A Different Kind Of CatchCatching Them The dark, jade water is balmy and warm. In my right hand is a high-powered spear gun. Its mechanism is set in beautifully worked teak. Around 5ft long, it is clumsy on land but once in the water it balances perfectly. A long sharpened spear is powered by thick rubber bands. The trigger of the gun will release a spear that could pin a grown man to the wall. As we alight to the side of a dun-colored reef with knobbled outcrops and fire coral, teeming with fish, the hunt for our supper begins. We are several miles from Key West in the Florida straits, diving from the Discoverer Ketty Lund, a wooden-hulled scientific research vessel on a trip around the Keys. Her captain is Eric Smith, a muscular, salt-encrusted sea skipper and diver with a boyish gap between his front teeth who has piloted his boat and marine scientists around the Atlantic for years. On the long trips down from places like Labrador, Canada, to his home in the Keys, he will jump over the side and go spear fishing for grouper, snapper and tuna to feed himself and his crew. As we descend deeper into the cool depths, he is showing me how to hunt under water. |
A Different Kind Of CatchCatching Them At 50ft below the surface of the ocean, the blood in the water draws ocean predators to our position. A nurse shark's synapses are stimulated as blood drifts into its nostrils while it swims behind us with lethal nonchalance. A silvery barracuda sails over my head, jaws working feverishly. Worse, I come face to face with a green Moray Eel known to attack human divers - its 7ft long body ribboning through the water, its mouth, lined with fangs as it stops in front of me, eyeing me with a hungry gaze. It wants the fish I have in my hand. Twenty minutes earlier we had assembled and donned our scuba gear under an electric, neon pink sky as squalls darkened the deck of the boat and made the water choppy. Wordlessly, my dive buddy falls backwards from the boat, hand clasped to regulator and mask, as I quickly follow. |
Care And Repair Of Fishing LuresFishing lures that have feathers or hair should be kept in airtight containers so that moths and other insects or small animals will not get to them. This also applies to new fishing lures that haven't yet been used. Lures which have been used require considerable care if you want to get the maximum use from them. Freshwater fishing lures usually require less care and repair than saltwater ones. In general, when examining any fishing lure you have made or bought it's a wise policy to repair it if you are the least bit doubtful about its condition. Repairing usually means sandpapering the part of the lure body that is slightly chipped and then touching up with a small brush, using enamels or lacquers. |
