Chris Coates spears a 18kg Dagga off Tinley

Finally the elusive Dagga got nabbed. After many days diving some deep spots and not coming right, lady luck looked my way.

It was actually a long shot that I got the fish, I had been asked to be top man for some scuba divers that needed to change a temperature recorder off Sheffield Beach. Not thinking that I would even get a dive in, the weather held .And Lionel and I headed back out to see after dropping the divers on the beach.

We went out to one of my favorite deep pinnacles of Tinely Manor. When in the water the currant took me off the pinnacle quickly. I made one dive down and got to about 25m and was still acouple meters from the floor, I was way off the mark. And upon returning to the surface realized that I still had my extra weights on that I use for point diving, this made for hard work.

I dumped the weights on the boat and moved back up current. Normally I throw the pick near the pinnacle and that gives me a good bearing. So I took some quick land marks to refresh my memory and jumped back in.

The water was quiet good, but I could not make out the bottom at all. I prep for the next dive, said a short prayer and dived for the depths. As I got some way down I could start making out the rocks below, I was still off alittle and could make out the drop off coming up in the distance.

Then almost like I was having dream replaying visions from dive vids, two Dagga cruise into my vision. But Damn they are far away and acouple more meters down. I started swimming slowly towards them nervous that they will spook, one flinched and turned away. My heart stopped and I could almost feel the disappointment of a lost opportunity coming. I had stopped finning and was still drifting in their direction when the Dagga turned in towards me for a moment and straightened up again angling away.

My eyeballs were now bursting and my lungs twisting, but the adrenaline and a ray of hope pushed me to make a few more gentle kicks and the gap closed. But was it close enough? The thought raced through my mind, I was using my new Rob Allen 1,3m Rail Gun so I wasn't to sure about the distance. But time had run out I had to take the shot or leave it. Making some final adjustments I pulled the trigger, and the spear left the gun. It took for ever to reach the fish and then there was a small white flash on the side of the fish just behind the dorsal. The fish was motionless for a second then bolted.

I fought the fish from the surface trying not to put too much pressure on the fish, as I feared the spear had not gone all the way through. But fortunately I had beefed up the 20mm rubber, and when finally grabbed the fish the spear had gone through fine. Damn that's got to be one of the longest shots I have ever taken.

Cheers Chris Coates