Posts by hank

Quote from sdeisen

I meant the oneyou were holding in the first picture from 3 days ago,, what kind is it a dog?

oops. Yes, t's a dog. We have quite a few spots where schools of them hang out.

Dan, I did fail and I did replay that fish in my mind about 50 times that night lying in bed. "if I had done this, or that....blah blah...." haha.
The one in my avatar came right up to Jake and me and he shot....hit it good, then I shot about 2 seconds later.
That helps a lot...I just wasn't prepared for it to launch out of the water like that.

It would have been a lot better if that fish was in my freezer.....:(

I'll tell Jorge you said so.

He's in Viet Nam. Both my best buddies....Jorge and my son are in SE Asia right now. But Jake is coming back soon.

You mean THIS "jorge"? Yeah, he's a good friend and diver.

Yeah, I live about 10 miles north of Dangriga at Paradise Shrimp Farm off the Coastal Rd. Right next to Mullins River. I launch my boat in our sea water supply canal for the farm.

I got an email from Jorge today. He's coming here May 10. Said he wanted to surprise me. He sure as hell did. I'm leaving on May 12 for the Philippines and Thailand. I hope to see him on the 11th.

I shot a cobia Sunday. I think it might have been an escapee from the farm. It was big too. Maybe 40 plus lbs. I hit it with a solid shot behind the head and let it bleed for about 5 minutes just swimming around me for a while. A LOT of blood came out. I slowly brought it up and when I touched the shaft, it jumped up out of the water. My flopper had come loose and didn't stick open. I always tune them before going out. I guess it bent out when he first pulled after I shot him, and it laid down flat on the shaft. As the fish fell back in the water, he just slipped off.
Shit, I was bummed. If I had lost as much blood as that fish did, I would have died...I think. I couldn't believe he was still so strong to jump out of the water.
I emailed Jorge to tell him about "his" cobia...haha. And he told me he's coming.

japsw....the water here is pretty much like your avatar pic most of the time.

These two guys are the pilots of the private jet that a friend of my boss flew into Belize on this last week.
They both live in Florida but have never spearfished. The light haired guy grew up there and fished his whole life.
I got them out to some nice spots and saw pretty much fish. I missed a couple nice ones.....had something in my eye....
I saw the big school of dogs inside the cut, which is unusual. But the vis was only about 20 feet and they would disappear. I dropped down to the bottom at about 40 feet and waited.....and a 12-15 lb cubera came up....and i missed. Shit. haha.

But we got to Long Caye and found the school of snappers. I got the dog and then three sharks showed up and were cruising around below among the fish. I did some more dives and every time they would come in close and even follow me back to the surface. I didn't shoot anymore.
Went to the next spot and Jody shot his first fish. Nice hog. He was so stoked. Said his buddies in FL all spear and have been trying to get him into it.
They guys are going back to FL to buy guns. They're stoked. Ya man....

That's cool Marco. Since my oldest son Jake is in the Philippines for another few months, my two stepsons go with me very weekend. 10 and 13 years old.
I've made some longer bands for a Riffe C3X and a Wong 55 for them so they can cock the guns. The older boy shot a 7 lb white margate last Saturday. Mo is already a "purist". He really just looks for snappers.
You son looks so stoked. Awesome.

They are a hard fighting fish. I've only seen one here and I shot it. 18 lbs gutted and gilled. I could stick my finger in the spear hold and feel his spine. But he still pulled me under 3 times. Like....8 feet under. I was using a reel.

Quote from Dan

N Don't cut across the fish, you can peel it all the way to the mouth. If the peeling's hard you can use the knife and roll up the skin in it away from the tail.

That's what I was trying to explain. That's how Doc showed me to do it.

My buddy Doc shoots triggers. He cuts the skin along both sides on each side of the dorsal and ventral. Cut the skin away from the tail and roll it up on your knife. It comes off pretty clean that way.

That's a pretty nice mutton. Nice pictures.

Quote from pantoja

i got stung on the tip of my right hand thumb. it was really painfull. incredibly painfull actually. i think it has to do with where you get stung and the amount of venom u get. .:

I think fingers are really painful because we have a lot of nerve endings there too, compared to say, your calves, thighs or bony areas like ankles, elbows etc.

I was stung by a vana in three fingers while paddling across the shallow inside reef at Crouching Lion (Oahu) and I had the black dots and swollen fingers for months.

Quote from gerald

I It was so painful, that boiling water made it feel good(they tell you to immerse the area in hot water), as a result I ended up with burns on my hand... I wouldn't wish the pain on anybody...

That's what I've heard people say. Others have said it wasn't that bad.
Maybe it has to do with where you get stung?
I was stung in the ankle bone by a Crown of Thorns starfish while collecting them after they infested an area in the Philippines. It wasn't bad at all.
But about a month later I got stung in the tip of my thumb. That hurt. And it was swollen and very sensitive to impact pain for 3 month after.

I do that to Don. But if I had what I thought was a record....yeah, I'd probably gut it. A record is nice....but it's just another fish.

Quote from Hookinfish

So what happens when you have a pending world record fish? Can you eat it? Do you need to freeze it till someone comes and takes a look at it? What happens if you don't have an approved scale to weight it? A record is a great accomplishment but I would eat that thing in record time if filing for a record was a hassle. Just curious how one goes about that without wasting the fish? No disrespect intended, I'm just curious.

I woud recommend freezing it until it's cleared as a record.

About two years ago Daryl Wong shot a potential world record white ulua in Hawaii. He took a couple pictures then sold the fish....to someone who ate it.
Then, the question came up that maybe the fish was a hybrid. They needed some tissue to test the DNA, which by now had been digested by some happy Hawaiian.
So the fish was never certified as a record but actually might have been.

WOW !! How many lbs?

Welcome.

Very nice video. If I ever retire from spearfishing, and growing shrimp, I want a job traveling the world trying to get shots like that. hah.

I'll give that a try. Thanks.