Date: May 18, 2017
Report Contributor: Scott Bianco
Thank you to Scott for graciously taking the time to give us a report of him freedive spearfishing that 19.26 lb Tautog ! Can I call it TOGNASAURUS ?
It all started with a text
"got time for a quick after work dive?". After a long day the last
thing I felt like doing was trailering the boat down and taking a beating from
the south gusting wind. After much debating I decide why not lets do it. At the
ramp I almost called it while looking out at the gusting wind figuring there
wouldn't be much vis. Brian convinces me to make the boat trip and we head out.
Once there we anchor in some shelter from the wind and suit up. Conditions
aren't the best, south wind with an outgoing tide, the top five feet had a
brown haze making the vis about 2 feet but opening up to great 8' vis below.
As
we swim away from the boat and towards the rocks Brian says to me go left and
he will go right. I head off to the left and start to make my first drop of the
evening. I start my decent and about 3 feet down I notice a white chin through
the haze passing me on my right shoulder. I level off and remain motionless,
only moving my eyes to track the fish. The white spot barley visible passing in
front of me towards the left, then circles back to dead center.
The words of a
great dive friend going through my head ,don't move anything don't move your
fins relax and be part of the ocean. I was able to see a little patch of white
belly behind the white chin so I knew from the spacing that the fish was of
good size.I kept my gun pulled in tight to my body making sure not to
"track the fish" waiting patiently for the fish to turn and become
centered in front of me. I shot between the two white patches and the spear
landed center mass and the white spots stopped moving instantly.
I swam up to
it and got a solid grasp on the barb end of the spear and pulled the fish in
tight to my body and started swimming it up to the rocks. Once I had a
grasp on the fish it came to life like they usually do, but this one was
different I knew I had something bigger then I have ever shot before. With a
good amount of struggle I manage to get me and the fish on the rocks and out of
the water. Seeing the fish out of the water really hit home fast just how big
this fish really was. I held on with both hands for a few minutes till I knew
the fish was dead. The ocean offered up an amazing fish to us that evening.
Fish prints will be made to honor the life of the fish.
Scott Bianco
No comments:
Post a Comment