[scubaru]

Went out around 50 miles yesterday. Seas were our friend and the skies stayed overcast all day. 2nd trip in the past couple of weeks that we've had the Big E pull up and fish close so I guess we're doing something right. I can say that I didn't spear squat all day except for a small Rock Hind Grouper but it wasn't from lack of trying. Had a few first experiences though. After I shot my little strawberry, ole' grandpa Warsaw came out. Probably about 40 or 50 lbs very aggressive, and hungry. He and I met at about 80'. I had just strung up my fish and hadn't taken him off my spear yet and ole' Willie was trying to eat him. If I had a Ray Odor kill spike, a knife, or a loaded gun this dude would have been mine but I was screwed. I kicked at him, hit him with my stringer, and played Lion tamer with the tip of my gun then finally around 41' he left me alone. I quickly reloaded my gun, quick glance, 743lbs of air left, $#^$#! Beginning of the summer, I'd a chanced going back down after him, but with a newborn baby at the house, and my heart rate still up from all the adrenaline and excitement, his arse would be mine next tank. I could still see him slowly swimming away. I signaled my dive buddy to go feed him some cold steel, but he waved me off as he was also low on air and had already begun his ascent. Oh yeah, and everybody saying ***?, you didn't even have a knife? Yeah I did. A brand new Omer Daga, for about 5 minutes. Bad *** knife, POS sheath. The knife fell out on my first dive as soon as I splashed.

 

[scubaru]

Continued.....

During our surface interval, we proceed to catch a 4 man limit of snapper on hook and line. No sows but good eatin size. We saw how many of those were down there, so we knew we weren't scratching the surface as far as the population was concerned. Also caught a 27# Ling on H&L.
Awwite, back to the story, So we go down again with 1 particular fish being the target. He kind of owned me right now so I needed redemption. I'm hunting, we're looking, there's one, nope too small, is that him, no, wait a minute, hey Mike your in my kill zone, Mike move outta the way, hey Arsewhole I'm hunting right there!!!! No way, good ole dive buddy swims over after he produced a Warsaw from the other side of the rig. He pulls it out from behind his back and is wearing a you know what kind of grin. About half the size of mine, and boat posession limit is one. Yep, I'm ******.
And fer my second first experience, on our ascent we were greeted to about a 7'~8' Hammerhead lurking in the distance. That's right Hammerhead. Seems our snapper slam caught some attention. He disappeared, I sharted, everyone went home safe and sound.

 

[scubaru]

And finally....

Well those were our second and third dives, on our first, which seemed to be a pretty popular hang out that day, I had a nice find. As we were on our way down I was locked in on a nice sow, and said dive buddy is zeroed in on the resident Ling. Spears fly and the sow is just out of my cable restircted range, and the Ling is on the end of the shaft. We split up for a while to hunt and I notice Mike's gun floating behind a rig leg as he must be on the other side of it stringing a fish. I go hunting some more and look around to see Mike's gun still floating behind the rig leg! Instantly the 1st chapter of Hell Divers Rodeo pops into my head, where the guy thinks his buddy is just sitting on the rig leg, but really the AJ his buddy just shot gets wrapped around his neck and leaves him lifeless, gun bands shouldered, gun floating behind him, AJ swimming back and forth above him still tethered to the riding rig.
I fin over to help, worried because I can't see his bubbles, and as I come around the rig leg, I notice it's not Mike's gun at all! It looked like someone shot the rig and got it stuck, then just left it there.(a freediver?) Either that or they shot a fish they couldn't handle, let it go, the fish got wrapped, and since has been recycled. But anyway it is a really nice gun, brand new and worked fine the rest of the day after I changed out the slip tip! I won't describe it in case someone claims it, but it ain't nothing cheap!

 

[speckle-catcher]

Neptune gives...and Neptune takes away

nice story - where's the pics?

 

[rebl22]

Nice Report

Its seems like you had a great learning day! Good find on the gun too! Maybe no one will claim it! lol.
Jason

 

[scubaru]

GalenP

To the feller who PM'd me:

Yes that is where I was, yes I found your gun, NO your not getting it back.

RU

Just Kidding , I'll give you a call if you post up how you lost it, that's a story everyone is dying to hear.

SON OF B!^(6! I had just started letting it sleep in the house with the rest of
em!

