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Old 02-26-2010, 02:33 PM   #31
32Juan
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

First braggable fish I shot:


I had been shooting calico and sheephead for sometime with my polespear for some time, and on the way back from an unproductive dive to the western point of the isthmus I decided to swing through the moorings to have a look. As I was making my way back to shore, I noticed the mooring chains had cleared a swath of the ocean floor of all the growth. I began to swim along the small sandy areas when I spooked a small halibut. I began to curse myself for being so sloppy, when I noticed this bad boy about 5 ft away in the same sandy area. I popped to the surface elated, but nervous as this was my first 'but. I took a breath and went in for the kill. Got a great shot on it, but it began thrashing around like mad, so I drove my 3 prong all the way through the fish and grabbed the tips on the other side. I didn't have a knife at that point, so I carefully put my stringer through it's mouth and out the gills, getting bitten in the process. I removed the 3 prong from it and it went ballistic! I was still 3 rows of moorings out still, so I struggled my way back to shore. When I got there, my buddy Phil had already arrived and was walking up the beach. I was exhausted (3+hr dive), so I crawled on shore, the fish still going ape sh*t. Pretty memorable, and I've been hooked ever since. Of course, my first YT and WSB were pretty braggable too, but this halibut was the first!
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Old 02-26-2010, 03:40 PM   #32
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

White seabass,54 pounds,56 inches....stone shot broke the spine.The fish fed my family about 18 dinners.Didnt fight didnt even barely twitch.Two 50 pounders swam right to me and both turned broadside....never forget that.Even more amazing was seeing 100s of wsb on the surface,and I mean big fish some were over 70,before the dive.Try to stay calm I kept telling myself.
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Old 02-26-2010, 04:05 PM   #33
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

First ever halibut hunt with a pop gun went 36 inchs, no scale. Nobody had told me not to shoot anything bigger than my gun if I wanted to keep it. Shot a second smaller fish shortly afterward, thought halibut hunting was like going to the grocery store till I didn't get another hali for something like two years.
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Old 02-26-2010, 04:14 PM   #34
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

My first brag fish was my definitely my first WSB.

The night before I was really tempted to go hit some bars in downtown SB with Iaon P, aka "fin", but I knew that if I did that there was no way I'd be waking up for a dawn patrol dive. I've always told myself that if I ever chose a night of partying over getting up early when the fish were in or the waves were good, that I had seriously mixed up my priorities.

With that in mind I declined his invitation, woke up at 0545, and was in the water by 0645. Right after I got in the water I was seeing dozens of fish in the 8-12lb range, but I decided to hold off in hopes of seeing a bigger fish. About 30 minutes later I was slowly kicking up current along the outer edge of the kelp, then stopped on the surface to make myself more quiet. Just as I did this I noticed some movement to my left along the bottom. Moving only my eyes I watched a nice WSB with a back clearly broader than all the other swimming right towards me. I let the tip of my gun sink down and then pulled the trigger when the fish was almost directly beneath me.

The fish careened towards kelp, so I put a little pressure on it to keep it from getting too tangled. It began to swim in circles around me so I kept turning with it to avoid getting tangled in the shooting line. Soon enough I had my hands in it's gills and swam the fish to the beach. As I exited the water a crowd of folks from the campground gathered around, eager to see my catch. An old man even came up to me to pat me on the back, no BS. I felt like a hero, LOL.

And of course I couldn't wait to get back to my car to call my dive buddy and tell him I scored.

The fish went 36" and was thick.

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Old 02-26-2010, 09:25 PM   #35
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

I think my braggable fish was my first pelagic, a 0 and something pound yellow that I shot with a polespear. Nothing special, but it was a good first open water dive.

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Old 02-27-2010, 02:11 AM   #36
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

My Brother a plastic surgeon and pasty hook and line fishing type from florida was visiting so we went to catalina and did some camping. I was all bragging about how i could go out and shoot the calicos and whites and how hard the approach and shot placement was. So my brother decides he wants to try. I loan him a wetsuit,and gear, load the gun for him on the beach, and get ready for a good laugh. Then i strapped my weight belt on him and said good luck He had never even held a speargun before! Off he went and in about 10 minutes i saw him coming back in. This should be funny I thought, but was shocked when he swam up with the shaft perfectly buried in the absolute center of the top of the skull of a 10lb+ Calico He said it did not seem hard at all and was done for the day
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Old 02-27-2010, 02:14 AM   #37
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

Oh Yeah my first "brag fish" was a striper (10lbs) in Virginia Beach with a arm powered frog gig. I was probably 10 and it seemed like a monster!
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Old 02-27-2010, 02:23 AM   #38
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

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Originally Posted by freeride View Post
Oh Yeah my first "brag fish" was a striper (10lbs) in Virginia Beach with a arm powered frog gig. I was probably 10 and it seemed like a monster!
lol... that sounds like my childhood - some neck of the woods too.
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Old 02-27-2010, 02:46 AM   #39
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

One of the oldest I can remember.
50 lb Halibut. Channel Islands. My daughter was 4, and I was a single parent.

