August fourth, three days from leaving for my first day of college, my father took me for one last spearfishing trip to Block Island. We left our home early in the morning and began our four hour drive up to Rhode Island. We arrived shortly after ten, loaded our gear onto the ferry and began the boat ride to Block.
When we pulled into the harbor, our friend, Bob Mitchel was waiting to pick us up. He drove us back to his house and we spent the rest of the day walking the beach and throwing flies at anything excited enough to bite. We fished far past the sunset but decided to go to bed early in sight of a full day of spearfishing. My father, Bob and I woke up at four thirty in the morning, huffed down some breakfast sandwiches and donuts, and made our way to Bobs boat. His twin Yamaha’s brought us out to our diving locations in no time.
We began in shallow water hunting black sea bass, tautog, and triggerfish. When I hopped in the water, I was surprised with relatively amazing visibility of around twenty feet and I instantly noticed a bunch of stingrays all around me. I’ve never seen so many of these stingrays in a single spot, but it worked out fantastic for me as all the commotion attracted some monster black sea bass. I was quickly able to fill my limit, so I decided to look around for some different species. After swimming around for a bit, I discovered a huge boulder that nearly broke the water’s surface, and swimming all around it: triggerfish, tautog, and monster scup. I took my time and decided to harvest some big triggerfish as well as a couple nice white chin togs. After filling up our cooler with some tasty treats, we decided to head out to deeper water for some big bass.
As we drove further out, we came acoss the largest pod of dolphins I have ever seen! A truly amazing sight that confirmed it was going to be a great day. After a little while, we found a nice spot in seventy feet of water where lots of fish were showing on the radar; so I decided to hop in. I closed my eyes and took lots of time to relax and breath up before I executed a pike and swam down. As I neared the bottom, I could hear fish nibbling on the rocks, so I opened my eyes and settled between a couple boulders. Within the first ten seconds of lying there, black sea bass began emerging from the sea floor. What appeared lifeless at first, slowing began showing its true diverse ecosystem. Tautog chased each other playfully and scup began appearing like clouds. There is nothing quite like the peacefulness you feel when at the bottom of the ocean: fish swimming around you, crabs pulling at seaweed, the sun glimmering down from above. Unfortunately, it had to end as I got near the end of my breath hold. I swam back to the surface and took a few deep breaths before repeating the process again. I breathed up and dove a few more times, each time returning to the most euphoric state of relaxation, but I started to become sad as I still saw no striped bass.
I took a few more dives and was just thinking of switching spots when I heard a faint beating of drums. I knew that sound, a sound that has filled my head many times in the past. It was not the sound of drums but the sound of big bass swimming beneath me. At once I became very excited, my heart started beating faster and thoughts of big fish rushed through my brain. But I knew this was bad so I forced myself to returned to a relaxed state and I began my breath up once more. Once my mind was clear, my breathing shallow, and my heart beat slow, I kicked forward, bent down, and began my decent into the green. Instantly the thunder returned, like a thousand drums beating away, I felt the excitement creep back into my mind, so I pushed it down and just focused on the task at hand. I reached the bottom, found a hiding spot behind a big rock, then looked up. Just what I was hoping for; dozens of giant striped bass forming a vortex around me. Most of them looked around thirty to thirty-five pounds but I saw some larger ones in the background. So I remained still.
As I laid there motionless, bass began swimming above me and the big ones starter to creep closer. It was an eerie feeling at dozens of beady black eyes looked into mine, but I was determined to stay relaxed and sure enough my target swam right to me. Disguised in a blanket of stripes, I recognized his beastly size from the slight nob behind his skull. I released the G-String on my pole spear and let my Gatku fly. It struck the fish directly behind the upper gill plate and it appeared to hold strong. Line flew out of my belt reel as the fish darted away and I began my accent back to the surface. My lungs screamed from suffocation but that was a shadow to the excitement I was feeling. When my face broke the surface, I let out a cry of happiness and took some much-needed breaths of fresh air. I got back to work grabbing the line and allowing the fish to pull me until I felt it tire out. Hand over hand, I began to pull the fish back to me. After fighting it for nearly ten minutes, I saw the shadow emerge from the murk. He still appeared strong, but my shot looked sturdy, and I knew my Gatku Slip Tip would hold. As the fish came closer, I swam down and slide my hand into its gills. The fish gave one more violent shake before accepting defeat and relaxing into my arms. I had done it.
