Okinawa "Pole Spear" Fishing

2008-12-06T09:57:00.006+09:00

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2008-07-14T21:35:00.000+09:00

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2007-12-30T15:27:00.001+09:00

2007-12-09T21:37:00.000+09:00

It's been awhile since the dream team of Carey and Ken have made any posts. This is because we were busy perfecting our pole spearing technique and our fish calling skills to bring the fish within pole spear range. This is a slightly older picture of Carey with a nice 8 pound Taman she speared near Ikei Island. The rest of the pictures are newer.

Saddleback Grouper and Peacock Grouper

Many Spotted Sweetlips

Just another day of pole spearing!

Today Ken and Carey went to the highly overrated Kouri Island in search of some willing targets for our new polespears. It looked as if we were headed toward a skunking when the fish bell suddenly rang. No real monsters to speak of, but the selection was nice and we even managed to persuade a cuttlefish to climb onto our poles! It was a nice day and we came home with fish for everyone. Hopefully we are ready to spear some bigger fish with our slip tip polespears now!!

2007-11-09T19:55:00.001+09:00

Went to Kouri Island today with Kevin. It got a little rough after a storm passed through but I still managed to get my largest fish to date, a 10 pound 8 ounce Taman.

2007-11-08T09:11:00.001+09:00

Here are some pictures from our last few outings. Using "Pole Spears" of course!

2007-10-27T19:27:00.001+09:00

We decided to go and check out the East side after the tournament got canceled due to bad weather. Saw a lot of Parrots and a couple of Coral Trout. On the way in I saw a Napoleon but couldn't take a shot due to the currents getting stronger. He stays right at the foot of the island behind me.
Something for the table. Last weekend's catch, Sweet and sour Coral Trout :)

2007-09-30T16:15:00.000+09:00

He's just a little guy! ( The Grouper)

Saturday the guru Paul Smith decided to go out by himself somewhere South of Bolo Point and North of Torri Station for some soul fishing. I think the pictures speak for themselves on the result of this solo expedition. Next time invite your friends from the Okinawan Spearfishing Club, stingy Paul! This Brown-Spotted Mottled Grouper weighed in at 40 pounds, by the way, and has been submitted for a potential world record for this species. Paul shot this with his new 120 Riffe Euro and Sporasub reel combo. The fish holed up after it was shot and Paul made a dive to 60 feet to subdue the fish. We are not worthy.....

Take the friggin' picture, will ya? This is heavy!!

Insert coins here

2007-09-30T16:03:00.000+09:00

This is a late post, but last Tuesday Carey and Ken went out for a short afternoon spearfishing session and did pretty well despite not seeing a whole mess of fish. The weather was good and visibility was mostly great, Carey managed to bag a species not caught before by the club members, a painted grouper or "moontail" as the Okinawans call it. Ken speared a 13 pund Coral Trout, which may have been a world record according to Paul Smith, but Ken and Carey ate the evidence, although Mike was witness to the beauty of the monster trout. Oh well, there are more out there, and we will find them!!!

Carey with Coral Trout and Painted Grouper
Ken with 13 pound Coral Trout

World Record? We will never know for sure....

2007-09-30T11:26:00.000+09:00

Doug and I went to Kin Blue Sun morning. The east side was blown out, but Kin Blue is relatively protected and had pretty good conditions. The trevally was taken after about 30 seconds after entering and I passed on taking another of the same size. The big disappointment was missing the chance at two very large tuskfish..

2007-09-26T19:00:00.000+09:00

Blue Water!
Carey, Ken and myself went on our first blue water spear fishing trip today along with local gurus Paul Smith and Ben. The weather was beautiful and the water had only small to medium swells. We ventured a few miles off shore to a large bouy (FAD). Upon entering the water mahi and rainbow runners greeted us. Everyone quickly got a mahi on board. Finally tally included mahi, wahoo, rainbow runners, and a lonesome small yellow-fin tuna. Ken, as always had the spear gods good fortune, and got the largest mahi (16lbs), wahoo (22lbs), and rainbow runner. This is a must repeat trip!

The catch (not including Paul's and Ben's fish)

Fish blessed Ken.

