# Chunky Love..Doin it Again...9/4/10...Great Day!



## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Went out Saturday with Renee', Lil Paul Pirce, and Scott Bartell, (Firefishvideo on the PFF). He is the one who takes all the super sweet video ant the very bottom of the inside of the Oriskany, below the sand at 220', and has had his footage on Discovery, and all sorts of other shows. He has a cmaera set up from hell!

Decided to go hit the "O" first to see what was down on the flight deck. Not much to shoot there, but we had the most awesome surprise. 

Two 15' Manta rays were swimming around there. They were absolutely breathtaking. HUGE! Lil Paul held one of there wings for a second, and I got some helmet cam video. Scott got some real good vid, and here's the link to that and a shark that was curios as to what was going on.


http://www.vimeo.com/14740684

Next dive, we got to and 2 boats already had spearfishers in the water.4 from one and 2 on a nother. They came up, a coule with AJ's, and the crew was kinda bumbed about diving it already picked over. They did say there were a number of blacktip sharks on it, so I said lets do it, we should at leas get some good video.

Sure enough, there were about 5 blacktips, that were friendly as could be and no bother. A AJ swam in my direction, and I lined up the new DeathStick speargun and squeezed. One inch behind the eye, and he rolled right over without even a shiver. Perfect stone shot. I was happy. At GBBT certified scales he came out to 28#'s on the nose.

I reloaded my gun, and while I was stringin him, Renee' had taken a shot at a nice fish with her new 48" Biller she had never shot before. Slight learning curve, cuz she missed. So I helped her get it reloaded (ordered her 9/16" bands, the 5/8" are a lil too hard for her to cock underwater), and as soon as I di, still out of breath from mine, and then hers...another bigger AJ swam in range.

BAM. in the head. But NOT a stne shot by any means. I procedded to get one hell of a fight on my hands. This thing put a woop on me. Thank god for the ridin rig or I woulda been a half mile from the boat when it was over. I FINNALY got him on a stringer, and had hit him with my kill spike about 3 times, and knife about 4, and he was still trying to fight.

Byt this point I was overbreathin hard, cuz I had never calmed down and caught my breath from the first go around. I looked at my gauge and only had 600 pounds, which is the lowest I have ever let myself get before headin up. I knew I could make it if I needed too, but as much nitrogen as I had prob absorbed after the fight I just went thru, I wanted to go up extra slow, and take a super long safety stop. I let Renee' know the situation, we got to the anchor rope, and started heading up. She had plenty of air left, so I got her extra reg to keep from running mine real low in case somethin happened to her gear, we got seperated..etc, and that way I would still have air left for both of us if need be.

That is the first time I have ever had to breath off someone else reg, or actually not had too, but made the choice to to leave a safety margin. I have brought others up out of air, but didn't like the feeling of letting myself get that low without plenty to spare in case.

Well...was worth letting myself get lower than I normaly would without a cshion, cuz the second one was only 2 inches longer, but exactly 9#'s heavier on the scales at 37#'s. Hells yeah!









Off we head to the third and final destination.

Scott beats us all in, and the three of us get in a good bit after him. We get down there, and the anchor is about 15 yards or so from the wreck, with a lot of scope, so it's a decent lil swim to the wreck.

We swim to it, and Renee' lines up on a legal AJ.

BAM! SHe nails it in the head! Sweeeet...she's a natural. But not a stone shot this time.

Even though she's bee divin 11 years, I am a lil protective of her when it comes to spearfishin (especially AJ's) since I know hwat can go wrong, and have seen it. SO I raise up and put another shaft in his head.

We get him into the wreck...she's exited as hell, and so am I.

Well this dam thing won' die. I stabbed and twqisted the knife multiple times, finally got him on the stringet and clipped him tothe wreck, and she gets her knife out and does the same, which only seems to revivie him and make him more lively! We are in a cloud of grren water (blood looks like green food colorin at depth due to the lack of red wavelengths that are filtered out.)

Well Paul grabs my shoulder, I turn around and look at him, and he gives me the shark symbol to his forhead. I nod my head OK and go back to punishing Renee's AJ. 

ABout 30 seconds later, he grabs my shoulders again, and holds up 2 fingers with the shark symbol. 

OK...this I need to turn around and see, since Paul usually is not the type to take time to alert someon to sharks.

Well, sure enough, there were 2, about 6', or a little bigger. ANd they were not hapy. They were doing all the classic symptoms of aggressive shark beahvior. 

Then the 3rd shark makes his presence known.

So the 3 of us (Scotts already back at the boat) are on a 10x10 paltform on the very top of this little wreck, and these bastards are dartin in and out, circling tighter and tighter, and basically pinning us to the top of the wreck. 

