But the time I remember the most began when free diving and spearing a nice white sea bass off the Coronado Islands in Mexico. On a small private Radon boat. The fish went straight to the bottom and tangled itself in a kelp bed at about 90 ft. I had 150 ft of trailing line and considered holding my breath and diving down to free the fish with a knife. Maybe in my youth and in shape I could have done it. But I said to myself screw it-tied a small buoy float to the gun, swam back to the boat, and grabed a SCUB tank, found a regulator, attached it and jumped overboard. No BC and I dad no idea if there was any air in the tank. So I held my breath after finding the trailing line and down I went hold my breath. When I got to the fish it was free from the kelp and I could just drag it up by the spear line hoping it would stary attached. So I started up and took the first SCUBA breath. Nothing but salt water-no air just water. Talk about panic. I forgot about the fish and up I went trying my best to get the smallest amount of compressed air while swallowing half the ocean. When I got back to the boat I could easily bring up the fish by pulling the trailing line up. Of course I was then accused of spearing the fish with SCUBA a no-no in the free diving world. After I explained what happened one of my friends said "that regulator is no good-one that actually works is in a cabinet beneath the steering compartment. "
I threw up a lot the rest of the day-and no I didn't go back into the water.
Scary times.