2007-09-22T21:15:00.001+09:00

Ken's GT
Ken went out today with Paul Smith up by Nago (so they say) and he came home with his first Giant Trevally, among other fish. Good Job!

2007-09-10T19:34:00.000+09:00

Press the "play" button and watch Cakes swim around looking for fish and finally hit and lose a nice yellow tailed fusilier. Better luck next time.

2007-09-10T18:48:00.000+09:00

Press the "play" button to watch another parrot fish head to the great dinner plate in the sky.

2007-09-09T14:37:00.000+09:00

2007-09-08T10:43:00.000+09:00

6 pound Coral Trout

Carey and Ken played hookey from work on Thursday morning and went up north of Okuma on the West side of the island to do a little fishing. The visibility was poor all morning, and very few fish were seen, although turtles and eagle rays were popping up everywhere. Ken drifted off of the main reef and ended up over a lone set of coral bommies over the sand, and initially targeted a nice sized parrot fish at 35 feet. Ken had the sneaking suspicion something was watching him, and sure enough, when he turned around mid water, this curious coral trout was checking out his flasher. Ken took aim with his Comp4X and got a nice stone shot on the fish. No fight from the fish at all.

Chef Carey takes over!

2007-09-06T20:34:00.000+09:00

Following Doug's recent abysmal outing up north, I sense that he's been feeling a bit dejected and, perhaps, even like somewhat of a loser. I thought we might raise his spirits by posting the old classic pic entitled "Doug and his mullet.".... those were the days, eh Doug? - hang in there Fresh!

2007-09-05T18:32:00.000+09:00

Paul Smith with a 25lb grouper, taken at 67 feet. Nice job!!

2007-09-03T12:58:00.001+09:00

Trevally At Last!

Today was a Labor Day outing. Kevin, Doug, and I left EARLY and headed north to an unnamed spot or aka "Ken's Spot". We were in the water by 0615 and we swam out about 200 yards to the drop-off. Immediately I was cut off by 30-40 spotted trevally and I quickly got a shot at one and hit it solidly. Kevin was right behind me and shot a larger member of the group not 5 sec afterwards. They put up a good fight but they were not going anywhere. Doug of course, was way behind and completely missed the action. I ended up getting another 4 fish (a large sweet lips, 2 larger gray drummer and a small peacock grouper) and Kevin shot another 2 fish (a parrot fish and gray drummer). Doug, sadly, was blanked for today and went home empty handed. Although not for Doug, I have to say today was an excellent day!

Trevally twins!

My first trevally.

The catch.

Kevin and his prize.

The larger fish.

2007-09-01T22:51:00.001+09:00

Very calm water that night in Maeda Flats. Saw this big Tusk fish about (19 lbs) in a hole and took a shot right when he was about to swim out. I also caught a cuttle fish (7 lbs) and an octopus (7.9 lbs) that almost bent my shaft, a good size bump head ( 6 lbs), and a couple of lobsters.

2007-08-28T17:56:00.000+09:00

Tuskfish from Sunabe seawall. It's the third day in a row there for me to ge there - too convenient to do a lunchtime "workout" in the water. On Sunday, I saw a pair of "fishzilla" Tamans that I'd estimate to be 10+lbs each, reminiscent of the one Ken shot there several months ago. I'll be back..

2007-08-25T14:15:00.000+09:00

Hoffman forgot to post this pic of himself.

2007-08-24T19:12:00.000+09:00

Hedo Point
Made the trek north to Hedo Point for the first time today. Tim and I had heard stories about this location and we were excited to give it a try. We drove up along the west coast and the ocean was flat like a lake all the way up until we hit the point. There, we could see the swells rolling in and 3-4 ft waves crashing on the reef. Beyond the waves you could see coral fingers extending outward in clear water. We had to climb down a cliff face to reach the water and then swim under the waves ti deeper water. Once in I could see why people talked about this spot with so much excitement. We were immediately greeted by a pair of sea turtles and there were schools of fish everywhere. We saw the some of the biggest parrot fish we ever seen. There were coral trout at about 50 ft that were larger than anything I had ever seen. We got some good sized parrot fish and I shot a nice coral trout. If we could hit 50ft comfortably, we probably could have had some large coral trout. We were only in the water for about 2 hrs because we became concerned with the exit through the waves as the tide was rising. Getting out was an adventure and I lost my brand new Riffe knife in the surf. This was Tim's last Okinawa spearfishing adventure since he is leaving us next week for Camp Pendleton. This was a nice way to finish.

