The Wrasse that time is going to forget

Ive been in the water for an hour now and the cold is starting to take hold of my movements. My attempts to get the giant ragworm down next to the wreck are becoming more desperate and I curse the small weight on the line for not resisting the pull of the current. I notice a dark shape emerge from the wreck, but its difficult to see with the thousands of plankton blocking my view. A wave washes over my snorkel but i hold my breath as I'm sure the shape must be getting close to the ragworm and I don't want to have to look away...

Ive been doing quite a bit of snorkeling over the summer and starting to really take an interest in the sea life. A friend at work is doing a practical class this year that involves looking at the morphological adaptations of different marine fish skulls. To do this he needs a selection of fish with different feeding habits that he can dissolve the flesh away from in a Quint from Jaws type vat of acid leaving a clean skull.

Big J and I have seen a lot of humongous wrasse while snorkeling, and in a moment of Einstein like foresight I thought that it might be possible to catch them using hand line while in the water. This intuitively seemed like it might be an idea that would prove to be very difficult in practice, so i did a bit of investigation. Googleing "fishing while (snorkeling OR swimming)" gave one or two returns that referred to people having done it, so I felt like it was worth a go.

We went yesterday to Thurlestone, on a low tide, and managed to find the wreck of "The Louis Sheid" in 5 to 10 metres of water.

... Suddenly the shape darts away from the wreck, and i cant quite believe my luck as the line pulls tight and the fish is hooked. The prehistoric looking ragworm was too good an opportunity for Mr Dark Shape to pass by. I wind the line back in, amazed at how the fish's dull pulling of the spool is telling my hand a completely different story to the theatrics and dramatic lunges that my eyes see are going on under the water. The dark shape makes a brave fight of it, and is clearly not happy with the way his day is panning out, or, perhaps more seriously in the longer term of things, his skulls newly acquired destiny.

Back at the car and Mr Ballan Wrasse seems a lot smaller than he did in the sea, maybe 1 and a quarter pounds, but I'm still thrilled at the success of the first fishing-while-snorkeling trip and start thinking of the possibility of tying some mackerel feathers to my fins and going for a swim.

I get home late, put on the TV and am delighted to see its the fantastic 'Tribe' with Bruce Parry. The very next scene is a group of remote Pacific islanders doing some fishing while snorkeling for themselves and cant quite believe the coincidence.