MRXRAY
Contributor
So Recharge asks me if I could get Wednesday off to do some Spearfishing offshore and for those who know me, it doesn't take a whole lot of arm twisting to get me in the water, plus I was still a few dives short of 20 for the month so the plan was set in motion!
We had some storms rolling through on Tuesday so we decided to make the call at 6:00 AM as to if we would go and at 6:AM MR. NOAA said that "You are now free to move about the Gulf!" So with waves expected to be less than 4 feet we started out on our adventure, meeting a few extra divers at the dock, to include Recharge, Brandon, Underwater Angler, and Todd (No SB Name?), and of course myself.
After a slow start we were finally moving by mid-morning and on our way to our first stop, Paradise Holes. We splashed here at 10:15 AM and we quickly made our way to the bottom and Sand..... We swam around until we found a limestone outcropping but we were not real happy at what we saw, I was expecting more than what we jumped on and it may just be poor navigation but it was not a hot spot. We shot a few fish here, but nothing great, just a lot of snapper that were a stretch to make legal, but we put a few in the boat. It was also the start of mini season which is what moved us to live bottom in the first place but no luck on bugs either. Max depth was 99 feet for 42 minutes and I had a min temp of 75* and the viz was a respectable 30 feet. We then headed for Vince Whibb reef which had been a nice spot to shoot in the past although we have always had a shark on site to make sure we didn't over do it! This day wouldn't be any different!
We splashed at Vince Whibb at 1:15 PM and immediately it was evident that the fish were not here today. We spotted a couple of smaller fish but nothing like we had seen in the past. So we swam around checking everything out in the 50 + foot viz. We could literally see the bottom of the boat from 50 feet it was so clear....AWESOME!!! So things seemed a bit slow with no snapper or grouper lurking about and the triggers that we did see were a bit small, so when the opportunity came to shoot a 36" AJ I took it knowing that this would definitely pick the action up.... And man was I right!!
As I'm fighting this AJ and getting him strung a big flounder swims under us and after a few yells from me Brandon pops him, then out of the blue comes a huge dolphin which makes a couple of very, very, very close passes..... Like AT&T Close. (Reach out and touch someone....For you slower readers). So I have the AJ in one hand, and I'm trying to get my camera powered on as we are getting buzzed by a huge dolphin. This was so AWESOME! Then my friend shows up to crash the party....Mr. Shark. The dolphin is not to happy with his party crashing efforts so the Dolphin charges the shark and it looks like things are getting crazy.... In the meantime I decide to cut my AJ loose as the action intensifies to keep me from being in the middle of the tussle.
As I'm cutting the AJ off my line and reloading my gun Brandon tells me that the Dolphin had rammed the shark, which I missed. But as I regain my composure and am now in the hunt for video, I find that the Dolphin, the Shark and my AJ are all gone. This has all happened in about a two minute period but now I'm thirsty for more of the same so I help Brandon get his Flounder strung, he reloads his gun and away we go. As it turns out I did get a short snippet of the dolphin which is in the video.
Not a few minutes later what do we spot in the distance? My AJ laying upside down in the sand gills going 100 miles an hour, but unscathed.... I shoot some video as we approach wondering what gives. How do we end up with the fish in this scenario? As I'm hovering about 10 feet above the fish Brandon moves below to recover the fish as I'm still scratching my head trying to put this puzzle together. And then I see the shark moving back in off Brandon's left......Oh man, Camera Time! I yell for Brandon to move up and away from the AJ and Shark but at this point he's seen the shark too. And the Shark circles and Brandon has to poke check the shark away while he moves out of the action zone. As we sit above the shark watching and me rolling video the Shark passes again and this time pops the AJ violently shaking it which rips the AJ in half. The shark then 360's and comes back and finishes the meal tail first in one quick gulp. Even as I write this I'm shaking with excitement of what I watched and video taped. We had defiantly had enough though so we made our way back to the anchor line. You can see Brandon give me the OK sign and then thumb the dive, honestly if he hadn't thumbed it I would have!
As We started up the anchor rope I turned to Brandon and counted all my fingers and toes, fist pounded him and just smiled as I started thinking about what music to put with this video!!!
I hope you enjoy it....... Crank the music and enjoy what turned out to be 3 minutes of heart pounding adrenalin!!!
