You guys ever have those dives where at the end of it all you think... "that was a really good dive!"? Im sure everyone does and yesterday was one of those for me. We got fish, so that definitely helped, but it wasnt the only reason. At first I was a little leary due to the weather. Heavy overcast and rain showers, as we all know, tend to produce some pretty crappy conditions.
I was delighted to see that the water was relatively clear (60-80ft of vis) and we were on the fish within minutes of entering the water. On my first drop I shot a nice little Uku (4-5lbs) and thats always a good feeling seeing as even if you dont get anything the rest of the dive you still have dinner. The reef we were diving (which I havnt dove in a while) was alive with reef fish and bait. Saw a bunch of takos within the first few drops (which I let be, or my fiance would kill me), some BIG kumus, few small Kalis, and tons of opelu darting around. Im a pretty selective diver, not so much due to the fact that Im a conservationalist, but more so due to the fact that Im a very picky eater :roll: . I love papio and Mu, and I LOVE uku so those are usually what Im looking for. I dont mind passing up large Kumu or Moana Ukalis for the sheer reason that I dont love eating them. Ill save them for those who do.
That being said it was still refreshing to see all these swimming around, and coming right into range to boot. One particular drop stands out the most. It was a drop that would remind anyone of a scene from the Discovery series "Planet Earth". I was concentrating on an area on the edge of the reef, in about 60-65ft of water, where I had seen a small uku. The reef ended right in a sand channel and there was a little sand pocket next to a big piece of lobe coral where I had decided to drop. As I hit the bottom 2 nice 3-4lb kumus swam up to me to say hello, and as I looked out into the sand channel I could see a giant Helmet Conch cruising the bottom. For a snail the thing must have been doing mach-2 as it plowed through the sand in search of what ever it is they search for.
(photos are only for reference, taken from Marinelife Photography - Keoki Stender's ID guide for Hawaii, the Indo-Pacific, and more
Almost as soon as I saw the Conch a HUGE great barracuda materialized out of the murk and decided to swim up to within 4 or 5 ft of me where it stopped to give me a nasty "stink eye." I returned the gaze for a moment until I noticed a large ball of opelu swimming overhead. I quickly glanced up to look at them and as I did, in a flash of silver and bubbles, the barracuda rocketed through the bait ball and as quickly as it had left its position next to me it had returned showing off a the tail of an opelu hanging out of the corner of its mouth, as if to say "yup, Im kind of a big deal." It then made one more snap of its jaw to swallow its catch and slowly glided away back into the murk.
As I grasped what had gone down before me in this underwater ballet so to speak I had almost forgotten that I was just a visitor in this world and needed to start thinking about heading back up to the surface for air. Reluctantly I pushed off the bottom and started making my way back up the reef ledge. As I got to the top of the ledge I noticed something swimming in and out of the coral. I would have completely missed it had it not been bright orange. It took me a minute to grasp what it was I was looking at and then I knew... It was a "flame angelfish". In all the semesters of college marine science courses and the 2 years of being a marine naturalist and diver on a glass bottom boat I had never seen one before. It and a pair of potters angelfish were circling a little piece of coral at the top of this ledge. Call me a nerd but that was the highlight of my diving year. That one drop that couldnt have lasted more than two minutes was the culmination of my entire year, and Im quite happy with it.
POTTERS ANGELFISH
FLAME ANGELFISH
To top off the day, I managed to stone a 12lb uku on one of the next few drops, so that too may have added to the pleasure of that one rainy-day dive on the eve of new years eve.
Happy New Years everyone
Hope you dont mind the incoherent ramble :lol:
I was delighted to see that the water was relatively clear (60-80ft of vis) and we were on the fish within minutes of entering the water. On my first drop I shot a nice little Uku (4-5lbs) and thats always a good feeling seeing as even if you dont get anything the rest of the dive you still have dinner. The reef we were diving (which I havnt dove in a while) was alive with reef fish and bait. Saw a bunch of takos within the first few drops (which I let be, or my fiance would kill me), some BIG kumus, few small Kalis, and tons of opelu darting around. Im a pretty selective diver, not so much due to the fact that Im a conservationalist, but more so due to the fact that Im a very picky eater :roll: . I love papio and Mu, and I LOVE uku so those are usually what Im looking for. I dont mind passing up large Kumu or Moana Ukalis for the sheer reason that I dont love eating them. Ill save them for those who do.
That being said it was still refreshing to see all these swimming around, and coming right into range to boot. One particular drop stands out the most. It was a drop that would remind anyone of a scene from the Discovery series "Planet Earth". I was concentrating on an area on the edge of the reef, in about 60-65ft of water, where I had seen a small uku. The reef ended right in a sand channel and there was a little sand pocket next to a big piece of lobe coral where I had decided to drop. As I hit the bottom 2 nice 3-4lb kumus swam up to me to say hello, and as I looked out into the sand channel I could see a giant Helmet Conch cruising the bottom. For a snail the thing must have been doing mach-2 as it plowed through the sand in search of what ever it is they search for.
(photos are only for reference, taken from Marinelife Photography - Keoki Stender's ID guide for Hawaii, the Indo-Pacific, and more
Almost as soon as I saw the Conch a HUGE great barracuda materialized out of the murk and decided to swim up to within 4 or 5 ft of me where it stopped to give me a nasty "stink eye." I returned the gaze for a moment until I noticed a large ball of opelu swimming overhead. I quickly glanced up to look at them and as I did, in a flash of silver and bubbles, the barracuda rocketed through the bait ball and as quickly as it had left its position next to me it had returned showing off a the tail of an opelu hanging out of the corner of its mouth, as if to say "yup, Im kind of a big deal." It then made one more snap of its jaw to swallow its catch and slowly glided away back into the murk.
As I grasped what had gone down before me in this underwater ballet so to speak I had almost forgotten that I was just a visitor in this world and needed to start thinking about heading back up to the surface for air. Reluctantly I pushed off the bottom and started making my way back up the reef ledge. As I got to the top of the ledge I noticed something swimming in and out of the coral. I would have completely missed it had it not been bright orange. It took me a minute to grasp what it was I was looking at and then I knew... It was a "flame angelfish". In all the semesters of college marine science courses and the 2 years of being a marine naturalist and diver on a glass bottom boat I had never seen one before. It and a pair of potters angelfish were circling a little piece of coral at the top of this ledge. Call me a nerd but that was the highlight of my diving year. That one drop that couldnt have lasted more than two minutes was the culmination of my entire year, and Im quite happy with it.
POTTERS ANGELFISH
FLAME ANGELFISH
To top off the day, I managed to stone a 12lb uku on one of the next few drops, so that too may have added to the pleasure of that one rainy-day dive on the eve of new years eve.
Happy New Years everyone
Hope you dont mind the incoherent ramble :lol: