Amberjack almost kills me! Sharks and Barracuda too

[Steve_C]

Amberjack (and cobia) are both fish that can appear to be spent and then get very active sometimes to the chagrin of the folks in the boat with it.

I will add going over each others gear prior to diving to your things to do better list.

Nice not only for you to know where the octo is but so will your buddy if he/she needs it.

Of course, knowing what you should do and doing it is not always what we do. I recall thinking this is not a smart idea as I removed with my bare hands one of a set of three treble hooks from a small fresh caught tuna just laying on the deck. A second later I was attached with 4 inches of wire to a flopping 10 lb fish with a hook driven past the barb in my thumb.

 

[eelnoraa]

A couple of questions: First off, with the first fish, you swam up and gave the boat the gun, and they pulled up the fish. Why wouldn't that have worked the second time? (Asked as someone who knows NOTHING whatsoever about spearfishing). Second question, what on earth was your buddy thinking, donating the Air2? That is NOT the way that configuration is supposed to work.

If I saw the video correctly, his buddy also had a necklace on his primary, so no chance of donating the primary either. Overall, I think the out of air procedure should be re-considered.

 

[drrich2]

I haven't watched the video. I do have my primary on a rubber necklace and use an Air2. I can quickly snatch my primary 2nd stage out of the necklace and hand it off. Don't know if the OP can, but it's possible.

 

[victorzamora]

The first amberjack was shot at 20 feet as I was heading down toward the reef. second amberjack was shot at 100 feet, too deep to just bring him up. I underestimated him, thought he was pretty much dead and was just trying to put him on a stringer so I could keep shooting fish.

---------- Post added May 28th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ----------

In regards to my buddy and the Air2, I was not familiar with his gear setup, and apparently neither was he. He tried to hand me his gauges thinking it was his octo. I wasn't about to take the air out of his mouth, so I did what I needed to do.

The reason that I didn't grab my own regulator is the fish had wrapped around it. My octo hangs freely behind me (generally it takes me a few seconds to find it) and in my split second decision was to go to my buddy who was nearby and I knew was watching me. I now have changed my gear set-up so my octo is mounted to my BC so I'll always know where it is.

One thought for your reg config is a necklaced secondary. This would mean you're breathing off of a longer hose that you donate in case of buddy stuff. If you lose it (buddy steals, fish steals it, etc), your backup is right underneath your face. ZERO searching.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The first amberjack was shot at 20 feet as I was heading down toward the reef. second amberjack was shot at 100 feet, too deep to just bring him up. I underestimated him, thought he was pretty much dead and was just trying to put him on a stringer so I could keep shooting fish.

---------- Post added May 28th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ----------

In regards to my buddy and the Air2, I was not familiar with his gear setup, and apparently neither was he. He tried to hand me his gauges thinking it was his octo. I wasn't about to take the air out of his mouth, so I did what I needed to do.

The reason that I didn't grab my own regulator is the fish had wrapped around it. My octo hangs freely behind me (generally it takes me a few seconds to find it) and in my split second decision was to go to my buddy who was nearby and I knew was watching me. I now have changed my gear set-up so my octo is mounted to my BC so I'll always know where it is.

Sorry you didn't like the tone of my critique, but I would have been harsher on my friends..

I had not noticed that you buddy tried to stick a pressure guage in your mouth, when you lost your air supply. It is even more clear that the dive team was way over their heads on that dive.

Getting your buddies to drag a green AJ in the boat by the spear is a good way to ruin a shaft and it can also damage the boat and cause personal injury to the people on board. Leaving the live fish impaled on the shaft and putting on the boat is very unwise.

If you were unwilling or unable to subdue the fish in 20 ft of water, then at a minimum, you should have yanked the shaft through so the fish is suspended on the shooting line. If you do that, then the fish can not easily bend the shaft or injure people with the shaft. And of course, the boat crew would be smart to use a gaff rather than yanking on a shaft if the fish is green, but you have no control of what the bubble watchers do.

I did not see anyone wearing pony bottles. If you are gonna dive with buddies who are unfamiliar with their gear (putting it gently here)- then you damn sure should be self sufficient and carry a redundant supply.

As for saying you leave your octopus hanging in the water column and it normally takes time to find it... You do realize how ridiculous that sounds right? Normal recreational divers can get away with that, but spearfishing big fish in deep water, the gear needs to be squared away and for me that means the back up second stage is routed under my arm pit and is on a neck lanyard. This is not trivial - it is critical.

