keezdiver
08-17-2007, 09:54 AM
Because eventually they'll learn enough to not need your help....and worse yet...OUT SHOOT YOU!!!
after saturday's fun, jess and i got up early and got the boat ready for a follow up trip to the wreck of the thunderbolt. we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to dive my favorite wreck with 75ft of vis, no current and crawling with black grouper.
got gas, got tanks, got grub...got loaded and were idling out of the canal at 9:30am (hey that's early for a sunday morning!) rode out to the wreck and were surprised to see no boats on the wreck but a few nearby. found the bouy in no time and jess jumped down and tied off....she's taking my job (remember the "not need your help" from above?)
we gear up and jump in the water, just under the surface jess signals to me that she is missing a shaft. somehow it slipped out of the gun during entry, neither one of us noticing. i immediatly dropped straight down (no current) and hit the sand off the bow under our boat, looked around and saw nothing.
i worked my way back to the wreck and down the starboard side and about half way down the wreck i saw the big bait ball that was present yesterday...along with the 6-8 blacks under it. knowing i had a cooler still full of fish from yesterdays venture, i was not in my usual "eyes on target, death stalk" mode, i was mostly a casual observer....with the option of killing if a GOOD opportunity presented itself.
swimming well over the bait and the grouper i watched them dart in and out from under the bait and the wreck. some were curious and layed out in the sand by some rubble. i made a few half-assed attempts to drop on them, but none wanted to play that game. and i wasn't in the mood to take a 25ft shot at any fish. i easily could have taken shots on 4 or 5 of the fish, all of which were legal and up to about 30" or so. among these fish was "captain hair-do" from yesterdays adventure, surprise surprise...he didn't stick around long.
as i eased down around the stern jess was pointing out the antenna of a decent sized bug up under the keel. i checked him out and then rose up over the stern and was greeted eye to eye by a good sized cubera snapper. the fish swam right at me and then turned. he gave me shot opportunitys but i passed since the shaft likely would have ended up in the hold, and i'd have lost the fish if it wasn't a good shot (again...didn't need the meat).
we worked our way back up the wreck and i headed out off the bow again to look for the lost shaft. next thing i see is jess lining up on a fish and pulling the trigger. i see a dust cloud and a nice hogfish swim under some rubble debris. jess is frantically reloading and i'm keeping an eagle-eye on the fish to make sure he doesn't get away. she shoots again and the shaft hits the rubble and pulls right out...not getting deep enough to engage the flopper. again, she frantically reloads and i entertain the idea of taking the final shot. but the hog just limps out over the sand and pretty much passed out on the sand. jess quickly slipped a 3rd shot in and bagged the fish. breathing hard i offered her my open stringer...saving her the effort of wrestling with hers. we both surface with 1500psi (al80) and are well in the green on the computer...not bad for an 18min dive at a max depth of 122ft.
on the boat jess is elated with the huge hog that she has, and that its one of the biggest she's seen, as well as obviously her personal biggest. we both decide we'd love to hit the wreck again and take advantage of the great conditions and the plentiful fish viewing...and look for her shaft.
so we do our surface time and roll in with new tanks and hit the wreck. we both head down the wreck and are watching the grouper mingle about. i again pass on several possible shots included another shot on the cubera and head down with my lobster guage to see if i can wrangle out the bug jess spotted. while i'm playing with the bug i hear jess pull the trigger and look to my right and see her chasing down a grouper with a shaft hanging out of it. she got ahold of it and slid it on the stringer.
jess is beaming with excitement because she spoted, stalked and collected a grouper all by herself (again...refer to the "not need your help" above). she was again doing various versions of under water victory dances (no cowboy ride this time ). we looked for the shaft some more and hit the bouy line a few minutes into deco, did our required safety stop and then some, hitting the boat almost into the green.
after dealing with some cone divers on the surface we recalled the dive with much excitement and again jess is elated.
we mosie over to a ledge number that i marked but hadn't dove and rolled in to kill the last of our first tanks. we checked out some very cool structure, but no fish to be seen. we spooked a smaller black but didn't give much pursuit knowing we had more fish than we needed. we came up on a nice separated piece of reef and i signaled to check that out and then turn back towards the anchor. as i approach it i see a nice 15lb black swim away and i give a little extra kick to my fins to close the distance. all of a sudden i hear the familiar sound of jess's gun going off to my left. i glance over and see a quivering slab of fish on her shaft....she stoned a hogfish. then all of a sudden as she picks the fish up i realize how big the animal is...and i lose all interest in my prey. i let out a huge scream as does she, and my regulator nearly fell out of my mouth due to my smile.
AGAIN she spotted, stalked and STONED another fish....without me (sound familiar?)....and this time it was a WHOPPER!!
we both swim back to the anchor and are absolutely awe-struck at the size and girth of this fish.
i'll let the pictures do the talking on this one....
