat. Blue water was in close, so we left from Venice, LA, and spent last Saturday and most of Sunday hopping from rig to rig looking for tuna and wahoo, and slept on the boat at night. No success with the pelagics, but I can say without hesitation that it was the most amazing dive experience of my life. I had two great divers to learn from, and quickly felt very confident at 40' around the rigs where I had plenty of visual references to monitor my progress. I could feel myself getting a little more nervous diving in open blue water, with no bottom in sight, where I was not as certain of my depth. I was also on the front end of a little head cold, and had a bit of trouble clearing at times. So I just kept diving around the 40' mark, trying to get more comfortable with that instead of edging deeper.


    I really just couldn't believe it. Floating on the surface in sees less than 1', you could see 80' down the rig, and it just keeps going for several hundred feet from there. Some of the floating rigs were in over 1000' of water. There were schools of barracuda too numerous to count, approaching to within a few feet. Rainbow runners were thick everywhere. Amorous little sharks, and tropicals all over the barnacle encrusted steel, all just an arm's length away.


    Bill and Chad shot some almaco jacks and mangrove snapper, but a little deeper than I could go. We also managed a mahi and half a dozen small tripletails on some loose weedlines. I really wish I had a camera for the weedlines. They were absolutely covered with juvenile fish, and it was amazing to me that you could recognize triggers, jacks, mahi and others as miniature adults just a few inches long.


    I can't stop thinking about it . . .

    Edited once, last by Guest ().

  • Haaallelujah! I can't believe it, for your first freediving spearfishing experience you do something more exotic than I've ever done.


    I'm so glad for your experience. What did you shoot? Don't tell me you didn't shoot a big cuda. What gun were you using? I hear you on the juvenile fish, it fascinates me too as I rarely see it.

  • Don't tell me you didn't shoot a big cuda.


    As a matter of fact, I did shoot one! I popped my head out of the water on the second rig to remark to Chad (who was minding the boat) that there were barracuda everywhere. "So shoot one", he says. I was so excited, that I forgot to ask how I should handle him once I got him up close! I just swam him over to the boat, careful to mind the business end, where Chad gaffed him and removed the spear in the boat. How do you guys handle them?


    I shot my little bay gun on the weedlines, where I was expecting closer shots at smaller fish. I got a tripletail, but whiffed on a little chicken dolphin that knew better and wouldn't hold still. Around the rigs, where the possibility of a much larger fish existed, I borrowed one of Chad's longer guns outfitted with a floatline.

    Edited once, last by Guest ().

  • Did it give you a good fight? I like handling the float line on a fish in open water. You may have had to keep it from going back into the rig? I read the cudas there can go up to 60lb. The biggest I've seen is one that Pantoja shot here, it was 40lb. I don't know how ciguatera is over there with these fish, you may want to look into it or at least try a mouthful a few hours before you eat it.


    Just like you already knew you have to be careful with the business end. The teeth are extremely sharp and you have to be just as careful when the fish is dead. For example sometimes they can freeze with the mouth open, if you throw it in the boat or if it slides around on the deck and hits someones foot you can have an injury. You can even damage things around the boat if it's heavy enough and you toss it with the mouth open. A habit from Cuba when you carry it on a float for a long time is to knock out some of the teeth with the knife. Other than that the fish tires after a couple of runs and I've never seen it to offer resistance after that, they die fast. I grip at the gill joint and tear out the gills to make sure it's dead. Easier IMO than braining as the head is very hard on the top and it's not easy for me to find the little spot where you can stick the knife in. I've bent knives on Cuda heads before.


    BTW this is the first thread in the upper gulf coast section. I hope there will be many more :thumbsup2:

  • I'm usually not into traveling far to dive. I get enough satisfaction from diving my local waters. I don't have a strong desire to go to new place to spear species I've never seen before. The exception would be the Louisiana rigs. Maybe because back when I started the only book I could find was Fontova's Hell Divers Rodeo. It's scuba but at that time I didn't know there was a division and just accepted it. My imagination was stirred about it ever since and later reading other reports about the rigs and how great the viz can be and seeing the pics I want to see it for myself. Besides I love that kind of structure, barnacle encrusted metal skeletons.

