December 26, 2010.

I hope everyone’s holiday wishes were answered. Mine were, Christy and I spent some time in the water doing a little hunting after exchanging gifts.

We were in the water a half hour before slack tide so we decided to seek lobster in one of the cuts that has an unusually high tidal current. With no current running it was easy to dilly dally and check under ledges for our first lobster of the year.

While swimming along I saw a huge fish below me. He was about 4 feet in length and on a rod and reel it would put up a hell of a fight. I figured that unless I could land a perfect head shot he just might beat me to death if I were to try and spear him. But before my mind knew what was happening my body was stalking him.

I decided to see if I could get close enough to take a shot. I promised myself that I would only shoot if a perfect head shot presented itself. Usually when you see something from the surface it turns out to be much smaller when you get close to it. Not this fish. I dove down and planned to intersect his path as he came out from some sea fans. Before I had enough time to really think things through the perfect head shot presented itself.

My spear caught him unaware and entered his head just above and behind his eye. His head was so thick that my spear didn’t come out the other side of his head. His mouth instantly shot wide open and he just went stiff and instantly died. Fish have little tiny brains and evidently I had gotten my wish and had fired a perfect brain shot, or so I thought.

I dragged his big ass to the surface and started to wave Christy over in the dink. I was treading water for about 30 seconds and I felt the spear starting to move in my hand. Ut-oh. I looked down and he was starting to very slowly get his shit together and was starting to swim in a slow circle.

I thought that I had killed him but I guess he was only stunned and was starting to recover like a boxer after absorbing a really good shot. That’s about when round 2 started. In another couple of seconds he was thrashing wildly at the end of my spear. Crap. I was holding onto it by the firing band and I was starting to worry that it might part so I choked up a bit and grabbed firmly onto the spear. By then he was acting like dragging me along by my 6 foot spear with its 3 inch barbs inside his head was only a minor inconvenience.

I was able to keep him at the surface but calling him “lively” is an understatement. I was already thinking about how I was going to have to kill him before I tried to get him into the dinghy as he was just too big and powerful to be flopping around in the dink. He was NOT going to fit in the bucket. Just then fate intervened as my spear assembly completely came apart. The tip didn’t fail, the entire threaded shaft assembly ripped off the front of the spear. You scaly bastard. I’ve had this spear for years and it had been reduced to junk.

He immediately shot down to the bottom with about 8 inches of my spear assembly protruding from the side of his head. By now Christy was alongside. She quickly put a tip on her spear and when I looked up for just a moment to grab it from her, he was gone. I searched for hours without finding him. Bastard. I did stumble onto a 2 pound lobster so we did manage to catch lunch, but I went home distraught as we are now down to one spear.

After lunch I was able to jury rig my spear with a portable vise, a drill, some threaded rod, some epoxy,
a steel pin and some shrink tubing. By all that is holy and good, I will find and finish him, Christ, I feel like Captain Ahab.

We celebrated Christmas dinner with several friends over on First Edition. All the couples brought their own meat and a side dish to share. After a cocktail hour, the meat was grilled and a fabulous meal was served complete with multiple desserts. It was a great time with a lot of laughs, but I couldn’t help but to remember in the back of my mind that he’s out there…….