This describes a trip to La Paz Baja Mexico. There were three of us: Rich Tedesco, Bill McIntyre, and me.

Rich was using an Alexander Blue Water shooting a 72" by 3/8" shaft with about 320 lbs of power band and Bill was using a smaller gun shooting a 65" by 5/16" shaft with about 300 lbs, but both these guns seemed to be too small for the monsters we were seeing. I was using a ballasted 65" Delrin enclosed track gun with 400 lbs of power bands on a 65" by 3/8" shaft, a slip-tip with twin-floppers, coated stainless steel cable shooting line, a 50 foot Norprene bungie, and a 4 foot long by 1.5 foot wide by 3" thick Divinycell float similar to what is described in Terry Maas' book on Freediving. I also brought a smaller gun with a reel, but it became clear to me the big gun with the bungie float rig was the minimum you need for these powerful fish. There were several times (while stalking 150+ lb tuna) that I wished I had my biggest gun - a 72" gun shooting a 72" by 3/8" shaft powered by 600 lbs (which I had left at home).

El Bajo is a series of three pinnacles (underwater mountains) out in open water about 25 miles beyond the local islands. The Southern pinnacle comes up to about 45 feet from the surface, the central pinnacle comes up to about 85 feet and I don't know about the North Pinnacle as we never saw it. We got all our fish around the central pinnacle.

We dove for three days. The first day, as I got into the water, a pair of wahoo swam up to me. They split and one came right up to me and presented his chin as if to say, "shoot right here" It was an easy shot and the only fish I strung on the entire trip. That wahoo took off like someone had just lit the fuse on a bottle rocket. It was quite exciting. He stretched the bungie then pulled the float a few feet under water to disappear out of sight. I had 25 feet of shooting line and the bungie will stretch up to 150 feet, so he was quite deep, but he eventually tired then it was a matter of lifting that heavy fish back to the surface. When I got him up, he was very tired, so I easily grabbed him by the tail with my right hand (being careful to avoid those razor sharp teeth) then slid my left hand into his gills, took out my knife and brained him. My first wahoo! Yahoo!

I shot and boated another wahoo within an hour, but this time, the slip tip did it's trick and held that fish like a claw. I learned to love that slip tip with floppers throughout this trip because it was clear those floppers were holding the fish on nearly every time.

Later that day, I saw one large yellowfin tuna swimming in the distance about 40 feet down. Visibility was good but the tuna appeared hazy, so I think he was quite a way away from me. Around noon, a Chabasco (storm) suddenly hit and drove us off El Bajo. It was a very rough ride back to the shelter of the local islands. We dove for snapper at the Light House and I got a 15 pounder with my smaller gun with a reel. That little fish pulled me down several feet before I gained on him and got him to the surface. Those snapper are strong fish.

On the second day, there were several live-aboard boats full of scuba divers on El Bajo when we arrived (or soon afterward). I overheard them talking about wanting to see the schooling hammerhead sharks. I swam over to the far edge of the central pinnacle and dove. There they were - dozens of big hammerheads swimming all around me. It was a spectacular sight (even though those strange heads give me the creeps). I thought about swimming back to the scuba divers to tell them where they were, but I decided to let them figure that out for themselves.

I began to see more yellowfin and I wanted to get one. I saw several wahoo, but I decided to ignore them. I wanted a tuna. I tried a variety of techniques including the usual - diving to about 40 feet and waiting for something to swim by, but that wasn't getting me within range. Next, I tried swimming towards tuna I thought weren't able to see me because of the angle, but these fish are remarkable. They never bolted away, but they seemed to "fade" away from me at least as fast as I was swimming towards them. During this time, I actually took some shots at fish I thought might be in range, but they were well out of range - over 30 feet away. The combination of excellent visibility with very big fish fooled me into thinking they were in range. I had a few fish swim directly underneath me and that seemed to be my best chance. One smallish tuna I was estimating to be around 10 lbs swam underneath me and I dove on him as fast as I could swim and I let my shaft fly just as he was heading away and it was a good hit. He sped around in a few circles with great power and speed then he dove straight down and out of sigh as the bungie stretched and the float began to dive. He pulled the float quite a distance and maybe 10 feet below the surface, but that was it. After about half an hour, I had landed him. He was much bigger than I thought - at least 50 lbs! I began to realize how big those bigger boys I was seeing must be. That day, I also saw a 300+ lb blue marlin. Funny thing is, he swam by me (well within range) and was about to leave the area, so I croaked like some White Seabass hunters do. He turned and looked right at me, then continued back on his way. He was a monster!

The third day was by far the best as Bill said. There were millions of small Skipjack tuna schooling around El Bajo and I had to work hard to get away from them. I shot another wahoo early in the day, but I kept seeing tuna swim by and decided to forget any more wahoo for a while. I remember thinking anyone can get lucky and get one nice tuna, so I have to land another. I tried for quite a while for one of the big boys, but it wasn't in the cards. Usually, the bigger ones swam in singles or in pairs and they were shallower. They often eyed me well before I saw them and kept their distance - it didn't seem to matter if I was down or on the surface - they did the same thing. I kept seeing this one school of what appeared to be smaller fish, but there were 3 or 4 big boys taking up the rear. They would swim in formations that reminded me of how waterfowl fly in a V formation. One time, I was down when they came by out of range and they were not going to come within range if they continued on their path, but I ran out of breath so I headed towards the surface. They changed direction and headed towards me as I ascended. I took another quick breath and dove. They came in right below me and I let it fly. Boom, zip, bungy stretch, float sink, then 15 minutes later another 50 pounder on the boat. I shot one more wahoo after that for a trip total of four wahoo and two yellowfin. I was stoked. I was able to get my spear into one more very large yellowfin. He pulled my float down over 40 feet and was speeding away faster than I could swim. I yelled for the Panga and said "Mas Grande Pesca - Rapido" (as you can probably tell, I don't know Spanish). They followed the bright yellow float but after a while, it just released and floated to the surface. He got away. The slip tip didn't get far enough into the fish. I wish I had my bigger gun!

Sharks: I had two single hammerheads check me out at various times this day, but no sharks ever took fish from me. I did have a sealion try to steal one of my wahoo the first day, but I took my time each time he grabbed that big fish and waited until he let go to pull him in a little closer. He got a nice bite out of the belly, but I got the wahoo in my arms, pulled out my dive knife and fought him off until he gave up - just like I often do around our local dive spots - particularly around the islands.

One strange sight we all saw separately, was a school of snapper swimming mid water in a very tight formation with a sealion swimming in the middle of them. Very strange but all three of us saw it at different times. I dove on the snapper and thought about taking a shot to pick one out of the school, but I was entranced by the beauty of this sight and just didn't shoot.

The surface water was so hot - it was actually uncomfortable. The heat motivates you to dive down more because the water is refreshingly cooler below 5 feet. Water temperature was mosly 86 Degrees F. Vis was variable, but some spots were as high as 100+ feet and others as low as 30 feet, but most were 75+. This will certainly be the most memorable trip for me. As most of you probably know by now, our friend Rich drowned the last hour of the last day of diving. We will miss him.