naclh2oDave

After months of annoying my amigo Billybob for some lobster tips he finally took me and Seanout yesterday for a lesson. On our way out to one of his honey holes we found a mark light up the screen on his depthfinder, we circled back to it and it was marking fish all the way through the water column,it looked too good to pass up so we dropped anchor on it and suited up. Holy mother of PEARL! It was a flat barge about 40 feet long with a chicken coop off to the side! Jack POT! :clap We took an alternating diver approach so that someone was always on the boat and two divers down.At first on bottom Bill pointed out a nice gag and offered to mebut I had my sights set on a bigger prize, so he went a head and took the shot. I turned around back to the coop where I had seen a big gag run for cover when we had just first come into visibility. So, here he comes to greet me and click, boom. Nice gag on the stringer. I swim over and Billybob starts showing me the lobster and where they are hiding but I realized I didn't have my bag so he hunts them bugs down and I keep hunting the scaly creatures. I gota nice 6-7pound triggerand its time to head up. Then Bill dove next with Sean and Sean wound up getting a really nice 15lb snapper. We pulled out 2 gags ,,one big snapper a beautyof a trigger and 5 lobster. This process of cruising and keeping an eye on the bottom machine really paid off and we marked two good spots that were dive worthy by the end of the day.

The weather man called for 1-2 feet but it was waaay bigger. Luckily Bills catamaran ate a bunch of it up. Throughout the day it was a solid 3-5s heavy on the 5s. I think that Mr. Noaa needs to calibrate his machinary I'm pretty sure he's reading in meters not feet. On top of that the current started turning into a wild river. We had to cut our diving short just because the current was ripping so much. Seriuosly though, the current was dangerous. We did wind up tying a tagline to the anchor line just to get to the bow to start our decents. Be careful this weekend out there. If its anything like it was yesterday, and if people are not careful and keep a close eye on each other there could be some disasters.

So on we went to his spot further SW. A tire pyramid where Billybob proceeded to school us on the art of spotting and catching more shovelnose. Sean got down and grabbed a few of them himself. Then he came across a nice gag. Bill and Sean both said that it was bigger than mine (which by the way was bigger than Billybobs :bowdown) But I suppose they were being generous when they left it there for me to recover. So down I go, this spot was a little deeper and air was burning fast (especially after the debacle of getting down in the mismatched current and surface current running a solid 2-3 knots) and I needed to get hunting. I spotted a few more lobster right wherethey said they would be and as I reached for them and they hid I touched a fish, WHAT was that? I look in and sure enough there's that gag. Boy he's in there tight. There's no room to get him out anywhere. How did he get in there? Billybob bugs out up the anchor line and I'm left with my thoughts and about 1000 pounds of air. I see the anchor is hooked up in the bouy and a mess of discarded line so outcomes thetrusty knife. This is where it gets fun. I cut the bouy line off and it shoots up like a rocket, that was cool but now I still have to cut the bottom half that is keeping the boat secured. So I wrap my legs around this thing and get ready for my broncho ride, 1 slice, 2 slices a hack and aiaiaiaaaaaiiiiiiiiaiaiaiaia, off I go like Tarzan swinging through the jungle. WHAT A RIDE! I make my way up the line and eventually to the boat. The guys set up a nice recovery line for me and it was a lot easier getting back into the boat than it was going down. Thanks guys.

Bill had another spot he ran across that said produces a lot of lobster. We head over there and the current is way bad there too. We drop a baited line and come up with legal snapper and a trigger, both of those go in the box. We vote and decide to look for an area with less current. Spot after spotthe water isripping through like a tornado in a trailer park. Finally we anchor down on a spot that we had run across earlier in the day, and suit up. Sean goes over first and I wait for him to surface so I can go over, he pops up and struggles toward the front of the boat. Eventually it's too much for him and he retreats to the stern. I have not yet gone over so I help him in the boat and he says he ain't going. I look at him and I look at the current and say "yea, good idea, I ain't going either". Believe it or not Bill suits up and over he goes, now I don't know if he's genius or a madman but he goes underneath the boat, through the center of the cat, follows the tag line pops out the front and heads down the line, W-O-W! Thats freaking nuts! He comes back up in 15 minutes with a nice fat snapper. Now as focused on closing the limit out and schooling us younguns as he was, Seans snapper was bigger than Bills and My gag was bigger that bills, he did school us in lobster though and thats what I came for.

We came back to the pass and it was something else. Now, we are in a 28 foot boat, this thing can handle the seas, but the rollers at the pass were VERY BIG, don't underestimate this. It was a nerve racking. As the wave would build behind us we could watch it tower over us as it pushed the boat onto the next roller.A smaller boat in those conditions......I dunno man, it was hairy. I REALLY :angel:angel:angel hope its better than that tomorrow. With all the choppy conditions and ripping current it made for slow travel times. It was a long day and a late return. I'm resting up today and will be ready for tomorrow.

Tally: 3 gags, 3 snappers, 2 triggers, 1 mangrove 15 lobster. It was a hellova day, thanks Bill for the rideAND the lessons. Best $60 I ever spent.

Here is a shot of my share.

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spear em

great report and good details. our last two trips out the current was ripping azz bad. my partner got a little whiffed at me for bailing out on a dive but man i just cant fight that current. by the time i get below it say 20 or 30 ft down i am wore out and puffing air like no tomorrow!!! i have to hold on to the army tank for few minutes just to catch my breath!!!

countryjwh

nice report, a friend of mine went out today out of dauphin island about 25 miles and he said there was not a lick of curent. hopefully it will be headed your way.