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6 Ranch Podcast
6 Ranch Podcast
Wahoo, Carp, Bears, and Sharks with Anthony Dooley
Anthony Dooley, aka El Squid, is a professional spearfishing guide and lifelong adventurist. We recorded this episode while wearing wetsuits in between dive locations while hunting carp in freshwater. Hang out until the end of this episode to hear about something really freaking cool that Tony has cooking in Puerto Rico.
Want to learn more about El Squid? Check out his WEBSITE and INSTAGRAM.
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Check out NICKS BOOTS and use code 6ranch for a free gift.
I love talking to the old guys in California that used to dive in like the sixties and stuff. They have the sickest stories about the crazy shit they used to do back then and and yeah, man, they're beautiful fish, they're good eating Like. It's definitely up there on my on my list.
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Speaker 2:Today we're out here on a lake that I'm not going to name in Washington state. We're spearfishing for carp. Yesterday we were diving for Dungeness crab and I'm here with El Squid himself. Mr Tony Dooley. How are you, sir? Hey, hey, doing good. Tony, who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, my name is Anthony Dooley. Tony, I live in Puerto Rico. I've been there for about 20 years. Do blue water charters, spearfishing yeah, I do some rod and reel and commercial stuff as well. I grew up in Jersey, new Jersey, on the East Coast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Atlantic City. You kind of lost the accent. Does it ever come back, man?
Speaker 1:I never think I have. Everyone says oh, you're from California. They think I talk like a Cali, but no East Coast born and bred Nice. Did you grow up spearfishing? I started spearfishing in New Jersey yeah, off the jetties there and then graduated up to Barnegat Inlet. It was kind of like my first more serious spearfishing that I would get into, and then once I moved to Puerto Rico, doors blew open, got hooked up with some really good guys down there and got lucky in my journey and brought me to Panama, and there for quite a few years as well.
Speaker 2:And right now we're in a absolutely gorgeous, uh, 35 foot wooden, like down Easter style boat that, uh, that Sheffield made and, uh, what you might be hearing is the windlass pulling up the anchor, cause we're about to switch spots and go dive a different part of the lake.
Speaker 1:Man, it sure is a beautiful boat to dive on out here, huh. Like just this setting bald eagles, seals like we're going through the locks.
Speaker 2:It's just, yeah, you know, on this vessel it's something else all these gorgeous homes out here on the edge of the lake too, and you know this is obviously a very affluent place and carp has always been in the us pretty, pretty lowbrow. It's not something that people respect very much, but carp is the most fished-for species in the world and the most eaten species in the world as far as fish goes, which is pretty amazing. They're highly revered in Europe. They're incredibly tough animals Now carp aren't native here. They're not good for the environment. Animals now carp aren't native here. They're not good for the environment. Uh, and unfortunately in this area, the department of fish and wildlife has said that they're. They contain too many heavy metals to consume, um, healthily. So what we're doing out here is, uh is just taking these invasive species and and moving them out of the ecosystem by killing them with spear guns yeah, and all the homeowners of all these big houses here.
Speaker 1:They're so supportive of what we're doing, yeah well, you can see the lady like looking out her window at us right now with the cat in her arm, just like what are these guys doing out there with spear guns?
Speaker 2:we're. We're definitely getting like snooped on. You know, we get a lot of traffic from like canoes and kayaks coming out here to check us out, because, because this freshwater spearfishing game, man, it's new, it's brand new.
Speaker 1:I don't think they've seen anything like it. They just see you jumping in the water with a gun. Well, like Cameron was saying, Cameron Giuttillo, he's saying they think you're going after the salmon. That's their first thought. That's very protective. Yeah, Understandable. They're just looking out for their waters.
Speaker 2:There are places you can spearfish for salmon.
Speaker 1:Not in Washington State, I don't believe.
Speaker 2:But in.
Speaker 1:Alaska, In Alaska of course.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about spearing in Alaska.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:Tell me about it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm not a cold water guy at all. Obviously I'm down in Puerto Rico and I just love it. There's something about the cold there that just wakes up your senses and makes you feel alive. The air is real crisp. The crew that I was diving with out there for a few years they're the best out there Brad Conley at Coldwater and John Dernalis those guys are so dialed in.
Speaker 2:Where are they out of they're?
Speaker 1:out of Homer.
Speaker 2:Do they have a?
