Posts by ddonnell

  • Baja Dreaming

    Quote from chris oak

    Really cool vid and way to go on your first of many tails! Be really careful when you are fighting them on a reel with line like that though, if that fish was hot and a bit bigger he could've drowned you! Usually if I start to get wrapped up I'll try to untangle as I fight the fish, if you have a current you can throw the line towards it and keep it off of you. I also like floatlines for bigger fish since I'm less likely to get in death tangles, but that's just my opinion.


    Congrats :)


    Yea, I like floatlines too, but I had all my gear stretched out from the first fish, and the breakaway wouldn't work, so I went to the reel. I knew I was getting bad, especially at the end, but could feel the fish really start to tire, so I brought him in. I cleared the line away two or three times during the fight, but reel line is just too light..


    The footage I have from my first is classic, it was almost a stone, and as my hands hit the shaft the pressure was relieved and he woke up in my hands. I held on, but it wasn't even close to pretty. I should have it mid December..

  • Baja Dreaming

    I recently went down to Turtle Bay with my sights on yellowtail. My dreams were brought to reality when I shot my first two yellows at 21 and 26 pounds. The yellowtail were pretty scarce, but we still got a few nice ones. I went down with two Team Riffe members, Michael and Jessie, who are great people to hangout with and great spearos. If any of you have watched Kieth Love's Spearfishing TV on iTunes, Michael is the first diver and Jessie is filming him. They took some epic photos so stay tuned for those, they are still in Mexico spearing tuna and I'll get those photos and some footage when they return. They are putting together a video, they just spent 14 months traveling Latin America spearfishing. Jessie is one hell of a speara, and as Jay Riffe put it "A hell of a lot better looking than Kelsey!"


    Anyways, here is a little video I threw together to just toss at you guys. The yellowtail shot was my 26 pounder and took me for a little ride. I handled the line a little sloppy, but still got the job done.


    Baja Dreaming on Vimeo


    :toast:
    Davis

  • Herranen Epoxy

    Its a 2:1 ratio. Wear gloves and try to not touch the wood with bare hands as you'll transfer oil to the blank and the epoxy won't adhere. Use a high quality foam brush and watch for drips...

  • Massive California migration

    Quote from Don Paul

    Byron can have her, I'm a Carla groupie.:yaydance:


    Cheers, Don


    Now you are Don... <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">:thumbup::hi:


    :toast:

  • Hunting Yellowtail

    Quote from Spearhunter

    I'm actually looking at a ulusub 165 mid-handle for a more powerful gun.... we will see.


    Looks to be about 64-66 degree water swirling around Clemente so let's hope!


    My 155 mid has shipped and I'll post up a thourough review as I will have plenty of opportunity with it in Baja next week.. I'll even let you touch it.


    I think a 165 may be too long unless you have a solid quiver of guns. I got the 155 so I can still use it in kelp come white season and have the punch for grouper and bluewater hunting. 155cm is a tad over 61" plus shaft length...

  • Speardiver 7mm suit comparison

    Don Paul has one and that thing is primo. No loose threads, no tears. I know he shore dives quite a bit now with it.


    On a side note-the weight vest that Pursuit sells is great also. Helps to de-clutter the weight belt, especially on a 7mm suit.

  • A weekend with Donny Hooper....

    Well I was lucky enough to score a ride out to the island for the Long Beach Neptune’s annual Fall Classic on Scott’s (Bamz) boat along with the infamous Don Paul, who shall affectionately be known as Donny Hooper from here on out. Conditions were less than ideal on the ride out and we were socked in with fog about 6nm out from the island and had about a quarter of a mile of visibility. Our first spot on Friday was one of the better dives I have had in a while, most likely due to the fact that we had more than 20ft of visibility. I was lucky enough to manage two day bugs one being well over legal. The rest of Friday was a great day and before nightfall I had gotten two more daytime bugs, but no fish on board. Friday night we went for a dive at our anchorage and conditions had worsened and Scott and I both stuck out.


    Saturday was competition day and we had put in a hard day of diving. I managed to shoot a barracuda at the first spot just to be ‘in’ contention for the trophy. We had moved to another spot which felt very fishy and lively. I had managed to blow a shot on an 8+lb calico bass which would have taken first in its category… grr. I was able to shoot two decent calicos that always seem bigger under water and a PB sandbass. We pulled the hook and went to another spot where I was able to grab two more daytime bugs. We decided to stick around and dive a bit more since we didn’t have any quality fish for the weigh in but came up empty.


    The party was fun at two harbors, but we were all so tired, we bailed and got much needed sleep.


    Sunday was a very nice relaxing day. We dove two spots and they were absolutely beautiful dives. We didn’t get anything on Sunday with the exception of Donny Hooper’s pelagics… I also did a DNF to 30’. Just a step at a time…


    It was a great weekend and I learned a ton from Don Paul and Scott.


    On a side note, I was able to try some Pursuit gear. I tried the C90s and the weight vest and was very impressed. If I wasn’t dropping 2k on diving this month, I’d have ordered them both by now.










    :toast:

  • andre speargun

    To the OP-


    If you already have a Riffe and another gun both in the same size ctegory, then what one do you like better? I have only ever heard good things about the Riffe Euros, so why not go with a bigger Riffe? If you like the pipegun better, I know Rob Allen makes larger pipeguns and a few other companies do as well.

  • andre speargun

    Quote from japsw

    have you looked at ulusub? the andres enclosed track euro looks very sharp 8) cant go wrong with the riffe though my go to is a 120 euro


    I just ordered an Ulusub and Jon is very willing to make exactly what you want. I have been communicating with him for the past month and he has given me updates and we have talked over certain things along the build. You can of course buy something off the shelf, but that's not my style. Gun should be here in a week and just in time for my trip to Mexico <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">


    :toast: