Great day today diving with Red Tide, JAW, Rolo, and LwrKeysH20hunter.
After huge wind all week we were shocked to find the best vis ever in Hawk Channel. Vis was at least 30 feet and essentially top to bottom. We hit some spots we knew in there and shot a couple big muttons, grouper, and hogs. I had a floatline with 2 hogs on it and, after seeing a shark, felt the dreaded yanking on the other end of the line. I surfaced and looked back to see splashing and a big boil at the end of the line. I eased back there to find a monster cuda thrashing my fish and float. I let him have a shaft to the head and he took off and bit my shaft off. Damn it man.
Moved out off the deper edge of the reef, chummed it up a bit, and the big blacks came right in. In 75-80 feet RT got the ball rolling with a nice black, then JAW brought another one up. The jewfish tried to crash the party and did grab a few of the fish but our team held them back pretty good, in some cases punching and kicking the jewfish to save thier catch. Next it was a real big mutton coming up from the deep. I made it down to 80 feet and found a big black which I missed and buried my shaft into a rock. Uhg. Nothing sucks worse than dropping to the fringes of your capabilities to get a damn shaft out of a rock.
RT and JAW started working out off the edge over 90 feet and found the monsters. First fish out there was nearly 30 pounds then RT lost one in the 50 pound class quickly followed by JAW losing "the biggest black I have ever speared-75 pounds at least". Of all things, his swivel broke in half as he was being towed by beast. Gear was being bent and broken left and right. Rolo was persistent and managed to bag a flag yellowtail out of the swarm that teased us the whole time.
We ended the day with a nice batch of blacks, gags, muttons, yellow jacks, hogs, a cero, and a kingfish. Having a few cocktails and plotting tomorrows trip.

nice report. Wish i was there :)

How long and what do you chum ?

I wouldn't have my knife so close to the family jewels. :lol:

nice blacks guys, stay safe tomorrow.

damn i knew this was going to happen.
good shooting guys.
gr nice bikini:slap:

nice mankini in bucket color pattern there gr. great report ed. you guys stay safe and look forward to tomorows. staying home changing diapers i have to live through you guys.

jeep

Nice fish!

Holy crap.
Awesome catch.

Holy crap.
Awesome catch.

thats whateveryone says about your avatar:)

nice haul! Good looking fish, Brad don't you have a set of those for special occasions :lol: :eek:banana hammock

Great day! Nice shooting. :2gunsfiring_v1:

Thanks again for letting me tag along. I had a blast, plus I got a good workout pulling up the elevator! Maybe next time I'll put a fish in the coolor. Have a good day today and dive safe.

Thanks for the report. I will be in the Keys the first week of October...

Nice fish guys...and GR. :D

Weather held us back for half the day today but we still managed some decent fish. Not quite as good as yesterday but a good time none the less. RT, Bucket, JAW, and Reelfrogman got some good blacks out in the deepwater along with a few nice muttons. They also secured 15 or so lobsters on a ledge up on the reef. JAW lost a shaft...and his shooting line....and the reel....and his gun..to a big grouper in 80 feet of water. He is having a tough time on gear this weekend. He is definitely doing some of the best shooting of the gang though. He shot and landed a nice fish from 91 feet yesterday.
Of course thats a shallow dive for RT whos drops border on the insane.
Me, Rolo, and Gerald prowled the Hawk Channel reefs again and only managed a handful of muttons, a few other snappers, and Rolos lone black. Cool diving though, lots of big live corals and life in those areas.
Didnt get any picks offshore due to the nasty weather but the seafood dinner was epic:

another nice report ed. keep up the good work. food looks awesome

jeep

Ed,

You guys using reels or float lines?

jaw sorry to hear about your loss.
wong?? euro??

ed...i woke today and first thing i did was go outside to see what kind of conditions you guys had. NO WIND....nice

iam off all next weekend if you want to back dive for search and recovery or you head down to my neck of the woods and we can run west.

Very nice fellas, way to bring the pain, I'm also eyeing the dinner you all had, looks amazing. Glad you all had a great time.

Speaking of bikinis what about this of you brad with the 2 chicks in the bahamas?

:lol: Holy shit! I knew it!

:eek: Not the bahamas. wasn't that from St.Tomas..........

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::r ofl::rofl:

ooo I am going to pay for this one :whistle:

yea but look at the tang iam with

:D little bit better than the piggy

O.K. Brad...You are excused from not diving with us in your own back yard. butttttt, your new eurospeedo ensures that you will never be invited again:D

Catch was still a little sub-par today but we sure did have a good time. Shot a handful of blacks, snapper, ceros and....uh filefish (??? GRs long story-"they make great sushi!" ).
The most interesting part of the day for me was swimming a long way on the bottom in 40 feet of not-so-great vis, following a valley in the reef, shooting a hog at the end, then having a big ass bull shark rush in and gobble the whole thing up right in my face. :eek: JAW fixed his wagon shortly there after. :smthumbup: Never underestimate the value of a good dive buddy.
Right now we are admiring the engineering involved in the commercial grade frozen margarita machine.....ahh.