She is now 34.
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Old 02-27-2010, 06:13 AM   #40
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

My first WSB. Shot it on one of Lyle Miller's Blue Water Charters back in the day that ended up at SCI. I was on the boat with a bunch of guys who held a lot of world records between them and declined to get in the jackpot because of there experience and my lack of it. Turns out, I shot the biggest fish of the trip, a 28 lb white. Next trip I went out on with those guys, the they all gave me a hard time (richly deserved) about getting in the jack pot. As I remember, Ron Mullins shot a 60+ YT out at the Cortez banks.
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Old 02-27-2010, 10:50 AM   #41
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

When: Marine biology semester @ USC Wrigley institute for Environmental studies.
Location: some cove, can't remember.
Dive partners: Juan (32juan) and Katharine.

At the time I had decided to get a new Riffe comp 3x after my JBL Woody Magnum (A newbie buy, but I still find the name hilarious) broke right out of the box! I had gone out a few times, but time after time I found myself with nothing decent to shoot. One day while scoping out sites for my independent research, I noticed a few large Calico's darting in and out of the kelp. When I got back to get lunch, I asked Juan if he was interested in going after work. If any of you know Juan, he usually never refuses! As I started to head down a fellow student Katharine decided to join (thank god). When we arrived to the cove, Juan and I hit the side closest to two harbors (I forget whether it was N,S,E, or W. Not that it matters) while Katharine stuck with me. We hunting for what seemed like an hour and decided to head in. While heading in I bumping into Katherine and she informed me that she saw a large Calico near the right side of a few large boulders that naturally formed a corridor. Prior to going out Juan told me that Calico's are extremely smart and sensitive to sound, so I decided to swim through the corridor and hopefully surprise him from behind. Never did I think it would work, but it did. I swam through took aim and nothing, I had the safety on! Since it didn't know I was behind him, I quickly switched the safety off and took the shot. It hit the fish behind the gill plate, it struggled but its life faded quickly. I brought it back to the boat and felt like a god.

Thanks for everything, Juan and Katherine...
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Old 02-27-2010, 12:58 PM   #42
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

I think the fish I am most proud of is my 9.8 pound sheep. The reason being:
The vis that day was really good. The reef was about 25 feet down and from the surface I could see it easily. I saw two big sheep cruising around the reef. I kept diving on them trying to get a shot, but they were just too quick for me. But I kept trying. The guy I was diving with came over and tried, but they eluded him as well. After 30 minutes or so of trying I finally was able to dive down and creep along one side of the reef, I knew the sheep were on the other. As I slowly crawled over the reef the two were sitting there. I had actually just stalked a good sized sheephead. I was pretty excited about that.

Darren

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Old 02-27-2010, 01:53 PM   #43
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

First brag fish while spearfishing??? My first really big sheephead. 28-1/2 lb. Laguna. I won my first club dive that day, shot that fish, and a 6lb calico. Aliso beach. 1996. Seems like it was an eternity ago. I have a pic somewhere; I'll look it up.
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Old 02-27-2010, 01:58 PM   #44
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

Nice pic Ed! You gotta come back and we'll go find something else to brag about!
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Old 02-27-2010, 04:51 PM   #45
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Re: What was your first "Brag" fish?

Quote:
Originally Posted by freeride View Post
My Brother a plastic surgeon and pasty hook and line fishing type from florida was visiting so we went to catalina and did some camping. I was all bragging about how i could go out and shoot the calicos and whites and how hard the approach and shot placement was. So my brother decides he wants to try. I loan him a wetsuit,and gear, load the gun for him on the beach, and get ready for a good laugh. Then i strapped my weight belt on him and said good luck He had never even held a speargun before! Off he went and in about 10 minutes i saw him coming back in. This should be funny I thought, but was shocked when he swam up with the shaft perfectly buried in the absolute center of the top of the skull of a 10lb+ Calico He said it did not seem hard at all and was done for the day
That is an awesome story. I just had to read that out loud for my wife and we both cracked up.
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