Dave Bond
Aloha Daryl, I hope you are doing well!

Here's a pic and video from back in April of my first ever YFT. It was on a DFAC trip with Colleen in Panama. Some hard hunting - 14 divers, 4 days, only 2 tuna landed. This one was the only one over 100, at around 120 pounds. Pretty much everyone there was a waaaaay better diver than me, but as always, I'd rather be lucky than good. :)

I shot it with my 65" Ono, but unfortunately everything was moving very fast at the end of the day and I forgot to get a pic with the gun and the fish.

Video: https://youtu.be/4yhERHohJ-E
Pic is attached

I can't believe the video, Nathan Minetta from San Diego did an amazing job!
-Dave


Hey Daryl,

I hope you're doing well!

Landed my first 2 bluefin a few weeks ago, both with my Ono. 120 pounds and 60 pounds. Pics are attached.

Every time I come back from fishing I never tell Cheryl what I have until she looks in the cooler. Figured I'd make a hidden camera recording of this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INkJuWHu874

The gun worked perfectly, thanks so much. :)
-Dave



Dave Bond
Hey Daryl!

     How about a fish story? It's long but it's worth it.

I went out on a 3 day WSB trip on the Peace boat this past Friday->Monday to Santa Cruz island.

Saturday (first day of fishing) I was in the water all day without seeing anything until about 6pm. Then the conditions got good, very skittish bait everywhere. I snuck around on the surface, as slow and quiet as I could be. Saw one big WSB but couldn't get a shot. But holy shit I finally saw a WSB! I was really excited now. Kept going around extremely slow in the bait. A WSB came out of nowhere and swam right in front of me. The angle wasn't good but he was super close. I turned my 60" Wong mid-handle with just my wrist (bending my wrist 90 degrees) and shot sideways one-handed without aiming. The WSB was about 2 feet from the tip of my spear when I shot. Spined it. Woo my first WSB!

I was super stoked. Finally got a WSB! Best trip ever, etc. etc. Fish was 23 pounds.

So then the next day, after a few other dive locations I head out into the same kelp bed. Start paddling around all slow and quiet again, head on a swivel. 45 minutes later I've shot THREE MORE WSB. Holy shitballs! Spined the first one (21 pounds). 2nd one was stunned, but I could see from the shot he might wake up soon. Pulled him in as fast as I could and got my legs around him and my hands in his gills just as he woke up. I was kinda riding him for a bit while I pulled out his gills. 31 pounds. 3rd one put up a fight. I fought him away from the kelp for a few minutes, then pulled him in on my reel line close enough to see that it was a pretty sketchy gut shot, with the slip tip just barely hanging in there. I let out some line, hoping he'd go tie up in the kelp and not get off. Called for scuba, Cody came over and saved the fish for me. 17 pounds.

So now I've shot my limit. Swim back to the boat with all three fish. High fives and fistbumps all around, everyone is congratulating me, and amazed that just yesterday was my first ever WSB. One guy tells me that he's been doing this trip for 15 years, and he's shot 3 fish in one day but never on one jump in a single kelp bed. Everyone agrees I'm completely out of karma and it will never happen again.

Day 3. I'm the last off the boat. Wait until everyone else heads out, notice that no one is headed for a tiny little kelp bed way the hell out there. Swim over and proceed to shoot THREE MORE WSB in 45 minutes. Spined the 1st one, 21 pounds. Fought the 2nd one for about five minutes until he tied up in the kelp about 25 feet down. Went down and freed him, all good. 19 pounds. 3rd one came along, stoned it right through the brain, another 21 pounder. Took quite a while to paddle all the way back with 60 pounds of fish on my stringer but I made it. The reception I got today was the opposite of yesterday...lots of curse words and buckets of water being hurled at me from the boat. All in good fun though!

There were 23 divers on the boat. 42 WSB shot, 7 by me. No fish lost by me, no tear outs. I'm gonna remember this trip forever. :)

The photographic proof is here (3 pics):
https://goo.gl/photos/PbC4VatB4eMV4qd57

I've attached one other pic to this email of my first ever WSB and the awesome gun I shot it with. :)

First pic is Saturday, second is Sunday, third is Monday. All told I shot 149 pounds of WSB this weekend.

Thanks for the amazing gun Daryl, it performed flawlessly!

-Dave


Hi Daryl,

     Went out to Catalina on Saturday and got my first fish with the new gun! Not a big fish but it was a good dinner of sashimi for my wife and me. Pic attached. Hopefully I'll find some bigger fish and get better pics with the gun in Hawaii next month.

We saw a few bigger YT Saturday but nothing close enough to shoot. Nobody saw any WSB.

Take care,
-Dave

 Best trip ever

First Fish With New Gun




Time in Hawai'i:
::
,