by Tom Campbell
March, 1999
We had a great trip this week on the Playmate. It was me (Tom Campbell) Sheri and Paul Weisman, Martina, Richard Rice and my partner Norm Beumel. I had planned the trip so a friend of mine Bob Dean could come but he had to cancel the last minute so we wound up with just six divers. Although we had planned to go to the Tortugas the weather kept us in the Marquesas.
The Groupers were all over the place and Richard speared a plethora of blacks and reds. On each dive he got at least one and often two Groupers. I rubbed his shoulder after the fourth dive but it did not transfer the magic to me. Martina was his buddy and apparently directed the fish his way while she caught the lobsters. I dove with Norm who is also a good spearfisherman. We cleaned up on hogs and Norm bagged a few big blacks.
On the first dive I lost my new JBL speargun as it floated away while I was catching a lobster. This depressed me a little but on the next dive I looked under a ledge and saw the most unbelievable Lobster I have ever seen. There he stood with all of his legs extended he looked like a 50 LB monster. I flattened the wire on my loop so it would fit over his tale. Carefully extending the loop behind him and over his tale I kept repeating "don't lose this one." When the loop was positioned mid lobster I pulled the loop closed with all I had and yanked him out of the hole. He went nuts and started flipping his tale. It took two hands to go around his body as the lobster and I were rolling in the sand. Norm reached through the plume of sediment and bubbles, tapped me on the shoulder and took out his oversized bag. The lobster just fit in the bag and we went back to the boat. When the other divers surfaced their oo's and aah's made me forget the lost speargun. The lobster weighed in at 8 LB. apparently having lost weight in the struggle.
We all dove on a Submarine that was sunk in 240 ft of water to get tuna. The plan was to float at 100 ft and make tuna sounds to lure them up from the depths. We all descended in crystal clear water and saw a school of amberjack spiraling at 120 ft. Richard shot first and missed because they were not Grouper. Then Paul shot and missed but Martina nailed one and it started sounding on her. Martina was convinced she was swimming for the surface as I watched her descend. I swam down and finished off the fish with a kill shot and started ascending with Martina. My computer read 145 ft and went into decompression. I never do that and I was convinced that I was dead but Martina kept a cool head and walked me through decompression stops at 20 and 10 ft. Back on the boat Martina said that she was never in trouble and the fish was short, at least I was a hero for a few seconds and I am not dead.
Sheri and Paul were doing good on fish and lobster; Paul was alternating between big Grouper and big hogs and would come up with at least 3 lobsters each dive. Then Sheri lost her gun. I could tell that she felt bad about it.
She borrowed Mark's gun from Richard for the next dives. On our very last dive near Key West Sheri and I were diving together. It was a beautiful reef with ledges and a bunch of elusive blacks. I chased them just like Richard told me to do but they just wouldn't stand still long enough for me to shoot them. I didn't even see the Cobia when I heard Sheri's gun go off. When I turned around I saw Sheri had shot a Cobia as big as she was. The spear went right through the side of the fish and Sheri was riding the fish like a scooter holding on to each side of the spear shaft. It was just like the last time, Sheri had this Cobia under her spell and it gave her a well behaved ride for the rest of the dive. On the boat the Cobia weighed in at 49 LB. and Sheri's name was called in to the paper. I asked Sheri if she still felt bad about the lost gun and she said "what gun?"
If anyone finds a speargun please return it to me or Sheri , mine is still loaded; no you can't have the lobster or the cobia but we will give you a picture of them.
