Only a week earlier I had been invited down to dive a reef a few hours south of Sydney that rose from a few hundred feet to within 80 and held hoards of baitfish, Yellowtail Kingfish (California Yellowtail) and what I was really after, Black Marlin. So went my buddy Brad Thornbrough and I’s trip to the East Coast of Australia this year and despite these minor annoyances we managed to have the time of our lives and spear some great fish along the way.Īfter celebrating my birthday for a few days longer than we should have, we headed North from Sydney in my newly purchased 1984 Toyota Corona Station wagon wondering if the bargain price of $1100 AUD was a hint that the reliability of our chariot could be in question. When you add angry Kangaroos, Great White Sharks, boats that don’t float and cars that should be sunk it can be next to impossible. Pretty neat but most of the time vis sucks and they scare the shit out of you.Trying to get people to come diving with you can be hard enough, but trying to get them come back for a second time can be even harder. They like being touched and being around people. It is common for summer camps to take kids to an area daily to visit one of more giants. Their mouths are big enough to get your head and maybe a shoulder in, but in reality they are very gentle and curious fish. Would a 1000lb black sea bass try swallowing a small adult whole? That is the the 5th time I've seen such a group. Supposedly a rare, once in a lifetime experience. Was looking for halibut a few weeks ago and got in the middle of about 10-15 young ones. Will follow you around at arms reach just watching. The adults go 1000+ pounds, the young ones 150-300 pounds and still have spots. Scare the piss out of you when vis is only 4-5' and all of a sudden there is a huge VW bug right in front of your face. Then a big ass Jew fish comes along and drags you over a wreck! If a fish is getting away from me just pop the co2 can and find your gear on the surface later.ĭiving is one of those things where something may work 9,999 times just fine. The rare times I do spearfish on scuba and can't use a float line I strap an co2 activated float to the butt of my gun. One reason I don't use stainless steel shot lines anymore. Have had a few large yellowtail (amberjack) wrap me up doing the whole circle of death thing and nearly take me down on their death run. Getting drowned by a fish is one of my big worries. Not saying it was smart, but that's what the guy was doing. I don't disagree, but this was about 80 feet deep on the Adolphus Busch wreck and I'm pretty sure he shot the fish in one of the holds where a freediver would be taking a tremendous risk. When you shoot the fish you put the bands of you gun over your shoulder and fight the fish from the surface with the float line.Ī 30+ pound fish can drown you real quick. Floats are attached to the end if in blue water, in kelp an inflatable CO2 float is at the end. The shot line comes off the gun and is connected to a 100-200' long floating line. Once the spear shaft is off the gun it is no longer connected to the diver. Not the easiest to do on SCUBA but we rarely spearfish on SCUBA here. While he most likely wasn't planning on it shooting any fish more than around 30 pounds should be done with some kind of break away rig IMO. It was pretty damn funny to watch and the fish eventually let go of his catch. I watched a spearfisherman get towed at least 20 yards across a wreck in the keys when a pretty big jewfish decided it wanted the fish that was on his spear.
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