I have the same shorts and shirt on as the pic in my avatar. Those are my lucky shorts..
..and shirt...and it's NOT the same fish. haha.
Also, I"m not smiling in that pic. I'm grunting and telling Jake to hurry up and take the pic. That thing was heavy.....for an old man. hah
Some days the fish make it easy. We were in one of our favorite cuts yesterday and I'd checked the "House" and the "Hole"....nothing. The young boys were on the other side of the cut and Jake had sinus problems so I was alone. LIttle to no current so I was moving slow along the wall. I looked down at what I thought was a big fan coral laying over behind a rock. I looked....and looked and thought....damn, that's a fin....damn...that's a FISH !!.
So I dropped down, the fish at about 40 feet..... looking right at the fish with my gun aimed right at it figuring I still might get a shot if he decided to bolt. I thought it was pretty good sized and as I approached, it just laid there. I got within range and took and made a shot right behind its head. It took off toward the Hole but I held on letting out little reel line. As I pulled it up I realized it was pretty big.
Personal best black. 53 lbs. Although when I gutted it, it had a 2 lb angel fish in its stomach. It was all white and I couldn't tell what kind of fish it was at first. So, I guess the black was really only 51 lbs. But maybe that's why he was laying there trying to hide under the rock. He had a full belly for sure.
Thanks. Awesome.
I got the wetsuit, Riffe Digitek.
Very well made. Made by Yazbeck?
I got a ML long. or 52 long.
for 168 to 180 lbs, 5 foot 11 to 6 foot 2.
I'm just shy of 6 foot...by about half inch and 175-178 lbs
The suit is a little baggy on my waist. Other than that it's a nice fit except, it's a little short in the top section. I"m hoping it'll stretch out a bit but when I first put it on my voice went up an octave. It's pushing up the crack of my butt a bit.
We'll see.
Happy with the quality though. But it's a bitch buying online when you can't try stuff on. I wear a medium Mako, a Large Spetton, a ML Yazbeck....
Wow. Nice place. When I was a kid, I knew I was either going to be a forest ranger so I could live in a place like that, or a diver so I could live in a place like I do now.
Welcome. There a bunch of good people here. Enjoy.
Nice.
What is a "schoolie"?
I know Fidel Ancona too. He and i are family.
You're Fidel Jr..... his son.....right? A guy who does wordworking...Brian Cook from Fido's.... told me that Fidel's son was doing some work with him.
I remember you....from about 12 years ago. You were bigger than your dad even back then. I see him on Facebook. Unreal. I'll see you soon.
There is some indication that the Crown of Thorns (CoTs) are not really a cause, but a result.
In 1998 there was a very strong El Nino and coral reefs around the world bleached, or turned white from the stress due to temperature increase. From Belize to Malaysia (I was diving there in late 98 and the water was almost too warm with a lycra suit at 30 meters depth and the coral was turning white) to the Great Barrier Reef. I was living on Boracay, Philippines in all of 99 and all the reef on the west side of the small island bleached white from the temperature increase. Within a few months, there were thousands upon thousand of CoTs showing up and eating what was left. We organized all the dive shops and would go out every Monday and collect or kill (by injecting chlorine into them) as many as we could. It was a pretty hopeless cause though.
However, the south, north and east sides of the island's corals were virtually unaffected by the COTs. There are strong currents at every tide change on those parts, presumedly bringing in cooler water, keeping the reef healthy, indicated by little to no bleaching.
Worldwide COTs have made infestations. As the Aussie guy in the video mentioned, runoff could be a problem but more indirectly than by providing nutrients for the COT larvae. It may be weakening the reef's natural defenses against COTs, which some believe that when healthy, produce natural barriers or other chemicals that prepel the COTs.
Did that snapper in the bottom of your pic hole up and get tangled?....snicker snicker.....haha. Nice fish buddehhh.
awesome hank!.. sorry to hear hitting the depths is getting tougher, your still outdoing many though
Nice fish and give the kid his gear back!
