Plan B: Wednesday morning I left Ponte Vedra early to meet Evan and his crew at the Cedar Key dock 3 hours away. We quickly stowed gear and launched the boat. On board Evan’s 28 foot AmeraCat catamaran was his 6 year old son Ethan (a TROOPER!!), his father Johnny and his friend Kennedy. Conditions were excellent at the ramp with light easterly winds and it looked like it would be a gorgeous day.
Evan’s 28’ AmeraCat
A great platform to dive off of!
Running out
On the way out Evan and his father Johnny did a quick dive in 56 feet to check out a spot and picked up a couple of red grouper and hogs. I gotta say it’s really, really cool for a son to be able to dive & spearfish with his father! Evan and Johnny have had many adventures together and it was cool to be part of another one with them.
3 generations of Stern’s!!
Six yr old Ethan was a TROOPER the entire day offshore!
After that we continued offshore starting in 72 feet and working easterly inshore to shallower water as we hit numerous spots- almost all of them small so we did bounce dives. Every drop would end up in a couple of fish, some of which the red groupers were really nice sized fire trucks.
Kennedy with a nice pair of reds - one of which would go 17.5 lbs at the dock.
Me with a red
Ethan with his father and a couple of reds
Ethan the trooper!
Kennedy with the last gag of the day
Second count to double check numbers:
9 reds, 5 gag, 3 hogfish, 2 scamp, and 2 mangos
Conditions: From 72 - 45 feet the U/W temperature was 85 ˚F with a dark thermocline at 33 feet. Above the thermocline the water was dark & dirty. On the bottom horizontal vis was 40 feet with a fair amount of suspended particulate. A few nurse sharks were seen plus three large jewfish (Goliath) hanging out on a long 5 foot ledge.
Gotta love fresh phish samwitches over July 4th holiday weekend!
Hoo Yah!
Brian
