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233
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We have three items for you in this issue. Let's start with the
one from warmer climes:
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A CLOSE ENCOUNTER
By Jonathan Savage
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For four days my small sail boat had been anchored in an idyllic secluded bay in the Los Testigos Archipelago some 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela. The weather had been kind to me, the past days drenched with Caribbean sun and gentle, cooling breezes. The water is crystal clear along the nearby reefs where I had spent several hours each day hunting down my evening meal. Spearfishing is a favourite pastime of mine and provides a tasty fresh meal for the lone sailor as well as being a lot more selective than dropping a hook over the stern. The inhabitants of a reef soon become wary of a speargun and the going gets tougher with each sojourn to the "larder".
This evening I had been coasting along the reef for two hours and been unable to bag anything, so decided to try my luck in the deeper water of the channel where I hoped for a nice game-fish like Tuna or Dorado. The current is extremely strong and I had to swim constantly to maintain station. The method is to dive down amongst the smaller fish which school, catching plankton, and are the food for the biggies. I am quite fit so am able to stay down amongst them for over a minute before returning to the surface. I did this for about an hour and was on the point of giving up, exhausted, when the school of fish suddenly parted, darting to either side as a large Kingfish angled slowly amongst them. This was it!
The fish hung there in the open water, facing me as it glided slowly closer. My breath was almost up but I hung on about twenty feet below the surface for just a bit longer. Slowly the fish turned away, presenting a broadside shot. This was just to good to miss, range only some six feet. At this point I was so intent on placing a good shot, just behind the gills, that I had lost sight of the fact that it was a monster and that I had no "back-line" attached to the gun. I gently squeezed the trigger and watched, almost in slow motion, as the spear contacted exactly as planned.
What had been a serene denizen of the deep a split second before, now instantly became a hybrid of speeding express train and whirling dervish! The fish took off straight for the bottom some sixty feet down, myself being dragged haplessly in pursuit. I put all my effort into finning in the opposite direction - to the surface with its desperately needed air. With bursting lungs I made it, just long enough for a quick gulp through the snorkel, before being dragged down again. The water around me now became out of focus as my body tried to survive on the little oxygen that was still pumping through my veins. Red blotches swam before my eyes as I again regained the surface for another very quick inhalation! Good grief, I couldn't keep this up much longer! Down we went again, the fish quickly overpowering my already taxed muscles. The functioning part of my brain was screaming "Let go, let go" but my dogged determination would not release the two hundred dollar gun, my meal-ticket!!
This time my resistance to the fish's desperate run for freedom was weakening quickly. My leg muscles were trembling with fatigue, my brain no longer functioning clearly, my hand locked around the stock of the speargun. The sea around me, a myriad of flashing red lights. I didn't need to breathe anymore! Then my brain made a final attempt to get through to me, "LET GO!!" Suddenly I was free! Heading for the surface, the sunlight filtering down in misty shafts, my lungs aching, bursting again, ears clicking as the pressure lessened. The surface, at last. I shot out, head and shoulders, above the water and gulped in the air. The fish was gone, but I realized I still held the gun, a mangled spear dangling below. Too close for comfort - never again! That night spam and fried eggs never tasted so good!
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Our thanks, once again, to Jonathan Savage for another
excellent story from his adventures around the world. Meanwhile, for those
in the U.K. the opening of a new website was announced on 12th April:
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http://www.countryside-alliance.org/gonefishing 'Gone Fishing' website provides light-hearted information and serious advice for anglers.
The Countryside Alliance's Gone Fishing campaign has launched a comprehensive new website providing advice on different aspects of angling, including the latest advice on what anglers can do to help safeguard against spreading the Foot and Mouth virus, as well as information on fisheries and areas open to anglers.
The site has been created by Gone Fishing's Director Charles Jardine in conjunction with the Alliance's in-house website team. The Alliance's award-winning website received 2.4 million 'hits' in February of this year alone.
Charles Jardine said of the launch: "This a dark hour for rural Britain and it is vitally important that the angling community acts responsibly. But there is still ample scope for all anglers to enjoy their sport. We hope our website will act as a crucial link to provide information and advice to anglers and that it can also act as a conduit between our many thousand angling members and the best up to date information on the crisis from the Rural Task Force and MAFF".
He continued: "The website also contains some general leisure information pages which reflect the peaceful and enjoyable nature of the sport. For example there is a page called Hard Lines which is dedicated to hard luck stories and jubilant sagas - we are inviting visitors to the site to share their fishing anecdotes. We want to project the true nature of angling. There is clearly a serious undercurrent to angling at present, but it is important to provide a service and a sense of fun to anglers once Foot and Mouth has
passed". http://www.countryside-alliance.org/gonefishing
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Another website for those whose angling interests lie in Great Britain is the one
at http://www.fishing.co.uk with a section giving the UK
catch records, another section listing hundreds of fishing tackle shops and plenty more
besides...
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