Spearfishing trip off of Hilton Head S.C.

Conditions were a little nasty with a N.E. wind blowing directly into our

faces but we made the 48 mile trip to our diving destination. Along on the

trip was Bob Hughes the captain, Mike Majer, Todd Crawford my son Colton soon

to be 5 and myself Curt Hennessey. The first dive was in 102ft on some very

nice natural bottom with 4 to 6 foot relief. I shot a very large Hog Snapper

with a free shaft about 15 feet away and he promptly spun off the shaft only

to be speared by Mike. I have been trying to find out if this fish is a

record as it weighed 21.5 pounds the largest one any of us have seen in over

60 years of combined dive experience. I then hooked up my line to my swinger

shaft only to take a long shot at a very large gag with a perfect shot

stopped inches from the fish by my now attached line. Sometimes you eat the

bear sometimes he eats you oh well!!!.We finshed the dive with Mike having

two very nice hog snapper a 3 pound bug and one 30in. gag. Our second dive

was again at 100ft. over beautiful broken bottom this time things went well.

I shot a nice gag while it was watching Mike work a large 7.7# bug from under

an outcrop. This fish weighed 26# a nice gag in anyones book. I than shot a

nice red snapper and while reloading my gun was surprised to see a 8 to 9

foot sand tiger giving me the once over. Once he noticed that I noticed him

he promptly swam off but he kept me looking around for the rest of the dive.

We had some very large gags around but they were nervous and would not allow

us any closer than 30 feet. The vis was about 50 feet on the botoom and you

could pick up the bottom on the way down at around 65 feet excellent

conditions for us up here. We finshed the day with 6 bugs 5 0ver 6 pounds 8

gags between 15 and 28 pounds 1 red snapper and 2 very nice hog snapper. It

was truely a great day and I am now heading over to Bob's birthday party to

share in the feast. Please if anyone knows about spearfishing records and the

record size for hog snapper please email me at Groupersniper@aol.com.