Blue Water & Blue Fins in Blue Beirut
Dive Hard

By: Roger Y. Yazbeck

"Guns?? Guns, you said?"

" Yes sir. That's what I said. Guns"

I was trying the «foot-in-the-door» psychology technique I learned from a 10 year old kid's quote, "If you want your parents to buy you a dog, first ask for an elephant." 

You have to admit it: a single tourist with six pieces of luggage weighing over 75 lb. each, should expect even the friendliest customs officer to investigate more thoroughly. The 2 X 7 ft. long gun bags, contained 9 spearguns each between 60 and 120 cm., and 24 spears anywhere from 90 to 180 cm long.  I wasn't too sure of the water and hunting conditions I might encounter, so I didn't take any chances.  I brought almost all my spearguns.

 I was only supposed to have 5 pieces of luggage, but the security officer in Montreal's Dorval Airport insisted on accompanying me to the Air Canada counter so I could check-in my ‘loaded’ rubber weight belt.  Some “Einstein” at management, very seriously explained to me that the belt could be used as a hijacking weapon, while drawing a large circle over his head, mimicking David stoning Goliath with a sling. Yeah… right!  I would really like to see a hijacker swinging his 22 lb. weight belt all the way to the pilot's cabin.  “Arnold!”  Anyway, I had to check the belt. Luckily, they didn't charge the usual $150 extra per piece.

 After my initial moment of panic, the highest-ranking customs official finally showed up and asked me about the guns. As I started to explain they were rubber band powered «arbaletes», the tension went down and they let me go through.  

"You should have told us this was only fishing equipment!  Have a nice stay in Lebanon sir!" 

"Thanks!" I replied, while thinking to myself "Sure. If I had said fishing equipment and they saw spearguns, I’d be in a world of trouble.  Ha!" 

Dive hard

To make matters worse, my best diving spots had been destroyed by construction.  Marinas had been built on top of them.  I had to discover new places.  The abrupt drop-off of the Lebanese shoreline made it difficult to locate any new dive spots.  One minute you could be in 35 ft of water, 10 ft off the shore, and the next minute in 60 feet of water, 20 ft. from the shore.  Incredibly, if you swim out less than a quarter of a mile, you'd be in 500 ft of water!  It wasn't easy to find diveable spots that actually had fish, but the good news is, you really don't need a boat! 

One week later, I started developing a severe sinus problem, which made it impossible for me to dive anymore.  With nothing else to do, I started visiting local fish markets and harbours to find out what types of fish were being caught in the area.  Apparently, the fishing wasn't very good because lots of imported species were displayed in the markets, mainly from Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Sudan and the Persian Gulf.  This was bad news.  Am I going to just sit there and complain about my bad luck or "create" a new fishing ground?

Blue water hunting has never existed in Lebanon. There is no such thing as a blue water gun, a bungee line, a foam injected float and so on ... heck, I couldn't even find a 200 lb. test mono line!  Whenever I'd ask for it, the classical response I'd get from the shop owner is, "There is no such fish in Lebanese waters, my friend.  You are not in America here!"

No such fish, huh?  We'll just see about that. 

I had been hearing about boaters catching loads of albacore tuna off the cities of Tripoli, Tyre and Saïda.  The largest were said to be in the 20 to 25 lb. range.  I asked about the blue fin tuna but the word was that these were to be avoided, because wherever they were feeding, the albacore wouldn't bite.  The blue fin starts getting thick when the albacore season ends, sometime around the last week of October. Then the blue fins can play freely again until January. 

One day, after a successful spearfishing trip off the coast of «White Beach», in the coastal town of Kfar Abida, I drew a crowd with my catch.  One young man, Makram Daouk, came up to me and said that at this very moment his friends were on his boat catching albacore.  He said that one of them dove in the middle of the feeding school and speared an albie with a 70 cm pneumatic gun.  The spear was attached to his buddy’s fishing rod on the boat!  Of course, they lost the fish.  Makram made me laugh so hard, his curiosity was triggered. 

"Sure I could land an albacore with my speargun”, I told him, “with no need for a rod and reel to play the fish!  I have my own reel attached to the gun”.

He didn't seem to understand how it could be possible. Just couldn't even imagine, I guess. 

DIVE HARD II

"A river of tuna ... I swear", his voice was trembling with excitement.  "I took a shot at one of them with a pneumatic gun but it was a lot farther than I thought", he added.

 "And did you attach the spear to the line of a rod and reel?", I replied with mocking tone. "No. I attached the spear to a rope, which I then attached to the boat fender", and then he quickly asked me if I wouldn't mind joining him on his boat in order to show him how to hunt tuna. Luckily, just the week before, I had received a shipment from France with my Scupper Pro kayaks and 3 large Baywatch style, orange, plastic floats filled with anti-compression foam.  I had my single band 120 and 110 cm long Picasso Carbono guns, lots of Tahitian spears, one threaded 160 cm spear, and one slip tip.  I felt ready for tuna.

So we decided to meet 2 hours later, at the Halat-Sur-Mer Marina (near the historical Phoenician city of Byblos, or Jbeil, the oldest city in the world).

The ride to the tuna feeding spot was less than 15 minutes!  The bait was jumping all around us and the seagulls were having a feast on top of the blue fins. What a sight!  Three times I jumped in the water, but the blue fins were so spooky and fast, I couldn't even get a good look at one of them.  The sea started getting rough, it was late in the afternoon and we had to go back.  But I promised Makram I'd come back in a couple of days and he'd have the sashimi he’d been dreaming about.

Next: Dive Hard III - With a vengeance!

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