Well one came within a couple feet, and I know with sharks, if you get aggresive and bully them, they will usually turn tail. So I lunge at one with my speargun, and he just doges up over it, and returns the favor and lunges at me.

OK...these guys are really pissed...and really hungry for Renee's AJ.

Well I got my powerhead on the tip of my spear at this point, but a lil nervous about blowin one to kingdom come, cuz besides ending up with one injured thrashing and snapping shark in the water with us, I am really not sure if that would just exite the other 2 more and make them more aggressive, so I am tryin at all cost to avoid using it. 

Closer and closer there geting, and pulling the ol standby hunting method...hwere 2 keep our attention, then I rember to look around, and sure enough, nuber 3 is sneakin up behind us.

They finally backed out just enough, and I looked at Paul and Renee', and said let's go. 

We had about a 40 yard swim to the anchor rope since we were up about 20 feet on the top of the wreck, and there was a lot of scope out. 

My stones just weren't big enough to make that swim across open water above and below, and I didn';t grab Renee's fish. I figured if she wanted it that bad...she was more than welcome to crry it! Thats the first time I have ever let a shark get a fish, and that sucks. On the boat, She said she wasn't plannin on carrying it across that stretch either!

Well, when we get on hte boat, there is a cobia up there too! Turns out when Scott got to the boat, Daniel (our bubble watcher) told him there was a shark behind him. He turned, realized what it was, and yelled to Daniel to take his camea, and hand him his speargun offth eboat. He managed to load it and still get the cobia too!! Sweeet! He also got 3 lobsters during the day too!

So total talley for the day, in the boat, 2 AJ 1 obia, 3 lobsters. 1 AJ to the sharks, and watching 2 manta-rays and a total of 9 sharks throughout the day. Was a rockin good time. Heres a pic at the dock with Scotts haul too.









Knda feelin I got my groove back, between last week with the cobia and 5 pound trigger, and Brandy gettin a couple nice AJ's, and now this...I am feelin good. :thumbup:

I got 1920x1280 hd helmet cam video of all 3 dives, and Scotts got insane video of the action too, and we can't wait to get a movie together. He put up the manta-ray video right away, which was an unbelievable experience. Will take a couple weeks to get it all edited...but trust me..with 2 camera perspectives, and tru HD, this will be the best one yet!

And of course, nothing with me goes as planned, and we came in pretty late. Heres a pic of the sun setting as we were still a few miles outside the pass.










Viz was terrible for about 40 feet on all 3 dives, and opened up nicely under that. Thermal cline not as cold as last week, but still chilly.

Can't wait to get out again!


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## FenderBender (Oct 2, 2007)

Good report Clay, you know we love our underwater shark encounters! This story reminds me of the time my work buddy Kieran came down and ya'll were back to back fightin sharks on the bridge rubble.


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## FelixH (Sep 28, 2007)

Great report, Clay!



> Closer and closer there geting, and pulling the ol standby hunting method...hwere 2 keep our attention, then I rember to look around, and sure enough, nuber 3 is sneakin up behind us.


Yeah, I just LOVE when they start playing that game... had a pair of them do that to me last year on the bridge rubble. That's about when I said, "to hell with it, dive is over!"

When they get a little too frisky, I clip the stringer to either my lift bag, or to my smb, and send the stringer to the surface.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

The rubble pile is about guarunteed place to see em ain't it Josh? Been a while since I dove any rubble. You been diving lately?

I would liked to do that Felix..you know I keep a lift bag ON my stringer for sendin it up the line when were done. The stringer was about 10 feet below us clipped top the side of the wreck, and as much as they were dartin in and out at us they ust wouldn't let me get down there too it.

I also found out why they were in such a pissy mood.

When we got tothe boat, Scott told us he had got some great footage of them chasing them around, and as he put it 

"until I shoved the camera up one's ass, and that pissed em off and they turned on me."

Haa haa..he got em al worked up and mad like pokin a dog with a stick over and over, then Renee' puts a bunch of blood and vibration in the water and ads feeding frenzy t pissed off...that really was the worst behavior I've ever seen out of sharks.


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## swhiting (Oct 4, 2007)

Great report & pics. Thanks.


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## FelixH (Sep 28, 2007)

Ha! Yeah, I guess that would piss them off. As angrydolphin always said, "Sharks only bite if you touch their privates."


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## Choozee (Jun 12, 2010)

fantastic adventure!


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## mkpitts6 (Feb 23, 2008)

awesome post! thanks.


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## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

Man Clay, can't wait to see the new vids.


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## mike potter (Oct 3, 2007)

K k k coooool!!!!!


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