Speaker 1:charter business. They do Look them up, yeah, coldwater, alaska, and they're gents man, they're great guys, yeah. So if you're interested in it, it's a great starting spot for you.
Speaker 2:I really am. I go up and salmon fish on the Kenai Peninsula just about every year. I'm not going this year but really enjoy going up there and getting a year's worth of salmon in a few days and, you know, got some. Got some family up there that I stay with. But I would love to drop down to Homer, go out to Saldova and uh dive on halibut and lingcod and salmon, cause you can spear salmon there, you can it's, it's actually pretty easy.
Speaker 1:The salmon, they don't, they don't even really like to do it, cause it's so easy. But the halibut, that's a whole different game. I mean, that's a hunt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so can we talk about it? Yeah, of course, okay. So, strategy-wise, if you're going to go after some of these fish, get over 200 pounds, right. I believe the current record is 120 pounds, but did you once hold the world record?
Speaker 1:I didn't. No, no, john Dernalis Fernandez is, I believe he's the current record holder. He's held the record for as long as I can remember Okay, I remember it was like 138 or something for a while, yeah, and I'm not sure where it's at right now. I haven't been following it really because I haven't been going. It's been a couple of years since I've been up there.
Speaker 2:Did you ever get into the record chasing game?
Speaker 1:Not so much. You know, a lot of the times I'm running trips with clients, so you know I'm not the one shooting the fish and trying to put the clients on it. Um, a big wahoo has always been my dream fish. And what's a big wahoo? Um, well, for Puerto Rico I'd say, like you know, during the run they're gonna average 30 to 40 pounds. 40 is actually a little bit on the bigger side, but we've gotten them up to 100. Never broke the 100 mark. 98 was the biggest one we've gotten, but but, um, we've gotten a few in the 90s, so they're there.
Speaker 2:And for a 98-pound. Wahoo like. The difference between him being 98 pounds and 100 pounds is like one bite of a fish for him, you know, true, yeah.
Speaker 1:If that fish would have had a 5-pound bonita in its belly, we would have had a 103-pound fish.
Speaker 2:We find that with mountain lions a lot right people be like oh you know, I got this 170 pound mountain lion, I got this 130 pound mountain lion. Well, they can eat like 20 plus pounds in a sitting. So part of what you're weighing on those animals is going to be however much deer or elk it consumed in the last 24 hours, but all, all part of the game. Uh, what's what's the? What's the wildest fish story that you can think of?
Speaker 1:oh man, there's so many. Um, now I'm on the spot, so yeah it's hard to think of it on. Yeah, I mean you know, for me it's always the diverse and like crazy things that nobody's doing are what I love to do, like when I got into the halibut in Alaska. Nobody was really doing it I mean a handful of guys. So for me I was chasing something that not a lot of people were doing at that time.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a crazy thing to think about diving in like 50 degrees saltwater and going after a giant fish. I don't know what the temp is exactly.
Speaker 1:Man, you're really like, you're so immersed in nature. You're out in the middle of nowhere in alaska, where there's like there you see bears on the beach, you have killer whales swimming by you, you have like crazy birds above your head, like everything's. So you know alaska, everything's so big, it's so uh violent. You know, like in a good way, like you were saying saying I call spearfishing peaceful violence.
Speaker 2:Peaceful violence. That was it. And you have a video that I really, really enjoyed on YouTube. That's slept on, frankly, and what's the title of that Is that the Alaska video yeah. Violently Beautiful, violently Beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is interesting that you and I kind of came towards the same place as far as the words that we're using to describe this stuff. But when I say peaceful violence, I mean like you've got to be peaceful in your heart and in your mind while you're on the surface of the water to get ready, and then, as you drop down, your body does all these crazy things that I've talked about on the show previously that increase that peacefulness. Your heart rate slows down, your sense of time changes a lot Mine certainly does and then you get to the bottom and there's this incredible stillness with some pulse of life moving around with you, and then if that life becomes a fish, that's going to get inside your range. That's where the violence kicks in, right, like you're spearing this thing violently and, you know, dispatching it with a knife as quickly as you can, bring it to the surface and making it food. It's an incredible thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you could probably correlate this to hunting on land as well. But that moment, like you spend all that money and all that time researching and all the time on phone calls making logistical plans, and you get to where you need to be and you're underwater, you're holding your breath, you're trying to get your heart rate down to zero and then that fish kind of appears out of nowhere, that wahoo or that halibut sitting on the bottom by the chum bag and like time kind of right, it like freezes until you pull the trigger. Yeah, and for me that's what spearfishing is all about. It's that like those few seconds of between life and death that you're just like you're so present and like you're you're responsible for tell me the dremamine story.
