This story's a little old (2 Saturdays ago) due to the re-vamp of the site but here it is anyway.
Went out of West Palm Beach last Saturday and had a good day. Although the most memorable part of the day wasn’t the fish I shot but rather the fish my friend Michael Antinori got. The reason for this is that Mike’s purely a freediver and not a spearfisherman. He joins us on my boat pretty regularly but usually only freedives while the rest of us hunt. Saturday was no different until we went to a spot in 80 feet. Since it was only going to be me and Mike in the water and vis was only 30-40 feet, I told Mike he’d have to carry some sort of float line with him so I wouldn’t lose him during his dives since we were going to be doing 1 up/1 down due to the depth. Well, Mike didn’t like this idea as he’s not too fond of floatlines being only a freediver and was putting up a little bit of a fight about carrying one, so I told him, “look, I’ll be carrying my gun with a line and a float attached to it so when it’s your turn to dive, just take my gun and carry it with you and when you come up give it back to me and then I’ll dive”. He agreed to this and we jumped in on the spot. On Mike’s very first dive, soon after disappearing from my sight, I heard my gun go off. My first thought was, he must have touched the trigger by accident (there are no safeties on any of my guns), then my next thought was, I hope he didn’t shoot himself. The next thing I see is Mike coming back into view dragging a lifeless 30 lb cobia behind him. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. But sure enough, Mike got a good shot (spine) on a very nice fish and there it was. He said when he first saw it he thought it was a shark but then realized it was a cobia (he’s seen several get shot while on my boat) and instantly pulled the trigger. And just like that a spearfisherman was born! And to solidify his new level on the foodchain on his very next dive, still in 80 feet, he shot a nice mangrove snapper.
Scott
Went out of West Palm Beach last Saturday and had a good day. Although the most memorable part of the day wasn’t the fish I shot but rather the fish my friend Michael Antinori got. The reason for this is that Mike’s purely a freediver and not a spearfisherman. He joins us on my boat pretty regularly but usually only freedives while the rest of us hunt. Saturday was no different until we went to a spot in 80 feet. Since it was only going to be me and Mike in the water and vis was only 30-40 feet, I told Mike he’d have to carry some sort of float line with him so I wouldn’t lose him during his dives since we were going to be doing 1 up/1 down due to the depth. Well, Mike didn’t like this idea as he’s not too fond of floatlines being only a freediver and was putting up a little bit of a fight about carrying one, so I told him, “look, I’ll be carrying my gun with a line and a float attached to it so when it’s your turn to dive, just take my gun and carry it with you and when you come up give it back to me and then I’ll dive”. He agreed to this and we jumped in on the spot. On Mike’s very first dive, soon after disappearing from my sight, I heard my gun go off. My first thought was, he must have touched the trigger by accident (there are no safeties on any of my guns), then my next thought was, I hope he didn’t shoot himself. The next thing I see is Mike coming back into view dragging a lifeless 30 lb cobia behind him. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. But sure enough, Mike got a good shot (spine) on a very nice fish and there it was. He said when he first saw it he thought it was a shark but then realized it was a cobia (he’s seen several get shot while on my boat) and instantly pulled the trigger. And just like that a spearfisherman was born! And to solidify his new level on the foodchain on his very next dive, still in 80 feet, he shot a nice mangrove snapper.
Scott
congratulations