View from the top.

My harvest. Ceviche tonight!

Tim finally made the blog on the last try!

4 blue parrots, 2 red parrots, and a coral trout.

2007-08-15T22:03:00.000+09:00

Here's the lobster camping trip catch. Total of 16 lobsters, the unlucky ones we had for breakfast didn't make it home for the pictures. It started out as a bad night, I almost lost my brand new float but lobsters started coming out around 10 p.m. Missed a big bumphead sleeping in hole when a wave pulled my float taking my aim off the big fish, but overall it was a good night.

2007-08-05T21:16:00.000+09:00

Caitlyn's fish slowly getting bigger!

We love the coral trout!

6lb 11oz bump-head parrotfish!

blunt head parrot fish and green wrasse

Four good parrot fish for Caitlyn

Peacock Coral Trout from Oura Wan

Older picture of Coral Trout but still blog worthy!

Here are a few pictures from the last month or so of Ken, Carey and Caitlyn's spearfishing adventures. There has been some good fishing, and good eating, as the pictures can attest. Most notably in the bunch is Carey's most recent capture of a 6lb. 11oz bumphead parrotfish taken near Okuma Bay. Caitlyn is also coming up the ranks quite nicely and getting bigger fish with each hunt. Her record stands at about a 1lb 5oz parrotfish, but we have outfitted her with a slightly bigger gun which hopefully will bring her some better range. We hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the fishing!!

2007-08-05T20:43:00.000+09:00

Preparing for dinner

It's been awhile since I posted on the blog, but I got a couple of nice lobster as a reward from the ocean gods for swimming my butt off for 3 hours in the middle of the night and these 2 bugs were caught at the tail end of the 3 hour swim. Probably too much work for 2 lobsters, but that was enough for two people!!

Dinner is served!

2007-07-22T22:16:00.000+09:00

This weekends catch. Really nice weather and calm seas. Caught this with Ken off a beach past Camp Schwab (Don't know the name). We saw lots of turtles that day, a good size sweet lips and a Giant Trevally about 15 ft to our right. It was checking us out. I still don't know why we didn't take a shot at the GT. We just stared at it as it cruised pass us. Hopefully we see him again next time and next time we won't hesitate to shoot. :)

BEFORE

AFTER

2007-07-14T21:07:00.000+09:00

Kevin and I went out to Ikei Island for the first time last weekend. We tried to go off the reef at Big Time Resort but were turned off by the guard at the entrance. We therefore headed to the bridge and tried underneath. No much there except a nice lobster that I shot out in the open. On the way back we hit a site on the side of the road that was shallow and murky but Kevin still got a good sized fish. We will have to try the reef again someday with some who has been there before.

Lobster on the barby tonight!

Fish tacos.

2007-07-01T18:14:00.000+09:00

Sapo strikes again.. Nice 2.5lb coral trout taken at Kadena steps in very low vis, Sun afternoon with Tim. Nice work

2007-07-01T09:33:00.001+09:00

Caught this nice Golden Rabbit fish 2 days ago. In the process I got my shaft stuck in the reef and Tim and I tried to free it for 30 minutes with no success. I took a mental note of the approximate location and returned the next day with a hammer and screwdriver and was able to free it after about 10 dives. This fish almost cost me $60 but I got the last laugh. Incidentally, we have been seeing a lot of these fish recently and some much larger than this one. Might have to get a color print of this pretty fish.

Got the fish but lost the spear (momentarily)!

2007-06-30T21:17:00.000+09:00

3 Rabbitfish taken from Junkyard this morning. Largest is 3lbs 10oz. The big "catch" of the day, though, was getting Sapo's (Mike) spear back that was stuck in the coral yesterday when he shot a record 3oz Damselfish (kidding, it was a 2lb 8oz Rabbitfish - by the way, the middle Rabbitfish in the pick is 2lb 10oz, still bigger than Sapo's)..