Speaker 1:So so we did the North Carolina Spearfishing Tournament in Wrightsville Beach and my buddies are all like man. It's going to be really rough. We should take some Dramamine. Everybody's taking Dramamine. I never take the stuff. I don't get seasick Hardly ever and so they gave me a couple and because I wasn't accustomed to taking it, I just popped the two, drank some water and man, next thing, you know, I couldn't even keep my eyes open. Yeah, my heart rate must have been zero, like I was. So just I wanted to sleep and I would roll off the boat you know, a lot of it is tuned to luck but I would drop in on these giant fish and I would have all the breath I needed because my heart rate was my heart was barely beating at the time. I was probably sleeping underwater, right, and I ended up blowing everybody away. I think there was like 90-something competitors and it was half spearfishing or, I'm sorry, half freediving and half scuba, yeah, and I beat everybody even the scuba divers.
Speaker 1:It was just like I couldn't even believe it. I woke up like two days later. I was like, oh cool.
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Speaker 2:Nix has a full assortment of men's and women's work boots to serve wildland firefighters, ranchers, tradespeople, military personnel and anyone else who values quality footwear made in America. Visit nicksbootscom today to find your next pair of quality American made work boots. Add a pair of boots and a work belt to your cart and use the code 6RANCH that's the number 6 and the word ranch to receive the belt for free. There's a significant barrier to entry for hunters who are thinking about getting into spearfishing, and one of those is that you've got to be holding your breath if you're freediving and you're going into an environment that is not your own right. We're visitors underwater and then you know. I highly encourage people to go to a dive school. I've been to two of them this year. They're both great experiences. They're not that much money like go do a do the 100 and you're gonna learn techniques, you're gonna learn safety.
Speaker 2:You're gonna feel so much more comfortable. I want to talk about the, the difference between scuba and free diving for spearfishing, because they each have distinct advantages. Um, what would you say is the biggest advantage to each?
Speaker 1:Well, obviously, silence and stalking under free diving is. You know you're not going to get that with scuba diving. You're putting off a lot of bubbles and you're limited in your movements because of all your gear. I have spear fished on scuba before. It just doesn't do it for me. Like I think if you're going for grouper in deeper water or something like some bottom fish, it has its benefits, or you're going through a wreck, it's kind of cool. But no, for blue water you can't even do it. You're up and down too much. Anyway. You want to be free in the water column, so free diving is pretty much the only way that you're going to do. You're going to hunt big blue water and blue water is your jam.
Speaker 2:My sense from your operation and I haven't been down there yet, I intend to come but my sense is that if you wanted to just hunt reefs that you could probably do more trips, probably make some more money, but maybe it might not be as exciting for you as a guide is doing the blue water stuff a little bit of that and a lot of bit of um in puerto rico.
Speaker 1:You go in some spots a quarter mile off the beach and it's going to go from 40 feet down to a couple hundred. Yeah, so our real estate for reef free dive spearfishing is very limited, okay, and so you got to protect that resource yeah I mean, you know, like a, like a pargo, a snapper or a grouper isn't going to reproduce as fast as a mahi or wahoo or a tuna, those things are.
Speaker 1:I mean they grow exponentially, yeah, quicker than any reef fish are mahi the fastest growing fish they are well, I've heard that, but I've also heard wahoo are pretty fast and, um, you know tuna obviously as well. So so, yeah, like kingfish, all those fish that we're shooting in the blue water, I feel like they. I mean, you're still at the end of the day, you're still taking a resource, right. So I'm sure you could argue it either way, but I just I like being out there where you can't see the bottom and you got sharks everywhere and there's whales and like there's all kinds of stuff. You never know what you're going to see, where the reef is kind of more just you know, doing the reef stuff.
Speaker 2:How do you know when a shark is going from like present and curious to aggressive? It's all in their behavior.
Speaker 1:man, you can see that the way they're handling themselves when they put those pectoral fins down and they start getting aggressive. They take a bite of something and then next thing you know there's 15 of them there. You just kind of you got to gauge like, is it worth staying here? You know, are we even going to land fish if we shoot them? Sometimes it's best to just kind of pick up and go to the next spot.
