Posts by hank

  • What brand and type wetsuit for my needs??

    http://www.liquidfit.com/


    Maybe look into this. Custom cut, just for you.
    I have a friend who lived here in Belize for a while. He was about 6 foot, 400 lbs. A big....fat guy.
    He got a suit made for him in Singapore. Perfect.
    I've had suits off the rack fit real nice and others that didn't.
    And the sizes aren't universal. I had a ScubaPro XL that fit really well so I ordered a Large from Mako. It was too big in my butt and waist. I got a Medium and it fits.


    And as far as thickness. I wear a 3 mm vest here in the warm season and a 3.5 full suit over top of that now.....the cold season. In between I have a 1.5mm full which combos with the vest.

  • Flasher tape?

    WOW !! How did you choose which tape to buy? so many colors. Nice.
    Did it stick to your fins? Thanks for the link.

  • Flasher tape?

    Quote from attan

    hank did you use the mako flasher tape?


    No. It was a roll that some construction guy left at my house. Not sure what it is, or where it came from but it's shiny.
    But, after one day in the water the shine is dulled.

  • A few from Belize

    A few from yesterday. Andre is 71 and still gets after it. He doesn't dive so deep anymore (me neither) but has a wealth of knowledge.


    Jake and a couple snappers. The big one got in a hole, shaft and all, went through and out onto the sand next to the coral head. He had to go down and cut the reel line and feed the shooting line down to the spear and fish.


    This place is unreal on some days. A huge school of pretty good size horse eye jacks came right up to me. (must have been that silver tape on my fins and gun :-)) ....really...maybe)
    There must have been 150 or more. Also a big school of permit, another school of small horseyes swirling around near the bottom and the school of a LOT of dog snappers, which were spawning occasionally.
    Lots of baitfish. A huge mackerel passed underneath me but I couldn't tell exactly what it was from the top.
    The snappers moved up and down in the water. Most times they would spook and move out to the blue water or go to the bottom and scatter. Then they'd gather again up in the water column.
    But occasionally, we'd dive down near the bottom and they would come right up to us. I can't figure them out. It's just patience and a waiting game.
    I couldn't resist shooting a couple jacks. Nice size and a lot of fight. It's a challenge to try and actually stone one, which I think I've only done a couple times. Tough bastards.



    I couldn't leave until I got a snapper. They got a little less shy by later in the day.

  • Flasher tape?

    I'm not sure about where to get the tape. But I've tried tape on my gun and fins. It works on the nice lacquered finish of my Wong gun. But it came off my fins after about 3 hours in the water. I even tried to put it more near the foot pocket where it wouldn't bend so much. But it came loose after getting water under the creases from bending.
    but the main thing....did it attract fish. I'm not sure but I DID have the largest school of horse eye jacks I've ever seen come right up in my face yesterday.

  • Flasher question

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    and you can see the 120 in the background of the top pic....here is one of the 90 w the flash on....the tape works in my living room too...see the cats and dogs it flashed in :D
    ]


    Thanks for the pics.
    I put some tape on my gun and fins. As usual, I'll probably look at it, think it over and change it about 4 times...:D
    So far I've cut 3-8 inch pieces shaped like a local fish here we call sprat. Very shiny. I put about 5 down each side of my gun. And the round carbon fiber barrel should expose it to all different angles.
    We'll see what happens Sunday.

  • Flasher question

    Quote from Don Paul

    I have flasher tape on my gun, fins and drag line and seldom use a detached/suspended any more.
    When I did use them, I hug it from my float from 10' of 200# mono. The Riffe float has a flag holder fabric that I tucked it in to keep the flasher out of the props on drift drop offs and pickups from a live boat.


    After 20 some years of turning around to check for the big fish that came in on it, I do not recall one here in Cali.
    All it has ever done is try to get stuck in the swim step or props, so I don't use it any more. They do work in other places of the world.


