), PinfishKing, and Andre. Seas were about 2 foot rollers and it was very warm. We made bait for H/L for about an hour. Ran up on a school of bait about 7 miles out that was probably 5 acres. We put about 50 live baits in the livewell and went to a snapper spot in 85 feet.Big show on the recorder so we anchored up. PFK put a keeper red snapper and a nice red grouper in the box right away. The rest of us managed a couple of shorts and Andre got another keeper red grouper.
I had seen enough and got geared up. Frank soon joined me and down we went. I hit the bottom and shot a nice mangrove. When I went to get him in the hole I was surprised by a nice bulldozer. Strung them both and kept looking. Not much on the bottom here. Just holes about 3 feet across scattered every 20 feet or so. The whole time I was surrounded by juvenile red snapper. The only good size keeper I saw got a haircut and never got close enough to me again.
A funny thing happened on this dive. I left my stringer close to one of the holes hoping to coax a bigger fish out. So I went hunting and came back a few minutes later after shooting a nice trigger and noticed my stringer was not where I left it. About that time I see the tail of my mangrove sticking out of the hole. I go and grab my stringer and try to pull it out and it doesn't want to come. It finally gives and I see what the problem is. A big octopus has grabbed it and tried to pull it into its hole. I was able to wrestle it away from him and went on my way.
Started my ascent and met Frank behind the boat. He gave me the "look" sign and pointed behind him. There he was.
He was about 5 feet. I threw my stringer into the boat and snapped some quick shots.
Next stop was a wreck in 70 feet. Andre and I went down and commenced to murdering mangroves. I ended up loosing a spear and damaging my BC while trying to dig it out. So I took a few pics.
Andre was high gun on this dive with 6 grovers. I managed 4 nice ones but they were overshadowed by Andre's 11 pounder.
Next stop was the Bryson. Since my BC was DOA Andre and Frank went down. They reported great vis but not many fish. Frank lost a shaft to an AJ and Andre (the grover murderer) came back with 3 more nice mangroves. They can tell you more about this dive.
We were going to try the Yamaha next to try to round out the box with an AJ. Along the way we stopped to H/L some more. We ended up getting 2 kings on the flat line and a keeper gag. One of the short gags I pulled up was enhaled by a big shark and left only the head. We decided against diving that spot.
The Yamaha already had a dive boat on it so we opted for a close by ledge. Frank loaned me his BC and Andre and I dove the ledge. Not much there but I got a sheep head and a hog.
The seas had gotten really sloppy by this time and we got soaked on the ride in. Made it back to the hill at 6 pm. Took some photos of the catch, cleaned them and then showered. We were headed for Coastal Seafood at 7:30 for a fresh fish meal which as always was awesome!
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Visibility everywhere we went was 60 feet or better above the thermocline and 20-30 under it. Bottom temps were a very comfy 77° and 81° on the surface. I dove just my dive skin and was very comfortable.
Thanks to everyone for an awesome trip!
