Telum Pisces

Me, Dave, and a bubble watcher set out of Sherman Cove on Tuesday at 0730 with the idea of getting our last snapper of the season and then going to find some lobster.

We pull up to our first spot and the water was as blue and clear as I had ever seen it on the surface. We were about 26 miles out. We dive down to some great viz. I get down to about 120' and look up and I see the boat. But I start the hunt for fish and there is nothing to be had. A bunch of bait fish, but nothing else. I seach a bit more and a LARGEAJ comes swiming over my shoulder. By the time I swung my gun around to get a shot, it was a distance shot and I missed.:banghead I search a bit more and nothing is there to shoot. I start to head up. My computer has put me slightly into deco and I have to make a stop at 50' for about one minute.

This is where the story gets better. I am sitting there at 50-60 feet and I am seeing cudas everywhere. Well, I look the other direction and I think to myself, man that's a very big cuda. It was 6-6.5 feet in length and very thick. Then I say, that's not a cuda, what the hell is that? Right then it lights up with bright blue stripes and I start breathing real hard, because it's a monster Wahoo. It's about 18-20 feet away from me. I start to ease over to it and it starts to ease away from me. So I decide to take a shot, it's just hanging out, but I new my gun has about a 20 foot reach on a small fish. I shoot and it simply bounces off and the fish dissapears. Even though I did not land it, it was one of the coolest things I have seen underwater. I would have never thought in a million years that I would see a Wahoo underwater. I come up to tell Dave and he of course does not believe me.:doh

At this point though, we are fishless on our first dive. We decide to go hit a farily new smallspot that has only been down a year or so. I tell Dave that if I get down there and there's nothing worth shooting that I am coming back up. Sure enough, I get down there and this thing is crawling with 13.5 " triggers. I have never seen so many triggers in my life. One litterally came up to my mask and nipped at it. I poked it away with my finger. With nothing to shoot though, I head up with Dave shortly behind me. Our bubble watcher though is wearing out the Mingos here. So we stick around to get some more nice Mingos.

Head to our third spot still Snapperless.:banghead We get down to find this spot covered in Snappers. Nothing huge, but they will eat just fine. Me and Dave get our limit of ARS and so does our bubble watcher above. I shoot a little mangrove as well. We come up and the mingos are very hungry here as well. We load the box to about 24-26 mingos or so before we head to our spot to search for lobster.

We get to our natural bottom spot and head down. We go one direction and don't find any. I have never got any lobster at all. So this was a learning dive for me. We head another direction and I look under a ledge and there is a nice shovel nose just hanging out. Grab it and in the bag it goes. My first lobster ever.:letsdrink Start hunting some more and find another. This one got away and I could not find it. Go on the hunt again and find another. Seems we found the mother load. Right then, I hear my computer scream. Dumb me was in the lobster hunting mode and didn't notice that I was going into deco. I head back to the anchor line and do my short deco stop and come up with my two bugs. Dave got one as well. I wish I had more bottom time, but it was deep and our last dive so I was short on bottom time. I will be back.

It was a great day with pond conditions out there with no wind. Water was the clearest I have seen it on all of our dives. Still a good thermocline in spots though. I recorded 72 degrees on the bottom on most spots.

Here is just a portion of what we brought home. Multiply these fish by 3 and that's what we had in the box. .

lobsterman

Good job Jon, I am proud of you. The lobster comes easier to see every time.

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naclh2oDave

I was afraid that the results from the first dive would set the pace for the whole day, boy I was wrong! That barge on dive 2.5 was great. The lobster hunting was also a great start to that endeavor! we will have to start making a dedicated 1st tank dive for those little critters. How were they?

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Gator

Had a great time guys. Maybe next time I'll split the bubble watching duties with somebody and get my head underwater too. Great day on the Gulf and some nice fish to show for it. Thanks again John. Dave , I'll give you a buzz Sunday when I get back in town

Telum Pisces

Didn't know you were on here man. Your welcome on the boat anytime. Dave has my number.

Orion45

Because of your 50'/1 min deepstop, you must have been diving somewhere in 115' of water. Had you stuck that wahoo you would have gone for a nice ride (I'm assuming you were off the anchor line since you mentioned that you swam toward the wahoo). What kind of speargun are you using now?

Telum Pisces

I was holding onto the anchor line and had only swam about 5-7 feet away from it. But yes, I thought for a split second about what the hell am I going to do with it if I get him on the shaft. I would have been able to get to the anchor line to hold on, but it wtill would have been interesting with only 700psi of air left. Still shooting the 63" JBL Woody Magnum. I have 21 feet of shock cord on it and have taken smaller fish out to about 18 feetbefore. It's got the power with 3 short 5/8 bands. But an 18 feet shot on a fish like that was slim to none to get him on. But I had to try.:letsdrink

Orion45

I had a mental picture of youtrailing behind the wahoo as he hauled a$$ back towards the nipple. Glad you had a good time.

P.S. I thought you might have been diving without anchoring since you had a bubble watcher. I haven't anchored in a long time, not even on wrecks. It's all been free ascents. A lot faster and lots more freedom to explore the natural bottoms. Let me know when you have a free weekday and you want to dive out of Destin for some lobsters and groupers.

Gator

Thanks Jon, appreciate that

HateCheese

Sweet job guys, and congrats on your first lobster Jon. :clap

Still trying to bag my first bug, if you find out you hate them Iwould bet willing tohelp eat them with some drawn butter :banghead you know, just to help out.

Bet that was one heck of a full fish box taking the photo you postedX 3.