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Grouper Snacks and other odd diving tales

	Grouper Snacks and other odd diving tales
Author: d2reid Posted: 07-May-06 IP: Logged	Fish stories are always more fun after you have told them a few times. My wife and I went spearfishing on the west coast. Visibility was 10 feet. We found some old army tanks and I shot a nice grouper. We were very excited because we are not that good at spear fishing and this was the biggest grouper we had ever shot. One of my other foibles is that during this time I was losing a lot of gear. I now take a lot less "danglies" than I did back then, but at that time I was into clipping everything so I would not lose it. So I clipped the spear gun to my BC with a coiled rope, then ran the safety pin with the fish on it through the trigger housing on the gun. My wife (an excellent dive buddie) is close by and a little above me. While I am concentrating on accomplishing this with my gloves on my wife starts giving me the "something is wrong croak". I say croak, I think she is screaming but it sounds like a croack underwater. So I turn toward her to see what the noise is. She is very excited and pointing to me, well ok, behind me. So I turn back around in time to see a very large Goliath "suck" my grouper in. Yea, just like the bottom of a coke, slurp. While trying to collect my wits I notice that one eye is missing, the other eye reminded me of my bowling ball, that should give you some idea of the size of the Goliath. Quite unconcerned about me the fish then sedately turns and start to swim off. Ooops, I am attached to the spear gun that is attached to the clothes pin that is still attached to the grouper that is in the very large Goliaths mouth.... : 0 As he swims he is now dragging me. My mind is thinking, clips? knife? break the cord? Why I did this I will never know, but the drag had taken me over the fishes dorsel so that my shoulders where just behind the dorsal. I still had a hold of the spear gun with one hand. Which was taught just in front of the dorsal fin. I hit the fish. On the back. With a fistful of speargun. Twice. The fish stopped, kinda rolled to one side so it could see me with it's good eye, then went crunch crunch crunch, patooeeeee. It spit out the clothes pin, sans grouper. I was no longer connected. In retrospect I think hitting the fish was stupid, what if I had frightened it and it had decided to run away. All in all I was very thankful that our uninvited guest was quite polite and observed proper manners by releasing the diver after dinner. Of course the other end of the stick was my poor wife, who had gone to visions of grilled grouper, grouper fingers, grouper bites.... to "A giant fish just swam off with my husband..." She was very happy to see me come swimming back in just a couple of minutes. I no longer spear fish in murcky water............     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: seagoat Posted: 14-May-06 IP: Logged	great story! With a lucky and happy ending.     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: d2reid Posted: 16-May-06 IP: Logged	New Jersey Divers We where off of Haulover 2 weekends ago, C-one, Ms Karmine area. Current was running pretty good. We where picking up the second pair of divers when one my divers said "Hey, theres two more over there!" We looked around, no boat for at least a mile. (ok maybe less, but I couldn't have made the swim) Naw, it couldn't be! They wouldn't be that far from their boat!!!! Ok, maybe they are, it's not like I haven't made that mistake when I was still learning.... So we started toward them at idle, they submerged. Gotta give them an "A" for effort, they had a lot of ground to cover against the current, even if they are on the bottom. So we motored around behind them and watched bubbles for about 10 minutes, sure enough they surfaced. We approached them with our dive flag up and smiles on our faces (no we were not laughing, a smile is the international greeting of good intentions) and asked if we could give them a lift back to their boat? "No thank you", they said, "We're fine". "Ok",we said "We will just hang over here for a while, if you need help give us shout." Young guys, good swimmers. In about 10 minutes they stopped and waived, so we went over. They asked if we could toss a line and pull them to the boat. Ok, we aren't pretty but what do they have against getting into our boat, it's not they would sink it???? Anyway we complied and tossed out a fifty foot rope, no sense in feeding them gas fumes.... They had snorkels on, I have been pulled by boats several time particularly hunting lobster in the keys, there is a knack to it. One guy got it, the other didn't. Now realize that we are going into the current at a little better than idle to make some headway. Any way the back guy wouldn't keep his head down which resulted in a lot of drag which resulted in more pressure on his mask and snorkel which resulted in his mask slipping and him drinking some water, yuck. So we stopped and asked again if we could give them a lift. They said that would be fine. Whew! As we approached their boat we asked if anyone was on board, they said yes, their girl friends. We didn't say anything, but the wheels are turning. We dropped them about 30 yards up current of their anchored boat and watched them drift back to it. As we left I noted that their boat had a New Jersey home port. They must have been down on holiday. I'm glad they had fun!     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: Jimmyfish Posted: 31-May-06 IP: Logged	Hi d2reid , Wanted to ask was that in Hernando County Spring Hill area ? because we have site that me and my brother dive there with tanks , and there is a one eye Goliath on the dive site , and he is a fish taker lol been there.     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: MegalaJohn Posted: 30-Dec-06 IP: Logged	It's always good when the fish comply the "Catch and Release" philosophy.     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: Snapp Posted: 07-Apr-07 IP: Logged	If anyone wants to take a south florida sleigh hit the Boca Grande pass phosphate or fpl dock at ebb tide any day of the year. Shoot a big jack and take more than 6 or 7 seconds to get to it, and you will have several BIG Goliaths fighting to get that jack in their belly. Your gun will become handle and your spear leash will become hangmans noose. the big dog will all most always (take you home) i.e. thru the pillings. Beware it is not as fun as it sound.     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: Richesb Posted: 07-Apr-07 IP: Logged	That is no fun at all. Jewfish are becoming that type of problem in alot of places down here in the Keys also. Most of the wrecks on the Gulf side are inhabited by jewfish.     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: stevedan Posted: 22-May-07 IP: Logged	Holy Crap !! What a great story ! Thanks for telling that one. OK, note to self, don't do that.     Reply | Report to Moderator
Author: saltydog68 Posted: 26-Jun-07 IP: Logged	I felt that coming. I have not had a jewfish steal one of my fish yet but the popln gets bigger and more agressive every year. We have pretty much stopped spearfishing around wrecks and stick, mainly, to the many ledges we have in the area. The ledges, particularly this year, are holding lots of fish and there are no jewfish or baracuda to fight you for your dinner. I will stab a sun of a gun in the eye if he tries to take my dinner!     Reply | Report to Moderator