kjflyfish
09-30-2007, 06:30 PM
Day two started out just as nice as day one. This time our crew consisted of myself, SeaRen and his special lady Ashley, and Wahoo and his brother Logan. Logan is a photographer by trade and was happy to come along to get in on the action and document our adventure.
We decided to stop a few miles short of the grouper grounds at an old shipwreck that lies in the middle of a sandy desert. It was all but covered, but there was a lot of life only 40 feet below us. With the great top-to-bottom vis, we could easily spot a huge school of spadefish and several small gags. This was a great place to stretch our lungs and hang out with the spades, triggers, gags, and various tropicals. It was obvious after a few passes that we weren’t going to fill the cooler here, so we moved on.
The next spot was an immense ledge complex ranging from 45 to 53 feet. Wahoo and I went south and he surfaced from a dive saying that there was a nice grouper down there. I breathed up and descended right on top of the gag who started to slowly slip off, but I found an opening in the rocky bottom and fired, plugging him with a solid shot. Moments later, I hopped in to see Wahoo diving on a nice hog. He made a great shot and put the first hogfish in the box.
Ashley was diving with SeaRen and the two of them spotted a nice hogfish. Ashley dove on him, but he was smarter than your average porker and kept his distance. SeaRen kept a keen eye on top and as soon as Ashley surfaced, he grabbed the gun and made a dive bomb on the fish, let it fly, and finished the fight off with a really nice hogfish in hand.
Right at the anchor was the start of a great ledge. Two dives in a row, I swam along the ledge looking for fish, and when I would turn up to surface there was a nice grouper following me and several more up on top of the ledge watching. I decided that I would change my tactics for the next dive. I dove down to the ledge, and then slowly snuck over the top and towards the curious but distant grouper. One was just a little more interested than the rest and turned to swim away too late. I made a short chase, getting directly above him and blasted him, pinning the fish to the sand. He started going nuts, but I quickly swam up and secured the fish. He probably ended up about 16-17lbs.
Eagar for a kill, Ashley was able to sneak up on one of the many grouper and placed a good shot with SeaRen’s Cobra, bringing up another grouper – her first fish! She has been freediving only a handful of times and she had already taken a great fish in 50 feet.
This is my account of the next few moments and Wahoo could probably tell it better: I was swimming back up the ledge where I took the second grouper when I saw some movement. I could see the reflective tape on Wahoo’s fins flashing at the ledge and a bunch of commotion. It seemed like a long time had passed before he started to surface. In his arms was a monster hogfish, held tightly along with his loaded speargun. He came up and took a deep breath and started telling of how he had shot the fish about 10 minutes prior only to have it escape. As he was hunting along the ledge, he saw the fish lying on its side and swooped in to grab it. As soon as the wounded hog felt the gloved wrapping around his gills, he started to go crazy. Wahoo had to drop his gun and pinned the hog to the sand with both hands. It kept fighting and thrashing, forcing Wahoo to keep pressure on the fish, backing it up against the undercut wall. He finally managed to wrap up the hog and still grab his gun on the way to the surface. I met him topside and ended the struggle with a knife to the brain. Somehow, Wahoo always manages the biggest hog of the trip, and his 20 pounder was no exception.
SeaRen was still on fire, and was able to stalk down a couple of nice grouper and seal the deal. He had grouper sandwiches on the brain and stepped up to make it happen.
Meanwhile, Logan was snapping pictures left and right. There were hundreds of curious AJs around which made for some awesome visuals, and Logan was able to capitalize, taking some incredible shots.
We were very fortunate in that we had great visibility and the African pompano were holding thick on the same structure for the whole weekend, so we decided that it was time to go looking for pompanos and see if Ashley could get one.
I decided to stay topside and let everyone else out to look for APs. Immediately, Wahoo and SeaRen were shouting “Hey Ash, pompano! Get over here!” The only problem was that they were shouting from two different places. Ashley was able to dive on two schools, but rushed the shots and missed. She was having trouble loading SeaRen’s gun, and he had mine already loaded, so he handed to her. I got really nervous – Ashley hadn’t shot a big fish on a reel gun, and my reel is a bit sensitive to any drag adjustments. I was really worried that a big pompano could rip the gun out of her hand if the drag ended up locking. We kept telling her how powerful these fish are and that it was important to make a good shot and then fight the fish properly with good line control.
Well, she made us all look like amateurs. She and Wahoo spotted a school and dove. Seconds passed as I waited to see what happened, when Wahoo came shooting up and yelled “She stoned him dead!!” We all started laughing and had smiles ear-to-ear. Ashley had just made a perfect shot on a bruiser African pompano. All the boys were super proud.
Day two ended just as awesome as the first, with glassy seas, a cooler full of fish, and great company.
