Managed to do a 2 tank dive trip yesterday to shoot some fish. The 1st dive was on a bridge span sunk in 73 feet of water. The only shootable fish I saw were barracuda. These are pretty good eating & fairly safe to eat up here so I shoot them when I get the chance. It gets a little sporty after the shot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
The 1st one I saw was so big I decided I'd be worried about eating it, due to possible mercury buildup or ciguaterra toxin, so I passed. Then I saw a nice one, maybe 3 to 3 1/2 feet long & shot it. After getting it subdued & strung I decided to look for lobsters.
Made a full pass around the span without finding any & had plenty of gas left, so I picked another cuda & shot it. This one was a fair bit bigger, the shot wasn't quite as good & it got REAL sporty for a bit. I finally got him on my stringer & was starting to unwrap my spear from a steel beam when Fred came over & signalled that he'd seen a shark.
After getting my gun reloaded I looked around & found him, down on the sand. Pretty good size bull shark. Head was maybe 2 feet across. Guess she was maybe 8 ft or so long. I wasn't too bother by her, util she came up off the sand. Hmmmm, maybe she's iunterested in my bleeding barracuda hanging from my left side.
I eased down the span until I got the our downline, Fred & Jim were already there. No shark. So we eased up the line, did our safety stop & made it back in the boat without having to fight the shark & my fish uneaten. As this site is in FL state waters, shooting the shark for consumption is not legal. I can shoot or powerhead one defensively, but if I can't eat it I prefer to not shoot it.
Next drop was on a sunken Navy hovercraft, located maybe 800 yards from the 1st site. I missed on ecuda at the start, then nailed a nice mangrove snapper. After a bit Fred came down. Towards the end of the dive he once again signalled "shark", so I look & bigger than bull squeeze, here comes not one but 2 bull sharks righ below us. As I'm once again the only one with a fish, that makes me "it". Look at my gauge, 600 lbs of notrox left. Not enough to fart around with killing a shark, even if it had been legal to take one. So once again we made our way up, completed a safety stop & reboarded without problem.
The cuda were big enough that I had to cut them up to get them in a 48 qt cooler. Lots of fillets.
And not just a little bit of fun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
The 1st one I saw was so big I decided I'd be worried about eating it, due to possible mercury buildup or ciguaterra toxin, so I passed. Then I saw a nice one, maybe 3 to 3 1/2 feet long & shot it. After getting it subdued & strung I decided to look for lobsters.
Made a full pass around the span without finding any & had plenty of gas left, so I picked another cuda & shot it. This one was a fair bit bigger, the shot wasn't quite as good & it got REAL sporty for a bit. I finally got him on my stringer & was starting to unwrap my spear from a steel beam when Fred came over & signalled that he'd seen a shark.
After getting my gun reloaded I looked around & found him, down on the sand. Pretty good size bull shark. Head was maybe 2 feet across. Guess she was maybe 8 ft or so long. I wasn't too bother by her, util she came up off the sand. Hmmmm, maybe she's iunterested in my bleeding barracuda hanging from my left side.
I eased down the span until I got the our downline, Fred & Jim were already there. No shark. So we eased up the line, did our safety stop & made it back in the boat without having to fight the shark & my fish uneaten. As this site is in FL state waters, shooting the shark for consumption is not legal. I can shoot or powerhead one defensively, but if I can't eat it I prefer to not shoot it.
Next drop was on a sunken Navy hovercraft, located maybe 800 yards from the 1st site. I missed on ecuda at the start, then nailed a nice mangrove snapper. After a bit Fred came down. Towards the end of the dive he once again signalled "shark", so I look & bigger than bull squeeze, here comes not one but 2 bull sharks righ below us. As I'm once again the only one with a fish, that makes me "it". Look at my gauge, 600 lbs of notrox left. Not enough to fart around with killing a shark, even if it had been legal to take one. So once again we made our way up, completed a safety stop & reboarded without problem.
The cuda were big enough that I had to cut them up to get them in a 48 qt cooler. Lots of fillets.
And not just a little bit of fun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