I would not do that dive without a pony bottle. When everyone is spearfishing, you can NOT depend on help from someone who may very well be battling his own Amberjack.

It takes a while to learn how to instinctively battle a big AJ (and it is easy to get your butt kicked), but you seriously need to get the basic diving stuff down first.

edit: BTW, I looked at another video you posted. In that video you can see your was octopus unsecured.

In 2012 you filmed Billy Bob doing pretty much EXACTLY what I tried to describe with controlling and position the AJ under the arm. Looked like he took a big fish without too much trouble.. it is easier when you can pin the fish to the bottom than in the water column, but it went smoothly I think. Did you land the Scamp or did the jewfish eat it?

[video=youtube;dsg9AY5BO9M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsg9AY5BO9M[/video]

 

[Yoyodyne-88]

"You pointing out every mistake may be helpful, I'm not saying it's not. But you need to check your ego at the door, man."

I'd have to say you started it.

The egotism shown in the the way you hunt, and by posting it in a video, struck me even before Dumpster Diver's observations.
Testosterone-enhancement seems to be more important to you than gaining experience and seeking wisdom about diving maturely.

"Not familiar" with a buddy's set-up? And "neither was he???" Sounds to me like you aren't ready for the deep end of the pool.

 

[DiverAmy]

[deleted]

 

[Belzelbub]

In regards to my buddy and the Air2, I was not familiar with his gear setup, and apparently neither was he. He tried to hand me his gauges thinking it was his octo. I wasn't about to take the air out of his mouth, so I did what I needed to do.

The reason that I didn't grab my own regulator is the fish had wrapped around it. My octo hangs freely behind me (generally it takes me a few seconds to find it) and in my split second decision was to go to my buddy who was nearby and I knew was watching me. I now have changed my gear set-up so my octo is mounted to my BC so I'll always know where it is.

You aren't helping your case much with these comments. Kudos to you for recognizing the error in having the octo dangling and therefore not immediately retrievable. Decision should have been made before this happened, but at least you recognized it and are fixing it.

Your buddy needs to have his head examined. Diving to these depths while spearfishing with gear that he isn't that familiar with is just asking for it.

Go back through this thread and read what people are telling you. A lot of mistakes were made on this dive. Spearfishing is quite different than scuba diving. As such, the need to be self-reliant is even more important. A pony bottle should be considered essential gear at the depths you were diving in. If your buddy was hunting a fish, he may not have noticed you lose your regulator. If I'm hunting deep (greater than ~50'), the pony bottle is on.

Get familiar with your gear, get familiar with your buddies' gear. If these are buddies you regularly dive with figure out what the differences are in your gear versus theirs, and think about adopting a common strategy. That way, each of you will know where everything is by being familiar with your own gear.

 

[aquatic argobull]

Sorry you didn't like the tone of my critique, but I would have been harsher on my friends..

In 2012 you filmed Billy Bob doing pretty much EXACTLY what I tried to describe with controlling and position the AJ under the arm. Looked like he took a big fish without too much trouble.. it is easier when you can pin the fish to the bottom than in the water column, but it went smoothly I think. Did you land the Scamp or did the jewfish eat it?

The scamp did get off the shaft, but he didn't go far and I got him with the pole spear.




---------- Post added May 29th, 2015 at 01:23 PM ----------

"You pointing out every mistake may be helpful, I'm not saying it's not. But you need to check your ego at the door, man."

I'd have to say you started it.

The egotism shown in the the way you hunt, and by posting it in a video, struck me even before Dumpster Diver's observations.
Testosterone-enhancement seems to be more important to you than gaining experience and seeking wisdom about diving maturely.

"Not familiar" with a buddy's set-up? And "neither was he???" Sounds to me like you aren't ready for the deep end of the pool.

It's pretty obvious that I'm not welcome here...See ya

 

[Ana]

It's pretty obvious that I'm not welcome here...See ya

They only put welcome mats on the "new divers" room, every one is supposed to write the lyrics of kumbaya in every post for that forum, but not here... Hunters are a tad more aggressive.

Now you didn't ask for feedback on your initial post, why are you upset about the free opinions you got? Proper response would be : "yah whatever" and then on your own time analyze the responses to see if they have any merit, take what you think has value and ignore the rest.