Everything you need to know about spearing dogtooth tuna. In this tips video, Taylor will tell you the ins and outs of landing a Dogtooth with your mates.
Any experienced spearo will tell you what a challenge it can be to hunt dogtooth tuna. Reaching over two metres in length and weighing up to 130kg, there’s no doubt these aren’t your beginner spearo’s target fish.
To make the experience the enjoyable time it should be, here’s some key tips provided by Taylor that’ll make everything that much easier.
1- Dive Buddies!
“You can’t just land them on your own” pretty well sums up one of the biggest key points of this video. It’s always important that you have a dive buddy, even more so when you’re targeting a fish as powerful and difficult to land as the dogtooth tuna. Having a dive buddy gives you that added safety in the water when you’re risking shallow water blackouts and to place that extra shot needed to subdue the fish. We all want to finish the day with a beautiful tuna in the boat, and a dive buddy is going to be a huge help in doing it.
2- Invest in quality gear
When it comes to gear, don’t let yourself be content with any poor-quality gear. If there’s something in your set up that isn’t up to scratch you’re going to find out about it when you spear a dogtooth tuna. The pressure they’ll put on your gear plus the risk of your catch biting back means that any weak link could mean losing the fish.
3- Bring the fish to you
Despite what many of us spearo’s believe, we aren’t all tens, and dogtooth tuna concur. They aren’t going to swim within shooting range by choice very often, so to give yourself the best chance of getting a shot a little assistance from some burley and a flasher makes all the difference. The scent of the burley and the reflections from the flasher might convince a tuna to stick around long enough to give you the opportunity at a shot.
4- “Put the hurt on em”
Dogtooth tuna are renowned for running hard as soon as you put a spear in them, often heading straight for the reef where they can sever your line. Pulling in the line and reducing the slack that might allow the tuna to build up steam will improve your chances of avoiding disaster. Once you get them close enough, if you have a spare speargun in the water put another spear into them just in case.
