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Scuba and Fishing in Yap: Phillipene Sea & Pacific Ocean
JBCraig | 03 July, 2008 23:46
This is where I got the reddish color that makes me glow. Bill, Taylor, and I took classes from Jan (Yon) to get certified for PADI Open Water. As our final dive to be certified, Jan took us out to Gufnu. This is where the giant mantas are. It was really cool seeing the 10-15 foot mantas come within just a few feet of us. While there I saw a ton of sharks and a plethora of colorful reef fish.
From there we proceeded to Vertigo. This is where you jump in the water and immediately you are surrounded by 6-8 ft white and black-tip reef sharks. At this location it is shallow (30 ft) until you get to the wall. The wall goes very deep, but we only went about 80 feet at most. There was a giant grouper, a large stingray, and tons of other things that I had never seen before. It was overwhelming at times, but the views were beautiful. I had to remember to keep breathing.
After our tanks were all empty, we decided to do a little fishing. Our captain, John, broke out his lures and a spool of 120 lb-test line. I didn’t know how this was going to work, but I soon found that this was not the easiest way to do things. When a bite would yank the line, one of us had to pull the line in by hand. During this time sharks were jumping up and ripping the fish on the line to shreds. We had to compete with them in their territory; they won. It was fun even losing a fish or two or three or … never mind. After getting at least nine fish on the hook, we only scored three Yellow-Fin tunas. When it was my turn, John decided to switch the lure to catch Wahoo. I didn’t know how big they were, but the lure was about as big as a football. When one got on my line, it was as big I am. I lost it when the line burned my hands. The trip took us on a complete lap of the island, or maybe Captain John went the long/wrong way back to the resort.
After fishing, Deter, a local restaurant owner (ESA) who was on the boat with us, took the fish to his chef to prepare them for us to eat for dinner. We started out with a sashimi plate; we had blackened and plain. After that, we were brought tuna hand rolls that were delicious. As for the third course we had grilled tuna with yellow passion fruit sauce.
We were all beat, and I really didn’t feel very well anymore. This was an experience that I don’t think Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) nor Anthony Bourdain (No Reservations) has had the pleasure of enjoying. I had to sleep on my side that night from the sunburn, but at least this was a great way to get rid of my Georgia farmer’s tan.
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