Trout Like Me

What a weekend! With the season winding down, the diving is going to get much more difficult once the lakes freeze over (not to mention the fact that I really don't want to ice dive!), so it's best to take opportunities when you can. It just so happened that a couple of the local divers were planning another trip to the Gilboa Quarry, the spot of our advanced dive class. Both Becca and I were disappointed that with the class, we really didn't have a chance to leave with any pictures or video showing what a cool place Gilboa is. This visit, definitely became a set of dives I'm sure we'll both always remember and look back on and laugh.

Our plan was two dives, we ended up doing three dives. The Gilboa Quarry is stocked with many different types of fish and one of our goals this time was to feed them. We bought two bags of fish food with the thought that we would use one on the our first dive and one on the second, so we'd both get a turn. I put the food in my pocket and off we went. On our first dive, we wanted to explore an area that we only visited on our night dive, a group of tubes. Quite frankly at night, it was eerie as hell, and we didn't stick around very long. This time in the day light, it was much more relaxing. As we were swimming out, the fish seemed much more friendly then I remembered. After we played around in the tubes, we went back to a sunken school bus that is the traditional feeding ground for the fish. I open my pocket to get the food out and I couldn't find it. It really didn't strike me as odd because with dive gloves on, it's not the easiest thing in the world to feel around in pockets. Becca helped, nothing! At first I remember being irritated that clearly Becca wasn't doing a good job looking in my pocket...then the light bulb went off in my head as to why the fish were so friendly! After our dive, neither of us really understood how or why the fish food went missing. It was honestly like the fish picked my pocket. We admitted our mistake to our diving friends and had a laugh about it. Becca and Mark, outsmarted by some fish!

Dive two, this time no fooling around. Becca carried the food in her pocket and we were going to feed the fish first, then play around exploring. We got in position, Becca got the video camera ready, I got the food out of her pocket and then learned it's impossible to open a ziplock bag with gloves on! Well, that's why they invented dive knifes, so I pull mine out and open the bag. Now, I've watched the Discover Channel before. I know what a feeding frenzy is, but nothing prepared me for how crazy the next forty-five seconds would get. Fish were coming in from every angle, so fast and unpredictable, I was worried that they would fillet themselves on my dive knife. The whole time I'm trying to watch what is happening, but I'm also trying to keep the fish safe, that's when one decided to kiss me. I can't even describe the craziness of this, so here's video:




It really didn't hurt, but it definitely was a shock! I figured with all the action, Becca wouldn't have any idea what happened, though I know I muttered "Son of a bitch" through my regulator! After our dive, I told her about what had happened and we just laughed. It wasn't until a few minutes later she noticed that I was bleeding, "What did you do to your check?". When she pointed it out to me, that's when it hit home, I had a fish hickey! That's when this became more then just a laugh, this is something I'm going to have to live down for a very long time!

Oh, and for the record, that's why we needed a third dive. There was no way we could leave without Becca taking her turn feeding the fish. Back in the water we went, but for some reason I noticed that she held her bag of food very far away from her body and the fish somehow managed to take the whole bag of food from her in under ten seconds!

I may be marked with a fish hickey, but definitely turned into a fun weekend. Here's a couple videos:


Becca first gets sucked into the engine of the plane, then we swim through it.



Me chasing fish around.