8/7 OAR
Posted: August 11th, 2010, 11:48 am
Saturday my wife (Lesly) a buddy of mine (Ian) and I dove the OAR reef just N of the K in 50 feet of water. The water clarity was around 35 feet once you got past the thermo clime. I brought down my spear gun in hopes of finding dinner but the other two didn’t. As we are coming upon a pile of culverts and notices 3 healthy Goliath working the perimeter. All around the 150lb range. There was also a rather large turtle taking a snooze on the bottom that was pretty cool to see. We proceed to fan out over the structure when I noticed a red grouper that look rather tasty so I took the shot. It was up in the structures and little bit of a pain to get out but managed to after a min or so then quickly put it on the stringer. It was around 23 inches. Not big but good enough for dinner for sure. I only saw one other grouper that would have measured but it always stayed just out of range. The three of us continued to explore things. Saw just about everything Grouper, snapper, jacks, macs, bait pods and a variety of other reef fish. About ¾ of the way though the dive Ian motions to me that he wanted to use the spear gun. He wasn’t exactly sure what to shoot so I stayed with him trying to point things out. One of the biggest sheephead I have ever seen came broadside 4 feet away. He didn’t realize it was something he could shoot and let it pass. Ian did manage to stone a good size mangrove snapper thou. As I pull the fish off the spear and put it on the stringer Ian was trying to reload the gun. At that point I notice a school of jacks running all over the place. I knew something had them worked up and it wasn’t us. I start looking around and notice a very large bull shark just down current. He was working back and forth I realize he acted just like my dog does when on the trail of something. I quickly pointed out the shark to Lesly and Ian and then back away from them since the stringer was attached to me. The shark came in close a few times and Ian poked it once with the end of the spear. At that we decided to head for the surface.
Once back on the boat the first topic to come up was the shark. I guessed 9 feet but the other two thought it was much larger. Regardless it was big and aggressive. I don’t think watching stories about people getting attacked on shark week the night before help out the situation either. Oh well, it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Got dinner and saw allot of cool stuff.
Once back on the boat the first topic to come up was the shark. I guessed 9 feet but the other two thought it was much larger. Regardless it was big and aggressive. I don’t think watching stories about people getting attacked on shark week the night before help out the situation either. Oh well, it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Got dinner and saw allot of cool stuff.