Slingin Steel on the Louisianna Oil Rigs

[Spear One]

I wrote this story about a trip I took Last year to dive on the Louisiana oil rigs. An edited (3000 word) version of this story ran in the spring issue of Spearfishing Magazine.

I have shared this "unedited version" with a few of the forum members and now that it is up on my web site so everyone can read it.

It covers a lot of topics and has quite a few hunting techniques and general spearfishing tips. It is rather long (8000 words) but hopefully you will find it worth your time. Hope you enjoy it.

ps. I almost posted it on the FS forum but didn't think it would clear the censors.

Go to slinginsteel.com
Scroll down the nav bar and click on Articles of Interest
Click on the story to start your journey.

[richhermes]

Here's a link for those folks that have a hard time following directions.


http://www.slinginsteel.com/articles/oilrigs10-02.html

[greyface]

Every time I read yer story, it gets better. One afternoon, while it was pouring rain, every single person on my job site read it. From the home owner, to the electricians, to the a.c. guys. Awesome read!

[Steel Shootin']

That's an excellent article. I read it several weeks ago.

[Spear One]

Thanks for putting up the link. You'll have to show me how to do that. I'm still learning this computer stuff! Glad you enjoyed the story.

[f94gator]

I just finished reading that and man, what a great story!

[GROUPER55]

Great Story!! Ive never heard of that particular dive club, but have been pretty well fascinated with stories like those from the Hell Divers. Again, thanks for sharing the article.

[Diver Dan]

Good article Spear One! I read it's edited version in Spearfishing Magazine. I guess they didn't want to print "Coon-Ass" in their magazine, so as to maintain their "Cultural Diversity". No such thing in this forum!! What a country!!!

[seastalker]

Kevin you mentioned that you have enjoyed giving the A.F. Navigation Towers. I spent 3 year out on Alligator Point and dove them religiously..All but two of them. I assume you have dove them all . We had favorite ones for cobia, amberjack, and american reds. Grouper were always a hit a miss for us. Which ones were your favorites

[blue gun]

Great story. Got me looking at your gun designs also. G now I want one.

[Spear One]

Thanks guys.
I enjoyed diving all the towers off Carrabelle. I think I dove the SM1 Tower about 45 miles south of Carrabelle the most. It always had lots of fish in the winter and one day I stopped there in late April and it was covered up with Bulldozers.

I filled a stringer with 25 or so of them and continued on to the middle grounds. I left a ton of them there and decided to cut my grounds trip short the last day so that I could stop and hit it on the way back to Carabelle.

When arrived at the tower I took all my gear out of my mesh dive bag. It is one of the real long ones that will hold those really long shoe fins I wear.

I took the bag down with me an started filling it up. 40 minutes later I tried to get off the bottom to start my ascent and I couldn't gain an inch. The bag was so stuffed the zipper wouldn't fully close. So there I sat pondering how I was going to get that big ass load of bugs off the bottom before I drowned.

I decided to drop my weight belt and I blew my BC up to the limit and I began crawling and scratching my way up the side of the tower legs grabbing on to anything that would hold me from sliding back down to the bottom.

I deploy a 40ft log deco line off the stern of the boat before every dive and as soon as I could see that weight on the end of that deco line I made a mad dash for it. I kicked as hard as I could and grabbed the weight with my last bit of energy.

I clipped the bag to the deco line using my stringer and finished my ascent. My deckhand pulled the bag up the rest of the way and dumped the bag out on the deck. "Big Mistake".

Those bugs started jumping all over the place and we quickly ran into the cabin to get out of the way. There had to be at least 150 pissed off bulldozers raising hell back there.

I was barefoot and those lobs would have torn my feet up if I hadn't gotten out of their way. We gave them a good bath in salty ice water and that calmed them right down.

I think we sold them for about $600.00 (revenge is sweet)

[Steel Shootin']

Spear One, something tells me you could write a book about the hunting you've done. Is it possible to use a lift bag to shoot the fish or lobster to the top? I was thinking at some point if you really whacked the fish, it gets combersome to make an ascent. The air bladders from the fish can make you positve real quick, creating the opposite problem that you had. Too bad those dozers didn't have air bladders. :D

[201proguide]

the great stoires of spear one never do end...keep em comming

[Spear One]

Thanks, I thought you might find that one amusing. Actually I like to use the air bladders of the fish to my advantage. The bigger the load the better.

A big load of fish offer good bouancy to assist in the ascent. As the fishes bladders inflate they will go "tail up", usually about 40ft. or so feet from the surface.

If I need additional bouancy I will just continue to ascend and gain more bouancy. If I want to reduce the amount of lift I take my knife out and pop the bladders of a couple of the fish to reduce the lift and continue up. Poke them just foreward of the anus about 1 to 2 inches.

You just repeat the process as needed to maintain control. Groupers seem to have the most lift, followed by Aj's and big Hogfish. Snappers are not much of a problem until they get about 6 lbs. I rarely make a dive that I don't have to make air bladder adjustments during the ascent.

[dlock]

Great story Kevin, I remember reading it in Spearfishing Magazine. I do like the longer version better. That has to be one of the coolest dives a spearfisherman can hope to experience. The book "HellDivers Rodeo" is one of my favorite books on spearfishing, those guys were really insane. Feel free to post any and all stories you care to share.:D

[Spear One]

Thanks dlock, Oh I'm sure I can come up with a few more.

[dlock]

I just noticed the "Apex Predator" under your name.lol:D

[Spear One]

Yeah, but I'm not sure if it applies to me or the Rhino!