The Sea Provided

[Mongrel454]

Kids these days :P :P

[Newbie_spearo]

Go to sleep!!!!! hahaha

[Mongrel454]

damn STALKER

[Newbie_spearo]

You sure are but lets keep these posts relevant to the topic, I dont mind if you post whatever in where's jim but i think settingsteel might get a little peeved if we hijack his thread? Nighty Night

[foxfish]

I quite often let specimen fish pass by, I enjoy to look at fish sometimes in preference to a salt water blood bath! However if a saw a 30lb free swimming fish, of any sort where I live, I would of shot the mother!

[settingsteel]

Originally Posted by Newbie_spearo

experience vs's lack there of? I think when I actually get in the water with my gun im gonna wind up firing off shots with out even meaning to, for 2 reasons: I'm gonna be frezzing my arse off coz I haven't yet got my new wetsuit and as a result my trigger finger will be shivering, and 2 coz I'm gonna be too trigger happy!

hmmm glad I'm in Miami...you go boy

[Jonny250]

Settingsteel, do you take a camera with you? in my limited experience i have found i take as much time photographing as i do shooting, an excuse to justify not shooting perhaps :-) ? Also helps deal with my novice itchy trigger finger ;-)
anyway, i'd probably be too scared/shocked of seeing a fish that big...

[podge]

Tone I’m as hungry as the next bloke and some say I’m more so but on this occasion I would have left it be.
I’ve had the same sort of thing with Pollock over here, good take able fish that just swim right up to say hello, well buggered if I could shoot it after it was so polite in the first place.

[settingsteel]

Ha seems we got a bunch of softies on the forum...or perhaps just a bunch of honest spearos...that don't mind voicing their true blood.

Settingsteel, do you take a camera with you?

er, uhh, NO...sorry mate...but your welcome to tag along with me and picture away...the only "click" a fish hears when I'm around is "the last one"

with Pollock over here, good take able fish that just swim right up to say hello, well buggered if I could shoot it after it was so polite in the first place

Podge...thats just taking it a tad bit to far...your response to that fish should be "lights out"...at least the first few that come in to greet you.

Make no mistake guys I would have Set some Steel on that hoggy in a twitch if not that he was mating...which is the weirdes part of what happened. When I went down it was to draw blood...but I hesitated prior to even seeing his mate...I don't recall ever hesitating on an easy kill shot...this is what I keep replaying in my mind what made me hold the shot that split second...which of course gave him his life.

[blaiz]

Now to be quite honest only after reading the entire story did I decide not to shoot it. Though Im not sure I would have been patient enough to wait and see that he was with a female.

[quote=Whopperhead;707865]Tone- I myself would of shot him. I would be more likely to pass on smaller or medium sized ones and strickly go for the bigger ones. I just think if you pass on the smaller ones- eventually you'll have lots of big ones to choose from. [quote]

Im not sure that this is a very valid assumption. When the larger fish in a group are targeted you are taking them out of the "breeding pool." In result the individuals will become smaller. In short big males breeding with females = Larger offspring, small males breeding with females=smaller offspring. THis is what happened to many species of grouper (e.g. black grouper in california, and hapuupuu in hawaii) also swordfish, blackmarlin, and many others have been victims of "trophy fishing."

I think it comes down to experience and respect for the ocean which settingsteele proves he has a lot of.

[settingsteel]

Thx for all the kind words mates...truthfully it was an impulse...and the title of the thread...proved the outcome...The Sea Provided me with something that is new to me- its compassion for the that which I have taken from it for many, many years...compassion to the point that it has superceded that primal predatorial instinct the lies in all of us (albeit some more than others).
Now that I see it does, I'm good with it, and it has set well, yet another thing I have to thank the sea for...and I know beyond a doubt if I am presented with a similiar situation my outcome will be exactly the same- at the end when life gives on to life tribute is tenfold...

[blaiz]

That was more tear jerking than "sleepless in seattle" LOL

Jokes aside compassion is a very admireable trait!

[octpora]

It seems we have many passers here. Oops, i just passed one...

I'll be down to the keys in a few days and have a look-see for this legendary hogfish. Actually, come to think of it, most of the hoggies I see down there are a bit stupid about sharp objects. Last time I wouldn't even take a shot unless it was a monster. And they were in short supply. So I have to say thank you settingsteel for leaving one to multiply.

[settingsteel]

Originally Posted by octpora

It seems we have many passers here. Oops, i just passed one...

I'll be down to the keys in a few days and have a look-see for this legendary hogfish. Actually, come to think of it, most of the hoggies I see down there are a bit stupid about sharp objects. Last time I wouldn't even take a shot unless it was a monster. And they were in short supply. So I have to say thank you settingsteel for leaving one to multiply.

Actually it was in Miami...ooops I mean yeah right it was in the Keys...key west to be exactand yes they generally are quite passive...borderline suicidal...but in areas they are stung hard they wis'n up a bit, never to the point that they are a "hard" fish to string up

[cubanoperdido]

yeah, i'd like to think i'da held back...i done some silly stuff like that too over the years.....held back on an almaco jack in costa rica cause i thought it was me....go figure....
boys, (&girls i suppose), i'm new on this site....how i find folks in the game in central america?? i'm in costa rica but i run round panama and nicaragua, el salvador, even guatemala.....honduras is off limits. anyone gimme any pointers? i see you all from miami, my ole stompin grounds, how i find on this site central america or south america? thanks you'all... happy huntin....