Diving From Ashtons' Dusky
August 20, 2004 Dive


I had the opportunity to go diving with my friend and doctor, Ashton Blessey along with A.J. Muller yesterday.
The weather forecast called for 2' seas, so it should have been an easy ride out... NOT!  We encountered at
least a few 5' waves and a good 2-3' all the way to our first spot, some 35-40 miles offshore.

Although there were not that many boats leaving out of "Billy Goat Hole", as luck would have it, we see a
boat racing us to our predetermined dive spot and arriving there first.  We tried to pull along side,
but far enough away as not to be in their way when one of the boat occupants (redneck type) started yelling
at us.  "Pull up by that boat", a requested to Ashton. "I can't hear you, what did you say?" as I pointed to
my ear.  The guy in the other boat would not reply. "Screw him", let's tie up.  The currents had other plans
for us as we could not get situated so as not to drift near the other boat.  They had tied up right in the middle
of a spot that would have held two boats.

"Let's just go to that rig over there", I said to Ashton. The rig was about 5 miles south of us. We motored on over
and secured our rig hook.  We had the place to ourselves.

Since Ashton and A.J. would be diving on SCUBA, I sat back and was waiting for them to go ahead and get in, planning on leisurely diving around the rig while they were down.

"Michael" he calls me, "go ahead and get in", Ashton says. "Are you sure?" I replied.  "I wanted to give you to a head start".  "If I get in, I might end up shooting a fish and you'll be deck handing before you can get geared up", I
reiterated.  "Go give us a visibility check", A.J. says. "O.K. if you're sure" I reply.  A couple of minutes later,
I'm in the water.

I make my first dive down to around 40-50' and a school of amberjack swim by.  I size up the crowd and pick out the largest while pulling the trigger instinctively, nearly stoning it.  It turns out to be a 36 pounder.

As predicted, Ashton and A.J. were still gearing up when I swam up with my fish.  Ashton grabs my line and takes
the fish in the boat while I get out of the water.

I stay in the boat while Ashton and A.J. make their dives. A thunder and lightening storm drifts over me while they are under, so I take a picture of the rain hitting the water.

In a little while they are back up.  A.J. brings in a amberjack and Ashton comes up with an african pompano.  We hang out here a while for them to have some surface interval.  I jump back in and shoot a nice sized black snapper, swim it to the boat and throw it in, continuing to spearfish while they are on the boat. I had one of the most beautiful dives here.  I went down and was surrounded by literally thousands of mature lookdowns. A solid wall of silver all around me, my new u/w Canon EOS Digital Rebel on the boat, go figure.

They finally get back in the water, so I sit on the boat and chill for a while.  They come back and Ashton has shot his limit of one amberjack.

We leave our position and head due east to a sunken double decker tug boat in 135 fsw.  This would be a buoy dive so I volunteered to captain the boat while Ashton and A.J. make a dive down to see what they can find.  I motor around the buoy and before too long they are up.  No decent fish to be found.

We head back over to the rig that we tried to dive first and it was vacant.  Everyone geared up and I bailed over with the guys.  I covered the whole rig, inside, outside, close and away.  I kept seeing some rainbow runners but wasn't in position when they showed up.  Barracuda were numerous on every dive today, so I would swim up from top and behind in stealth mode and pretend to shoot, practicing for the upcoming Orange Beach Tournament, just to pass the time.  I saw a school of 30-35 black snapper with 3 or 4 big ones in the group, so I planned on unloading my gun on one if I didn't see a more desirable fish.  I continued to hunt.

I was almost tired of covering this spot when I dived down to about 60 feet and saw a group of 4 or 5 fish that I labeled as jack crevalle swimming to my right.  I looked a little closer and realized that I was looking at a small school of big african pompano.  I aimed on the largest fish and pulled the trigger. The shot went through the fish and it headed straight for the bottom.  As a rule I keep fish on a short lease with my reel when possible but this guy was fighting like an amberjack.  I held tension on my line but had to let it spool me a bit so that I could go catch another breath.  At the surface, it looked like I had given out about 75 feet of line, so I started reeling it back in just in case it made another run.  I swam to the boat, fish in tow.   When I looked up, I notice Ashton sitting on the bow. "HEY ASHTON!!!", I got his attention and he quickly got to the stern to take my gun.  I got out of the water to assist in getting the fish up and just as we got it to the boat, it pulled off.  UNBELIEVABLE! I thought.  That was a big beautiful fish.  We both estimated it to be over 30 lbs.  "That's the way it goes", I exclaim.  This wasn't the first time nor will it be the last time, I lose a fish at the surface.

It was getting late in the day by now, so we decided to head back in.  The ride back was better than the ride out and over all it was a good day to go spearfishing.

Some of the pictures we took can be found at the following link if you care to see them.

http://www.flounderwear.com/dusky.html

Mike Wade
Stickmen Freedivers
Mobile, Alabama