Too good to not repost Letting Go - Spearboard bubble blowers drama forum
Quote from Behslayer 09-21-2015A few days ago I was diving 100miles offshore on my brother's boat. We had fished the area during the night chunking for Tuna and I had seen a Wahoo come into the lights and we had caught a few small yellowfin under 20lbs which we released. The fishing was not so good but in the morning we decided to dive the place as there was plenty of bait on the surface with small skipjack tuna and bonito breaking surface. My two dive partners were both very experienced good deeper divers. One of them is a Performance Freediving instructor in Hawaii who is comfortable hunting below 100', the other is my long time dive buddy from Indonesia who is one of the best divers I know. So I figured I'd let them focus on the deep for Tuna and I'd focus on the upper water column for Wahoo and Mahi Mahi. The water was Clear. 100' vis and we were in a line about 75' away from each other drifting. They were both using Floatlines and Tuna Floats. I was using my Bluewater Reel with 330' of line on it I was in the middle. I'm comfortable enough to hunt for Wahoo with just a Reel, especially with two buddies with Floats next to me as Wahoo almost always make arcing runs which are long but not deep. I've shot many wahoo and never used a float. I've been spooled, but I was always able to angle up and stay on the surface and swim with the fish. Myself and my buddies have also landed many Yellowfin Tuna up to 80lbs using the Reels. So I'm focussing on the top 50' of the Water Column. I've got a good bit of Chum going and conditions look right. I make a drop and as I get to 50' I'm hanging for a while, about to head up and I see something below me. I drop another 10' and a Shoal of Big YFT comes right up to me. These fish are thick. All of them over 100lbs. I look for the smaller one and I look at my reel and I think for a second and then I focus on a Kill Shot. I let loose a nice shot. Right up by the back of the head looks good. The fish is not Stoned, and as it turns and shakes I see my tip Toggled on the other side of the fish. I look up. I have 60'. I look at my reel and that fish takes off. At 40' my reel is half full. I'm trying to slow the fish down, holding onto the line and giving resistance as I swim up. At 30' I get to the knot and things go into slow motion. I'm being pulled back down. I give a big tug to see if I can budge this fish. I can't. I grab my knife with my right hand. I'm holding the Gun by the handle with my left hand and it's facing down and I run the knife over the line on the Gunstock cutting into the wood. It's a serrated edge and it's fairly sharp, newer knife, but I only get through half of the line because of the awkward angle. I'm getting pulled straight down. I attempt another slash at the line waiting for the pop of the line separating from the fish. I look to see a few strands of the Dyneema still uncut and I'm still going down. I'm also fighting being pulled. I have the knife in my hand about to make another slash and everything goes into slower motion. "Let Go" is something I've always said to myself in thinking about this situation. Just like I say "Don't use the front brake" when I'm thinking about Motorcycle mantras. In that moment I could have tried one more slash at the line. Instead I was okay to let go of the gun. I looked up and it was far. 70'.. I unbuckled my belt holding the edge with two fingers and got to the surface as quickly as possible. As I hit the surface I was not feeling good at all. I had spotted my buddy Ben and he knew something was up. I yelled "Help" and it barely came out. Both he and my other dive partner Dave were there within seconds and held me up for a while as I recovered. I'm not sharing this story to be judged. I killed a beautiful fish and lost a nice gun I made with my hands and almost drowned. It was a poor decision to go in the water where I could possibly encounter bigger Tuna with just a Reel, no Belt reel, No float, or to choose to take the Shot on a Fat Tuna when it presented itself. But the one right decision I made is what I wanted to share. Letting go. Right now. I don't care at all about that gun. I'll make another. I feel badly, but I don't really care about that fish dying. It all happens real fast underwater. It can happen in many ways. Learn one thing from this. Be willing to Let Go and don't wait too long. We got back to diving an hour or so later. I didn't push it at all and shared a gun with my buddy one up one down. He shot a Nice YFT which we served at his wedding the next day.