Puerto Vallarta with DFAC part 2

The diving


Wednesday was our first day diving.  The tuna hit in the afternoon so there's no need to get up early.  We met up at the beach around 10 and got ready for the day.  We seperated into two groups.  In my boat was Terry, Iaon, David and myself.  Terry and I partnered up and Iaon and David did the same.  The first day was relatively slow.  We were 16 miles off shore when we started doing drift dives.  The crew set a buoy on the high spot of the reef which came up to 75 feet.  They took us up current on the outside of the reef and we would drift back to the buoys.  The current had slowed from the previous week but the tuna were still there.  Mostly smaller, in the 20-30 pound range.  At this size they're fast.  They're like bullets in the water and agile.  We were chumming with a mixture of anchovies and other fish and the tuna were mixed in with Pacific Bonito.  Very similar looking fish and even faster than the tuna.  It would be a school of 50 bonito with maybe 5 yellowfin mixed in if you're lucky.  The idea is that you would drop down and aim at a piece of bait and wait for the yellowfin to come for it.  You have to time your shots perfectly and that's not easy.  The reality is that when the tuna are mixed in with the bonito and they're all the same size moving like bullets, by the time you recognize it's a tuna and that it's going for the piece of bait you're aiming at the little bugger is long gone.  It can get pretty frustrating.  After an hour of feeding the bonito's Terry brought up the idea of target practice.  I'd never used the gun I was holding so suddenly I started smelling blood.  Terry dove down to the bottom of our bait cloud and started filming upward through the bait.  He had a great view of the feeding frezy.  I dropped down on the side of the bait cloud and took aim.  I chose the largest piece of bait I could see and waited.  After a couple seconds the bait started disappearing and then, right on que a little fish bullet came from right to left and BANG!  Perfect shot.  When Terry came up he said, "how did you know I was aiming at that piece of bait?"  "I didn't." I said.  Later he showed me the video and you can see the bait cloud, the feeding frenzy, and right in the middle of the screen is this one big chunk of bait.  A bonito comes from the right side of the screen and as soon as it touches the bait, BLAM, it gets blasted out of the bottom of the screen.  The camera pans down and you can see the fish, dead as a door nail.  Awesome shot!!!

Thursday we were joined by Colleen.  She joined Terry and me for the day and as the reports were coming of the others getting tuna we were still seeing those little ones.  Toward the end of the day Colleen got her first yellowtail.  She dove down and took aim on the bait as the tuna came in, this time without the bonito distractions.  She aimed, she tracked, she was well within range but she never pulled the trigger.  When she came up David asked why she wasn't shooting.  She told him she thought they were too far away but he said, "No, they are not.  Pull the trigger."  On her next dive she went down and we watched her.  She wasn't hunting the same way we were, she went down and started looking around.  when she saw one coming in she turned, tracked for a second and THWACK.  Stoned it!!!!  A nice 20 pounder.  Meanwhile I was still chumming and shortly after all that comotion a nice big guy came right up the chum line.  I tucked the chum bag under my weight belt and dove down.  Within a couple seconds that fish came up and I nailed it.  I led that fish by 2-3 feet and when my spear hit him it was almost a tail shot.  The fish was way bigger and way further away than I thought.  As soon as my spear hit it he dove.  All the divers were excited as my floatline tore away.  This was the biggest fish we'd seen so far, 80-100 pounds according to Terry.  My float line tore away, my bungee stretched out, my first float got pulled down about two feet and then, POOSH!  It popped right back up.  The fish had torn off!  My bungee was too short to slow the tuna down before that first float got pulled.  Rookie move!!!  My heart broke but I had the scent of blood. 

More to come.....

What's with the multi-part twilight saga?   

Busy at work since I got back and won't type long reports like this from my phone.