    Cheers, Don


    Do you have any pictures of your flasher tape design on your guns?
    I have some tape at home and based on this thread, I put some on my gun and fins last night. I'll try it out this weekend. I cut 3-8 inch pieces and shaped them more of less like a sprat.


    After reading your post it got me thinking. (uh oh....) My son has bright silver Mares Quattro fins. And last week he was the first to get into the fish. The jacks came to him, the permit came to him and he was getting in close to the snappers (that MUST be why he got more than I did. haha).
    And twice, from a distance, I thought, "why are those jacks swimming erratically"? As I swam close, I saw it was Jake, who had a blue camo suit, and it was his fins that I'd seen from the distance. .
    We'll see. Thanks for the idea.

  • A few from Belize

    A few doggies from yesterday.
    We had to hunt for a while to find them and they were farther south than usual. But the school was much bigger....maybe 5-600 fish. We played with them for over 2 hours after they settled into an area on the reef wall where the top of the reef was about 80-100 feet deep. Lucky the vis was good. They would come up and go back down....laughing at us. hah. We shot these at about 40-60 feet.
    A school of about 2-250 big fat permit came up right in our faces. THICK fish. A school of about 25 horse eye jacks would pass through every now and then too. It's cool when the swim on their sides, looking up at you.
    We saw a few big cuberas on the bottom but they were really spooky. A few muttons hanging around and quite a few black groupers on the bottom. No sharks at all.
    Another beautiful day.


  • What kinda fish did I spear?

    Quote from Dan

    I wanna know one thing, did the cubera bend the RA shaft? :)


    It looks too big for you to be holding it up like that.


    I always thought cobias and remoras are similar. It occurred to me that young cobias are remoras but this is just a guess. The fact that cobias follow sharks would go along with that idea. Cobias even have that flat spot on the top of their head where the remora has its suction spot.


    My buddy manages the cobia cage farm here in Belize. Remoras are the closest relative that cobia have but they are different species.

  • No Bannas

    peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Great lunch when diving.
    There is a spider in this part of the world that's pretty deadly and lives in the banana trees. As Don mentioned, I've heard that is one reason not to put them on the boat.
    But by that logic, I shouldn't put them in my house either.

  • A few from Belize

    Went out with the "legends" again yesterday. Looks like this is going to become a regular thing.
    My regular buddy is likely moving to Viet Nam to do a cobia project there. But this could be a good thing. I can do a Hawaii, Philippines, Viet Nam spearing trip next year. I hope.


    Anyway, we tried looking for some new spots on the reef since it was a bit rough...and late...these guys don't get up until the crack of noon.....to cross to Turneffe. Found another nice deep cut that has potential. Saw some nice grouper, yellow jacks and a few snappers. We didn't stay long though because the old farts wanted to go back to their special place before it got too late. But the tide was really low so we had to approach it from outside the reef. No worries because the local fishermen have sticks lined up so it's marked pretty well.
    As we're coming within a mile or so of the place, they said, "What does your GPS say? How close are we"?
    I told them I didn't mark it last time. They start giving me a hard time....kidding....like now we can't find it. hah.
    But it was a quiet day. We saw the snapper school but they were small so I didn't shoot any. Got one nice jack and a cero.
    "Doc", the dentist, shot about 5 trunk fish. I would never have thought of shooting them but he gave me one last year and man, they're really good.
    sorry, no pics this week. Next week.

  • Taking up the air in your mask upon ascent?


    Thanks Marco. I'll try to focus on this.
    No, I don't really fight the fish but I definitely am focused on it. Excited, and as you said, watching to see if it goes in a hole.

  • Taking up the air in your mask upon ascent?

    Quote from Chuckd

    Uh, yes. I do it every dive, whether I pull the trigger or not. I spoke to Mike and he said YES, it does affect your PO2 on ascent and every little bit may be the difference between blacking out or not.


    C


    I don't doubt that it works. I've just never focused on that at all when I have a fish on. I think about it after a dive coming up empty though. I'll give it a try.