  • Did it give you a good fight? I like handling the float line on a fish in open water. You may have had to keep it from going back into the rig? I read the cudas there can go up to 60lb.


    It was not at all what I expected. At the time, I was about 100 yds away from the rig, so it wasn't hard to keep him out of it. I was surprised that he immediately dove straight down to the length of the floatline (75' or so). My next learning was that safely handling 75' of limp floatline at the surface is more difficult than it looks. There was no current, so the floatline stayed bunched up around me as I pulled it up. Although this was not an exceptionally large fish (maybe 25 lbs), I was very conscious that it could hurt me if I became tangled in the floatline due to my inexperience. I was also making a mental note that I would have to do better if/when I ever shot a larger fish.


    This was early in the trip, and I was steadily adjusting my weightbelt and wetsuit to try and get my buoyancy and trim right. I don't have a freediving wetsuit, so I was trying either half of my farmer-John scuba suit. It took me a little while to find a combination that didn't tend to float me straight up vertical in the water.

  • Besides I love that kind of structure, barnacle encrusted metal skeletons.


    As amazing as the blue water was for it's own strengths, they were telling me that there are usually more of the reef fish on rigs where the visibility isn't quite so good. "Clean green" is how they referred to the water, I think.


    Something else that was wierd. Althought the water was very clear, there were lots of pieces of floating grass about. Not the scuzzy snot that I am used to, but larger, defined pieces. So many, though, that the visibility (in places) was not as unlimited as it seemed it would be based on the water clarity. It seemed to be this way mostly close to the rigs, with clearer water out a couple hundred yards where we started the drifts.

    Edited once, last by Guest ().

  • As far as the float line getting bunched up around you. To avoid that you need to keep swimming on the surface as you pull up the line. You're swimming in whichever direction is necessary to get away from the coiled line. So it takes a little coordination but you should be pulling hand over hand and kicking in the direction you want to go at the same time. If you search on SB there's a thread by jfjf on this same thing, he has a video of what happens when you don't do it right and it happened to be with a cuda.


    Considering your description of the visibility, I like the term clean green. I wish I'd seen it to know exactly what it means.

  • Glad you liked the trip. Sometimes I get a little too goal oriented. I was bummed that I wasn't able to put you on good fish. I enjoyed reading your thoughts about all the little things.


    You would like some of the things we saw last week.


    We need to finish some bigger guns for you.

  • It's amazing the things that you notice when you do something like that for the first time, and how clear things remain when your replay them over and over again.


    The blank I have started is 1-5/8" wide, by 2-1/8" tall, by 61-1/2" long. Full length dovetailed delrin track is installed, and the enclosed track cut. Kitto M6 mech is on order, and I have a piece of delrin squared off to make the handle. I just need to figure out what the rest should look like.


    I also want to try to make a slip tip. I found a couple of broadhead points like I have used on previous tips, but larger (5/16" diameter) and longer. They are made for bowfishing, and are a fair bit harder than 17-4 stainless.

  • Jeff, What's the biggest gun you have now that isn't big enough?


    What will be the size of the new gun that is supposed to be ideal for the rigs? If you can please describe the size in terms of band stretch. From the furthest band hole to the tab/pin closest to the mech.


    Chad, what is the ideal size speargun for the rigs?


    How come the hell divers and such get away with using JBLs? Do they simply get closer to the fish on scuba?

  • I would like very much to see some gun porn. I like the fact that the mass needed for the particular hybrid design is not spare. Those are real custom guns. The carbon fiber ones are sleek and really attractive..:D

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

  • Pargo,


    That's not an easy question to answer. It's different from reef diving in that the conditions and required range and power to push through big fish can change so much. We might be diving shallow stuff in relatively murky water shooting mangrove snapper, move a little to clean green water where we are hunting wahoo, or go a little farther and be in blue water hunting tuna.


