SPEARFISHING IN MISSISSIPPI (sharks and alligators)

What we're about to do is going to really push us outside of our comfort zone. How often do you see sharks?

Just about every day.

Wait, were you being serious about the alligators?

Yeah, but they're on the other end.

Let's say I get lucky and I do shoot a fish. It's attracting the you know whats. What do I do?

Punch them in the face. This is the most beautiful part of the world, baby. Woo hoo.

We're Karen Mace. We used to travel on airplanes. Now we live in a van as we're making our way to all 50 states. After getting the COVID vaccine in our hometown, we made the eight hour drive south to Biloxi, Mississippi.

I have not been this nervous to film a video since starting the Colorado trail. I have like serious butterflies right now.

Some friends of ours are friends with someone who works at the tourism board and they asked us if we wanted to go spearfishing. We agreed, thinking we'll be in shallow, clear water with a small pole spear and it'll be a fun new experience. When we jumped on the phone earlier this week, we learned that they had set us up to go deep sea spearfishing with the deep water mafia. It's a spearfishing club and this now involves us going way out into the middle of the ocean, putting on full scuba gear, diving down into deep murky water with a giant spear gun capable of knocking out our two front teeth.

If you hold it like this and shoot it, it's going to knock your teeth out. Okay.

So that's what we're doing tomorrow, which means that we have a lot of learning to do today.

We met the mafia guys at a local lake.

Tommy MD Tommy Phelps.

Nice to meet you.

Hey, Kara.

Nice to meet you. I hope y' all ready for an adventure. It's gonna be sporty tomorrow. What does that mean? It's gonna be a little rough.

We thought we were just doing a little test dive to learn how to use a spear gun. It's been a while. It's fun. Turns out they were just testing us to see if we'd panic in the murky water that we'd be diving in tomorrow.

Mark said he'd be our guardian angel. I'm feeling a lot better now. He's only had to do CPR underwater once.

Once.

We've probably been diving 30 or 40 times, but this is definitely the most serious thing we've ever done underwater. Thankfully, it seems like we have a really good team around us supporting us.

Your last famous words.

Wait, were you Being serious about the alligators?

Yeah, but they're on the other end. They're not gonna bother us too bad. I promise they're not gonna bother us. Snakes, same thing. They all on the other end. Ain't nowhere near.

I don't know if he's being serious or not.

I'm serious. Julia's checking out to see if there's any snakes right here for us now.

Out there for me, and make sure there are no alligators.

Wait. Have any of you actually hit an alligator before?

More times than one.

I thought we were just coming to practice in a nice, calm environment at the local lake. I forgot we were in Mississippi. How are you feeling about all this?

Basically, get comfortable with the gear, swim around a little bit. We'll take our mask off, fill it up with water, put it back in, clear it kind of like we do in, you know, in the certification. Anything you're not comfortable with, that's what we want to practice out here.

The weather is really setting an ominous tone for the day.

We have never experienced visibility this bad.

My hand in front of my face is about the extent of my visibility right now.

The three of us had to physically hold on to each other the entire dive. Let me go. Any diving skills we were supposed to practice down there were pretty much impossible because even though we were holding hands, we couldn't see each other at.

So will the ocean visibility be better or worse?

Hopefully it'll be a little bit better. A little bit.

I don't know if that made me feel better or worse about tomorrow. So we passed.

Absolutely.

If it wasn't for Mark, I wouldn't be going tomorrow. The only reason I feel comfortable in the water is because I have him.

I'm so overrated.

Captain crunch.

The visibility was so bad that my eyes were, like, searching. I kept thinking, trying to make things out. It was almost more comfortable just to completely close them. Tomorrow's gonna be crazy.

Keep on going.

Keep on going.

Keep on going. Keep on going.

Keep on going. Keep on going. Keep on going.

Keep on going. We did it.

You did it.

Not yet.

Not yet.

Go, go, go, go, go.

Oh, she made it. Never a dull moment.

Sorry. Show Nate that picture.

Do I want to see it?

That's what I said. Yeah. Maybe we'll get to see a hammerhead.

It's a hammerhead, and it's bigger than his body.

How often do you see sharks?

Just about every day.

