This girl was riden' hard and put away wet

[keyspearfisher]

Even though I forgot my BC and reg under my house,I was still able to shoot a few nice fish. Dumb ass move; in a hurry to get on the water and loading everyone elses gear, it looked like everything was on the boat.
Took Johnylongblades and Keezdiver out to the Bush for a wreck dive while I freedove to pass the time. They came up with a snapper and the story of the black that got away.
Moved to a shallow reef and Keezdiver and I freedove. I didn't see anything, but Jeff has a story about two bulls and a Mutton.
Moved again to my favorite reef in the Keys and Johnylongblades and Keezdiver went down to take a look. The vis was good in the top fifty feet but none below fifty.
I then borrowed Jeff's BC and reg and hit the water in 80fsw off American Shoal. I was floating on the surface getting comfortable with the placement and function of his gear. When I looked down between my fins and saw an unusual sight. A Black that actually came off the bottom to see what was going on up at the surface. Judging from the fact that this fish is 41" long and only weighs 27#, I'm sure it was just hunger. You can see in this photo that she had previous encounters with things that wanted to eat her. Has any one seen a Black with this distinctive of patches on the fins?
I also shot my first Tiger Grouper weighing in at an incredible 2-3 pounds. The world record is 14 so it's a good sized Tiger.

[Mobile Diver]

Brian,

Nice fish. Were was it Thursday? Can't believe you got it on the surface. Too cool.

[keyspearfisher]

I shot it on the surface, but she needed to take a qucik nap on the sand before going to the boat. Bounce dove, and the guys on the boat thought there was something wrong until I held the head out of the water.

[jfg]

Nice fish Brian. Hope we can hook up when I get down there. Looking forward to some reeeeeelaxxxxxation:D

[ROCK BOTTOM]

Okay, the title of this thread is way too misleading. What exactly was ridden too hard and put away wet? All I got was a picture of a slimey fish. Ooooh, never mind.

Zz

[from the sea]

that is a nice fish!

[keyspearfisher]

I simply ment the fish looked a little, shall we say under the weather. Or lucky to be alive (up to this point)

[junior]

Originally posted by keyspearfisher
I simply ment the fish looked a little, shall we say under the weather. Or lucky to be alive (up to this point)

Looks like dinner to me:D

[keezdiver]

closest encounter with a bull...make that 2...bull sharks to date.

was freediving in about 40ft, with only about 20ft of vis. dove to the bottom and chased down a nice 25" mutton, managed a shot on it. popped back to the surface since i had the float line attached. i reloaded the spare shaft and went down for a second shot, the fish was bleeding and shimmying across the bottom, and i tried a brain shot but it was moving too much and my breath was running short. i managed a shot into the gill plate, but the spear hit the coral behind it and pulled right out...blood streaming out after it.

i headed for the surface, comforted by the sight of my first spear deep in the fish. i started pulling the fish up by the float line. about 20 ft down i could make out the silvery fish, still trying to swim with 60" of steel in it's side. about 15 ft below me all of a sudden out of no where, TWO large bulls, easily 10ft long, pounced on the fish from opposite directions.

and what was i doing? HOLDING THE FLOAT LINE!!

as the shark pulled the fish and the line away from me, i quickly realized the line was entangled in my stringer...so i frantically separated that....
the first hit on the fish didn't do much...it just tugged a bit. but then they circled back around and slammed it again...this time in full force. i finally got free of the float line and watched the sharks disappear into the cloudy water with my fish, spear and float line in tow.

i looked up towards the boat...adrenaline pumping...and yelled to johnny...and waved frantically...i sure as f**k didn't want to be in the water.

but by the time he had dropped the mooring line and fired the engine i was right next to the boat...thankfully.

we managed to find the float line on the surface not far from the "scene", and the spear was bent towards the tip...5/16" spring steel bent by the bite of the shark alone...

needless to say the mutton was history...and i was a bit reluctant to return to the water!

[Spearooo]

nice work..........

[biggsy]

Nice fish! I am glad someone made it out this weekend!

[spear_friend]

ever looking for some company to go diving

[Frank P]

nice fish!hey brian ben has filled me in about you,maybe one day we can get together,i cut my teeth around the sugarloaf area,back in the days when dolly and sugar ruled the lodge,and there where more cans then bugs out front,know turkey basin real well also,man it's changed alot,still come down every year,go too central america alot,got some places near gieger key also,but anyway you know all these spots,still that is a sweeet fish sir

[RIGREEPER]

NICE FISH! HOPE TO GO THERE AND DO SOME SPEARRING MYSELF.