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Graeme
Duane?
A.K.A
:Dagga Damager Duane
Graeme is an accomplished diver & spearfisherman. Gaining
experience shooting mamoth fish in the Solomon Islands; Mexico;
Mozambique and recently Equitorial New Guinea. He also is a skilled
underwater camera man, filming documentries for 'National Geographic' and
'Carte Blanche'. He has also started a series of spearfishing films,
something worth getting your hands on.
Take a
look at his web site: digistream.co.za
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Hunting
Wahoo by Graeme Duane
Before we get
into the intricacies of shooting them, we need to establish where
one would
hypothetically bump into a Wahoo, as this is fairly important in preparing
the diver to engage the correct understanding of the fish in question, and
perhaps what it's thinking...
Warmer, clean water is preffered, often around reef drop offs and floating
debris or FADs (as Robin will tell you...). This means that the Wahoo is
generally an "offshore" species favouring the cleaner water out
in the Mozambique current. The current end of a reef or drop off (the end
the current hits first) is a good place to start. Don't get dropped off on
the reef, but further up current, giving you a chance to drift a bit
before getting to the structure.
Another prerequisite is calm surface conditions (refferred to as
"Wahoo weather) by the Zululanders. These fish like glassy
conditions. They get pretty big, the line record is around 67kgs, and
they're amoung the fastest fish in the sea.
What all this boils down to is that you'd more than likely bump into one
on a calm autumn day on the zululand coast, over one of the deeper reefs,
or off Aliwal on a good day. (Ask Sean).
Now for the trickier part of the equation, the character of the fish.
Somewhere down the line someone must have violated the Wahoo's personal
space because it's this factor that directly affects spearfishermen. The
most infuriating element in hunting Wahoo is the fact that 90% of the
time, one cannot get close enough, with the fish keeping its distance,
fleeing when the frustrated diver's sneaking tactic changes into a full
scale chase. The will be the odd case where the following statement
doesn't apply, but in general YOU CANNOT CHASE THIS FISH.
They're also very soft fleshed, and very fast off the mark, making the
landing of these fish quite difficult, the spear tearing out easily.
Everything else is in the spearo's favour, the fish swim shallow, they're
big, and sleek and beautiful, and they look good in pictures when you hold
them up.
The Zululand school tells us to try and outswim the fish. If you see one
coming, and you usually do in the clean water, turn around and try to swim
away, and maybe down a bit, keeping an eye out over each shoulder as you
do. More often than not you'll see the fish swimming alongside you,
wondering what on earth you're doing. At this point, stop, turn, and as
the fish swims away, slot him with the best angled shot you'll get. I
managed to shoot a 34kg specimen by doing this.
A second method is just to hang on the surface, tuck your gun under your
belly and don't make eye contact. The fish kind of dawdle into you, and
you should be able to at least get a shot in. This works quite well if the
fish are shoaling. On a recent trip we used this method and managed a
number of fish around 25kgs.
The other method only works if the Wahoo swims below you. Wait till it's
directly below or slightly in front, then duck dive and swim straight at
it as fast as you like. They seem to have blind spot, I've managed
to get really close like this.
As far as gear goes, a long, accurate gun like a 1.3 (know your range),
long bouy line, 40 metres or so, and a small float. You can put a boingee
on if you like, I find them irritating. The fish should be able to pull
the float under, preventing the spear from pulling out. The problem with
this is that when hunting wahoo, you're in an environment where you could
bump into lunker fish like Marlin or big Tuna, if you shoot one of these
with your little float, you're in for a bit of head scratching. |
