Sickness

Well I just had probably three days of the most off the hook spearfishing in my life.  The first day Catherine, Lou and I headed out to the reef. I had heard there was blue water on the bar with a ripping east bound current. Everything pointed to the gulfstream being in and being the right time of year so I went to look for wahoo. On the ride out the water did not look that clear, and I didn’t have high hopes. Once we got out to the drop off the water turned blue and I could see the bottom in 70 feet from the boat. I also noticed there were charter boats all over the place trolling fast as hell. More good signs.

First Drift

First drift I started in 120 feet. Lou had so little confidence in there being big fish, he jumped in with his little reef gun. I jumped in with my Materpeitro monster gun. I saw a big King Mackerel and took a shot at him and missed. We also saw some black fin tuna but they were moving too fast. After a fairly long drift I was actually starting to get a bit bored, then I saw the silhouette of big fish coming in.  It was kind of deep so I thought it might be another big kingfish.

I slowly dropped down to its level and saw the teeth and the stripes.  It started to leave so I took a long shot through its tail, and boom off it went. My float went probably 25 feet under water and disappeared off in the distance. Catherine pulled the boat around and we followed it and after a couple minutes I was able to get the float and slowly pull it in and gaff it. It was a 50# wahoo which is a pretty awesome fish no matter where you are from.

We did many more drifts without seeing anything, hours passed. We saw a bunch of 30-40# kingfish but they stayed right on the bottom in 70-80 feet.  I could not time the dives to reach them before they were gone. If you put in the effort of diving and staying deep, you could probably have shot one. I shot a nice mutton in about 70 feet of water, not really what my big gun is made for it worked perfect anyway. A huge reef shark came in on me when I was pulling up the mutton.  The thing was immense, by far the biggest reef I have ever seen. Lou swam at it and it backed down. We also had a sandbar shark swimming around with us at one point, it also left when we swam at it.

Waiting

More hours passed  and Catherine and I were drifting along. She was taking photos of the numerous man-o-war jelly fish that were all over the place. Then came another wahoo, this one was little, maybe 15#.  I lined up, took the shot and missed. Oh well, I reloaded and in a couple minutes three more came in, these were as big as the first one. I lined up and shot the largest in the group, the shot held and I used the boat to catch up with the float. Catherine jumped in with the camera which was a mistake because when I got to where the fish was there was another wahoo way bigger swimming with it but after a second it took off. As I was pulling in the fish I saw what looked like a white mouth going after it on the bottom. At first I thought it was a reef shark, then I realized there was a 30# black attacking the flaring gills on 43# wahoo. I started laughing- what the hell is that grouper thinking.

Then came a big stretch of nothingness, then there was a scalloped hammerhead that rushed all around Catherine. She loved it, but hit the wrong button on the camera and missed the photos so she was super pissed when she got back in the boat. Then it was late so we headed in.

Second Day

Needless to say I was up early the next morning and heading back out. Catherine had to work so Lou, Brandon, and HB joined me. The weather was great, the water was blue, and everything was looking great. I had noticed the day before that all the wahoo we saw were in the same little area so I got up current of the spot, geared up and jumped in.  As soon as I got my gun loaded I was surrounded by wahoo.

I am not exaggerating when I say surrounded.

I lined up on the the biggest one, then I saw a bigger one coming after that one.  I lined up on him and nailed him, and the float was off to into the oblivion. I look up and other divers are just getting in, I almost felt bad … almost. We chase down the fish and Brandon stones the fish with a second shot and we are back to the spot.

I took The Camera

I said before I got in the water that if I shoot a wahoo, I will take the camera in. So the next bunch of drifts I ran the camera.  HB was up next hitting a big fish that took his float under for quite awhile, long enough so we had to get in the boat and look for it for a little while. When it finally came up, Brandon put a kill shot it in and another fish was in the boat. We had a large scalloped hammerhead with us most of the time we were with the fish, along with a big sandbar which would come up and check us out, or come up on the floats.

Then for awhile it was dead, nothing, no fish for a couple hours. A huge great hammerhead came to check us out and then left. Then the wahoo were back, Lou drilled a big one and his float went sailing off into the distance. Lou and I caught a ride on the boat to catch up to it and Lou grabbed a second gun to put a kill shot in it while I pulled it up. Then I saw Lou dropping on another wahoo which came up to check him out. I don’t know what he was thinking but he tried to shoot that fish with no float line and the next thing I knew his gun was sailing off into the deep attached to the fish never to be seen again.

the next thing I knew his gun was sailing off into the deep attached to the fish never to be seen again

I grabbed a second gun and swam at the hammerhead which had came in on Lout’s fish. It backed off and I got the second shot in it.

The next drift was Brandon’s turn, he hit one in the head and messed it up enough so it didn’t run with the float. I put a second shot in it to make sure, and then it was in the boat. Then we were surrounded with kingfish. Lou got an itchy trigger finger and shot one, and the sharks went nuts, three or four sharks were all over us, zipping around. After that it was late and we headed in.

Last Day

The final day of the marathon was a bit slower. I had Lou, Rafi, Albie and Andy on the boat. The fish were not bunched up where they were the previous day. A lot of drifting was involved. Andy and I both missed the first fish we saw. I was going to run the camera again but I wanted to wait until I shot a fish. I got skunked so no fish and no photos.

Andy ended up getting a big fish and Lou got two fish. Albie and I got nothing. That’s not exactly true: I shot a couple kingfish which turned out to be a mistake. I shot one and a dolphin took it. Not a dolphin fish. A huge flipper dolphin. Then I shot another and since the boat was far away, I stuck it on my float line. This turned out to be very dumb.

Once it was on my float , I noticed a extremely fast moving hammer head  on the surface not far away. So then I tried to get the fish off my float, but it got stuck. When I stopped messing with the fish I looked for the shark and it was right next to me, like close enough so I could touch its eye with my hand. I un clipped my float line and let the fish fall away from me, thinking it would take the fish and go away, it didn’t it, kept swimming on me, so I kept spinning around around keeping the gun on it. I yelled and Albie and Andy got closer and it backed down, but then grabbed the fish and the float line and started taking off with it. Then it came back, I was pretty sure we would have to shoot it, but finally it took off.

After that it was late so we headed in.