TOBAGO, 03.2010 aim,shoot and ????

See next post.

hi there, find some time to do some writing on the computer.
all you will excuse my bad english . i went out a week ago, to dive at some offshore rocks, a steep dropping rocky ground, with some big pinaccles, rocks and canyons. dropping straight down at 50-90ft, and then sloping down at some 300ft+.this place is normally rough and have current.
these are the places some big fish like to live. after shooting a 25pound rainbowparrot with my
riffe comp 4x, i handed the boatman the gun to pull in the fish, and he handed me my next gun, my brand new second hand riffe comp.3x, so i can continue diving one time. the 3 rubbers on that gun was a little too long, because they where the backup rubbers from the longer gun.
so i dive down in this big canyon, to land down on one of this big rocks at the bottom at about 50ft.
i hold on to a small seafan that is growing on top the rock, looking down the canyon into the deep with
a vis. of about 90ft. i see some 4-6 poundschoolmaster snapper and a 15pound rainbowparrot comming out of there caves and watching me from a distance. after a while i see a big shadow coming from the deep into my direction. coming closer i make out i nice size dogteeth(cubera)snapper.
looked like 30-40pound in this crystalclean water. but the closer it comes, the bigger it finally gets.
reaching in front of the opposite wall of that canyon i am in, about 30ft away from my guntip,
a now 70+pound snapper watching me with skittish eyes. a big remora sticking on his back,
he is not sure what to do.turning himself about 3 times but not coming any closer.
i dont know how long i am already down on this rock, but just watching this beautiful fish in front of me made me realize late that i am running out of air. since the fish not looking to nervous, i decide to make my final move before my face starts turning blue. i open my eyes as wide as i can,staring at the snapper, pulling myself of the rock and gliding towards the fish. closing the distance to the fish feet by feet, he start doing the same thing. opens his big eyes even wider, starring at me and start swimming towards me.
coming into shooting range, i start stretching out my gun arm, lining up the fish and wait for the moment he turns to show me his broadside. still in the back of my head the slack rubbers i using on my gun,
the fish finally turns, and i fire. ready for my reel to get some fire, all i hear is "bonk"! and i see my
spear on the ground and the fish swimming away easy, like nothing ever happened. i hit him right at the hardest part of the gillplate, and the spear bounced back like hitting a rock. back in the boat i decide not to use the smaller gun today anymore, and tryed to get over this story as fast as possible by shooting some more fish.
here the picture of my boatman holding a nice size rainbowparrot from that day.

couple days after, i went and dive along the coastline, some similar rocky ground, but not dropping so deep. about 30-70ft.after shooting a 5pound snapper i looking down at 40ft and seeing this nice size dogteeth passing by. so i dive down on a rock and hold on to a seafan again. i got this habit from an old comercial diver here, ho told me that is the best trick to get these big cuberas to come close. hiding yourself motionless behind a big seafan. and ???? nothing! after shooting a barracuda, i see the dogteeth passing again. so i try the same thing. nothing.shot a next snapper, the same thing happen, and again.... finally i seeing this big rock with a cave entrance on two sides.dogteeth love such places to hang out. so i dive down to find out that he is not inside. but coming up from the dive, i see
him again swimming in the distance, watching me. guessing the fish at 30pound, i make a decision. the seafantrick didnt work,he is not in his condo, lets get desperate and do something stupid. i start swimming fast behind the fish. he swims at 40ft depth at a horizontal distance of about 60-70ft. after chasing him for a minute and not getting much closer, i start diving straight behind the fish. as i start going down he stops, and turns around.i stop kicking my fins, just gliding towards the fish in an 45"degree angle. and he start doing the same thing, swimming towards me from the bottom in an 45"degree angle.
i almost closed my eyes for a while, but now coming into shooting range opens them as wide as i can. the fish now looks more like 40pound to me, and still having in the back of my head that i using the same smaller gun with the same slack rubbers,i start stretching my gun arm, the fish turns broadside, and fire. fire on the reel.90 ft of my line flying over the bottom before the fish get stuck between two rocks.get my backup gun, shoot him again. entangle the lines, and fish in the boat.
this time the spear went in half inch behind the gillplate, all the way through the fish.
on the scale turns out almost to be 50pound. btw, the same day i saw one 100+cubera hanging out in 20 ft in the shadow of a rock.
excuse the grimy face of the boatman, he had to lift the fish several times that day for a picture.
all the best....

lomartin,
i dont know if opening your eyes wide works in general, but at certain point of the approach, when i see the cuberas already coming for the bullet, i just do it. same with dog-and muttonsnapper..works good for me so far.