I went diving the other day. For the most part got my A$$ kicked by 5 foot waves. Five foot waves are not necessarily that bad, but when you have to go 100 miles out and then 100 miles back in them, they can be debilitating, especially in an open boat.
We go that far to get to an area called the Middle Grounds in the Gulf of Mexico. Essentially it is an underwater mountain range too far and too deep for most recreational fisherman and divers. Depths average 125-150 ft or deeper.
My dive partner shot a large carborita which is a form of grouper. He quickly holed up in a cave and was impossible to get out. Due to his position in this small cave you could not sink another shaft in to him and he was too big and too strong to pull out by the end of the one spear shaft we had in him.
Being a resourceful sort, I pulled out my Busse which I keep in a sheath attached to my Buoyancy Compensator. I crawled as far into the whole as I could and felt for his head. By this time the silt and sand he had whipped up made visibility impossible. I felt what appeared to be his eyes - avoiding his mouth - and stabbed him repeatedly with the Busse. It worked, shortly thereafter we were able to pull his dead body out of the hole and up to the surface.
It was none to soon either as we were running out of bottom time and we did not have sufficient air to do a decompression stop.
I used a Busse Basic #7, but any coated Busse infi (or modified infi) blade would have worked - they are very corrosion and stain resistant. I may try a Variant next time - preferably a serrated one!
Oh, here is a pic of that monster - it weighed close to 100lbs!
We go that far to get to an area called the Middle Grounds in the Gulf of Mexico. Essentially it is an underwater mountain range too far and too deep for most recreational fisherman and divers. Depths average 125-150 ft or deeper.
My dive partner shot a large carborita which is a form of grouper. He quickly holed up in a cave and was impossible to get out. Due to his position in this small cave you could not sink another shaft in to him and he was too big and too strong to pull out by the end of the one spear shaft we had in him.
Being a resourceful sort, I pulled out my Busse which I keep in a sheath attached to my Buoyancy Compensator. I crawled as far into the whole as I could and felt for his head. By this time the silt and sand he had whipped up made visibility impossible. I felt what appeared to be his eyes - avoiding his mouth - and stabbed him repeatedly with the Busse. It worked, shortly thereafter we were able to pull his dead body out of the hole and up to the surface.
It was none to soon either as we were running out of bottom time and we did not have sufficient air to do a decompression stop.
I used a Busse Basic #7, but any coated Busse infi (or modified infi) blade would have worked - they are very corrosion and stain resistant. I may try a Variant next time - preferably a serrated one!
Oh, here is a pic of that monster - it weighed close to 100lbs!