Every day. If you don't see them, you get scared because you know they're there.

They're there.

They're there.

Be ready. Bring raincoats. It's gonna be sporty, baby. Wide open.

All right. Here goes nothing.

Today. This might not be the last time you see this sandwich.

I hope it is.

Morning.

Good morning, sir.

How's the weather, Tommy?

Good to go? Yeah.

Even out there?

Well, it's gonna be a little sporty, but it's not gonna be too bad. But it'll be all right.

Deep water mafia.

And Nate, how's it going with Marcus? Nice to meet you.

Y' all do bring food?

Yeah.

Nobody eat out here. I got a bag of cookies. I figured that's good enough. This boat's a little wet riding, and by the time we get to where we're going, you'll have to jump in the water to Dr.

All right.

This should be a warmer ride.

It's deepwater mafia tradition. Every time we leave out to go fishing, somebody's gotta get up on the back of the boat and dance, play the music. Got the girls doing the good luck fish dance on the way out.

All right, I'm done.

They said the worse moves, the better. Way to go, girl. Yeah. You've done all the good luck charms this morning.

We're gonna get on plane and we're gonna head out to the triple rigs. The Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi, baby. Gonna take us about 45 minutes. I'm vertically challenged, so I have to stand up on the pool.

Driving the boat on our tight. We might lose our captain.

Oh, we're good.

I can swim.

Gain some speed, baby.

Look, poor Jessica. You got her smoking wet. Oh, no.

Salt water, baby. Good for the ski.

I'm glad I took two seasickness tablets this morning.

So the oil rigs that sit out here in the middle of the ocean, all their structure that sits in the water attracts fish. And that's why we've come here to go spearfishing. They obviously didn't come here for the calm water.

Super big Larry. Super fish Larry. Woo. Woo.

All right back there. Good. Yep.

I'm gonna go run a. Run a line to the rig, and then after I get that done, I'm gonna drop down, get a visibility check real quick.

Go scare the sharks away from us, Marcus.

Now, if you look, I'm about to take my spear gun. We're gonna go shoot a couple fish, chum the sharks up for y'. All.

Great. You wanna have eyes, you wanna be able to win.

All right. Marcus has gone down to scope it out for us.

The last time that I went to go dive, I get this. Oh, crap. Feeling like that feeling like you forgot your kids at school type of feeling. I see Nick, he shot a big old snapper, and this big, like, nine foot bull shark just goes boom and grabs him. So he takes his knife and he cuts his line to save his gun.

This wouldn't have been a good story to save until after we got out of the water.

So this dive was really, really far away from here, right?

No.

This is one of those moments when I don't know how to feel. I feel very comfor diving with everyone here. Like, everyone's skill level and everyone's confidence is boosting my confidence a little bit. But after seeing what murky water was really like yesterday and how rough the seas are today, competing emotions at the moment. Let's say I get lucky and I do shoot a fish. It's bleeding everywhere. It's attracting the. You know, what's. What do I do?

Punch them in the face.

We've done a lot of crazy things on this channel. This might be the craziest.

Yep. All right, Nate, here. If you hold this, I'm gonna get you a shaft out. We're gonna get you set off.

It's my first time touching a spear. We're getting in the water in 60 seconds.

If you hold it like this and shoot it, it's gonna knock your teeth out. Okay. So you got to put your hand at the end.

All right. Here goes Nothing.

Oh, yeah. 4.

We haven't even gotten in the water yet. Marcus has come up with four fish.

Check out this dude's teeth.

Look at them.

They're like human teeth.

Y' all gonna have a good diet. Would you hold him like this one?

I don't know.

I don't hold that little thing.

The visibility of the water today was unlike anything we had ever experienced before. It was kind of like an oreo. As we Descended, the first 15ft were super murky, like the lake. Then between 15 and 30ft, we could see pretty well. But if we went down below 30ft, everything got dark and murky again. And that's where Mark pointed to a shark. I decided not to turn around to see it. After Tommy showed us how it was done, he hung the fish on his belt. Then he handed the gun to Nate, who had never fired one of these things in his entire life.

Then it was my turn.

I got one. Good luck.

I can't believe we did it. First try.

This is bigger.

I think Nate might have got your beat by one ounce. Thank you.