Well if I'd lost my gun and someone found it would be nice to get it back.

RU

 

[GalenP]

There are still good people left in this world!

Let me first start off by saying that Scaubaru is a first class, standup-gentleman. And so, to make the story not too embarrassing, I'll make it short and sweet. A couple of weeks ago my dad and a friend of mine went out to do some fishing and a little spearing. We just freedive, so we didn't get to see the big groupers or Ajs that scubaru and his crew get into but this spot is where we saw some of the biggest cudas ever. Well after 30 minutes or so of messing around shooting at sheepshead and other "simple" targets I finally see a really nice strawberry grouper. The fish is sitting on the platform about 12' below the surface. I swim down, take a shot, and boom, nail em. Well, the fish goes off the back side of the platform and cinches my cable in a corner. Uh, oh. So I try to free the cable but it is stuck like chuck. Up for a quick breath and then down again to see my gun getting pulled a little further down, cable still cinched in the rig with the butt of the gun pointed towards the surface trying to float. Well, it got pulled too deep for me to try and retrieve safely so needless to say I got back in the boat and finished my day with a rod in one hand and a cold beer in the other. My guess is that one of those monster cudas got ahold of the fish and took it deeper. We did finish the day with some nice snapper to 15lbs, AJs, ling, kings, cudas, and a few dolphin. So last night I get a call from RU saying that he has my gun. Man, that really turned my not so great of a week I've been having into a fantastic one. The craziest part of the story is that for one, 50 miles offshore my gun was still there held to the rig by a piece of fishing line and two, an honest and respectable gentleman found it and was willing to return it. Thanks again Ryan, and in my opinion, you get a few more green dots!

Now I would like to think that I'm not the only idiot out there who has lost a gun before so if yall have any stories similiar to the one above please share with us. Thanks and be safe out there. Peace.

GalenP

 

[bwanajcj]

found gun

Scubaru must be a stand up guy, cuz if i would have found that gun with no name on it, you would be one spear gun poorer. good job scubaru.

 

[will_spear4food]

Let me first start off by saying that Scaubaru is a first class, standup-gentleman. And so, to make the story not too embarrassing, I'll make it short and sweet.....
....Now I would like to think that I'm not the only idiot out there who has lost a gun before so if yall have any stories similiar to the one above please share with us. Thanks and be safe out there. Peace.

GalenP

A friend of mine said a couple of his buds lost a couple Riffes hanging off their boat on an SI. They went back in and the guns were gone... if I remember, in water around 300' deep. I offered to go look for them, but he wouldn't tell me the location... and I didn't have a boat then anyhow.

That is the probably the last time they left guns hanging from a suicide clip in fairly rough seas... Never heard if anyone retrieved them.

 

[dryespo]

It was about 1988 or so...My first new gun.. A woody Sea Hornet I was on my first Weekend Middle Grounds trip off Clearwater Fl. I am into my second day, Big Grouper, big Hogs....It was the best !
I am down about 150ft..I see a big Male Hog Fish, probubly 12 lbs..I aim, I shoot I got'em..But he is still kicking.. swimming in circles (we free shaft) kicking up the bottom.
I can see the shaft working its way up through the fish. If it comes out, he is gone and so are my bragging rights (everyone has one that got away, I wanted my fist big Hog). So lighten my load, and lay my gun down and haul assh after the Hog with my stringer in hand. As I wrestle the fish on to the sringer, I notice my gun starting to lift up... I can't belive my eyes. My spare shaft is loose and now the gun is butt up with only the end of the shaft through the eye of the spare shaft holder... up up up.. do I let the fish go and get the gun, or let the gun go.. I wanted both..
Needless to say, a second later when the shaft cleared the eylett, it cruised up like a ICBM headed for Moscow ! No problem, pretty calm day, Hornets float we'll get it back...
Wrong.. We never saw it again....probubly looked for an hour

Galen your not alone ~!

 

[Kenner21]

I was actually renting a gun once because mine was in florida and I wanted to go after a few snaps while I was in texas. Well long story short I'm checking the gun over and some guy walks in and starts looking it over as well saying it was his buddies etc. Appartently someone who worked at the shop had found it while diving and they turned it into a rental gun. The guy called his friend and I believe the dive shop gave the gun back to him. I thought that was pretty cool until the POS they gave me to rent broke after the first shot.