Monday, July 27, 2009

Brian's July Spearfishing in Hatteras

Okay, so here's Brian's passion: spearfishing and freediving. We did it in the Bahamas for years, but last summer was the first time it occurred to us that we should give the NC coast a try. So worth it. I haven't gone yet, but these pics show that it is clear, gorgeous, and there are plenty of fish. We eat fish all summer lonfg now, and we never have to buy it or worry about catching it with a hook and line.
This fish B has here is an African Pompano, is actually not related to the smaller pompano that we catch off the beach here, but is in the jack family. Many jacks are not good to eat, but this one is. We really enjoy it, and so do the sharks. Brian always sees sharks when he dives off the NC coast. In the Bahamas, we usually see nurse sharks and occasionally blacktip or gray reef sharks. Here, there are sand tigers around the wrecks, duskys, bulls, sandbar sharks, blacktip, and our friend just south of us saw his first Tiger shark a couple of weeks ago. A few years ago, a fishing boat out of Oregon Inlet videotaped a great white. So, we get all kinds of sharks here, which makes for some exciting dives. Maybe that's why I haven't joined him yet!

Yeah, a shark got it. This is not unusual at all. They're out there. They really just want to eat fish, but I wouldn't get in their way.
The boat belongs to Atil, who Brian met through the Virginia Beach Mid-Atlantic Longfins Club, a freediving club.


Bunch of African Pompano, coupla Cobia, and an Amberjack head.
Lovin' his Pelagic camo boardshorts and his custom speargun.

The group that went out that day. Atil has a camo wetsuit. I grew up in Louisiana with my dad wearing mossy oak camo and hunter orange and disappearing every weekend during duck and deer hunting season. Back then I never knew people hunted underwater too. Now, my husband wears black, green, and blue camo and hunts aquatic game 50 to 70 feet below the surface. Kinda crazy, but pretty cool!
Another day, at our home, a receding funnel cloud that had formed an awesome water spout!

3 comments:

  1. This looks amazing! I am thinking about you a lot right now....spending every day at the beach and by the water. Love it!

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  2. Did you take these underwater pics? They're really cool. I saw your previous post with the same underwater camera, and its really nice. What kind of camera is it? Ocracoke looks sweet. R U worried about hurricanes at all? We just finished our first haulout on the big Chris Craft and can't wait to get back to the sailboat. Two boats is really two much!

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  3. Travis and Maggie, The camera is a Olympus Stylus 1030SW. It's really great, we love it. We actually choose to be here during hurricane season instead of further south. Hurricanes that hit up here have usually been downgraded to a Cat 1 or 2 by the time they make landfall. We feel confident tying the boat off in the slip or taking it up a creek and spiderwebbing it to some trees. We've been lucky so far and the worst we've had to deal with up here was Isabel, which approached as a Cat 5, then a 4, and then was a 3 when it hit, and quickly lost its power. It was scary, but we were okay.

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