We put the boat in about 7:15 and headed down the slick calm river, eerily similar to last weeks trip. Into the gulf we go to pick up the pinfish trap. There were about 2 dozen baits in it so we decided to catch a few more. 4 dozen later and we were headed south. Seas were rolling a little bit, so we were in no hurry and got to the first spot in about 20 minutes.
First bait down was Kalianna.
About 2 minutes later she had her first 'solo' keeper grouper in the boat about 24".
Frank was next...
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Not big, but a keeper nonetheless.
After that, the bite just died. The next 3 spots were the same, nothing happening. We made the decision to run to some spots in 40 feet. On the way there we ran over some good looking bottom to save for another day.
Kalianna wanted to try driving so Greg put her in the driver's seat, with me holding her up so she could see.
She did such a good job, she drove the boat the rest of the day.
When we arrived at the next spot we fired down some pinfish. Same thing, bite is dead as we were almost to the dead low tide. Time for the tanks.
Frank and I suited up and went down. First fish I see is a nice gag of at least 15 pounds. He bolts and runs around the rock. I head the other way and try to cut him off. As I get to the other side, I hear Frank shoot. Big cloud of silt. I kill a nice hog. String him up, reload and what do I see? The big gag swimming along with a huge hole in the side. I try to catch up and throw a hail mary shot, but I miss. The fish got off Frank's spear and got away. Oh well, it happens sometimes.
I proceed to hammer 2 more nice hogs and Frank gets a gag a big flounder and a hog. We call that dive and head up.
I stay suited up and we head back over to the area we found on the way. I take a look and find a small ledge that is covered in hogfish. I just watched this dive since all the hogs looked a little smaller than what we had. We put this in the GPS as "HOGSALOT" with a note to hit this at a later date.
As we are deciding where to go next I break out my GPS to see what I had close and I had 2 numbers within about a half mile. Frank suited up to look at the first one and reported good hard bottom with not much fish wise.
I hit the next spot. The vis was not too bad so I stayed about 20 feet off the bottom and was surveying the area. Lots of seafans and big sponges over finger cracks and small holes. As I just eased around, I was beginning to draw a crowd underneath me. For anyone that has dove a 'virgin' spot knows, the fish are curious to a fault. A 15 pound gag did the "I'll look at him a split second too long, slow turn around" move that landed him 60" of spring steel to the head. When I got through stringing him up I looked around and was surrounded by grouper just looking at me. I made a slow ascent, loaded my gun and took a long, but good shot on another 15 pounder. I hit the fish really good, but at the end of the range of both my gun and vis. The fish looked like he was shot out of a cannon and just that quickly, was gone. I loaded my other shaft and was nearly content in having lost a shaft and a nice fish.
I made my way down the craggly bottom and killed a couple more fish along the way. Then I heard a "clink" which I thought was Frank shooting a fish. Then I heard it again and thought "man Frank is wearing them out". I head the direction of where I think the sound is coming from and I find the "jackpot". A craggly ledge with fish everywhere and marking it like a shining beacon, was my shaft sticking out from under part of it. I swam up to it and gave it a good yank and out it comes with my fish attached. I am so happy, I'm laughing through my regulator. I string him up and ascend a little. About that time a big red grouper comes out of the hole and is like "What's up?" and I'm all like "nuthin"... SNNNIKKKKTTTT. Red grouper down. Then the biggest hog of day comes moseying by. Hog down. By now my stringer was too heavy to carry so I dropped it in a crack and went exploring a bit. Came back and shot another 10 pounder staring at his holey brothers. I go to string him and my stringer is hung... ON THE BIGGEST STONE CRAB I HAVE EVER SEEN.
I pulled it away from him and grabbed him by the claws. My fingers would not touch as I held his claws. Stretched clawtip to clawtip he was easily 18" across. I let him go and told him I'd be seeing him in October.
After that I was in a zone and did not remember how many fish I had until I got to the boat. Since I had been down for a good 30 minutes, Frank was ready with the camera and got some pics of me on the surface.
Back on deck the carnage was inspiring.
My biggest stringer to date...BY FAR.
I told Frank we should let this spot rest an hour or so then come back so he could dive it. We ran to a spot about 3 miles away and dropped pins again. Kalianna hooked up on a short grouper.
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After that, no more bites. Poor Greg couldn't buy a bite.
Frank and I dove this spot, but the vis was awful. I shot 1 fish under the ledge and all I got for my efforts was 10 sea urchine spines in my arm. Ouch that hurts.
Back to the "Jackpot", it was Frank's turn. He was down quite a while, however he only came back with a few hogs and reported the same crappy vis and strong current as the last spot.
Content with what we had and a storm on the horizon we decided to call it a day. We ran in at WOT on the flat calm seas. The camera got a workout as we added the previous days catch to this one for the photo ops.
Water temps offshore were around 85°. Seas were flat after 10. Vis ranged from great in the morning, to crappy after the tide change. Most fish came from 37 feet.
We met up with Dolphinatic at the ramp coming back and he followed us to casa de Bradfield to survey his job he has for Monday.
Only casualty of the day was my wallet that made 3 dives with me. I managed to save everything in it, but it's a little worse for wear.
Thanks to Frank and Greg for the invite. Kalianna had a great time, and is already talking about the next time.
