Spearfishing the FADs in Rarotonga, Cook Islands

I recently lugged my spearfishing gear with me on a 4 hour plane ride back in time to Rarotonga, part of the Cook Islands. It was a good time to escape the wet and cold NZ winter weather and we were greeted with 23-26 degrees days, minimal rain and a water temperature of 24 degrees.

The Charter

Rarotonga is an amazing fishing destination, host to loads of pelagic species such as Tuna, Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, and Marlin. There are loads of charters to choose from now, but we booked a half day spearfishing charter with Akura Fishing Charters (which came recommended by a friend) and these guys were awesome! We jumped on a boat called Ikurangi which is an 8m Bayliner Trophy skippered by Tioni, who was great and has done some spearfishing himself, so knew what was going on. He took us to 3 different FAD's (Fish Aggregating Device): 2 shallow (~500m) and one deeper (~1000m) and we were out for about 4-5 hours in total.

It was my first time spearfishing outside of NZ and when I jumped in at the first FAD I was blown away by the really intense inky blue water. You could see your buddy underwater when he was ~50/60m away, if not more! I had never hunted in water that clear and when I saw the first school of wahoo approaching, they looked small at first - but it was just because they were so far away. 

I struggled getting to grips with my shooting range and I missed my first couple. It was heartbreaking seeing your spear stop a few metres short of the fish... Once I got my shit sorted, both my diving buddy Eddie and I both shot 33kg wahoo out of the same school of about 6/7 fish, just seconds apart! There were much bigger models at the back of the school, cleverly keeping out of range. My wahoo tipped the scales at 33.2kg and at that point was the biggest speared wahoo on the Akura Charter boats - talk about beginners luck! All the fish I spotted were cruising along in the top 15m of water so we didn't need to dive very deep. Between Eddie and I we would have seen ~20 wahoo and managed to put 3 in the bin. 

All charters typically sell most of their catch to the local restaurants and provide the anglers/divers with enough for a good meal. In this case the other boat didn't catch any fish so we divvied up one big wahoo between us which was plenty of meat and made for beautiful eating for the rest of our holiday!

Gear

Wahoo are clever and can be difficult to get into shooting range. They have very soft flesh and can be tricky to land if they are not shot in the right location - tail or head are preferred. We were specifically targeting wahoo, so setup our gear up accordingly:

Wetsuit: I took a Rob Allen (RA) 3mm blue water suit - perfect with the water temp at 24 degrees.

Shooting: I took the RA 130cm Tuna speargun (which comes with 2x18mm rubbers and 7.5mm shaft) and set this up with a double flopper shaft, with RA blue water bungee, RA 35L remora float, and RA breakaway setup. This setup was very easy and perfect for what we were doing. This set-up allows you keep your gun and let the bungee and float do the work for you. Since the fish is very soft, you don’t want to put too much hurt on them. You never know what you might see, so another float may be handy. I could have possibly gone one gun size up for extra range, but I stuck with the 130 because I will still use it over here in NZ for kingfish.

Flashers flashers flashers! Probably the most simple but most important item. We started off with a bang and both forgot our flashers, so Eddie made his own out of spatulas and other stainless steel cooking utensils tied to this reel and small float, which worked a treat to bring the wahoo in for a closer look. I made about 10x throw flashers out of bits of coral wrapped up in tin foil. These were freaking amazing and very effective! I tucked the throw flashers under my weight belt and threw them at/in front of the wahoo when spotted, this helped to get them to turn and give me time to get a shot. I was caught a couple of times without any flashers and I would be chasing the fish for what felt like forever, with the wahoo staying just out of shooting range - tiring work! Both types of flashers are crucial and if I was to go again I would get the RA flasher and make the same throw flashers.

All the above gear is sold in store at Dutchy's - for all your snorkelling and spearfishing needs come and see us before heading away.

Top Tips:

- If you are planning a charter overseas you want to go with one who regularly takes spearo's or does spearfishing themselves.

- Wear your weight belt on the plane! Works a treat but you might get the odd question when you go through the scanners.

- Book a charter in advance and plan it early in your trip - if you have bad weather you can raincheck!

- If you are just going snorkelling take small rubber fins and a mask and snorkel with you. The gear at the resorts is very hit and miss.