Jess and i had been eager to get out on the water after our trip up to the frigid north country. especially wanted to dive on the full moon for some grouper.

finally had the weather for it and ran out for a couple nite spearing dives last nite.

loaded the boat and left just after sunset, ran out in flat calm seas in near total darkness (no moon yet) and got out to the wreck of the Tbolt. instead of trying to tie to the bouy we just pitched the hook on the wreck.
as the line came tight we quickly realized there was current...ALOT!! there was a wake behind the boat. this should be fun
rolled in and PULLED ourselfs up to the anchor line and PULLED ourselves down the line. 3/4 of the way down i had a funny feeling...hit the bottom in 110' and realize the anchor was draggiing in the sand. DAMNIT!!!

made a hasty assent and crawled back in the boat. decided it was better to just dive the reef ledge. i'll let jess describe the "anchored treasure" if she feels like it.

rolled over to some familiar structure and pitched the hook again, and as before the current was smokin. once again we dragged ourselves down the line. this time no problems. worked into the current to keep our direction. bout 100yrds ahead of the anchor i looked back to see jess lining up on something. looking down i spoted the fins of a nice hogfish and pointed my light at it for added illumination. she pulled the trigger and gave it a nasty haircut....HOWEVER...it must have knicked the skull because all the fish could do was shimmy and spiral on the sand.
i almost pulled the trigger to make sure, figuring it may take jess time to reload a linegun (very unfamiliar) in the dark....but i quickly realize he wasn't goin' anywhere fast. so i just swam down and put the tip of my gun through his gill plate and pinned him to the sand. he was 90% dead anyway.

jess strung up her first night spearfishing catch....perfect dinner sized hogfish.


getting back to the boat the moon was high and the ocean was bright. you could barely see anything more than a ripple on the water. mostly it was the wake behind the boat.

we moved a bit and pitched the hook again and i went in alone to see what i could find. jess was tired from diving for work and wanted to take a nap nakid on the deck ( NO you can't have pictures!!!)
i rolled over and got down solo and follow the nice ledge. i move along and see nothing but small baitfish and the occasional butterfly and a couple of lobster. they looked legal, but without a bag i'd have to try to carry a gun, light, lobster and do 5min deco stop in high current...

on my way back to the anchor i spotted a grouper tail under a ledge and spent about 2 mins looking at him...admiring. it was about 25" or so and very unafraid. at one point my face was 2ft from him, just looking and he didn't even move. knowing i had some meat in the cooler and a 3 day weekend of spearing ahead of me...i decided not to shoot. so then i got the idea to see how close i can get the gun.
the grouper must have really been :sleeping:, because i tapped him on the side of the head with the spear tip...THEN he finally departed in a cloud of silt.

dumb fish:cool:

got back to the boat and enjoyed our smooth trip back to land. would have been much better with a beer or 3...but we were ill prepared :banghead:

Its a whole different world at night, with dumb fish just sittin & lobsters out walking around.

Come up to Jupiter and try it sometime Jeff. Bring MD with you he loved it.

Sleepin on the boat nekkid:eek:

i was NOT nakid while napping. i would have been cold. i put clothes on for that!

as for our anchor treasure, while pulling in the chain (jeff needed a break after pulling in the whole line) i kept saying, "our anchor never feels this heavy. it feels like we pulled up a rock or something." i just figured i must be wimping out after pulling anchor 3 times for work that day. upon pulling the anchor in the boat though, i found we had treasure in the form of a lost weight belt attached to our anchor. no wonder it was hard!

no shit a weight belt...cool.

i know it was dark and the current smokin but did you have any vis to talk about?

the light beam ran out of steam before the vis did.

i'd estimate 40-50ft of vis horizontal...it was on the high tide

slight thermocline but nothing crazy.

Thats great, I have to try that out one of these nights

not so easy freediving

although if you stayed shallow and had clear water, it would work. as long as you could make out the bottom clear with the light.


or just learn to dive ;)

Went with Ritchie and Cindy to the T-bolt sat. and sunday. Current was smoking till 20' off the bottom. We ended up with a few grouper,muttons and a hog. I left you one of my calling cards down there. A Biller free shaft have painted in glow yellow. Wonder if the big green moray got my black or one of the 4 jewfish?