I want to tell you about an amazing trip I had chasing yellowtail and bluefin tuna in California. I had been planning a trip to the Cortes Banks as a last hunting and fishing trip for the year before starting dental school. With a heavy workweek I packed my gear in a whirlwind of anxiety, excitement and exhaustion. I miraculously organized everything and was ready to drive with Andy a new friend of mine to Ventura. After a traffic packed drive we arrived and organized ourselves onto the Peace boat; everyone was excited about the trip but no one wanted to jinx the trip so people remained quiet.
We motored for about 9 hours southwest to what some call the Jurassic Park of the ocean. The last place between California and Hawaii, a special place that few will venture too outside of the watermen community. This is not a typical vacationers paradise; the Cortes Banks is famous for some of the largest waves in the world and some of the best fishing. This trip, the stars were in order and we were in for a time of our lives. Some may think that I may be exaggerating but to put things into perspective this was my first blue water hunting experience so bear with my newbie outlook. I am an excited rookie.
We arrived in the early morning and I jumped in as soon as I could on the first dive. I wanted to be the first in the water and the first with a fish. The boat had anchored in about 80 plus feet of water. There were some anchovies, perch, and other bait fish in the water column. Down below I could see massive bat rays cruising the ocean floor. The visibility was spectacular as you could make out the ocean floor from the surface and when diving down everything would look even more vivid as the edges of the reef would sharpen, fish would appear, and colors would start to pop out.
As a blue water grom I had a lot to learn from the more experienced guys on the boat. I would swim into the current and dive down in hopes that a tasty critter would jump on my spear. But it was not that easy. I didn’t see any yellowtail but with three days of diving I wasn’t too worried, I knew it was a matter of time. After an hour or so we jumped back on the boat for a warm meal and to regroup for the next dive. I was excited to get back in the water as the fish where not going to come home with me if I didn’t. On our second dive, my weight belt snapped in two as I was gearing up. At that instant I saw the whole trip flash before my eyes. I had this belt for less than a year and my heart sank as I thought that my diving at the banks was over. Fortunately one of the mates on board was able to fix the belt with a knife and some zip ties. After some jimmy rigging the belt was Frankensteined back to life and functioned for the rest of the trip. Necessity is the mother of invention; thank god.
The following dives were absolutely amazing. There were blankets of bait fish roaming the water column. They would dance up, down, and left to right as they would be frightened by splashing waves, birds and other predators pursuing them. The baitfish would move like a flag beating in the wind in all directions dictated by a nervous twitch for survival. The fish would then eventually come up from the bottom and jet up to the surface to eat krill and small jellyfish. At times the jellyfish where so thick that it was like swimming through a clear marmalade, some divers had to cover their faces in order to not get stung by these dime size medusas.
In all this commotion lies what we came for; yellowtail. I would dive down to 20 feet and strum my bands on my speargun then I would make grunts and rub my bands to make them squeak. It eventually started to work as I was perfecting my technique. Yellowtail, I have come to learn, have a great sense of curiosity and would come and see what was floating and making strange noises under the water. I also learned, in order to keep the fish around you need to pretend that you are not interested in them. I kept working on getting fish to come in and of the few I could get to come to me I could not get them close enough for me to take a shot. I would swim in the opposite direction that the fish came in on and sometimes the fish would come and see what I was doing. I would take a shot and miss. The depth perception is the first thing to go when blue water hunting. Everything looks like it’s next to you when it actually is much farther away.
I was having a hard time getting the Yellowtail to stick around and getting them to come in close. I started wiggling my fingers at them, which got their attention for a moment and then I would try to shoot but still my depth perception was off. I swear if I had a larger bluewater gun I would have been better off, live and learn. I was expressing some frustration with another diver and he recommended that if the fish starts to swim off swim as fast towards it as possible. They apparently want to see what you are doing and turn around to see and can present a shot. I had already blown many shots on what looked like fish up to 40 pounds. I tried swimming as fast as I could towards one and he was right, it turned. I took the shot but the shaft bounced off. I was slowly learning how to hunt this species.