Speaker 2:So their fin position tells you a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, for me, like a lot of times when I see those pectoral fins, when they start eating, you'll see the fins start moving a lot and just their body movement, man, a lot of turning. They'll come up and they kind of push their boundaries to see how close they can get with you. A lot of times we're poking them off. Definitely get your fins bit every now and then and it's just part of the game.
Speaker 1:Same thing with you guys and, like we talked about last night, like the bear situation, it's part of what makes it such a like on the edge kind of sport.
Speaker 2:Ear position is really big for me with bears. If their ears are up and forward, that's a really curious animal. If their ears disappear and lay flat against their head, um, that that's an animal that's getting aggressive. Now whether that's going to turn into a bluff charge or a real charge is heavily debated. I personally think with bears, if they're coming towards you and their ears are pinned flat, they don't know yet whether it's a bluff charge or not. Um, and the only real difference is are they going to stop short of you or are they going to keep coming and are? Are you willing to roll the dice on that? Um, personally, I'm not. So I'm going to wait until that animal is in range where I'm really confident that my shot's going to land, and, and then that's what I'm going to do. My confident that my shot's going to land, and, and then that's what I'm going to do. My plan is is to defend myself against that animal, not see if he's going to change his mind or not.
Speaker 1:But, and if it, if it's not a bluff charge, if that bear comes at you, I mean, your options obviously are just to shoot or well.
Speaker 2:So you know people really argue back and forth about bear spray and guns and there's advantages to both. With bear spray, if you're spraying into the wind it's not going to work Right and a lot of charges come from upwind. So if the bear is downwind of you, he's going to become aware of you or she's going to become aware of you a lot earlier and there's less chance of an encounter. But if it's upwind, then you're going to startle that animal because it's not going to become aware of you until it hears you or sees you. And their eyesight's not great, their hearing's very good.
Speaker 2:But if you're walking down a trail, you can be pretty quiet and just accidentally roll up on them. Down a trail, you can be pretty quiet and just accidentally roll up on them, um. So if you're spraying into the wind it's not going to work, uh. But spray is is easier to hit the animal with than a gun is, um. And then just hitting them with a gun doesn't necessarily mean anything unless you hit them in the right spot, right, just like with fish. So talk to me a little bit about shot placement on fish well, um, that's that's.
Speaker 1:I've talked about a lot, you know, on the boat and and in circles with spearfishing. Um, for me, what I tell clients if you haven't shot a wahoo, or if you know if we're doing blue water and we're going for wahoo or tuna, just shoot the fish. Yeah, don't worry about your shot, please. Okay, let's just put a shot in it. Um, you know, and then some guys oh, shoot them in the tail, shoot them in the head, shoot them. I always with my Wahoo and Tuna, I always just try and shoot them right in the gill plate. It's going to be a strong holding spot. It's kind of one of those things you could put the post up on Instagram about it and you're going to have 50% of the people arguing with you about yeah, that's the wrong placement, half the people agree, so it's right.
Speaker 2:But this is your profession and you're highly respected in it, and that's why I'm asking your opinion on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I, I would try and put it by the gill plate, yep, um, but then what I'll tell you. Instead of like where to put the shot, I would say, if you think you're close, especially in blue water, to get closer a lot of guys are missing shots because they'll see a 40 pound Wahoo and they think it's 20 pound. You know like they get their depth perception? Perception is skewed. It's really hard.
Speaker 2:You know you don't have anything to really compare it to. It's nothing but blue out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're like, oh, there's a 20 pound, wahoo and it's 10 feet away, but really it's it's 40 and it's 30 feet away, or whatever, whatever, however, it works out.
Speaker 1:But so, yeah, I say, you know, try and get closer. Obviously with Wahoo you don't want to pressure them too much, but I always try and close the gap right at the end, right when you know like, okay, I have that thing broadside to me, I'm not just going to shoot it static, I'm just going to make like a couple little kicks, Just you close. It makes a world of difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then shooting from the surface versus submerged makes a difference, right?
Speaker 1:I've seen a lot of guys miss fish that are real close from the surface just because of that. You know, the fraction in the water, yeah, kind of makes the fish look like it's lower or higher than it actually is.
Speaker 2:And glass lenses in our masks have a magnifying quality of like 1.33 or something Exactly. I've heard about some guys that are starting to favor plastic lenses a little bit more because they have less of that.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I haven't heard anything like that, haven't messed with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about masks.