    I have 3 guns that I use all the time.


    (1) 52" enclosed track rear handle gun with a reel. It has 43" band stretch. I shoot a 5/16" flopper shaft using 2 5/8" bands. 9/32" shaft would work fine, but we often see big cobia, which tend to make a mess of small shafts.


    This is my dirty water gun, but it also sees action in blue water when I put down the big gun and grab the small one for hunting inside the rig. With all the rig legs, etc. it's nice to have a smaller gun inside the rig.


    (2) 61" Enclosed track hybrid - The use of this gun overlaps with the little one in that I have it rigged with a reel for hunting in and around the rig legs, but it's also setup so that all I have to do is clip a float line to it for hunting bluewater pelagics. It is powered by 4 5/8" bands, shoots a 5/16" shaft with a slip tip (usually), and has 51" of band stretch. I generally grab this gun when I think there's a good chance of seeing bigger fish around a rig, or for a light bluewater gun. It is awesome on wahoo since it has good range and moves like a dream through the water. I shot a 96 pound AJ with this gun at close range. The fish was swimming toward me - I pulled the trigger when it started to quarter away. The shaft entered just behind the gill plate and exited near the anal fin on the other side - it went through about 3 feet of fish - it was a very close shot though.


    (3) 65" molded carbon fiber gun - This is my tuna gun. It shoots either a 5/16 or a 11/32" shaft with a slip tip. It has 56" of band stretch and is powered by 4 5/8" bands. In making this gun I wanted all the power of BIG tuna gun, but wanted to minimize it's size and cross section to make it easier to swim with and handle in the water. This gun took a 194 pound tuna and a 94 pound wahoo this year.


    I think all three guns are needed for all the different situations that we find ouselves hunting.


    If I had to choose just one, it would be the 61" enclosed track hybrid.

  • Yes, the scuba guys get away with shooting JBL's because they don't require accuracy or range, just power for punching through big fish a close range.


    Most of them have switched to Riffes because they are more accurate and have better trigger mechs than the JBL's.

  • Yes, the scuba guys get away with shooting JBL's because they don't require accuracy or range, just power for punching through big fish a close range.


    Most of them have switched to Riffes because they are more accurate and have better trigger mechs than the JBL's.


    Which Riffes are the choice for rig hunting?

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

  • Thanks, that was an easy to understand breakdown. My all around gun has 47" band stretch however it's longer overall because of the butt extension for hip loading. The length is based on the maximum reach that I have from the hip to being able to grab the bands without stretching them first. I use a 9/32 shaft and two 5/8 bands. It would be rare to get anything over 50lb with our diving. A big cobia or AJ is possible. A black or cubera of that size is more remote. If I knew that wahoo or big kingfish was a good possibility I'd look for a bigger gun. Other than that I only have a small 30" gun for holes and very bad vis.


  • Dan - I only have two guns, my JBL Competition Mag, and my home built bay gun. Both are about 47" overall, with the bay gun having about 37" of band stretch to the longest pin.


    I'm not quite sure what the new gun will look like. I learned on my trip with Chad that a chest loader of about 60" or so total length is probably as long as I can comfortably cock, at least for now. It would probably get me about 48-50" of band stretch, using (4) 5/8" bands and a 5/16" shaft. I am a little concerned that my stock may not be massive enough to accurately manage the recoil from four bands, though. I guess that will depend somewhat on how much I thin the stock toward the front for easier tracking.


    There is probably no "perfect" setup, as evidenced by Chad's selection of guns. I do hope this will also be a good gun for freediving the Gulf out of Pensacola where the snapper and AJs often hold mid water over wrecks, and a bit out of range for my short guns. Though I would probably cut back to 3 or even 2 bands for thoses cases


    I think that the Helldivers are mostly hunting inside and very close to the rigs, shooting AJs, cobia, grouper, snapper, and other species that hug closer to the structure. That, and they are very, very good at what they do.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member to leave a comment.