I have to give a HUGE thanks to Ren and Ashley for letting all us goons crash on the floor and eating all their awesome cooking! It was a great weekend that will not soon be forgotten.
We decided to stop a few miles short of the grouper grounds at an old shipwreck that lies in the middle of a sandy desert. It was all but covered, but there was a lot of life only 40 feet below us. With the great top-to-bottom vis, we could easily spot a huge school of spadefish and several small gags. This was a great place to stretch our lungs and hang out with the spades, triggers, gags, and various tropicals. It was obvious after a few passes that we weren’t going to fill the cooler here, so we moved on.
The next spot was an immense ledge complex ranging from 45 to 53 feet. Wahoo and I went south and he surfaced from a dive saying that there was a nice grouper down there. I breathed up and descended right on top of the gag who started to slowly slip off, but I found an opening in the rocky bottom and fired, plugging him with a solid shot. Moments later, I hopped in to see Wahoo diving on a nice hog. He made a great shot and put the first hogfish in the box.
Ashley was diving with SeaRen and the two of them spotted a nice hogfish. Ashley dove on him, but he was smarter than your average porker and kept his distance. SeaRen kept a keen eye on top and as soon as Ashley surfaced, he grabbed the gun and made a dive bomb on the fish, let it fly, and finished the fight off with a really nice hogfish in hand.
Right at the anchor was the start of a great ledge. Two dives in a row, I swam along the ledge looking for fish, and when I would turn up to surface there was a nice grouper following me and several more up on top of the ledge watching. I decided that I would change my tactics for the next dive. I dove down to the ledge, and then slowly snuck over the top and towards the curious but distant grouper. One was just a little more interested than the rest and turned to swim away too late. I made a short chase, getting directly above him and blasted him, pinning the fish to the sand. He started going nuts, but I quickly swam up and secured the fish. He probably ended up about 16-17lbs.
Eagar for a kill, Ashley was able to sneak up on one of the many grouper and placed a good shot with SeaRen’s Cobra, bringing up another grouper – her first fish! She has been freediving only a handful of times and she had already taken a great fish in 50 feet.
This is my account of the next few moments and Wahoo could probably tell it better: I was swimming back up the ledge where I took the second grouper when I saw some movement. I could see the reflective tape on Wahoo’s fins flashing at the ledge and a bunch of commotion. It seemed like a long time had passed before he started to surface. In his arms was a monster hogfish, held tightly along with his loaded speargun. He came up and took a deep breath and started telling of how he had shot the fish about 10 minutes prior only to have it escape. As he was hunting along the ledge, he saw the fish lying on its side and swooped in to grab it. As soon as the wounded hog felt the gloved wrapping around his gills, he started to go crazy. Wahoo had to drop his gun and pinned the hog to the sand with both hands. It kept fighting and thrashing, forcing Wahoo to keep pressure on the fish, backing it up against the undercut wall. He finally managed to wrap up the hog and still grab his gun on the way to the surface. I met him topside and ended the struggle with a knife to the brain. Somehow, Wahoo always manages the biggest hog of the trip, and his 20 pounder was no exception.
SeaRen was still on fire, and was able to stalk down a couple of nice grouper and seal the deal. He had grouper sandwiches on the brain and stepped up to make it happen.
Meanwhile, Logan was snapping pictures left and right. There were hundreds of curious AJs around which made for some awesome visuals, and Logan was able to capitalize, taking some incredible shots.
We were very fortunate in that we had great visibility and the African pompano were holding thick on the same structure for the whole weekend, so we decided that it was time to go looking for pompanos and see if Ashley could get one.
I decided to stay topside and let everyone else out to look for APs. Immediately, Wahoo and SeaRen were shouting “Hey Ash, pompano! Get over here!” The only problem was that they were shouting from two different places. Ashley was able to dive on two schools, but rushed the shots and missed. She was having trouble loading SeaRen’s gun, and he had mine already loaded, so he handed to her. I got really nervous – Ashley hadn’t shot a big fish on a reel gun, and my reel is a bit sensitive to any drag adjustments. I was really worried that a big pompano could rip the gun out of her hand if the drag ended up locking. We kept telling her how powerful these fish are and that it was important to make a good shot and then fight the fish properly with good line control.
Well, she made us all look like amateurs. She and Wahoo spotted a school and dove. Seconds passed as I waited to see what happened, when Wahoo came shooting up and yelled “She stoned him dead!!” We all started laughing and had smiles ear-to-ear. Ashley had just made a perfect shot on a bruiser African pompano. All the boys were super proud.
Day two ended just as awesome as the first, with glassy seas, a cooler full of fish, and great company.
I have to give a HUGE thanks to Ren and Ashley for letting all us goons crash on the floor and eating all their awesome cooking! It was a great weekend that will not soon be forgotten.