Ken And Caitlyn with Spangled Emperor

Carey instructing Ken on the fine art of filleting

Today Ken went on a solo mission up North and managed to spear a decent Spangled Emperor and a small parrot fish. The water was as calm as bath water and the visibility was easily 100 feet. This probably ended up being a negative rather than a positive because the fish were all too scared to come out into the great visibility. The pickings were slim, Ken saw about 10 coral trout which were too small to spear. The Spangled Emperor was a last minute gift from the ocean gods as Ken was in about 4 feet of water and preparing to exit for the day!! Hopefully, Ken and Carey will have better luck tomorrow. Ken will take the underwater camera for some action shots. Caitlyn will not be going on this outing, she will be in school!

Bolo Flats
Today was supposed to be our first blue water outing but due to the rough seas, this was canceled. We were very disappointed but had planned to go out anyway so we decided to go out to Bolo and give it a look. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the water was calm around the point. We saw plenty of large tusk fish and wrasses but were unable to get near them before they would drop over the wall into the depths. A couple of white tip reef sharks hung out at the entrance of the cove and would cruise under us every now and then but they showed no interest in what we were doing. We did manage to spear a few parrot fish and Kevin shot a nice goat fish. Ken and Carey saw a large turtle and I saw a large octopus in a hole in shallow water. I poked the hole with my spear for a while trying to coax out the octopus but when he was mostly out I couldn't bring myself to grab him since I wasn't 100% sure it wasn't a blue ringed species that live in these waters. All day we could hear the whales underwater in the distance. The parrot fish made great sashimi that evening and was prepared by Ken and Carey. The red parrot fish was especially good. This is great near to home spot and we look forward to more outings as the weather continues to improve.

Beautiful morning view of the cove. Fish beware!

Ken and Carey making their way back in after a full morning of hunting.

The fish harvest.

Kevin, the proud spero and his goat fish.

White Mottled Grouper, anyone?

Fish: zero, Ken and Carey: 6 We win!!

Another day in the life of some Okinawa Spearfishing Club members.... It all started with: "Let's just drive by the ocean and see how it looks, if it looks O.K., maybe we'll get in for just a couple hours." Three hours later, the sun was out and the fish were swimming everywhere! Ken, Carey, and daughter Caitlyn went out for a family swim, and came back with 2 nice Coral Trout, a few medium sized surgeon fish, and the fish of the day goes to Ken with a nice White Mottled Grouper (sorry Carey). We won't talk about the ones that got away!!! We all can't wait until the days when the weather is a minor factor, instead of the deciding factor. Visibility was poor, but if you stared long enough, the ghostly shapes materialized in the deep blue. The only bummer about the day was that at the end of the day as we were heading home, we got a phone call from Riffe World Record Holder Paul Smith and he informed us that he speared two 10-15 pound Giant Trevally today and lost a 100 pound G.T. when it bent his spear!!! That is why he is the Jedi Master!!! Until next time, keep your shaft straight and your tip sharp!!!

We weren't planning on going spearfishing today. Then we received a call from our long lost mentor Paul who informed us he was going out today for the first time in almost 6 months. The hunt was on. No way were we going to pass up a chance to hunt with the Jedi Master of Okinawa Spearfishing! The group consisted of Ken, Carey, and the Riffe World record holder, Paul Smith. The weather unfortunately was an issue, but we managed to get 2 hours of spearfishing in before the current and winds forced us out of the water. We went up north just off the expressway on the southern end of Nago, the terrain was sandy with coral canyons spreading out like fingers in depths of anywhere from 20 feet to at least 100 feet. At first we thought it was going to suck, but then the fish started popping out of their holes. There were coral trout everywhere! Paul ended up with 2 small coral trout (he said the fish looked much bigger underwater and his depth perception was bad after such a long layoff) as well as a couple of nice parrot fish and a soldierfish. Ken got one medium sized parrot fish and the fish of the day award went to Carey, who speared a nice Purple Rockcod (about 5 pounds) and a red parrotfish which made great sashimi later that night!! Welcome back, Paul!!