Spearfishing Trip in Pensacola

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MRXRAY

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Location
Pensacola, FL
# of dives
Well after our stop at the USS Massachusetts for a dive we headed out to a spot we hoped would produce some nice fish for dinner. We would not be disappointed. After about 5 minutes I had already shot once and missed and within another 10 minutes had shot and strung a nice trigger and snapper. By this time though the pressure from the other divers and Hetland's eagle eye had got the fish spooked a bit and it became more difficult to get any decent shots, but I did manage to take a few longer shots and missed a few more nice straight down shots before heading back to the boat. Bottom time 44 minutes. Kill count on dive #1: Hetland: 2 Nice Red Snapper and a trigger and MRXRAY (Me): 1 Nice Red Snapper and 1 Trigger.

After a short surface interval we decided to splash on the same spot for dive #3 of the day. The second dive here proved to be a bit disappointing as Brandon lost his shaft after just a short time and I watched him fool around trying to get it loose for a bit and then After we flip flopped guns for a couple minutes of shooting he thumbed the dive. So we returned to the boat after less than 25 minutes under on dive #2. We were all back on the boat with no fish on the second dive although Hetland only dove with 1000 PSI on dive #2! We were counting on him limiting us out and he let us down!
 
Unlike you guys with 100cf and 120cf tanks, I'm stuck with my little old 80's and only 22 min bottom time :wink:

I hit the structure and saw there were no shootable fish, so I continued on to the other side and got into the sand. My first customer rolled in, a very respectable red snapper, and I planted one in his ear. He didn't put up much of a fight, so I started bringing the line in. Once I got him within knife range he exploded into action, knocking both my reg and mask askew, which was a bit surprising from a snapper, but in the end he went on my stringer then in the ice box. That left me with 2000psi.

As soon as I restrung a trigger showed up and also ended up on the stringer. No fight from that guy, so it was quick work putting him on the stringer. That was another 500psi down, so I had 1500 left.

I still didn't see much action on the structure, so I moved off once again, and a table-ready snapper made an appearance. The shot was a little long, but I took it anyway. I did not get full penetration ( should have known better) but the floppers deployed on the interior, so I backed off, and let the snapper have a slack line to swim with. It was not easy keeping up with him, even though he had a spear in him, and I was lugging two fat fish around. He settled into a depression in the sand, and I reached for the spear, hoping to push it the rest of the way through to have a solid hook up, but the snapper was smarter than that, and he took off again, making a bee-line for the structure. Luckily, the structure he chose was a dead-end for him, as he was accessible to me, but could flee no further. I reached in, grabbed him, and put him out of the game for good. I checked my gas, and saw I was just about to hit 500psi, so I made my ascent and stop, and made it back on the boat with breakfast, lunch and dinner :D

I'll try to post some gun-cam footage later.
 
Great video! I like how it floats up (gun/camera) to point back down at you.

Michael
 
Unlike you guys with 100cf and 120cf tanks, I'm stuck with my little old 80's and only 22 min bottom time :wink:

Hey, I was only diving an AL80! :mooner:
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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