Telum Pisces

Man what a long hard day of diving. It was my birthday yesterday and what better way to celebrate than to go shoot some fish. Well, it didn't pan out the way we wanted it. It seemed like every spot we hit was void of good fish to shoot.

On our fist dive I notice that my bottom machine is reading a lot of noise/clutter on the bottom. Well that noise/clutter turns out to be a muck layer sitting right on the bottom. We had maybe 5-7 feet of dark, dark viz. We were only able to find a small chunk of this small wreck we were diving. And I couldn't see anything to shoot at all. I look at Dave to tell him that I am aborting this crappy vis.

We head to out second dive in the sloppy mess of seas we have. We get down to much better viz of about 40 feet or so. I find a school of snapper and point my gun at about a 25 lb snapper. I pull the trigger and nothing. Damn safety is on.:banghead By the time the safety gets flipped off, he's out of range and swimming away. I spend a good amount of time just sitting there waiting for the fish to come in. Finally I get a 10lb snapper on the stringer.As I make my way back to the anchor, I see a nice snapper swimming up to me.He swims closer and turns broadside and I take the shot.Right after I take the shot, I look up a little to my right and little behind meand see Dave pointing his gun at the same fish. He has that look of "you just snaked my fish you SOB". Sorry Dave. Dave ends up withone legal snapper here as well.

We head for our third spot at about 15 mph in the slop. Get down to find a bunch of small fish. I come up empty handed here and Dave came up with one shovel nose lobster.

We start to head to our 4th spot when Bob (our bubble watcher) says that he sees a marker bouy with no one around it. We go investigate and it marks up pretty good with relief. Turns out a boat with engine troubles had drifted about .5 miles away. They appearently got their motor troubls fixed and say that it is their bouy. It's a number I did not have in my GPS and we dive to find out what it is. Turned out to be a push barge. It did not have much on it and I came up empty handed. Dave shot the biggest snapper on the whole wreck. About a 9 pounder.

We head in to Sherman Cove to call it a day. All we had to show for our effort wasour limits of snapper and a shovel nose. I went to go weigh my snapper for the hell of it and it weighed 14.1 lbs. Enough to take first place at the time. But I was only the 4th boat to come in so far.:banghead

I want to thank Bob (pirate@40something) he helped out tremendously on the boat. We did not end up shooting today. The forecast was going to be rougher than yesterday and we were beat enough already from yesterday.

FelixH

Way to tough it out and make something of it. Paul and I had about the same experience as you. Sloppy seas in a small boat and crappy vis. Seems SE would have been the direction to head yesterday. SW (the way we went) had horrible vis.

Paul and Iended up with two snapper each. The biggest of the four was about a 9 pounder that I shot. All our fish came from the last dive of the day.

Our two teammates did slightly better. If I can talk Ritchie into bringing his flounder in to weigh, I'm sure he'll win something, if not first.

Also, teammate Gene has a grouper that just might make the board and an AJ that might make it as well. He's going to try to get to the scales this afternoon.

lobsterman

Good job , have you found any lobster yet?

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naclh2oDave

Dang man you never said it was your birthday! We were out there all day and I never got to wish you a happy birthday. Well I guess that big ol' snapper you sniped from in front of my fully loaded, pointed and aimed speargun was your gift. Those fillets look tasty though, watch out for bones :nonono

It was hard going yesterday, the ride actually wasn't too bad, the current was pretty much nill. The picking was slim though. The viz was pretty good except on that first spot.It's probably that way all the time there.

That snapper was tasty, I used the lobster for a stuffing and broiled it. yummy! :hungry

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Telum Pisces

I am going to have to go on a few dives to spots where I know there are lobster and simply go down specifically to look for those camoflauged bugs. I just can't see them.And 98% of the time, I am fish hunting and don't pay enough attention. :banghead

lobsterman

once you train your eyes to spot them it will come naturally for you. It's almost like taking candy from a baby.

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AKA Jiggin Junkie
II Chronicles 7:14

Randy's Canvas & Marine Vinyls

850-279-4140
850-855-5314 cell

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Telum Pisces

Yeah, Dave just learned this past week and he already said he can spot them pretty easy now.

lobsterman

so when are you heading out of here?

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AKA Jiggin Junkie
II Chronicles 7:14

Randy's Canvas & Marine Vinyls

850-279-4140
850-855-5314 cell

Custom Awnings - Repairs
Boat Cushions - Curtains and more

sniper

I fished out to the SE the first day and couldnt see anything. The second day went to the south west and got better vis. The ticket was deeper water (wasnt set for deeper on my nitrox but pushed my limits without a hitch). I didnt get any fish to brag about but did see some cool stuff when I dove. I agree the seas WERE NASTY. I couldnt do better than 20 MPH on the way in. BUt all in all it was a fun trip. Got to spend some quality time with some people I enjoy spending quality time with. Thank you MBT for putting this on.

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pirate@40something

jon and dave thanks for letting me tag along and the fish, had'em last night for dinner. delicious. also happy birthday if i had known that we would of had a beer or 2 back at the dock. thanks again.