Speaker 1:No, I use. I have the Aqualung micro mask. It's like the only mask I like to use. Yeah, the thing is awesome. I've been using it for 20 years and and that's a cheap mask. Yeah, yeah, yeah I don't think they they make that mask anymore, but they, they have the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all the companies saw the same thing, gotcha different name yeah, dude, I've been through so many masks now trying to get one to fit and not flood on me, and it's tough, it's, it's a fight yeah fight um, and then I'll get it like magically positioned on my face sometimes, and it doesn't matter what mask it is, and then it's perfect. And then the next time I put it on now I'm flooding again.
Speaker 1:It's like ugh man, gear is so important, having the right gear, like I don't think people put enough thought into it when they do these kind of trips. They just show up with like they buy a new mask. They don't burn it and they're like when you buy a new mask it has a film on the inside that the company's put in. So you just take a lighter and you just you can see it it burns right off and then you wipe it and then do your toothpaste or your baby shampoo in there. And you know you got to do that a few times, or you're good to go.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, and then once they kind of get broken you don't have nearly the fogging issues you do early on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like my mask even today, like we were in. How cold was the water yesterday?
Speaker 2:It was 65 on the surface.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And it was 60 degrees on the bottom.
Speaker 1:All right, so it's still fairly warm for here. And then today it's like almost what? 72?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 74,. I think, yeah, I only have my top on and I'm roasting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hot.
Speaker 2:I'm actually I'm not even going to use my hood anymore. I've got a 5 mil top. I didn't, you know, I was flying out here, so I can't bring like the whole wardrobe. You know, sure, dude, flying here was wild.
Speaker 2:I flew on boutique Air, which is a little commuter flight that goes from Pendleton, portland, and I had my spear guns and everything in a sport tube, which is really common practice for flying with spear guns. But it wouldn't fit in the airplane. We were in a Pilatus and the pilot comes out to the lobby and this isn't a TSA airport. Everybody should know that. The pilot comes out of the lobby and is like hey can't, I can't physically fit your stuff in the airplane. Do you really need it?
Speaker 2:I was like I'm going spearfishing, like I absolutely need it, uh, so uh, I was like can we go troubleshoot this thing? And he's like totally. So we go out there and I pull the sport tube apart, pull the spear guns out of it, and we just start cramming it in like random places in this aircraft and I've got like a pole spear here and a spear gun here and a spear gun over here and the the sport tubes compressed all the way down now and we shove it in. He's like good to go and I was like gosh, that's awesome were you the only one on the flight, or was it?
Speaker 2:well, well, so it seats eight, eight passengers. So there's seven other passengers on there that are like what in the hell? You know, not a lot of spearfishing goes on in Eastern Oregon besides me. But yeah, man, it was great, it was such a positive experience. Now, today I'm going to be flying back and it's a different flight crew, so I'm going to like really be gambling that they're going to have the same flexibility. But yeah, dude, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I love this stuff.
Speaker 1:It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I love this stuff. You got to love little pockets of like America that are, you know, like you're saying, like 99% of the airports, there's no way you're not going to be able to do anything.
Speaker 2:If it's TSA, they just can't right. Right, but these guys weren't. So they're like, yeah, let's figure it out, because they're just human beings and they're trying to do the job.
Speaker 1:Their job is moving people in gear they want to do it.
Speaker 2:They want to help you out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great. So, yeah, five stars to boutique air awesome. Yeah, kudos to boutique.
Speaker 1:Love those guys um what's, uh, what's, what's your bucket list fish? Oh yeah, man, I got a couple yeah definitely white sea bass, california white sea bass is up there. You have to really sneak up on those right yeah, I feel like it's a lot like, uh like hunting wahoo, but different environment yeah, are they in the kelp?
Speaker 1:yeah, they're in the kelp. Yeah, and you know, talking to like I love talking to the old guys in california that used to dive in like the 60s and stuff. They have the sickest stories about the crazy shit they used to do back then and and, um, yeah, man, they're beautiful fish, they're good eating like.
Speaker 1:It's definitely up there on my on my list cool, what else um, believe it or not, one of the more common fish I haven't shot is a cobia, so I'd like to shoot one of those, just to get it off the list yeah I checked my uh, my carp today. So that's good that was your first carp. That was my first car yeah, I usually just come out and film and like I have fun with these guys, but uh, yeah, I had to do it today and I did it with a roller, so that was even better dude, there's.
Speaker 2:There's such a tough fish. I've been trying to get one with uh, with my three prong, and I just cannot get one to hold on there you know, what's amazing to me too, is the environment here, like I didn't expect it to be, so I don't.