2007-06-29T16:38:00.000+09:00

3kg Makabu (a.k.a. Blackspot Tuskfish)

Today Ken and Carey decided to give the East side a try as the West was all whitecaps. Courtney Bay was our target zone, and although it was flat like a lake, the visibility was only 5 feet in most spots, maybe 10 feet if you squinted really hard. It seems the fish enjoy the poor vis though, because Ken was able to basically reach out and touch this Tuskfish in 10 feet of water. Straight down shot right through the top of the head, then the fish took off for China. Ken actually was pulled a few feet through the water although the fish was only 6 1/2 pounds!! It was the only big fish seen that day, so the ocean gods must have taken pity on us for swimming around for 3 1/2 hours!! We would love to explore more sights on the East, but we all know how temperamental that side can be!!!

Do you kiss your mom with that mouth??

2007-06-24T16:19:00.001+09:00

4 1/2 pound red parrotfish

The weather has definitely been messing up our group's spearfishing aspirations the past 2 weeks, but Carey and Ken decided to try to brave the sludge layer and go spearing at Junkyard. The visibility was poor, you had to dive down 10 feet just to see under the smog layer at the surface. Somehow Carey used her mystical powers to call a parrotfish from the depths for a nice shot. This was truly a gift from the ocean gods. Hopefully the ocean will clean up and we can all get out there this week for some new adventures!!!

So shiny and so tasty!!!

2007-06-09T20:21:00.000+09:00

2007-06-09T15:01:00.000+09:00

Taman (spangled emperor) taken from Bolo pt, Sat morning.

2007-06-09T14:58:00.000+09:00

Mitch with one of his parrots, ready for filipino soup..

2007-06-09T14:57:00.000+09:00

No substitute!

2007-06-09T07:21:00.000+09:00

On Memorial Day Doug speared a 92 cm, 1.65 kg Needle Fish (called Datsu by the locals) at Bolo Point with his 110 cm Riffe Euro Speargun.

2007-06-02T20:54:00.001+09:00

HUGE GOLDEN RABBITFISH!
Keven decided to go out yesterday (without his fellow speros) and hit the Junk Yard. He came back with one nice fish. This is the largest Rabbitfish we have ever seen. The quantity and quality of fish is getting better and better as the water warms up. This summer is going to be great!

Golden Rabbitfish

Close-up shot.

2007-05-22T21:31:00.000+09:00

Today Ken decided to take a leisurely swim around the Kadena Sea Wall, as luck would have it, a nice Spangled Emperor had the same plan. Unfortunately for the Emperor, Ken was packing his 110cm Wong Speargun and placed a lucky shot down through the top of the fish at 40 feet. The fish put up a nice struggle but eventually Ken was able to drag it from the depths. The fish weighed in on the beach at 9 pounds, 2 ounces. A nice fish print was made and Carey then completed the dream by making some nice fillets out of the monster. Checkmate to you, Kevin!!

FISHZILLA!!!

2007-05-22T21:18:00.001+09:00

Kevin's Biggest Fish Yet!

Kevin went to Maeda flats last evening with another fellow spero and landed his largest fish yet. He shot a 6lb Spangled Emperor. Those of us stuck at home on call could only be envious and think about the next trip out. Plans are to hit Maeda again Thursday night for lobster. We'll see how it goes!

Nice fish, man!

2007-05-19T15:42:00.000+09:00

Another night in Maeda. It was high tide and the water was calm. It was 72 degrees and there were lots of Octopus in the water. I caught 3 and figured that would be enough for consumption. I also caught 4 parrot fish, 3 spiny lobster, 1 flipper lobster, and a couple of fish I didn't recognize.

2007-05-19T15:25:00.000+09:00

Lobsters caught in under 10 feet of water. It was low tide in Maeda flats and there are 4 foot swells. I lost two lobsters in the waves and my cousin almost lost his mask and snorkel.

2007-05-16T20:19:00.000+09:00

Maeda Flats-Part Deux
Hit the flats again this afternoon after work for a quick soak. Tide was high and fish weren't as concentrated as before but as always it was fun and relaxing. Saw many large parrots but little else of any significant size. I shot a barracuda about 17 inches in length and Kevin shot a nice spot snapper. Plan is to come back next week after night fall to get lobster. Will post pictures.

