A big goal for the trip was testing my new DIY underwater camera apparatus that I named the Catch Cam 2000 because it was the most annoying name I could think of. Ever since I started dropping cameras below the boat in hopes of learning how to read a sonar or understand why a particular fish is in a particular spot, friends have said, “you really need to put a hook on your camera.” They didn’t care about watching a fish take a bait, they just wanted to watch me lose the camera. That’s just the kind of lousy friends I have.
I tried to laugh-off my friends’ bad advice, but the thought of catching a fish on camera never left my mind. On Friday, I tested the Catch Cam 2000 apparatus with an old expendable underwater camera and the test was largely successful. On a spot where the fish were active, I dropped the camera down three times and caught three fish in a short amount of time—a gag grouper, a mangrove snapper, and a red grouper.
In this still shot from the gag grouper video, the grouper has just taken a bait and is about to make a run:
In the still shot below, a mangrove snapper is violently dragging the camera as hard as it can:
In the still shot below, a red grouper has just hit a sandperch and thinks it can escape by hiding behind a soft coral:
Here’s a link to the gag grouper video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS8fisIg ... Vub3VoYWEz
Here is a link to the red grouper video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS0mo4z ... hpdmZsaA==
Here’s a link to the mangrove snapper video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS3iiPR ... oyZXA3dQ==
I will upload the other videos to Instagram in the next few days. Check back here for additional links or look for my Instagram posts.
If you want to know about the fishing conditions, the waters in the federal zone were very clear and about 64 degrees. Schools of bait were everywhere in the 80’ depths but not in shallower water. We thought one bait school was a snapper tree, but a bait rig dropped into the school brought up pinfish and a hard tail. Live and frozen baits dropped below the boat didn’t get a bite.
Grouper and snapper that covered some of my fishing spots in the warmer months were largely replaced by schools of tomtates. Our best fish were caught in federal waters, but a few weeks ago, we caught our best red snapper in shallower state waters.
Here are some additional random pictures from our great day on the water:
