Amberjack almost kills me! Sharks and Barracuda too

[aquatic argobull]

Spearfishing on the Chevron reef, I shot a wounded amberjack. My fatal error is that I thought he was almost dead...I underestimated him and we got tangled up, tangling my hose and pulling out my regulator at 100 feet deep. Also there's some video of me playing with sharks at the YDT-14.


Losing my air supply, sharks and barracuda! Oh my! - YouTube

 

[soccerrefjason]

Good buddy saw your need and came in for the assist.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

That was pretty ridiculous. But it is good to show how things can turn ugly quick.

Shall we go over it?

The shot placement was bad.. Shooting an AJ in the gill plate should not be assumed to kill the fish. You had all the time in the world to place a perfect shot and your screwed it up (I've done that a 1000 times; but you should expect to pay consequences when you perform poorly).

then what do you do after the shot? Take wraps of line around your hand with 3-400 lb monofilament? what if a shark zooms in and grabs the fish? You are going for a ride.. I try to avoid taking wraps of line around my hands.

Those fish typically will be very quiet after you take the shot if you are gentle. Immediately after the shot, I think I would have been gently swimming away from the leg of the rig so the fish does not have enough line to wrap around it. when there is stuff to get entangled in, I will try to get the fish away from it, so I have room to let it swim (when it wakes up after the shot). Do not horse AJ's until you have to, you can often finesse them into position if you are gentle.

You also have one hand on the line and one on the gun after the shot. Why? What good does that do? If you are gonna grab the fish, then drop the gun and let it float above you and swim down the line as you go hand over hand down the line to the fish. Swimming DOWN will put the floating gun well above your head and reduce the chance of entanglement.

Grabbing it with two hands and holding the chin? Who ever taught you that? What the hell were you gonna do with both hands on the chin? You should have used one hand to try to grab the gills, then use a knife to kill the fish or use a stringer. Holding a large struggling fish in front of you is not a good idea.

With a large powerful fish like that i try to get him under my arm pit, with the head forward. He may pull me around but it will mostly be horizontal and more importantly he can not easily hurt me. With that fish in your face like that, he can break your front teeth (mine are still chipped), knock your reg out, and knock you mask off, then swim around you and wrap your arms to your sides with the shooting line..all in about 0.3 seconds (Believe me, I learn this stuff the hard way).

If you have the fish under your arm, the tail will be behind you back, not smashing your teeth - he will beat your ribs with his tail, but you can crush down on him with your arm and this is uncomfortable but he can't really hurt you too much like that. You can ride the fish for a while like this and you have some control and can steer yourself as he propels you forward or more likely in small circles.

Then you get a reg knocked out, you drop the fish and then your buddy offers an inflator - air 2 for you to use?

He should have stuffed your reg back in your mouth if you were too messed up or tangled to do so. Next best option would be to stuff your octopus in your mouth, next option should have been for him to stuff his primary in your mouth...sticking his inflator in your mouth is "not how it works".

And while I am on a roll here... Get rid of those ridiculous split fins! If you are gonna hunt big strong fish, get some fins that will allow you to really apply pressure on the fish. . Most serious guys will use freedive fins..

I enjoyed the video, but getting your regulator knocked out of your mouth for 5 seconds should not be considered: "almost killing you"...

 

[lemke]

That's an AJ for you... wait til one pulls you into deco.

 

[Water Boy76]

I don't even know what to say...

 

[Steve_C]

I have fought some big amberjacks from a small boat. They took the boat for an hour long ride. The idea of fighting them under water is low on my list of activities. Besides the meat is wormy.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I have fought some big amberjacks from a small boat. They took the boat for an hour long ride. The idea of fighting them under water is low on my list of activities. Besides the meat is wormy.

You should try snorkeling for them in 180 ft of water. The worms are only in the tail, if you are "lucky" you don't even have to cut the worms out.

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

 

[aquatic argobull]

That was pretty ridiculous. But it is good to show how things can turn ugly quick.

Shall we go over it?

The shot placement was bad.. Shooting an AJ in the gill plate should not be assumed to kill the fish. You had all the time in the world to place a perfect shot and your screwed it up (I've done that a 1000 times; but you should expect to pay consequences when you perform poorly).

then what do you do after the shot? Take wraps of line around your hand with 3-400 lb monofilament? what if a shark zooms in and grabs the fish? You are going for a ride.. I try to avoid taking wraps of line around my hands.

Those fish typically will be very quiet after you take the shot if you are gentle. Immediately after the shot, I think I would have been gently swimming away from the leg of the rig so the fish does not have enough line to wrap around it. when there is stuff to get entangled in, I will try to get the fish away from it, so I have room to let it swim (when it wakes up after the shot). Do not horse AJ's until you have to, you can often finesse them into position if you are gentle.

You also have one hand on the line and one on the gun after the shot. Why? What good does that do? If you are gonna grab the fish, then drop the gun and let it float above you and swim down the line as you go hand over hand down the line to the fish. Swimming DOWN will put the floating gun well above your head and reduce the chance of entanglement.

Grabbing it with two hands and holding the chin? Who ever taught you that? What the hell were you gonna do with both hands on the chin? You should have used one hand to try to grab the gills, then use a knife to kill the fish or use a stringer. Holding a large struggling fish in front of you is not a good idea.

With a large powerful fish like that i try to get him under my arm pit, with the head forward. He may pull me around but it will mostly be horizontal and more importantly he can not easily hurt me. With that fish in your face like that, he can break your front teeth (mine are still chipped), knock your reg out, and knock you mask off, then swim around you and wrap your arms to your sides with the shooting line..all in about 0.3 seconds (Believe me, I learn this stuff the hard way).

If you have the fish under your arm, the tail will be behind you back, not smashing your teeth - he will beat your ribs with his tail, but you can crush down on him with your arm and this is uncomfortable but he can't really hurt you too much like that. You can ride the fish for a while like this and you have some control and can steer yourself as he propels you forward or more likely in small circles.

Then you get a reg knocked out, you drop the fish and then your buddy offers an inflator - air 2 for you to use?

He should have stuffed your reg back in your mouth if you were too messed up or tangled to do so. Next best option would be to stuff your octopus in your mouth, next option should have been for him to stuff his primary in your mouth...sticking his inflator in your mouth is "not how it works".

And while I am on a roll here... Get rid of those ridiculous split fins! If you are gonna hunt big strong fish, get some fins that will allow you to really apply pressure on the fish. . Most serious guys will use freedive fins..

I enjoyed the video, but getting your regulator knocked out of your mouth for 5 seconds should not be considered: "almost killing you"...

Dude, just take a second and listen to the way you sound...


"You had all the time in the world to place a perfect shot and your screwed it up"

"Grabbing it with two hands and holding the chin? Who ever taught you that? What the hell were you gonna do..."

"Get rid of those ridiculous split fins! Most serious guys will use freedive fins"

I can't stand keyboard cowboys. I'm a real person. I may be old school, but just because you're typing on the internet shouldn't mean you should talk down to me like that.

I didn't put this video up to brag about how amazing I am (much unlike the way you did exactly that on this thread), I put it up because I thought it was crazy and chaotic and people might learn a bit from it.

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. That's not the way you help somebody learn (providing that's what you were trying to do).

 

[TSandM]

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.

 

[aquatic argobull]

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.

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.