Hawaii Skin Diver The Breath of Freedivers

I am new to site and to the sport and am looking for more advice on techniques and areas to look fir invasive species. Thanks!

If you search up "invasives," "Roi," "ta'ape," or "to'au" you should be able to find a ton of information on them.

IMHO...no technique, just blast

Went out and "searched" the water this evening and spotted 5 roi. Soon I think it will be time to actually start hunting.

I've started spotting a few roi but i haven't manage to get one yet, they hole up (i've got limited skills and spoke them) and hide so i can't get a shot and never mind how long i hang around they wont come out and swim in front of my gun

Roi are tricky and crafty fish. They know they're targeted and act accordingly. I'm no expert by any means but i've gotten quite a few of these guys.

from my experience, when you spot a roi, you first have to take notice of what they're doing. are they acting scared? are they not paying attention to you? Lots of times when they're acting scared its tough to get em. If you make a quick motion towards them they'll not even think twice and hole up never to be seen again. What i try to do is hang around a little bit, let them get used to u and in the meantime breathing up, i'll then slowly make my decent towards them. usually they'll stop what they're doing and face you and stare, ready to dart away at any second. SLOWLY swim closer till within shooting range and blast em.

if they're acting scared and hole up quickly, i usually hang around where they holed up for a minute or 2.. many times they'll peek their head back out a few times to see if the coast is clear. So what i'll usually do is when they hole up is take a deep breath and drop on top of their hole stopping within shooting distince and just hang upside down with the gun pointed around the hole waiting for them to pop out. when i see the head pop out i'll blast the shot from above.

Sometimes chumming around they're hole will bring them out too.

keep practicing and you'll get em for sure.

for toau and taape, where there's one.. there's usually more running around. I like to find an area where they're running in between rock structures and position myself on the bottom pointed towards an opening that they're crossing. dusting the sand and/or scratching sometimes will bring them out. when they're curious they'll prtty much swim right at you.. when they're scared they run away so u gotta be quick. So i like a nice ambush spot where you can hide and cover an opening that they're using. a head shot is best cause whn you hit em they go nuts and rip off easy from body shots. I notice toau hanging in areas that have sandy bottoms but lots of rock and ledge structures to run and hide under. Taape too although they school bigger and seem to cover more ground meaning they run further away.. toau when they run will usually stay within a certain area.. taape when they run are out and gone.

hope this helps.

JRS thank you very helpful information. One more question though, when you say scratching can bring them out what do you mean?

using your fingers to scratch the rocks around or picking up a small rock and scratching it against another.. sometimes the noise makes them curious enough to come and check u out.

rois love takos brah, if im lucky enough to grab a tako i attach it to my kui on my floater let it hang alittle bit down. let all your bungie line out and drag the float toward you so the tako looks like it swimming above the reef. you would be surprised what fish come out of the cracks

Roi also stay in the same spot. If he holes up just move on and remember where he was and hit that spot again on your way back in from the dive. He'll be back out around the same area by then so you should get another chance at him.