Thought you guys would like to see a few more pictures of Pigly Wigley.
I don't really like shots of dead fish on a scale since it does no justice to their beauty, and to give you an idea of that, just look at the before and after pictures from the first page. Now you see why I don't like to shoot the smaller ones, they're prettier than Angelfish :waterwork
What's interesting about this particular hogfish is that it's never taken me two spears to get a hogfish but this guy had enough leverage to bend the 9/32" hawaiian shaft around the side of the wreck as I tried to pull him away from it on my ascent. If you look, you'll see another hole behind his anal fin. I thought the first shot was good but it wasn't quite perfect and the fish went for cover. The most frustrating moment of the entire day was on my way to the surface as I kept thinking about the sand tigers that were circling lazily. It's hard to relax on the surface enough to prepare for another deep dive after having the "cordelero" (newbe) pass another gun, reload it, and try to stay finning on the vertical of the reel line strait over the fish when you can't even see the bottom. The thought of the shark eating your fish or having to deal with the fish and the shark once you get down doesn't help much either. It's reassuring therefore to have my trusty "cordelero" by my side. He loved it too actually at my expense. After a nice free fall to the bottom having fallen almost strait down I make out the line leading to the big encrusted steel plates and a nice cloud of murk. Maybe a shark's in there with him maybe not, I doubt it though since I'd think I'd feel the commotion through the line. I determined that although I couldn't see it, the fish was holed up as well as he could with a 63" piece of steel. The sharks were nowhere to be seen either in the 30' vis, my lucky day. I put slight pressure on the line to determine where the tail of the shaft is inside of the cloud of murk and try to best judge where to put another shot before I pull like hell. I take a pot shot into the mele and bingo the fish starts kicking, I grab onto both shafts and pull and work him, untangle him as he comes out and start working up to the surface as diligently as I can with smooth controlled kicks and by letting everything go except the fish by his gill plate. Shew, I feel like I deserved this one. I swim back to the boat admiring his beauty and thank that the resource is healthy enough to haven given me the opportunity to take such a nice fish. I think as long as we always share this respect for the fish we shoot everything will be okay.
On the same trip last year, a big spiny lobster, much less of a story though.
I don't really like shots of dead fish on a scale since it does no justice to their beauty, and to give you an idea of that, just look at the before and after pictures from the first page. Now you see why I don't like to shoot the smaller ones, they're prettier than Angelfish :waterwork
What's interesting about this particular hogfish is that it's never taken me two spears to get a hogfish but this guy had enough leverage to bend the 9/32" hawaiian shaft around the side of the wreck as I tried to pull him away from it on my ascent. If you look, you'll see another hole behind his anal fin. I thought the first shot was good but it wasn't quite perfect and the fish went for cover. The most frustrating moment of the entire day was on my way to the surface as I kept thinking about the sand tigers that were circling lazily. It's hard to relax on the surface enough to prepare for another deep dive after having the "cordelero" (newbe) pass another gun, reload it, and try to stay finning on the vertical of the reel line strait over the fish when you can't even see the bottom. The thought of the shark eating your fish or having to deal with the fish and the shark once you get down doesn't help much either. It's reassuring therefore to have my trusty "cordelero" by my side. He loved it too actually at my expense. After a nice free fall to the bottom having fallen almost strait down I make out the line leading to the big encrusted steel plates and a nice cloud of murk. Maybe a shark's in there with him maybe not, I doubt it though since I'd think I'd feel the commotion through the line. I determined that although I couldn't see it, the fish was holed up as well as he could with a 63" piece of steel. The sharks were nowhere to be seen either in the 30' vis, my lucky day. I put slight pressure on the line to determine where the tail of the shaft is inside of the cloud of murk and try to best judge where to put another shot before I pull like hell. I take a pot shot into the mele and bingo the fish starts kicking, I grab onto both shafts and pull and work him, untangle him as he comes out and start working up to the surface as diligently as I can with smooth controlled kicks and by letting everything go except the fish by his gill plate. Shew, I feel like I deserved this one. I swim back to the boat admiring his beauty and thank that the resource is healthy enough to haven given me the opportunity to take such a nice fish. I think as long as we always share this respect for the fish we shoot everything will be okay.
On the same trip last year, a big spiny lobster, much less of a story though.