Gentlemen,
As usual, I am sharing some info.
I was blessed with a new dive spot which my friend accidentally drifted to. It was only some 400 feet away from my shallow sea mount. The fishes were BIG !!!! and the water DEEP.
It took us almost 45 minutes to locate the place with my handheld number only sonar. The reading were erratic. The shallowest we got was 86 feet, then the reading jumped to 140ft and to 180ft and to 234ft just in less than 100 feet of boat movement. Some area I can not get a reading because this hand held sonar maybe limited to 300 feet reading, I don't know.
After dropping the marker twice and failed to reach bottom ( marker line is at 130 feet ) , the third try was a success. 3 of us went down and to my surprise the topography was very scarry. The top shallowest rock was 86 feet only some 3 feet (1 meter ) in diameter and it looks like more of a wall than a rock because the overall width was less than 21 feet ( 7 meters ) and it is only perhaps 100 feet long but not even depth. I scouted the deeper water. The water was bad viz from surface to about 90 feet. At 120 feet the water started to be clear but very dark because light was filtered by the cloudy water above. Next to it there was a deeper pinacle at 120 feet. The bottom is probably at 180 feet exactly under the rocks and much deeper there after. In between the deeper and shallower pinacle there was a deep region of at least 160 feet. It's like diving between a woman's two breast of uneven size. Sorry this is the best grahic interpretation I can give. I did not really study the area well. I have not been diving past 120 feet in a few months and I hate deep dive.
At the second dive on this place I heard my friend's reel screeching again. He was no where to be seen. Damn, he must have shot a big one. I saw another friend got a small doggie of +-4kg. I saw lots of 7-8kg Jacks and small doggies. Nothing special and at that stage I have not ventured to the deeper pinnacle.
I surfaced and saw my friend with the screeching reel surfaced. The boat picked him up but it took forever. This means his fish was still on the bottom somewhere. He uses a 500# Kevlar and has 250 feet of line. I waited for a few minutes until they boated the fish. It was a respectable size Giant Trevaly ( Ulua ). So the story goes that he shot the fish, got the reel almost spooled out and he got dragged all over the place. The good thing is that the GT did not make any knots out of his reel line on the rock but being dragged away from the pinnacle his fins could not fight the powerful fish. He was at 30 feet when he decided to inflate his BCD to the fullest and kept finning. The fight lasted for some 10 minutes. He was excited but scared at the same time, more of the scarry feeling he told me. He was about to cut the line and make the sacifice to save the gun when the fish was a little tired and he managed to surface himself. Later he pulled the fish up when he was on the boat. The 4-6kg positive floatation of his BCD was not good enough. He was happy because it was the biggest GT he ever caught (35kg /77 lbs ) and our group record too. I asked him will he shoot the fish again with a reel with this kind of topograpgy ? He said hell NO !!!! He will use a float next time on this specific dive site. The shot landed on the tumy, thus the fish was still powerful. There was no damage on his gear but not to my another friend MT3 with a reel.
The dude with the MT3 + reel shot a big doggie on the same dive I hit a big doggie. He was unlucky and I was luckier but scared too. The fish spooled his reel and he wanted to stop the reel but instead of fighting from the shooting line, he grabbed the spinning knob of the reel. As the reel was in high speed spin, his knuckle hit the knob and the knob broke, lucky not his finger broke. His reel is the new Riffe reel. I think by design the older reel is more robust & thicker but heavier. He was swearing like hell. I told him never to fight a fish from the reel ( have told him before ). I expected the reel to break at the main bolt but I never expected the spinning knob was the weaker link. I told him to let the gun float away while he hold on to the reel line.
Here is the reel damage :
It has a crack. I use a torch to make it more visible because scanning a black colour item is difficult for good resolution. I'm going to make a complaint to Riffe. If my friend's knuckle broke instead, that's a fair game. This new reel material is not as hard and thick as the old one I am using.....:waterwork
As usual, I am sharing some info.
I was blessed with a new dive spot which my friend accidentally drifted to. It was only some 400 feet away from my shallow sea mount. The fishes were BIG !!!! and the water DEEP.
It took us almost 45 minutes to locate the place with my handheld number only sonar. The reading were erratic. The shallowest we got was 86 feet, then the reading jumped to 140ft and to 180ft and to 234ft just in less than 100 feet of boat movement. Some area I can not get a reading because this hand held sonar maybe limited to 300 feet reading, I don't know.
After dropping the marker twice and failed to reach bottom ( marker line is at 130 feet ) , the third try was a success. 3 of us went down and to my surprise the topography was very scarry. The top shallowest rock was 86 feet only some 3 feet (1 meter ) in diameter and it looks like more of a wall than a rock because the overall width was less than 21 feet ( 7 meters ) and it is only perhaps 100 feet long but not even depth. I scouted the deeper water. The water was bad viz from surface to about 90 feet. At 120 feet the water started to be clear but very dark because light was filtered by the cloudy water above. Next to it there was a deeper pinacle at 120 feet. The bottom is probably at 180 feet exactly under the rocks and much deeper there after. In between the deeper and shallower pinacle there was a deep region of at least 160 feet. It's like diving between a woman's two breast of uneven size. Sorry this is the best grahic interpretation I can give. I did not really study the area well. I have not been diving past 120 feet in a few months and I hate deep dive.
At the second dive on this place I heard my friend's reel screeching again. He was no where to be seen. Damn, he must have shot a big one. I saw another friend got a small doggie of +-4kg. I saw lots of 7-8kg Jacks and small doggies. Nothing special and at that stage I have not ventured to the deeper pinnacle.
I surfaced and saw my friend with the screeching reel surfaced. The boat picked him up but it took forever. This means his fish was still on the bottom somewhere. He uses a 500# Kevlar and has 250 feet of line. I waited for a few minutes until they boated the fish. It was a respectable size Giant Trevaly ( Ulua ). So the story goes that he shot the fish, got the reel almost spooled out and he got dragged all over the place. The good thing is that the GT did not make any knots out of his reel line on the rock but being dragged away from the pinnacle his fins could not fight the powerful fish. He was at 30 feet when he decided to inflate his BCD to the fullest and kept finning. The fight lasted for some 10 minutes. He was excited but scared at the same time, more of the scarry feeling he told me. He was about to cut the line and make the sacifice to save the gun when the fish was a little tired and he managed to surface himself. Later he pulled the fish up when he was on the boat. The 4-6kg positive floatation of his BCD was not good enough. He was happy because it was the biggest GT he ever caught (35kg /77 lbs ) and our group record too. I asked him will he shoot the fish again with a reel with this kind of topograpgy ? He said hell NO !!!! He will use a float next time on this specific dive site. The shot landed on the tumy, thus the fish was still powerful. There was no damage on his gear but not to my another friend MT3 with a reel.
The dude with the MT3 + reel shot a big doggie on the same dive I hit a big doggie. He was unlucky and I was luckier but scared too. The fish spooled his reel and he wanted to stop the reel but instead of fighting from the shooting line, he grabbed the spinning knob of the reel. As the reel was in high speed spin, his knuckle hit the knob and the knob broke, lucky not his finger broke. His reel is the new Riffe reel. I think by design the older reel is more robust & thicker but heavier. He was swearing like hell. I told him never to fight a fish from the reel ( have told him before ). I expected the reel to break at the main bolt but I never expected the spinning knob was the weaker link. I told him to let the gun float away while he hold on to the reel line.
Here is the reel damage :
It has a crack. I use a torch to make it more visible because scanning a black colour item is difficult for good resolution. I'm going to make a complaint to Riffe. If my friend's knuckle broke instead, that's a fair game. This new reel material is not as hard and thick as the old one I am using.....:waterwork