I'm working on the diving. We're going to put down a rope, no guns, just breathing up and divng. Playing around. In the PFI course it was easy to get to 80 feet. But with a gun.....and big fish to shoot at....I have a bit of a natural block that tells me to slow down at about 65 feet. I can stay there for 20 seconds or so....it's mental.
There's always a way to imporove. Just focus. 
Old guys rule. haha.
When you dive deep, the fish takes a lot of line before you even reach the surface. 30 seconds to get back up...
My reel holds 275 and it hasnt spooled me yet. But at least 240-250ft came out.
Yeah, yeah....kick an old man when he's down.... <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">
Thanks Steven.
Come on guys I really need your input on this.
I've never had a fish run out my whole line using a Wong and a Rob Allen. I think one had 60 meters and the Wong maybe 70? I would guess the most a fish ever took was a little more than half.
But if you use it for wahoo or other blue water, maybe you would want more?
A few from yesterday. Doc and DuQuesnay came along. Lot of fish were there but bad vis. Then Jake got a bad headache and my left ear was clogging up. I did 46 dives between 50 and 70 feet. Hard to get close enough to the fish without going to the bottom at about 70 feet and waiting. I'm gettin' old..shit.
Jake did well. So I took away his Wong, wetsuit, low volume mask, long blade fins, computer and gave him a Biller 32 Mahogany and a pair of green underwear for camo. haha That ought to even things out a bit.....goddammit....haha
The bad news is, Fisheries is closing one of our favorite spots to spearing. It will be for catch and release for the tourists. There are a lot of permit there.
Honestly, I think it's a good thing. I've never seen anywhere in the world with fish congregations like this. If it were in SE Asia, it would have been wiped out by dynamite by now. I hope they can enforce it. WE have a lot of other good spots anyway.
On our way home we got stopped by a boat by four large men, one with an automatic weapon and two with pistols. There had been reports of pirates stealing from fishermen here so we were a bit nervous and didnt' want to stop. DuQuenay started yelling at them asking who they were. It was Fisheries officers and said they understood our concerns about pirates.
Then they were telling us about the closure....and looking for cocaine or weed that we may have picked up out there. They SAID they were looking for illegal fish....but with guns? What a day. Then I told them they better be nice to us or the next time they go to the dentist, Doc was going to drill with no novacaine. Then they recognized Doc, who is well known here and everything was cool. What a day.....
Hi Fidel,
I used to live on Ambergris. Now in Dangriga and been in Belize for almost 13 years. I know Fidel Ancona well. We used to work together building the Nova Shrimp hatchery at Bacolar Chico.
Welcome to Speardiver. Lots of good folks on here. Maybe we can hook up. I come up there to check out my lot up past Jouney's End resort. Bought it from Roberto Bradley a few years back.
What I dont' like is the shooting line strung below the gun. It goes from the bottom of the handle to the muzzle. It looks like it could tangle when tracking a fish while laying on the bottom. And if it tangles a bit, and you pull the trigger?
I'll give one to BelizeSpearo, (Jonathan) here. He's using a lycra suit with no chest pad....unless he sticks a sponge under it. And he also thinks he won't get cold here come December....kids. ....haha.
My buddy left me an AB Biller 32 Mahogany gun. It needs a new tip, has the notched shaft, a kind of weak looking line guide on the bottom of the handle that looks like it could get broken while banging around on the bottom.
Is it worth trying to fix up? I was thinking it might make a nice hole gun to keep on the boat. Thanks
L I would think. Get L, M and S. Two of the three will fit you and your son for sure.
OK. Jake's a pussy <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">...and gets cold easier than me even. He'll use that vest under a 1.5 mm in the summertime here. And Tino, my next up and coming killer, could fit a small soon I'm sure.
PS, Dan, can you post a pic of you in the vest with the speedo? You know, so we can see how they fit? <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">
I'm an XL in height, but a M in weight. Better the M, no?