Speaker 1:It's almost kelpy, right like what do you call the the grass that's growing down there?
Speaker 2:because it's I mean we call it seaweed, but it's fresh water yeah yeah, we've got all all this aquatic vegetation that's coming up and it is thick man it's super thick and it's, it's, it's pretty it has a lot of life in it.
Speaker 1:Man milfoil okay, milfoil is what they were calling- it yeah yeah, that stuff is like wow, it's makes, makes for a cool hunt, it's it's thick.
Speaker 2:The the first time I I took a drop in it, I thought it was only going to be coming off the bottom like a couple feet and as I got down there, I got down to the bottom and I'm a little overweighted today and I was laying flat on the bottom and I waited, waited, waited and nothing showed up and, uh, when I pushed off, I started my kick cycles to head back to the surface and I'm like one, two, three okay, I should be on the surface four, five and then I'm like, why am I not like in the air yet?
Speaker 2:and uh, you know, this stuff is coming like 12, 15 feet off the bottom in places, so it's like hunting an incredibly tight timber, um, but underwater, and then you're just waiting. This weeds are all like snarled up around my snorkel and my gopro and my gun and I'm like this is tough man, I was following you on that one drop you did with the camera and, uh, not only were the weeds everywhere, but you were kicking up all the silt off the bottom. So I just got completely lost.
Speaker 1:And all the weeds are coming around me and I had to bail because I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't even see. And then I'm sitting next to you and I'm waiting for you to take another drop. It looked like you were breathing up and then I just see your arm go off to the side. Boom, you nailed that thing right from the surface. I was like, oh, I guess there's no refraction there. Just proved me wrong.
Speaker 2:So a lot of my spearfishing, which I've done for about 20 years, has been surface shots Almost all surface shots because I've only learned how to dive in the last four or five years and I'm still very, very novice at it. So my experience started with bow fishing and you know, the first pole spear I made was when I was in high school and I was walking along like ditch banks and hunting fish from the surface there and like shooting out of the air into the water like you know, huge water refraction at that point.
Speaker 2:So yeah, most of my experience is taking surface shots and I think I'm probably just a little bit more used to it.
Speaker 1:I will say this you know how we have the weed coming from the bottom to the surface. Yeah, I feel like that gives you a point of reference and it really does help you out when you're shooting from the surface where opposed to being in a thousand feet of blue water sure and there's nothing yeah and then that fish comes.
Speaker 2:I I feel like it plays a bigger role in an environment like that, other than what we're doing here so something that's really been lacking in spearfishing is a comprehensive school, like a class, where people can kind of kind of learn the ins and outs of it, rather than just go out for a half day or a day and you know they get a little pep talk for half an hour on the way out.
Speaker 2:And it's like all right, everybody in, let's go hunting. So tell me what you got going on there. You and Cliff have something cooking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me and Cliff teamed up and I have my buddy, craig, who's got a 48 Lagoon down in Rincon. It's a beautiful liveaboard, so we're going to throw some clients on there and we're going to do kind of like an introduction to blue water.
Speaker 1:I should say Targeting Wahoo Mahi, and we'll do some reef stuff as well, obviously. And then I also want to incorporate the Waterman Survival Class which is going on down in Puerto Rico. So if you want to include the waterman survival class in the trip, we can actually do that, and the class will be held out in the ocean off the liveaboard.
Speaker 2:Let's break this down a little bit Sure. So a 48 foot liveaboard boat. What does that mean?
Speaker 1:So there's three state rooms. I wanna max it at three clients, okay, so it's one-on-one instruction. Yep, we're going to do a lot of filming, okay, and at the end of the night we're back on the boat watching the film, kind of like just critiquing what we're doing. A lot of the surf schools in Rincon are doing that.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You go to the camp, they film you out surfing all day and at the end of the day they kind of critique your surfing. So I'm pulling from that, I with blue water, hey, like why don't we try this on your water entry? Or see how you kind of chase this fish? Like next time let's hold back, or, you know, try to throw the throw flasher first or whatever Kind of break it down like that, and then obviously just have a good time. Explore the south shore of Puerto Rico, from Rincon to the east coast where he is over in Umacal.
Speaker 2:What are like the prerequisite skill requirements?
Speaker 1:I would say if you're comfortable in the water and you're open to learning, that's all I need like comfortable on the surface of the water, like you know what.
