For several years, we traveled at least three times a year to San Diego, CA, to board the SAND DOLLAR to spend a weekend or a week diving. On one particular trip we took a week trip south to about half-way down on the Pacific Side of Baja, Mexico. We took a full boat of divers(21) from New Mexico and California. A majority from my store. It was an interesting trip stopping several times diving many spots along the coast.
Several good stories came out of this trip, but this one is about a giant Black Sea Bass. Now this is not a "Sea Story" as most of you would believe, but a true one. We had been diving with this boat for many years and I had always had admiration for the ability of the captain. A person in his sixties, at that time, he could out dive most of us and he proved it. I was in awe to his abilities and one day to my surprise he said, "Peaches come be my buddy today." I flipped out. This was to be a hunting day and I had never hunted the sea bass before, and to dive with the captain . . get out of here! I was so excited. It was a new experience for me. I was loaned a gun - a very large sling gun - made special by a well know diver with the oldest dive club in America ... "The Bottom Scratchers." It had a large reel on it with about 200 feet of cave line and a inflatable float. The line was for playing the fish and the float for floating the gun on the surface so I could retrieve the fish. As I suited up, the captain came over and asked if I was ready. Sure I was! He then said that "He" was going to go toward the bow and hunt forward of it. He told me to go aft and hunt aft of the boat. What a deal. I became his buddy in the Pacific Ocean not as the rules state --- within touching distance. A little letdown. Oh well. I started concentrating on the hunt at hand.
Dropping off the stern, the water was typical for the Pacific, cold-58 degrees, visibility about 40 feet. It was pleasant to drop in because the surface temp was in the 90's. I got my gun and headed down. The kelp was thick in spots and I settled in at about 40 feet over a sandy area. Burning up a little air I looked up and saw three bass. A thrilling site. I took aim and fired. I clipped one and it took off. I headed up to the surface playing out the line and inflated the float. I then headed back down to get the fish. On the surface you play the fish like a trout, with the main reason to keep the fish out of the kelp so as not to get the line tangled. This was a large one and it took time for it to tire prior to me going down to retrieve it. As I descended, I was presented with a maze of line going through the kelp like a spider web. I traced it out - it took about 10 minutes - and finally came to the end. The fish was gone. I surfaced feeling a little bad not finding the fish and wondering if I seriously wounded it.
I retrieved the line, and checked my air. About 1K psi left. While on the surface I heard that the captain and one of his mates had shot a bass. I was embarrassed to say the least. I though - "these guys are not going to out-shine me." And they didn't. I went back down and settled in front of a large kelp patch. Carefully watching my air and time I was soon rewarded. Out of the kelp came four large black sea bass. There were flying in formation. I aimed and fired. I hit one of them and went through the same motions as before. On the surface the captain came over and as I played the fish, he went down and started riding it to tire it out. I knew I had nailed a big one for sure.
On surfacing, getting the fish secured, I boarded the boat, somewhat tired. We had to use the davit to bring the fish aboard. All told we got three fish, the captain - 110lbs., the mate-150lbs., and me - 130lbs. What a tremendous thrill. This was the last fish I killed as a diver.
The trip back to San Diego was another story to be told some other time. My wife, Darlene, and I had to clean the fish off the fantail. Lot of guts to clean out. The gulls enjoyed the feast. We found that the skin was about 1/4 inch thick, and the skin could have been used as soles for shoes. We stored the fish in the ice locker for transport.
On arriving back to San Diego, it took Darlene and I a good day to quarter and wrap the fish for our trip back to Albuquerque. At this time we had a 66 passenger school bus (many stories on this latter). We had a final weight of about 90lbs of the whitest meat I have ever seen.
Back in the city, I called a bunch of our diving friends and told them that a party was coming. I cooked the fish on the front porch of the store (bar-b-que) and fed about 50 people. Of course I told them to bring the fixings. Each piece was about the size of a small roast and delicious. It was like eating cotton candy - - it melted in the mouth. Everyone enjoyed the freshest fish they have eaten. That's about it. A great experience, a definite success, and a good time.
