gnominic
09-17-2006, 09:24 PM
Ugh, so the good news is, I hopefully have the worse dive of my career over and done with. I will be very unlucky indeed if I ever have a worse dive.
I step off the boat at work for some hunting. My hands hand down my gun and the stringer, but in the process of untangling a line, I cradle the gun in one arm and, you guessed it, dropped that sucker. Water depth, 170ft. I barely see it pass the limit of viz on the way to the bottom.
After I get over the loss I ask for my pole spear. My guys dig it out of my room, assemble it and hand it down. I make the dive to about 80 feet and shoot some Rock Hinds (3 rocks, 1 red actually). It’s time to come up, so I make a nice slow ascent and safety stop perfectly. I reach the surface and my hand is trying to catch Chubs, don’t ask me why…. So I get the bright idea of spearing one for him, which I did, to my never ending horror.
There are lots of cuda on the rig, 50ish. Maybe that’s why the snapper wouldn’t come up. Several show up as soon as I shoot this damn chub and after a few passes they decide they want it. At first, I made a show but it quickly became clear they would have the chub. I could hardly argue. It’s weird how you can tell right when all hell is about to break loose. I dropped the spear and the chub, and the stringer just to be safe. They made quick work of it all and I made a quick exit.
I was amazed at how much the cuda paid attention to me. Their passes at the chub from one side to the other were aggressive, but when I was a little in the way they backed off. This was before I gave it all up. The whole incident took maybe a minute…. Damn, your brain is firing so fast at a time like that. Anyway, it was clear that I wasn’t their target, just in the way. But I figured that all it would take is one slip on their part and I’d be part of the fray. No need of that. It’s humbling to have four 5 ft cudas taking your catch 7 or 8 feet from you.
-dennis
I step off the boat at work for some hunting. My hands hand down my gun and the stringer, but in the process of untangling a line, I cradle the gun in one arm and, you guessed it, dropped that sucker. Water depth, 170ft. I barely see it pass the limit of viz on the way to the bottom.
After I get over the loss I ask for my pole spear. My guys dig it out of my room, assemble it and hand it down. I make the dive to about 80 feet and shoot some Rock Hinds (3 rocks, 1 red actually). It’s time to come up, so I make a nice slow ascent and safety stop perfectly. I reach the surface and my hand is trying to catch Chubs, don’t ask me why…. So I get the bright idea of spearing one for him, which I did, to my never ending horror.
There are lots of cuda on the rig, 50ish. Maybe that’s why the snapper wouldn’t come up. Several show up as soon as I shoot this damn chub and after a few passes they decide they want it. At first, I made a show but it quickly became clear they would have the chub. I could hardly argue. It’s weird how you can tell right when all hell is about to break loose. I dropped the spear and the chub, and the stringer just to be safe. They made quick work of it all and I made a quick exit.
I was amazed at how much the cuda paid attention to me. Their passes at the chub from one side to the other were aggressive, but when I was a little in the way they backed off. This was before I gave it all up. The whole incident took maybe a minute…. Damn, your brain is firing so fast at a time like that. Anyway, it was clear that I wasn’t their target, just in the way. But I figured that all it would take is one slip on their part and I’d be part of the fray. No need of that. It’s humbling to have four 5 ft cudas taking your catch 7 or 8 feet from you.
-dennis