Sasquatch
12-09-2007, 07:09 PM
When I saw how unseasonably warm this weekend was going to be, I called up Discovery Diving and found out they had a few spots open on Leroy's six-pack, The Captain's Lady. My daughter Erin has been dying to go, and she wants to follow in her mom's footsteps and start spearing.
I always have great luck with Leroy- but some picture-takers had rented most of the boat, so it was going to take some negotiation to get dropped on a good spear site.
The guys were very cool- they wanted to get some shark pics so we rode out to the Caribesea Wreck. I generally don't like wrecks, but this one was beautiful- and full of sharks! On the way down, we saw a big bull cruising at 30' or so, and once we got to the bottom (87'), it was stacked with Sand Tigers- who were not at all afraid of bubble blowers. It was also stacked with grouper- huge grouper. But the Captain strongly suggested not bringing the gun and I'm glad I didn't. I'm sure I'd have seen all the taxmen at the same time if I plugged one. In fact, some guys fishing got bites all day long, but only pulled up heads when they came to the boat. It was a really fun dive, I took pictures and movies of the fish and Erin and we went back up for a decent surface interval.
Leroy had been planning on fishing that day before he got the charter, so he was set up for trolling, where we caught a bunch of kings, as well as a couple of grouper! (never trolled for grouper before).
We knew there were fish around, so Leroy dropped us on a great bait show. Unfortunately, Erin got a bit over tasked with navigation, trying to load Mom's gun, mask flooding, etc. and we had to send her up early after only getting one fish on the stringer. Meanwhile, getting her back up I left my reel I had used to find our way back to the anchor so I had to drop back down, but thoughtfully brought my gun. With only a few minutes of air, I managed to freeshaft two gags hanging out where I shot the first one. Erin had told me there was a giant one watching me on the first drop but I didn't find him. I had passed up my stringer, so I was full at two, and grabbed the spears with gags shishkebab'd on the end of them tucked my gun under my arm, quickly reeled up my line, and made it back to the anchor. Meanwhile, I was thinking about the friendly sharks only a mile away. Never saw one, and turned a shortened dive into a nice haul. If my wife was with me, we could have limited-out the boat on that drop!
We managed a few more kings as we went back to the wreck again to drop the photo guys on the wreck for more shark shots, and headed back in to a beautiful afternoon.
Seas were almost flat all morning, with 1-2 on the way back. Temps were amazing, probably almost 70 air temps, with water 68 on top, 64 on the bottom. Vis was 40 feet. If anyone wants to go out with Leroy- let me know, I'll be glad to help fill the boat!
http://www.spearfishingplanet.com/photopost/data/516/IMGP1957.JPG
I always have great luck with Leroy- but some picture-takers had rented most of the boat, so it was going to take some negotiation to get dropped on a good spear site.
The guys were very cool- they wanted to get some shark pics so we rode out to the Caribesea Wreck. I generally don't like wrecks, but this one was beautiful- and full of sharks! On the way down, we saw a big bull cruising at 30' or so, and once we got to the bottom (87'), it was stacked with Sand Tigers- who were not at all afraid of bubble blowers. It was also stacked with grouper- huge grouper. But the Captain strongly suggested not bringing the gun and I'm glad I didn't. I'm sure I'd have seen all the taxmen at the same time if I plugged one. In fact, some guys fishing got bites all day long, but only pulled up heads when they came to the boat. It was a really fun dive, I took pictures and movies of the fish and Erin and we went back up for a decent surface interval.
Leroy had been planning on fishing that day before he got the charter, so he was set up for trolling, where we caught a bunch of kings, as well as a couple of grouper! (never trolled for grouper before).
We knew there were fish around, so Leroy dropped us on a great bait show. Unfortunately, Erin got a bit over tasked with navigation, trying to load Mom's gun, mask flooding, etc. and we had to send her up early after only getting one fish on the stringer. Meanwhile, getting her back up I left my reel I had used to find our way back to the anchor so I had to drop back down, but thoughtfully brought my gun. With only a few minutes of air, I managed to freeshaft two gags hanging out where I shot the first one. Erin had told me there was a giant one watching me on the first drop but I didn't find him. I had passed up my stringer, so I was full at two, and grabbed the spears with gags shishkebab'd on the end of them tucked my gun under my arm, quickly reeled up my line, and made it back to the anchor. Meanwhile, I was thinking about the friendly sharks only a mile away. Never saw one, and turned a shortened dive into a nice haul. If my wife was with me, we could have limited-out the boat on that drop!
We managed a few more kings as we went back to the wreck again to drop the photo guys on the wreck for more shark shots, and headed back in to a beautiful afternoon.
Seas were almost flat all morning, with 1-2 on the way back. Temps were amazing, probably almost 70 air temps, with water 68 on top, 64 on the bottom. Vis was 40 feet. If anyone wants to go out with Leroy- let me know, I'll be glad to help fill the boat!
http://www.spearfishingplanet.com/photopost/data/516/IMGP1957.JPG