Hunting
Catching a fish
My nephew Adrian, from Australia, was crewing for us a few years back. We were doing a lot of diving and I was getting him into spearfishing. We were down about 65 feet and I pointed out a nice Hog Fish for him to shoot. He stalked it and Bam! I noticed that the fish went crazy and got off. Guess he just nicked it. Oh well, next time. While he was retrieving his spear and reloading the gun I saw a nice Snapper so I went after it. I got to about 45’ and nailed it. I have a clip on me that I run through the fish gills and then out his mouth. This has a 15’ small line on it so it can hang below me in case something big is out there and wants it. I put the snapper on the clip, removed the spear and was trying to untangle the line so I could drop it when all of a sudden a huge bull shark head appeared under my armpit and snapped onto the fish. Thefish disappeared and as the shark took off he body checked me and I was pushed about a meter to the side. I was winded and close to having involuntary bowel movements.
Adrian had seen this shark around him at 65’ while he was reloading his gun. He said later that he had looked up and saw it staring at him. After he heard me shoot, the shark turned and just started in my direction. He said the shark just took off really fast and thought it ate Uncle Whitey up! All he could see was a lot of scrambled fish and blood and me not moving too well.
Our Bull Shark
Another Bull Shark
Adrian swam over to me and we both looked at each other with big eyes. We gave the thumb up signal to ascend and started making our way to the surface. The ascent was slow as always but our swim back to the boat was FAST! Max just happened to look out the window seeing two tanks and rapidly kicking fins coming toward the boat. Once we got out of the water, our adrenalin level calmed, we looked at each other and said ‘I guess we now have a good shark story to tell’.
Adrian’s big fish
When spearfishing there will be sharks or baraccudas swimming around just wanting a free handout. Most of the time you never encounter any. They really aren’t interested in us. Only the fish. Weather I am free diving or on tanks I am constantly looking around my environment. Contrary to what many people believe, it can be more challenging to go hunting with SCUBA tanks. You make so much noise with the exhaust bubbles. When you get a good clean shot it is a thrill. And good eating!
