This report is a couple weeks old, but I figure since we are all waiting to go fishing, it’s worth a read. I teamed up with charlestondiving Rob and a couple of guys from the Left Coast for a trip to chase yellowfin tunas with a spear gun on a 5 day trip to Panama. I was the only rookie on the trip and really had no idea what to expect. Rob kept warning me about eating too many cheeseburgers before the trip, but as many of you know, I am very stubborn, but more importantly, I love a good cheeseburger.
We hunted primarily in 2 ways. The first way was to locate flocks of birds that were running over porpoises. In that part of the world, the yellowfins and porpoise work pretty closely together. The strategy is “run and gun”. Basically, you drop the hammer down on the boat and try to get out in front of the school. Then, as quickly as you can, you dive in front of the school hoping to intercept the fish. As “easy” as this may sound, let me tell you, a few things happen. 1) A school of tuna can make a 90 degree turn in the blink of an eye and typically do when they sense a boat. 2) Even if they maintain a straight course, they are sensitive to fishing pressure and can sound in a blink of an eye swimming much deeper that you want to dive. Anyway, we did this HUNDREDS of times. Literally dive off the boat, suck a breath of air, swim down 30’, wait, get back in the boat, chase school again.
The second strategy was the sketchy form of tying a bag of chum to your waist and drift diving over underwater volcanos. Trickle chum down to the blackness of the abyss and hope that whatever swims up the chum trail doesn’t like to eat divers. Just a week prior to our trip, Orcas were spotted in the area. And, you hope that if one of them sneaks up on you, they don’t mistake you for a sea lion or a large chew toy. Then, you spend time diving up and down the chum trail to depths of up to 50’ or so hoping to catch a fat tuna as he passes through.
Neither method is “automatic”. It comes down to statistics. I
Great report and pictures.