Thank you. First shot ever with the spear gun.

I didn't even Practice on the boat. This is the first time I had ever held a gun. And then he pointed to the fish, and then he pointed at me, and I tried to aim. I didn't really know what I was doing. And then I pulled the trigger and boom. I love it.

Marcus is here to make us look bad.

So how'd you feel, Nate?

It was an adrenaline rush for sure.

Well, here's to good fishing.

Yeah.

It was the best.

Y' all come back anytime. We'll do it. We go get some big boys.

A little chilly. So we've come to one of the barrier islands just off the coast with some other guys from the deepwater mafia, and we're going to cook the sheep's head that we speared.

I already love it here.

This place is awesome. And it's just so warm. This is not at all how I pictured Mississippi. It's incredibly beautiful.

This is not Mississippi. This is the most beautiful part of the world, baby.

Woo.

Oh, it's beautiful.

Ceviche. Ceviche is one of my favorite appetizers.

Actually, back at home, before you eat lunch at 11 o', clock, your appetizer is ceviche. Here you go, princess.

I don't know anyone who has more fun than the people in Mississippi.

That's right.

We know how to have fun here.

Here we go. Omar's homemade ceviche.

Oh, my God.

This is perfection.

Oh, I'm so glad you like it.

The amount of cilantro and lime juice in this dish, it's awesome. Best ceviche I've ever had.

Time to cook.

All right, so we got some sheepshead. We're gonna leave the skin on. This is called on the half shell. Just lay them right on there.

So what's the seasoning?

It's just garlic and onion, black pepper and sea salt.

All the best things.

So we picked up a couple of shrimp.

We did not spear these.

No. And we didn't even trade for these. A lot of times we trade on a shrimp boat. We'll go out there and bring a six pack of beer, and you'll get about £50 of these.

You just do this like that. Just cut it down the middle like that. And then we take the poop out. Big fan of that. Oh, they're all over. Ah, it's on my back. It's biting me on my back.

I thought he was a bug. It was just a mole. Let's take the shrimp off because they're ready. Cheers, guys.

Cheers.

Porn island, Mississippi, baby.

When you put a little work behind it, it tastes a lot better.

Butterfly caught, baby.

We got lionfish caught by Mar Miller.

And we also have sheephead. They spear. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Kate and Nate, Tennessee Spiros.

Here we go.

Food of Mississippi.

Oh, how do you like it?

Oh, my gusta.

Really good.

We've kind of been living a double life.

Oh, this is my first facial. Is the bed heated? It is. This is so great.

Hmm.

This is amazing. I think I'm ruined forever. I'm gonna have to get facials regularly now.

Do I look 10 years younger?

The fun's not over yet.

Needs an organic blend that is safflower.

And vitamin E.

So, yeah, we haven't exactly been roughing it the whole time we've been here. I don't even think I need to say how relaxed I feel right now.

Whenever we haven't been scuba diving in scary, murky water, we've been here at the Beau R Vage being treated like royalty. And we've been eating like royalty.

Tea.

I've never seen this before.

I don't deserve this. All of the worst parts of ordering cab legs are being done for us.

Wow.

This is the thickest sweatshirt I've ever put on. I think I can go to the Arctic.

Is that how it's supposed to fit?

You look like a seal.

As long as there's no great whites, we should be good.

Don't look like a spear fisherman yet.

Once you get it over your neck, you want it tight.

How is it?

That's perfect.

I feel like I can't hear anybody.

What?

Watch out, fish.

Somebody needs to build a road department. Tell em come fix this road. I thought you wanted to know. That's corny. One. That's corny.

I'm learning.

If the shaky footage is making anyone else feel sick, I'm sorry. But just imagine what I feel like right now.

What's up, Dwight? Above y' all.

Just wave at them. Say, come on. Yeah, you just tell them to come.

On with your eyes.

With your eyes. You look at them and you say, come on. You hold on to that fish. Don't give that fish up. There's reason behind it. If you give them the fish, they become accustomed to people feeding them. You hold on to your fish and that helps everybody down the road. You better without me.

I can be the. What are you doing?

I saw the.

Crazy Omar, Crazy Guatemalan. Crazy Guatemalan.