Finally!

Torpedo of the ocean.

The face of death.

2007-05-10T15:50:00.000+09:00

Maeda Flats

We decided to hit Maeda flats yesterday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and the tide was low. Visibilty wasn't great but there were a lot of fish. I immediately hit the largest fish I've caught so far, a steephead parrot fish in about 5ft of water. I also caught a nice redbreasted wrasse and another sweet lips variety. Mitch caught a nice spangled emperor and a lion fish. He loves to eat those lion fish (he says in the Phillipines it's a delicacy). Kevin caught a nice rabbit fish and a small parrot. Steven and I wrangled an octopus also. All in all it was a good 2 hours spent in the water.

Group Picture

The catch.

2007-03-22T20:49:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-03-15T16:53:00.000+09:00

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.

2007-03-03T22:44:00.000+09:00

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!!!

2007-03-01T07:53:00.000+09:00

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!!

2007-02-25T19:58:00.000+09:00

Finally went spearfishing today. It is the first time I get to use my new Riffe Euro 110cm gun my Dad bought me for Christmas. It was an overcast day with drizzle but we still decided to go to Cape Zampa. The group consisted of myself, Doug, Kevin, and Ken. I shot the my biggest fish so far, a Spangled Emperor about 9lbs. Kevin shot a huge cuttle fish, about 25lbs and Doug shot a mullet about 3lbs. Ken shot a bunch of good sized Rabbit fish and Parrot fish. the weather is strating to improve and I can't wait for more trips out.

9lbs Spangled Emperor

Kevin and 25lbs Cuttle Fish

Doug and his mullet

2006-09-13T21:57:00.000+09:00

Went out for a quick lobster hunt tonight. My buddy Kevin, his neighbor Jim, my neighbor Dennis and myself went out to North Kadena Steps at around 8pm. There some swells but otherwise it was calm. We saw a few lobster and I was able to spear one. So I finally caught my 1st lobster. Tomorrow- Steak and Lobster for dinner.

I DID IT!

Dinner.

2006-08-27T17:38:00.000+09:00

Today Kevin and I visted our regular home spot, the Sunabe Seawall. We actually went to the "Junk Yard". Kevin borrowed a Daryl Wong speargun and I used my AB Biller. We bagged 3 fish (Kevin 2, Mike 1). We saw many fish but had only a few shots. We were only out for about 90 minutes but brought home fish for the first time to eat. The coral trout and rabbit fish tasted great on the BBQ. Stay tuned for the next trip.

Mike and his first rabbit fish.

Kevin with his coral trout and trigger fish.

2006-08-19T15:26:00.000+09:00

TRIP NORTH

Today Kevin and I decided to try a trip a short distance north to see how the hunting would be. We initially set out for Onna Point, but once there saw that the swells and chop were a little too big for us to handle. Although not good today, Onna Point appears to have fishy potential. A word of advice, if going to Onna Point, make sure it hasn't been raining or you better have 4-wheel drive because the unpaved road gets really narly in some spots. Since the first spot was a blow-out, we then set out further north. We stopped on the side of Rt 58 in a large cove that seemed promising. After swimming out against a strong current, we noticed that the area was reletavily shallow but held some good fish on the coral structures. We had some decent shots but ended up with 1 small fish each. We weren't in the water very long before we had to leave to get back to our families due to the time we spent finding the spot. This may be a spot to try at higher tide when larger fish may move into the cove. We'll keep on trying to find new spots.

The two fish that fell to the spear today.

Kevin showing off the fine catch of the day.

2006-08-06T20:29:00.000+09:00

This was the first documented outing. We met up at the Kadena Marina parking lot. The group involved Kevin, newbie to our group Jamie, and friend of Kevin and myself. The plan involved swimming out to the reef and see was around. We saw some good size fish that morning but they we a little too wiley for us. We had some some close shots but didn't bag anything picture worthy. We continue to improve out skills everytime we go out but it feels like we may need more power to our guns. Plans for updating or modifying our guns are already in progress.