Baja Time!!!!!

I just thought I would stop buy and write you a little
story about my recent trip to La Paz, Mexico. It was
an action packed 3 days of diving with some big fish
pictures to spice it up.

Upon awakening after good night sleep, I found my self
looking at the sun rising off the shores of La
Ventana, Mexico. The sun glistened across the water creating slick where bait fish would blister from. With pelicans following their reflection they would dive deep into frantic bait fish. The
weather was already warm by 6 am and I couldn't wait to get started.

I was at one of the best spearfishing locations on the
planet. My good friend Tim Hatler, the founder of
Plapas Ventans ( www.palapasventana.com ), was to take
me out for an epic adventure that I would never
forget!!!!!!

Day 1
It all started out going north to search for Dorado,
Marlin and Amber Jack. Upon approaching the first buoy
I through a few small pieces of frozen mackerel to see
what would show up. Sure enough 2 Dorado bolted
towards the bait. I hurried, got my gear togeather and loaded my gun as I slipped into the water. From my past
experiences most Dorado are curious, so I swam slowly
towards the buoy. In the distance I could see the Dorado swimming straight for me. I stopped moving and allowed the fishes curiosity to do all the work. Not before long, the fish was staring right down the shaft of my spear and I let it fly. BANG!!!  The fish was so close that the shaft went

all the way though the fish and it was swimming around
on the line like a wild chilly pepper.  Sweet!!! First fish on the boat!!!

We continued on and the next buoy produced even more
dorado. When I jumped into the water, a school of
about 20 Dorado swam up to me. I took the first one in
front of my shaft and over the next half an hour shot
3 more. It was a great start for the trip.

We then did some reef hunting and I shot a nice size
amber jack and Pargo Molato for dinner. 

Day 2
The Dorado action continued. I shot 2 nice dorado and
Tim landed a monster Dorado at the buoy. I had seen a couple Big ones the day before, but only Tim had the magic to bring them in. 

Again, we continued to the reef for Amber Jack and
chum for Wahoo. I shot another nice Amber jack at 68
feet and STONED it!!! I had 3 nice sized amber jacks
swim up from behind me and the biggest one turned
sideways giving me a great shot.

Day 3
We did not hunt for 2 days, due to strong winds, but
it was worth the wait.

It was now time for me to get some wahoo!!!!! I have
only seen them twice before in my life and had not yet
speared one. I was excited for the possibility of
landing my first.

Wahoo have very soft flesh and can tear off very
easily. They are strong fish built for speed.

Once we were at the wahoo spot I threw my flashers in
the water and started chumming. After about 5 minutes,
I saw one close enough to shoot. I dove down on it,
like I would do if it was white sea bass. As I got
within range, the wahoo started swimming further
away. I did not want to loose this opportunity, so I
kicked a few times and pulled the trigger, as I was
adjusting for the long shot. The fish EXPLODED!!!!! My
buoys took of like bullets on water. Knowing that this
was a 20+ foot shot, I did not hold on for the ride as
I was afraid I might to loose it. A few minutes
later, and a lot of yelling for joy, the fish was in
sight. I could see that the slip tip was about to fall
out of the fish, so I yelled to my friend Colleen to
bring me her gun for a back up shot. I dove down to 30
feet and plugged it in the head. Whoooooooo
Hooooooo!!!!! I landed my first Wahoo!!!!!

2 drifts later, I was using the same method of
flashers and chum while another BIG wahoo came into
visibility 30 feet below me. I dropped down and STONED
him at a 16 foot shot. The fish went into a quiver and
rolled over. I grabbed it by the tail and brought it
up. SWEEEEETTTTT!!!!! that was 2 for 2; however the
next shots weren't so good.

Now I had to redeem my self. The next 2 wahoo I shot I
landed. One I shot in the gill plate and the other
right behind the head. Now my aim was back on
track!!!!! Durring one of my wahoo battles, a school of 30 pound amber jack showed up just as Colleen swam up to check out the seen.  She dove down and put the steel in a nice one, and off she was. Her buoy sunk and she retreated to her second buoy!!!!!
This was a double hook up!!!

The next one, I was all alone with a big wahoo on the
shaft. when the wahoo was about 20 feet away from me,
I got schooled by a bunch of 50 pound yellow fin
TUNA!!!!!!! WOW, where was the second gun when I
needed it????? I did not find them later but... I ended up shooting 2 more wahoo that day, which was
like a dream come true for me. I had now mastered the
art of getting wahoo!!!!! I owe many thanks to Tim.

