Always an adventure

[Ed Walker]

Hit the weather window yesterday on the Red Tide rig with Capt. Red Shoes, ScottH, and TheJimster. The Capt said he had something to do the night before and said we'd be going a little later.
Anyway, headed out and continued to add jackets the further out we went. Its a lot colder out there than in here.
First thing we see is a whale, well it looked like a whale for a minute. I dunno what the story is on the half sunken 24 footer tied to a 150 feet of anchor rope but there it was. Punched it in and kept going.
In 60 feet of water we pull up to the first spot and even though it is overcast I can see the sand on the bottom from the boat. Saweeeet! Got one gag there and 4 jacks up to 35 pounds, including Jims first jack ever. Not too much going on. One shark came looking while someone had a jack on but he left pretty quick. By the end of that dive we realized that the water was pretty damn cold. 63 on the boat guage. Ran more than 5 miles to another spot and by then several of us had the chatterjaw thing going. I hate the cold. I wore a 3mm full suit with a 3 mm shorty over it and got cold early. Scott H had the 7mm which was the right call.
The next spot was THE spot. 55 feet, clear and loaded with big fish. REALLY big fish. In fact the biggest gag I have ever seen while freediving was there. First drop, ScottH drops down below me and I hear a thump and then a hell of a banging around. Im so cold Im having trouble getting my breathing right so I stay on top while he goes down again and appears with a monster gag. It gets bigger and bigger as it comes into view. 22 pounds on the scale. GR goes down, comes up with a hogfish, and announces that it is "game on!" downstairs. Even with a lousy breathhold I cant take it anymore and drop down into the maddness. Dust kicked up, huge mangoes, big gags, hogs, all milling around in and out of the holes in this big cheese rock. It was just insane. I decide Im hunting for the big boy. While making lousy 45-50 second drops to 55 feet I follow the fish trail, turning down a zillion legal fish and then...there he is. A true 30 pound plus gag. He swims slowly away and I ease after him trying to remain calm even though I am freezing, holding my breath, and looking at what would be the gag of a lifetime. He keeps me at a distance then ducks under an overhang. Im out of gas and reluctantly return to the surface. I devise a plan but it includes bottom time which I just dont have in me. Unfortunately my next few drops just plain suck and I cant find the fish. Gone. I spent the next 20 minutes looking for that one fish while the others were putting the smackdown. You know how you get that one fish that you think about long after the dive is over? Ive got it bad now.
Bummed, I join the others in what now looked like a beehive. I picked a few hogfish then make a slow, freefalling, meditation style drop and as I reach the bottom I see a 5 pound mango. As I line him up, the head of a big gag peeks out from a hole right below him, I wait for the gag to turn but he wont so I take the between the eyes shot and score. A 14 pounder. A nice consolation prize but still not HIM. After a while me, SH, and TheJimster were done in that depth. GR took a few of the monster mangoes and a 9.5 pound sheepshead then we headed shallower.
In 25 feet, my watch said 59 degrees and my lips were kinda numb at first. Fortunately there was OK vis and fish. It was a wide area of rocks and we all kinda spread out. I was pretty far of the bow, shooting gags and stringing them up on my floatline since I had no stringer. After a while I saw SH and Jim in the boat so I went and unloaded my catch. GR was way the heck out to the west, probably 150 yards. While we got our fish packed away I heard something Ive never heard before. RT yelling "Help!" Oh sh*t. I fired up the motor and ran by the anchor as Jim snatched it up. GR was spinning around on the surface looking down like there was something he did not like below him. He climbed on the platform, with a crazy HOFD tied to his weightbelt, and told us a big shark had just bumped him on the surface, looked him eye to eye and slowly dropped back out of sight. How the heck he was still making drops with that pile of fish around his waist is a mystery to me.
With plenty of fish, the sun setting, a bad shark in the water, and 30 miles to the house we headed in.
A killer trip once again.
Addendum: While filleting a fish back at the dock, one gag got a little payback. RT hit one of the dorsal spines and got it broken off deep in his knuckle. After cleaning the rest of the fish we stopped by one of my neighbors houses who happens to be a Doctor, a veterinarian actually.The good doctor performed a proceedure and extracted nearly a half inch of spine.

[fishkilla]

very nice!

[Gamble]

Once again nice trip!

[fishkillapro]

borat voice: "Very Nice."

[Old Bateman]

Super!

[MADMAX]

Nice fish, I think some reaaly big fish are around now. Yu guys are hard core freediving in this weather. good job
Mad Max

[Red Tide]

That was the first time I have ever seen a shark out there in cold water. It was quite a suprise, and it was quite a "Chilling" experience to say the least. I was a long way from the boat, and felt quite helpless. I think there was another shark as well, but could not make a positive I.D. When the shark knows where you are, and you do not know where he is, always makes it easy to warm your wetsuit
At the end of the day everybody was all grins. Big fish, lots of fish, and a good time was had by all. Can't wait to do it again soon.

[RabiSpear]

GR,
What happened to the arctic, 9mm stay-puff marshmellow wetsuit? Is that only for use around icebergs? Nice fish.

[Gamble]

Red Tide what type of shark was it? I also find it surprising that they are around with the low water temps. I am going to guess it was a spinner. Everything else should have headed deep or south.

I think I saw you guys out at Pasco over Thanks Giving if you where in a red boat. I was the lone free diver out of 5 H/L guys in a 33ft Saltshaker with a full fly bridge. Just curious if it was you.

[Red Tide]

Gamble...That was my boat, but it was my partner and crew out on that trip.
Rabinuts......I am saving the 7mil mallow man suit for the Tampa Bay Mid Winter Championships, to be held after three straight days of 30 degrees air temp in January.
"It is eaiser to stay warm than it is to get warm"

[Steve Bennett]

Sweet trip,
Ed, I know what you mean about "that one fish" on a spot. You hate giving up on it, but eventually ya just give in. a 30lber in 55 ft would be one to talk about for a long time.

Nice fish Scott

I just got the absolute delivery day for my new boat. It will be finished on Friday afternoon and we will most likely be testing our 4 different props all day Saturday, hopefully diving some Sunday, we'll see. It shoulda been done today, but I made a few last minute changes.

[inletsurf]

Great report Ed. That's the 2-for-1 whale, hit it at night and you sink 2 boats.

How big was the shark GR?

[Rolo]

Great Story Ed, great fish gang!

[stainlessdeath]

Good job Ed! your crew shows much sack!

[Gradyman]

Originally Posted by stainlessdeath

Good job Ed! your crew shows much sack!

That's because their balls are gone... I get cold just reading the story...way to conquer the conditions guys!