Vince Whibb Dolphin and Shark on Vimeo
We had some storms rolling through on Tuesday so we decided to make the call at 6:00 AM as to if we would go and at 6:AM MR. NOAA said that "You are now free to move about the Gulf!" So with waves expected to be less than 4 feet we started out on our adventure, meeting a few extra divers at the dock, to include Recharge, Brandon, Underwater Angler, and Todd (No SB Name?), and of course myself.
After a slow start we were finally moving by mid-morning and on our way to our first stop, Paradise Holes. We splashed here at 10:15 AM and we quickly made our way to the bottom and Sand..... We swam around until we found a limestone outcropping but we were not real happy at what we saw, I was expecting more than what we jumped on and it may just be poor navigation but it was not a hot spot. We shot a few fish here, but nothing great, just a lot of snapper that were a stretch to make legal, but we put a few in the boat. It was also the start of mini season which is what moved us to live bottom in the first place but no luck on bugs either. Max depth was 99 feet for 42 minutes and I had a min temp of 75* and the viz was a respectable 30 feet. We then headed for Vince Whibb reef which had been a nice spot to shoot in the past although we have always had a shark on site to make sure we didn't over do it! This day wouldn't be any different!
We splashed at Vince Whibb at 1:15 PM and immediately it was evident that the fish were not here today. We spotted a couple of smaller fish but nothing like we had seen in the past. So we swam around checking everything out in the 50 + foot viz. We could literally see the bottom of the boat from 50 feet it was so clear....AWESOME!!! So things seemed a bit slow with no snapper or grouper lurking about and the triggers that we did see were a bit small, so when the opportunity came to shoot a 36" AJ I took it knowing that this would definitely pick the action up.... And man was I right!!
As I'm fighting this AJ and getting him strung a big flounder swims under us and after a few yells from me Brandon pops him, then out of the blue comes a huge dolphin which makes a couple of very, very, very close passes..... Like AT&T Close. (Reach out and touch someone....For you slower readers). So I have the AJ in one hand, and I'm trying to get my camera powered on as we are getting buzzed by a huge dolphin. This was so AWESOME! Then my friend shows up to crash the party....Mr. Shark. The dolphin is not to happy with his party crashing efforts so the Dolphin charges the shark and it looks like things are getting crazy.... In the meantime I decide to cut my AJ loose as the action intensifies to keep me from being in the middle of the tussle.
As I'm cutting the AJ off my line and reloading my gun Brandon tells me that the Dolphin had rammed the shark, which I missed. But as I regain my composure and am now in the hunt for video, I find that the Dolphin, the Shark and my AJ are all gone. This has all happened in about a two minute period but now I'm thirsty for more of the same so I help Brandon get his Flounder strung, he reloads his gun and away we go. As it turns out I did get a short snippet of the dolphin which is in the video.
Not a few minutes later what do we spot in the distance? My AJ laying upside down in the sand gills going 100 miles an hour, but unscathed.... I shoot some video as we approach wondering what gives. How do we end up with the fish in this scenario? As I'm hovering about 10 feet above the fish Brandon moves below to recover the fish as I'm still scratching my head trying to put this puzzle together. And then I see the shark moving back in off Brandon's left......Oh man, Camera Time! I yell for Brandon to move up and away from the AJ and Shark but at this point he's seen the shark too. And the Shark circles and Brandon has to poke check the shark away while he moves out of the action zone. As we sit above the shark watching and me rolling video the Shark passes again and this time pops the AJ violently shaking it which rips the AJ in half. The shark then 360's and comes back and finishes the meal tail first in one quick gulp. Even as I write this I'm shaking with excitement of what I watched and video taped. We had defiantly had enough though so we made our way back to the anchor line. You can see Brandon give me the OK sign and then thumb the dive, honestly if he hadn't thumbed it I would have!
As We started up the anchor rope I turned to Brandon and counted all my fingers and toes, fist pounded him and just smiled as I started thinking about what music to put with this video!!!
I hope you enjoy it....... Crank the music and enjoy what turned out to be 3 minutes of heart pounding adrenalin!!!
Vince Whibb Dolphin and Shark on Vimeo
The sharks will learn that buzzing divers means a free meal, and the end result will be nervous divers purchasing powerheads to pop "aggressive" sharks. 
I know it's embarrassing to be humbled by me week, after week, after week, but sneaking out and leaving me behind is not the answer. It's not like I'm stingy. I'm always willing to share my sage advice, and demonstrate my awesome fish-killing skills, but I guess I'll have to start missing fish on purpose so someone else has a chance to shoot something 