After a GREAT day spearfishing we decided it was time
for photos. I jumped in with my wahoo and Colleen was
taking the pics. As I looked down, I spotted 2 wahoo
behind Colleen and yelled for Tim to get the guns out
again!!! The wahoo split before I got the gun ready,
but then 40 to 50 HUGE Amber Jacks swam up to me. I
got the gun again and dove down before Tim even got
the buoys into the water. I lined up on a 70 pounder,
but the slip tip kept falling off. I had no time to
spare, so I balanced it on the shaft and shot from the
hip at a 45 pounder. 5 minutes later I boated that
last fish of an EPIC trip!!!!!

Till the next adventure!!!!!

Dan Silveira

    Well, as many of you may have already known, a few weeks ago I was in La Paz, Mexico hunting for big fish again.

    The purpose of this trip was to target big Amberjack with a few clients of mine.  We had done a series of classes to prepare them for spearfishing in the blue.

    The trip started out a bit rough with a hurricane whipping it’s tail up to La Pas from Cabo, creating big swells and strong winds. We pushed foreword with determination and persistence that paid of with a big haul of fish.

    The first day had the worst conditions, but the visibility (40 feet) was still good. I ended up spearing a 73 pound Amberjack on the first drift nearly stoning it. After the short fight, I told the other boys where the fish were and not before long they watched me shoot a 50 pounder. Now that they knew what to expect we did a few more drifts and we all managed to spear a few more Amberjack. It wasn’t before long that we saw a big Wahoo, but the fish kept it’s distance and did not present a close enough shot, so we moved over to another reef that holds bit Pargo, otherwise known as Dog Snapper. I immediately swam to a ledge where I had speared one before and Made the dive to 40 feet where I laid motionless on the ledge. As I peered over the ledge a nice 40 pound Pargo swam below me. I took aim and pulled the trigger. Wak, I hit him in the brain with my euro 130cm gun and stoned the fish. I quickly swam down to 50 feet and grabbed him, swam him over to the boat where the I watched everyone’s eyes light up with excitement. We continued the day with a few other fish and called it a day.

    While the aftermath of the storm left us with green water rapidly changing the visibility down to 15 feet in some places, we had to dive hard to get fish. The one thing we had in our favor was that we are used to the cold murky waters off California, so this did not stop us from spearing fish. The next couple days we managed to spear more AJ’s in the 60 pound range, a few more big pargo. One dive I remember vividly was when I was diving off a deep reef for Pargo and grouper. I was in 80 to 100 feet of water. As I made my descent down to 80 feet (in 20 foot vis) I saw a giant shadow swimming among the hoards of 50 pound pargo. The fish was so big that at first I thought it might have been a Bull shark. I stopped kicking to allow my eyes to adjust to the dark gloom, only to realize it was the biggest broom tail grouper I had ever seen. I figured it must have been around 200 pounds. The sad part was that if I had not stopped kicking towards it I would have been able to spear it in the head, but by the time I realized what it was, I was out of range.

    By the time the clear water came in we returned back out to the spot with the big Aj’s.  My firtst drift had me face to face with a nice 150-180 pound striped marlin. I took quick aim as the fish started moving away and took the shot, but managed to miss the fish. The visability was a bit better then I had calculated, and with the fish about 25 feet away, I should have kicked a few more times to close the gap. Shortly after one of the other guys was yelling as he was getting towed away. He had shot a nice Amberjack, and the game was back on.  We now had our focus reset on spearing big Aj’s. Within a fre more drifts I was seeing many nice Amberjack, but I had my hoops set on bagging a monster. Not to my surprise, I found the big Aj’s at 70 feet, I took aim on one and took a long shot hitting it in the gill plate. The fish took off like a lightning bolt. The fish pulled me down to 20 feet several times as I went for the ride. After about 10 minutes, I brought the fish to the boat. The fish ended up weighing in at 76 pounds. This was the fish I had been looking fore!!!! Next I took the boat out a bit farther to hunt for Wahoo, and soon I had my spear in a 70 pound Wahoo, but some how it pulled off. It had been a headshot, but the shaft must have been a bit high. I quickly re-rigged my gun and made a droop to 70 feet. As I was looking up for the injured Wahoo, a school of huge Amberjack came in , so I lined up a took the shot. Again this was a giant fish and it pulled hard. After about 10 minutes of give and take, I boated the fish, which weighed in at 75 pounds. This was turning out to be a great day.

   At this point I figured it was time to hunt for Pargo, so we moved to a shallow reef that went from 30 feet to 70 feet deep. I speared a few smaller Pargo around 20 pounds, but once at the surface I saw some large objects coming out of the blue. It was a school of 150 pound Yellow Fin Tuna!!!! I quickly took aim as they swam below me but the shot looked a bit far for my euro gun, so I dove down, but they faded away. I could not believe that these giant fish had come in to 40 feet of water, but now I know and will always dive there with my bigger gun.

    At this point we called it a day and were excited for next years adventure back down to Mexico.

Fish on!!!!!

Dan Silveira
www.spearfishingisnotacrime.com