Speaker 2:What comfort is relative like if?
Speaker 1:you get on a boat and you get, and you get sick all the time yeah you're probably not going to have a good time because, we're going to be on the water for a week okay, right so, um, we can work on your water entry, we can work on your, on your techniques for free diving. Yep, um, you just gotta gotta be, you know, willing to, willing to open up and let us teach you yeah, you know, age health requirements I mean, you know, like I guess the same as what you guys are doing, like just be in good health.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I haven't put in too much thought about the age requirements, because when we do blue water charters in Puerto Rico, I'll take anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, as long as if you're a kid, you got to come with your parent. 15 years or younger, you got to be accompanied by a parent. And a lot of times, what we'll do is have them watch us. Yeah, and they by a parent and a lot of times what we'll do is have them watch us, yeah, and they'll be in the water with a guide and we'll be. You know, we'll be hunting and they can kind of see and we slowly, you know, get them into it yeah um, we've had a bunch of groups like that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean it's for me it's more of like, you know, having a conversation on the phone if you have, if you do have health issues, what's going on? You know, I won't I won put any restrictions on it, but we can talk it out and decide whether it's the best trip for you, or not? Nice Maybe there's something a little bit, you know, less gung-ho that we could get you on.
Speaker 2:What is a Waterman Survival Course?
Speaker 1:Waterman Survival Course is FII, Free Dive Instructors International. It's taught by Joe Sheridan in Rincon. It's a four-day pretty intensive course. It's taught by Joe Sheridan in Rincon. It's a four-day pretty intensive course. You get your level one certification, but then they also do extra exercises to make you more comfortable in uncomfortable situations in the water.
Speaker 1:And it's geared towards free diving and big wave surfing but, of course, like anything in the water, it's going to help your spearfishing as well, because, at the end of the day, your foundation for spearfishing is going to be free diving.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, you're not going to be a good spear fisherman if you're not a good free diver.
Speaker 2:Right, it's a little bit like hiking and mule deer hunting For the most part you're going to need to be able to hike a little bit to get into mule deer country and you're going to need to hike a little bit to get out of it, and then you need the hunting skills as well. So, yeah, what's the cost for something like this?
Speaker 1:So it's $5,500 per person for the week. That's all inclusive. You've got to fly in and get to the dock. So we're going to run trips from the East Coast to the West Coast and then vice versa. So depending on what week you come on, you're either going to go to the east coast or west coast and we can help accommodate all the transportation stuff like that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and you're going to be cooking and eating some fish.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we're gonna yeah, we're gonna be, we're gonna eat. Uh, captain craig cooks up a meal, so yeah nice plenty of food, like all the foods included we have. Like you know, we don't drink much on these trips because it kind of messes with your free diving. But we have like beer and wine, whatever. Yeah, lots of water and good healthy food fruit, vegetables, eggs. You know lots of fish.
Speaker 2:I eat really clean before I dive and I don't drink at least the night before, if not two days before I dive, and that seems to make a really big difference in my ability to clear my ears, to be calm, to be hydrated, and it's a great benefit. And I think that a lot of people that set out to accomplish health goals whether it's weight loss or just general health they sometimes do it for the sake of being healthy and not necessarily to increase their capacity or their ability to do something. And if they're doing it for the purpose of being able to spearfish or being able to free dive, it makes it so much easier to really sink your teeth into being able to clean your life up a little bit for that stuff.
Speaker 1:It gives it purpose. Yeah able to like clean your life up a little bit for that stuff. It gives it purpose. Yeah, yeah, you know, uh, a quote that I love was uh jacques gusto said it that you couldn't live off of spearfishing. You burn more calories than you'd be able to to catch really so being in the water, doing what we're doing, having your body under the pressure, which is a lot of the stuff you learn like yeah, totally level one.
Speaker 1:And yeah, waterman, survival classes, like your body is just in a constant state of of the gears are going. You know, even though your, your breath holds down or your heartbeats down and you're relaxed, your, your body's burning calories, man.
