Season starts with a BANG... in more ways than one!!!
by David Biron and Mike Wade


Snapper season opened on April 21 here along the coast and marked
the start of the 2006 fishing year. Some of the Stickmen Freedivers
along with a guest diver would make their first trip into the gulf a
couple days later to avoid the initial rush of fishermen and boats.

The day would start with a 0400 wake up so that everyone could meet at
the marina by 0600.  For David, the drive to the Marina would take 90
minutes from Gulf Breeze, Florida.  Mike would drive over to Jack's
house in south Mobile and pull the boat with his truck for their 30
minute trip to Dauphin Island. There is always a lot of excitement
surrounding the first day of fishing and everyone was on time for the
rendezvous at the launch site.

Jack deVilliers was the captain this day and would be diving on Scuba
with one of his customers Bob Smith.  Jack and his wife are sole
proprietors of  "Deep South Divers of Alabama" dive shop on Airport
Blvd. in Mobile Alabama.  Mike Wade and David Biron would make up the
rest of the crew and would be freediving.

As we pull up to the first gas rig,  Mike and Dave are on the bow
getting ready to tie the boat off... all of a sudden Dave slips and
whacks his foot on the bow rail.  He is bent over making funny noises
for about 5 minutes as the outside of his foot begins to turn purple
and starts to swell.

Mike takes over and throws the rope over the rig in order to
secure the boat as David hurries to put his booties on.  Soon
Mike and Dave are in the water trying to swim against a stiff 3 knot
current.  Working the rig structure is very difficult due to the strong
current.  David comes back to the boat with a nice red snapper and
is amazed that a shark which charged the fish did not eat it.  After
returning to the water, he informs Mike that the school of snapper
are holding up current of the rig.   If you want a fish ... you
were going to have to work for it!!  David loads his gun for another
attempt  and "Snap"... one of the nylon wishbones breaks.  With only
one band, he continues to fish.

Meanwhile, Mike is fishing the other side of the structure and pulls the
trigger on a long range target and misses.  The current pushes his
shooting line around a pipe and he spends the next few minutes diving
to untangle it.  David makes a drop in front of the rig and lines up on
another nice snapper, then shoots. The shaft hits the fish square on
the gill plate and is deflected . The fish swims away. "Looks as
though he needed that second band after all", he's thinking as he
ascends. The current pushes him along while he is looking down and
suddenly BANG... he slams his head into some of the barnacle covered rig
structure. OUCH!!!  He can't believe what has just happened as he breaks
the surface.

The strong current, location of the fish and a fresh head wound were
proving to be a bit too much this early in the morning so Dave and Mike
return to the boat to regroup.   Once onboard David pulls his wetsuit
hood off for Capt. Jack to see and reveals his bloody skull.   Jacks
face cringes at the sight of the ghastly wound.  Mike looks but then
turns away. Noticing that the blood was flowing pretty good, Dave
decides the best thing to do is to keep the wetsuit hood on! Mike sees
blood dripping from the chin of the hood but keeps quiet so as not to
excite the wounded diver.  Plus, nobody was interested in heading back
to shore this early.

On our next stop.. Mike and Dave would pilot the boat and assist the
scuba divers with their gear.   We needed a little rest after fighting
that strong current and David's gash needed some time to stop bleeding.
Jack rolls off the side of the boat and immediately swims back. He
tells us one of his integrated weights had just dropped out of the BC.
Mike being a team player, offers Jack the use his freediving weight
belt. Shortly there after, Jack was on his way again. The scuba divers
returned complaining of the strong current and poor visibility.
It was on to the next spot, where Mike and Dave
would give freediving another shot .

Shortly into the dive, Dave sees a small cobia with a hook and line
trailing from its mouth.  He tells Mike to turn on his cobia radar.
Sure enough... David watches Mike drop down, line up a shot and
Whack... perfect shot on a Huge Cobia.  David watches in amazement as
the fish doesn't even twitch.  Mike boats the fish and removes his spear
at which time the fish wakes up and tries to swim its way out of the
cooler.  Hint... Never ever put a live 60 lb. Cobia in your boat. It
was hilarious watching Mike try to hold the 120 qt. cooler lid down...
especially when only half the fish would fit into it.

The next spot was again a quick little freedive to check the area.  Once
again we found some Cobia.   Mike and Dave drop down... line up on a
stud fish and shoot almost simultaneously.   This time it was David's
turn to fight the fish and he would have his hands full with another
large Cobia.  The fish was strong and the shot was barely holding so
Dave asked for another gun when he got to the boat and Bob was quick to
oblige.  David placed another shot which went completely through the
fish's head and this only seemed to anger the fish.  It is amazing how
strong these cobia are.  Ten more minutes of fighting and the fish was
on the boat.  It looked like the twin of the one Mike had in the cooler.
Both fish would later weigh in at 60 lbs. Sweeet!!!

Our final stop was a large gas rig in fairly shallow water.   Jack and
Bob would try once again to boat a fish.  David also jumped in for a
look and Mike stayed with the boat because Jack was using his weight
belt. Bob brought back a nice cobia and Jack had a small snapper. David
missed his shot at another cobia and brought back another fish story.
By now it was noon and Jack had to return to work by 2 p.m. so we all
headed back to the Marina.

After a short stop by Jack's dive shop to park the boat, David and Mike
would make a visit to see a dear friend and fellow Stickman, Dr. Ashton
Blessey, MD.  The good doctor patched up David's skull and sent
him on his way.

Thunderstorms had rolled in by this time.  Mike and David get
drenched in a downpour as they run across the parking lot to their
vehicles after leaving the clinic to head home.  It continued to rain
well into the night stalling efforts to clean fish and gear but by
the following morning all had been accomplished.

Though the boat trip was rather short... it was jam packed full of
excitement and a great way to start the 2006 spearfishing season.