Even though I had not taken a fish yet my spirits where high. I had never seen a yellowtail underwater except for once before while chasing sheephead, so for me to start to locate and then call these yellows in was progress. Then to bounce a shaft off of a fish was even more progress. The next step was to thread a shaft through one and land it.
I watched one diver fight a yellowtail as it swam circles on the ocean floor through a carpet of what I believe where blacksmith perch. The yellow was on its side and the perch would light up behind it as they tilted to allow the massive yellowtail space to swim through. This beautiful site was exciting and I was hoping to have my turn soon. I was nervous but persistent. We still had time on our sides so I kept searching for fish.
Andy had just swam back to the boat and had a nice size Bonita and Yellowtail on his belt. His second for the day, so I asked him, “Where are they?” He pointed me in the direction and I was off. This dive was one of the most amazing experiences in my diving career. I remember I dropped down and started grunting underwater at about 20 feet deep. Out of my left hand side came a school of about 7 yellowtail. I maintained my cool even though I wanted to scream like a little kid hearing an ice cream truck. I started to swim away from the fish to get them interested in where I was going. They started swimming towards me as I was watching them out of the corner of my eye. My plan was coming together. Then out of the blue a school of maybe 50 or more Bonita swim in from my right and spooked the yellowtail out. I remained calm as I believed they would be back. I was watching underwater when a school of about 50 to 100 blue fin tuna came swimming through following the Bonita. At this point I was ecstatic. I took aim on the tuna and started kicking towards them in hopes of closing the distance between us. They reacted by swimming in the other direction. I took a hail marry shot because this was a once in a lifetime chance but I missed. I reloaded as fast as I could and breathed up on the surface to try my luck again. I dropped down and some yellowtail came back in. I swam away from one and it reacted by coming in closer. I then wiggled my fingers and it came even closer. I started to aim and it started to leave so I swam as hard towards it as possible and it turned around to look at me. I aimed and fired and the shot hit midline in the fish. I couldn’t believe it. The shaft was completely through the fish.
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” I said to myself as I started to pull on the bungee line tied to my float and shaft. I shook the line to make sure that my flopper would engage and then I pulled to make sure the fish would hold. At this point the fish started to take me underwater and I released some pressure and started to breath. I fought the fish till I had its tail in my hands. I learned that when you grab a fish by the tail they tend to not like it. This fish was beating its tail like a metronome set for house music on steroids. It would not stop till I reached into its gills and was able to pull them out. At this point the yellowtail was somewhat subdued. I finished it off with a knife and attached it to my stringer. I started to scream with joy. I had finally caught my first yellowtail spearfishing.
I then noticed I was pretty far from the boat. Not a good thing when California is the closest piece of land and it’s 100 miles away. I waved for the dive boat and it came to get me but in the process I was able to shoot a nice Bonita. I handed the crew my gear as I was finishing up the battle with my second Bonita. What an amazing experience. We motored back to the main boat and I could not get the smile off of my face. Talk about being high on life.
On subsequent dives I managed to shoot some nice calico bass my personal best at 22 inches and also some sheephead. I even saw a school of six 30 pound white seabass cruising the bottom at 40 feet in a flying V formation without any kelp in site. I tried sneaking up on these fish as they where the largest white seabass I had ever seen but they where keen on my tricks and vanished as I started my decent. The last dive of our trip was a great one as well I called in a school of barracuda 3 times and had one fish tear off but the school came flying in with the strum of my bands. Apparently there where a ton of Black seabass, a protected species, at this location but unfortunately I did not see any.
This diving trip was a memorable one as I will never forget my first yellowtail. The memory of Bluefin tuna swimming by will also be engrained into my soft tissue hard drive. What an amazing experience. I learned so much and I met some great people. The spearfishing community is small but welcoming. It’s great to meet new people and share some amazing experiences with nature. I have been so fortunate and I am looking forward to another amazing adventure soon.
First Bonita and Yellowtail
The Moon
22 inch calico my personal best
Sunset at Cortes Banks
