Wahoo have always fascinated me. Sleek and slender, these bluewater
fish move effortlessly through the water often cruising just a few feet
under the surface. They are intensely curious but at the same time wary
and suspicious of things around them, especially freedivers with tuna
guns!
I have often seen them while freediving in the warm waters of the Pacific
but never had much luck in approaching them. They seemed to always
come at me from the direction I was not looking, often coming into view
at the last minute. Sometimes, I would be startled by the wahoo’s
sudden appearance. Whenever I would see a wahoo, I would watch
intently admiring its grace and beauty as the fish moved through the
water, often with shimmering sunlight reflecting of the fishe’s metallic
blue sides. The wahoo on the other hand, having been observing me
for longer than I was observing him, would always seem to move away
whenever eye contact was made and swim off never to be seen again.
Hunting these fish with a speargun is a great challenge for a freediver.
On a recent trip to the Revillagigedo Islands off the Pacific coast of
Mexico, I had made a decision not to target the wahoo due to the
chance of finding and spearing giant yellowfin tuna.
Shooting a wahoo here at these islands would only serve to get the ever
present galapagos sharks worked up into a frenzy and more importantly
decrease my chances of sighting a giant yellowfin tuna while dealing
with a speared wahoo. This is not to say that I did not intend to take
any wahoo on this trip; it’s just that I knew that I would be selective in
when and under what circumstances I would attempt to spear one.
During the first two days of the freediving trip, I saw many average size
wahoo while hunting tuna in the clear blue water. Out of curiosity, I
tried different techniques to attempt to make the wahoo curious and see
just how close I could get to them or how close I could get the wahoo
to come to me.
Knowing that I was not going to spear the wahoo enabled me to
experiment in ways I might not have if I was intent on trying to spear
the fish. Soon I was feeling confident in my ability to draw wahoo in
close and line up my speargun while I imagined pulling the trigger on the
fish within easy reach of my gun. Of course, I spent the majority of my
time in search of tuna but when a wahoo would happen to swim by, I
would practice enticing him in closer and lining up for that imaginary
shot.
On the third day of the trip, we were anchored at Cabo Pierce on the
East side of Socorro Island. Six months ago Australian freediver, Greg
Pickering, speared and landed a world record three hundred and seven
pound yellowfin tuna at Cabo Pierce so of course we were all anxious to
get in at this place and see if any of the giant tuna that frequent this spot
were around.
Cabo Pierce is a steep volcanic wall at the edge of the island that
plunges steeply into the depths below. While freediving in the
bluewater at the edge of this wall, I was mesmerized by the variety of life
I saw in the crystal clear blue water. At times I would be enveloped by
enormous schools of small skipjack tuna as schools of hammerhead
sharks patrolled below. Huge manta rays would occasionally glide past
me with their enormous wings gracefully stroking the water like a bird in
flight. Large Galapagos sharks would frequently cruise by, watching me
closely in their never ending search for an easy meal. One time, when
coming up from a dive, I turned to look behind me just in time to see
four dolphins race past within fifteen feet of me, looking at me curiously
as they swam by. From time to time I would see small groups of tuna
swim by in the distance but they were moving quickly and never came
in close.
Eventually, I moved closer to the drop off where the island plunges
steeply into the sea. Resting on the surface in between freedives, I was
looking forward when I saw a pair of Wahoo aproaching me on my right
at about thirty feet away and just a few feet under the surface of the
water. These two really caught my eye as they were both big fish but
one was an especially big wahoo. Right then, I knew that my self
imposed moratorium on wahoo was now over and it was time to put a
plan into action!
Based on my experiences of the past two days, I quickly looked away
pretending to be disinterested and made a dive straight down and away
from the wahoo. As I was inverted, slowly diving straight down with my
speargun tucked close against my body, I took a quick upside-down
glance towards the surface of the water behind me and could see the
two fish fifty feet behind me starting to turn around and come back. I
leveled out at about thirty feet and then slowly started to move up
towards the surface, still swimming away from the wahoo.
At about fifteen feet from the surface, I decided to take another quick
look over my left shoulder and could see both wahoo coming in on me
and about thirty feet behind me. I continued to slowly swim upward
and took another peek over my left shoulder. No fish! I slowly turned
my head to the right. Wow, both fish just fifteen feet or so behind me
and moving closer. Not wanting to make any unnecessary eye contact,
I turned my head away until I was looking straight ahead and continued
to swim forward anticipating that the wahoo would come in on me and
pass me on my right side.
Keeping my gaze forward, I gently moved my speargun out and pointed
it to my right without looking at what was beside me. Finally, when I
thought the timing was right, I turned my head to the right and sure
enough, right beside me just eight feet from the tip of my gun was the
biggest wahoo I have ever seen. The wahoo was so close that I took a
split second to evaluate the second wahoo that was following the first
but that one was the smaller of the two so with my speargun tracking
the giant right beside me, I tightened my hold on my speargun and
squeezed the trigger.
The speargun jerked against my hands as the five hi-modulus bands
hurled the spear shaft at the wahoo. I could see the shaft strike the
wahoo and pass completely through the fish mid-body at the lateral line.
The wahoo bolted and as I hit the surface, I grabbed onto my float line. I
let the wahoo pull the float line through my hands but then the line went
slack.
I was thinking that the wahoo had ripped away when I realized he had
made a U turn and was now racing straight at me trailing my spear shaft
with attached float line! I was preparing to dodge the wahoo when just
in front of me, he turned again and this time swam away in a straight line
so fast that his tail fin made a rapid thumping sound like someone loudly
beating a drum.
I was grateful that the wahoo turned away from me since I wouldn’t
have to deal with the possibility of getting wrapped up in my float line
but now I had a new concern as I spotted two Galapagos sharks chasing
after my fish which had vanished into the deep blue water.
I let almost all of my rubber float line pass through my hand before
gently putting pressure on the line. As the line stretched to its limit, I felt
myself being pulled through the water faster and faster by the wahoo
until I could hear the sound of the water rushing past my ears. During
this wild wahoo ride, I managed to signal the chase boat by letting out a
blast of compressed air from the small signal horn that I carried. As the
pressure on the line slowly weakened, I managed to start pulling in on
the line hoping I could get to the wahoo before the sharks did.
Working quickly, I pulled on the float line and soon the wahoo came
into view along with two Galapagos sharks. With the chase boat along
side me, I was hoping that I could get my hands on the wahoo before
the sharks took their first bite. Working cautiously to avoid getting
tangled in my own line, I managed to grab the wahoo and quickly
dispatched him with my knife and then passed him into the chase boat.
After passing the wahoo off to the chase boat, I put my face back into
the water to see what the sharks were doing. I knew that things could
quickly get out of control and I might have to make a hasty retreat into
the chase boat as well.
To my good fortune, with the wahoo now out of the water, the two
sharks were now just swimming around trying to figure out where their
easy lunch just went. Better yet, no other sharks showed up.
I knew the wahoo was a big fish but in my haste to get him away from
the sharks I didn’t get a chance to appreciate his size. I told the chase
boat driver that I would just swim back to the main boat in hopes of
coming across tuna on my way back. On my return to the boat I finally
got to have a proper look at the fish. He was longer than I was tall and
after my spearfishing mates helped me get him up on the certified scale,
he came in at seventy-two pounds! It will probably be some time before
I come across another wahoo that size.
Joe Tobin
January, 1999
Santa Cruz, CA USA