3 dives and i hadn't pulled the trigger once....but jess put 3 nice fish in the cooler...all by herself....(refer to the 2nd part of the first line at the top)
today....she was the star shooter...it was a sweet ride in, and a couple very well deserved beers on the way.
after saturday's fun, jess and i got up early and got the boat ready for a follow up trip to the wreck of the thunderbolt. we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to dive my favorite wreck with 75ft of vis, no current and crawling with black grouper.
got gas, got tanks, got grub...got loaded and were idling out of the canal at 9:30am (hey that's early for a sunday morning!) rode out to the wreck and were surprised to see no boats on the wreck but a few nearby. found the bouy in no time and jess jumped down and tied off....she's taking my job (remember the "not need your help" from above?)
we gear up and jump in the water, just under the surface jess signals to me that she is missing a shaft. somehow it slipped out of the gun during entry, neither one of us noticing. i immediatly dropped straight down (no current) and hit the sand off the bow under our boat, looked around and saw nothing.
i worked my way back to the wreck and down the starboard side and about half way down the wreck i saw the big bait ball that was present yesterday...along with the 6-8 blacks under it. knowing i had a cooler still full of fish from yesterdays venture, i was not in my usual "eyes on target, death stalk" mode, i was mostly a casual observer....with the option of killing if a GOOD opportunity presented itself.
swimming well over the bait and the grouper i watched them dart in and out from under the bait and the wreck. some were curious and layed out in the sand by some rubble. i made a few half-assed attempts to drop on them, but none wanted to play that game. and i wasn't in the mood to take a 25ft shot at any fish. i easily could have taken shots on 4 or 5 of the fish, all of which were legal and up to about 30" or so. among these fish was "captain hair-do" from yesterdays adventure, surprise surprise...he didn't stick around long.
as i eased down around the stern jess was pointing out the antenna of a decent sized bug up under the keel. i checked him out and then rose up over the stern and was greeted eye to eye by a good sized cubera snapper. the fish swam right at me and then turned. he gave me shot opportunitys but i passed since the shaft likely would have ended up in the hold, and i'd have lost the fish if it wasn't a good shot (again...didn't need the meat).
we worked our way back up the wreck and i headed out off the bow again to look for the lost shaft. next thing i see is jess lining up on a fish and pulling the trigger. i see a dust cloud and a nice hogfish swim under some rubble debris. jess is frantically reloading and i'm keeping an eagle-eye on the fish to make sure he doesn't get away. she shoots again and the shaft hits the rubble and pulls right out...not getting deep enough to engage the flopper. again, she frantically reloads and i entertain the idea of taking the final shot. but the hog just limps out over the sand and pretty much passed out on the sand. jess quickly slipped a 3rd shot in and bagged the fish. breathing hard i offered her my open stringer...saving her the effort of wrestling with hers. we both surface with 1500psi (al80) and are well in the green on the computer...not bad for an 18min dive at a max depth of 122ft.
on the boat jess is elated with the huge hog that she has, and that its one of the biggest she's seen, as well as obviously her personal biggest. we both decide we'd love to hit the wreck again and take advantage of the great conditions and the plentiful fish viewing...and look for her shaft.
so we do our surface time and roll in with new tanks and hit the wreck. we both head down the wreck and are watching the grouper mingle about. i again pass on several possible shots included another shot on the cubera and head down with my lobster guage to see if i can wrangle out the bug jess spotted. while i'm playing with the bug i hear jess pull the trigger and look to my right and see her chasing down a grouper with a shaft hanging out of it. she got ahold of it and slid it on the stringer.
jess is beaming with excitement because she spoted, stalked and collected a grouper all by herself (again...refer to the "not need your help" above). she was again doing various versions of under water victory dances (no cowboy ride this time ). we looked for the shaft some more and hit the bouy line a few minutes into deco, did our required safety stop and then some, hitting the boat almost into the green.
after dealing with some cone divers on the surface we recalled the dive with much excitement and again jess is elated.
we mosie over to a ledge number that i marked but hadn't dove and rolled in to kill the last of our first tanks. we checked out some very cool structure, but no fish to be seen. we spooked a smaller black but didn't give much pursuit knowing we had more fish than we needed. we came up on a nice separated piece of reef and i signaled to check that out and then turn back towards the anchor. as i approach it i see a nice 15lb black swim away and i give a little extra kick to my fins to close the distance. all of a sudden i hear the familiar sound of jess's gun going off to my left. i glance over and see a quivering slab of fish on her shaft....she stoned a hogfish. then all of a sudden as she picks the fish up i realize how big the animal is...and i lose all interest in my prey. i let out a huge scream as does she, and my regulator nearly fell out of my mouth due to my smile.
AGAIN she spotted, stalked and STONED another fish....without me (sound familiar?)....and this time it was a WHOPPER!!
we both swim back to the anchor and are absolutely awe-struck at the size and girth of this fish.
i'll let the pictures do the talking on this one....
3 dives and i hadn't pulled the trigger once....but jess put 3 nice fish in the cooler...all by herself....(refer to the 2nd part of the first line at the top)
today....she was the star shooter...it was a sweet ride in, and a couple very well deserved beers on the way.