bandit1980ta
Guest
Ok guys, first of all, thanks to Miss Directed I got hooked up with this awsome Capt. We took off out of Dunedin today for a few shallow dives. I had myself and four friends (three of which have just gotten their certs.). We went out to Veterans reef for the first one, and to a natural ledge next. We had a great time. If anyone wants a Capt to go out with Mike is reasonable, has a great (and fast) boat, and his prices are great. As we were pulling up to the first site I found my self a new spear gun. So the trip was profitable from the start. The vis. was about 25-30ft on Vetrans and on the natural reef it was top to bottom (about 45ft). We saw a lot of tropical fish on the second dive, small hogs, snook, barracudas, jacks, and a huge angel. All the new guys did great. All in all a great day.
Anyway he measured out at just under 22 inches, shortly after a decent hog made a showing and he also found my stringer. Second dive, the infamous "what a rookie mistake" dive, as so named by my loving wife :blinking: was at 45 feet, the area we marked had very little life or structure, seeing some small gags and snapper heading off West I followed them to an area of very nice relief and a ton of gags, all of course 18-20 inches, with about 1300 psi left I finally spotted a nice gag (27 inches), took aim as he was turning and fleeing and shot him through the gills, he immediately started to spin and gyrate to shake the spear, I slid my arm through my band (as usual) and raced over to secure the fish as he almost was free of the shaft. Well, as soon as I had him secured I could not feel my gun tugging at my arm or banging me on the head, looked up and there it was heading for the surface. So, having had that happen once or twice over the years I wasn't panicked, just pissed, strung my gag and headed for the surface to retrieve my gun. This is where I made my mistake, during my dive I knew I was a distance West of the boat and had planned at the end to work my way back before ascending. Being extremely irratated with myself what I forgot was the change in current direction during our dive, so when I came up and didn't immediately see my gun, I started to swim in the direction the current had been, if I turned around it was likely within 20 feet behind me. I gave up rather quickly because of my distance from the boat and the rough water conditions, it just didn't seem smart to swim away from the stern of the boat. 