Ed & Co, had a great time diving with you guys as usual. To bad the weather didn't cooperate on Saturday. See you guys in a few weeks. The food was great. Rolo, you make some mean beans, and that fried lobster will keep getting me laid as long as I can supply it. Thanks for introducing me to that G.R.

You know the fish aren't out in force when the high-light of your diving day is a cuda, even when it is a big one...

G

EW -
Do you guys get pretty good Viz in Hawks Channel usually ? It always seems that anytime I try to look at the patch reefs the viz is 10 Ft.

hawks can be touch and go....one day its decent and the next it's pea soup coming from the bay.

and with all the warm weather, there's been a nasty piss green emination coming from the gulf in the upper keys.

nice shooting guys...

those blacks are awesome

I guess Ikeep getting the miss days. Whats going on in the bayside also. During mini season Cudjoe, 7 mile bridge and long key all had good viz. I returned on opening day to cudjoe and there was a crazy amount of algae but it seemed spread out. This Saturday it was rainy and storm so ran over to long key (bayside) and in 8 feet you could not see bottom, I could not even see my feet in the water.

Is there some kind of algae bloom due to the water temps ?

Sunday I headed out to the reef line in 35-45 Ft (In front of Key Colony) and besides one nice hog, and a missed shot on a nice Gag (someone put the lock on my gun on the boat ARGHHH) it seemd like the reef life was non-esistent. I did not try deeper because I have had a major cold for about 3 weeks and did not feel physically up to it, my dive partner the same. The water was not even that hot, It felt like it had cooled a bit from the previous month or so. Is the water still too hot in there ? Even on bad days we still manage some nice hogs and a grouper or 2 and maybe even a few nice snapper, maybe a Yellow Jack, but Sunday its like someone had evacuated the reef.

I never use CHUM but starting to consider it, the only thing I use is a string of CD's sometimes, the YJ seem to love it and cant help but check it out. What are the pros and cons of Chum ?

try chumming you will not leave the dock without it.

There are definitely cons. Most have big teeth.

Hey Brad,

Any issues with appearances in the chum slick you dont want, you know the man in the gray suit or others ?

Ill be down on Friday Early PM till monday Afternoon, you have anytime to get out ?

I have not been able to dive much due to work and then I have had a really bad cold and congestion for about a month now that wont seem to go away, yesterday it sounded like someone was squeeeling in my ears everytime I went down.

PM me your number again, This is the 3rd phone in three months I loose :slap: I jumped in after a nice pair of sunglasses and I saved them but forgot that I had my phone and wallet in pocket :slap: :slap:

:cussing:doh! Hate when that happens

I just got home and wanted to thank Ed for being the gracious host of hosts. Everybody had a great time. Saturday nights dinner was nothing short of spectacular thanks to the cheffery of Ed, Rolondo, and Gerald. Sunday's dive was followed up with margarita madness that rivaled Saturday nights dinner.:absolut::absolut:
Jason won the smallest fish award by the narrowest of margins in modern spearfishing history. Lord help the little fish if he ever goes back to Hawaii.:D

That sure was fun and as Ed said; the dinner Saturday night was truly epic. Gerald's restaurant-style rolls and the fried lobster had the taste-buds begging for more. Thanks to Redtide for the "tossing of the salad", he did a masturful job. :D

Thanks again Ed for getting us together yet another year. It always is fun when you can dive, drink and eat with a great bunch of guys :beer:.

What a catch!! What a meal!! You guys are awesome!!!!

I have only been in Hawk's channel a few times & the viz has always been bad. That is a great bunch of fish.

fresh water from the everglades + water temps nearing 90* = algae bloom


it was NASTY off Indian Key a few weeks ago...piss green and flowing in and out with the tide.

reef temps were around 86*, even on the deeper ledges.

its been a warm summer

How was the fried lobster prepared? I've had it with no batter in very hot peanut oil until golden brown and was very good.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Shit now Gambles gonna show with a pink one next time..damnit man!!!!!!!!!!

Dude I think your heart attack meds need to be cut back!:crazy::crazy:

This trip was just what the doctor ordered.:beer:

I was so burned out from busting it for the SPO and then humping it all week to get down to the keys. I was just spent. My goal of the trip was just to relax and take it easy and if I shot a fish it was good but if not. It wasn't no big deal. Doing some 80ft drops and shooting a few fish fish for dinner and then throwing back a few cold one's with some great friends was the highlight of the trip for me.

A big thanks goes to Eddie Money for his like always awesome hosting of all the boys. I'm looking foward to the next trip and I swear not to take so many naps on the boat next time.:D

Went back to The House of Pain with my R and R clients today and had the second marker jug in as many days pulled down out of sight by the mad current. :confused: This one was a freakin' full size gallon Clorox model....gone. The current right now is of the charts. Full moon I guess. Not many YT's but the blacks were in the house. Lost ten in a row dropping 2 pound live baits on 80 pound. Landed one nice one. No gun was recovered.
Next time.

What a beauty Ed...