Speaker 2:And your brain dude. Your brain is cooking calories because you're you're for me. I'm thinking about this process so much, Um, I'm, I'm anticipating everything that I think is going to occur before, during and after a dive. I'm so keyed in on my environment. I'm thinking about the other divers that are around me, communicating, you know, in the ways that you can with them, and there's so much like nonverbal visual communication that occurs, that's outside of, like the hand signals and stuff like that. You really get in tune with the people that you're out there with and, yeah, your brain is firing. I can't remember the exact detail, but some of the highest caloric burn that humans go through is people in chess competitions.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:So they're just sitting there moving pieces, but some of those guys are burning like 10,000 calories a day or something. It's absolutely crazy, because they're using their brain. Our brain is what consumes the most calories in our body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Amazing, never knew that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Learned something new every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I mean I'm probably wrong on some of the details, but so we just got to a new spot getting the anchor down and I'm seeing a bunch of geese around. And in my bow fishing experience for carp, where there's gooses there be carps.
Speaker 1:I got to say, your stoke for carp is contagious man.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so good. I'm sitting here and I'm like, oh, I really want to get in the water now and shoot a carp and there is a lot of geese out there. Yeah, and you know we've got I don't know we've got a big Yeti. I don't know how big it is, but it's completely full, like the hinges are busting off the thing right now. Our goal is 100 carp for the day. We're not going to hit that.
Speaker 1:We're on track.
Speaker 2:But yeah, we've got some big fish in there. I think the biggest one's right around 17 pounds.
Speaker 1:I got to say this crew we have today is pretty epic, with Sheffield, you know, coming up big with the boat and we got Cameron, jutilla and Gunner over there the local knowledge. So everybody's looking out for each other being safe and having a good time.
Speaker 2:And these guys are animals, man. They're good divers, they're looking out, they're sharing information. You know, gunner is about to become a structure firefighter. Cameron just got picked up by the sheriff's department. They're civil servants.
Speaker 1:He looks like a cop, doesn't he? That mustache? He's got to tighten it up a little bit, but he'll get there.
Speaker 2:You know he'll get there. We put some Oakley's on that guy and, uh, he's going to write some tickets.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, some aviators yeah, um, vegan. He looks like. He's like homeless from Seattle. He's really in his environment here. Dude, we were driving up yesterday. He's like man, I gotta eat a snack and he, he like, reaches around the back seat of this mommy rocket that he drives around and, uh, he pulls out like this bucket of meat and he just pulls out a whole like 16 ounce cold ribeye and just starts to gnaw on it while we're heading down the highway.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm surprised it wasn't like a moose drumstick, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then he had a bunch of moose in there too. Yeah, Cliff's an animal.
Speaker 1:It's a shame that your listeners don't have video of this, because it's pretty classic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. So we got a bunch of pipe-hitting guys that are about to get in the water and do some dangerous things to some invasive species and I want to get in with them. Let's do it, Tony. Where can people follow what you're doing if they're interested in going to Puerto Rico and becoming an entry-level expert in blue-water wahoo fishing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's just get them in the water. I mean, that's the first step always just open in the door right. So, uh, life below the surfacecom. Okay, is my website. Um, all my information's on there. My phone number feel free to text and call. I love when people call me yeah I can just converse with them. It's the best way to connect with somebody right and um instagram instagram else at L underscore squid.
Speaker 2:Is there an underscore there? There is, there is, and that's E-L, e-l.
Speaker 1:Underscore squid yeah, the squid, and then all my adventures are pretty much posted up on there and like below the surface as well.
Speaker 2:You've also got some gorgeous YouTube videos that I really would like for people to check out. You've got an artistic eye. You're telling the story in a beautiful way. Appreciate that. And yeah, man, I don't know why more people aren't watching those. Those are really nicely done.
Speaker 1:I think that lies on me. I don't do a good job of promoting it. I just kind of post the videos up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, if I put more effort into it, it'd probably be good.
Speaker 2:But, man, I'm in the water all the time and, yeah, it's like that's my hobby. Yeah, yeah, so love it. Well, dude, I can't wait to get down there and hunt with you sometime, and I'm enjoying this so much. Uh, I'm seeing guys get in the water right now and I can't take it, let's go, let's go, okay, bye, everybody, thank you I just want to take a second and thank everyone who's written a review, who has sent mail, who sent emails, who sent messages.
Speaker 2:Your support is incredible and I also love running into you at trade shows and events and just out on the hillside when we're hunting. I think that that's fantastic. I hope you guys keep adventuring as hard and as often as you can. Art for the six ranch podcast was created by john chadlin and was digitized by Celia Harlander. Original music was written and performed by Justin Hay, and the Six Ranch Podcast is now produced by Six Ranch Media. Thank you all so much for your continued support of the show and I look forward to next week when we can bring you a brand new episode.