Went out of Beaufort inlet south to some concrete pipes and had an amazing day. On the second drop, I got the first stringer I can call a 'HOD' (pictures to come).

The highlight was a big fat grouper at about 65 feet who was at the S end of the rubble field. He was just slowly swimming into the current, not going anywhere, maintaining station- like he was on a treadmill. I already had a decent stringer and dropped it not far behind him, hoping it would get him off his stairmaster. I drop behind the stringer at a good ambush spot and wait. Two legal grouper come to take a look and I keep waiting for Mr. Fatty. No go. He was sweating with the oldies.

So, I figure at this point that he's oblivious to the world; leave the stringer, and figure I'll go high above him and shoot down on him. Nope. Soon as I get up and behind him, but well out of shot range, he heads off into the bare sand ahead. I look and see there are only two pieces of concrete ahead, so I figure he'll be in those. I go back and move the string back to his exercise spot, hoping if he gets spooked back to it that he'll check out my other fish. When I'm done, I swing far to the right and swim about a 45 degree angle approaching the larger piece of pipe. I swim just high enough to look over it and see him in his shining glory. I drop to the bottom and army-man to the other end of the pipe that he's on. I start blowing bubbles- I think I had been holding my breath (bad scuba diver, bad!) on the approach. Sure enough, Mr. "I forgot about the sea monster chasing me 5 minutes ago" Grouper takes a peek into his new concrete pipe and just stares at me with 'who the heck are you?'. Mr. Spring Steel to you, buddy! I put one through him and he takes off- I'm worried about my line breaking so, instead of trying to take a second shot over the piece of pipe, I swim through the pipe, out the other side- and he wasn't as active as I thought. I grab him hard by the gills, grab my gun and swim back to the stringer. Wooohooo! :yay: I'm pretty sure it's my biggest grouper to date (need to get a scale). I end up with the HOD shown below (when I post it).

Scotty again showed how he is untouchable in the flounder category. I only bothered spearing the very biggest ones anymore, because I'm sure I'll get my limit to get home regardless.

Swampdogg and SilentKiller both brought back fish as well, so it was an amazing fish box at the end of the day. Ken is dropping us on some amazing stuff- and I don't think I went deeper than 80' all day.

Thanks for the great times, guys!

Vis was 30-35 feet, water temps were nice at 76+.

Nice job toe!

How big the was the fatty?

Looks like you got some good trips goin up there...You got some buddies that I could get with when I come up there in August?? I'm not much of a charter person(broke college student) but going out with a regular is what I am looking for?

Thanks
Cameron

There are a bunch who go out- post up when you'll be around. IIRC, you're headed to the outer banks, which is pretty far from the rest of the coast.

I'm not sure how big the fatty was- he's fillets now. We really need a scale, eh? :whistle:

Great report and nice gag. Any sharks around?

As a refreshing change, the day was shark free. We dove on a couple artificially created reefs consisting of a huge field of 4' diameter concrete pipe. It is the perfect reef material because of the caves and swim throughs it creates. This particular one is at AR330 and about .75 miles from the site of the sunken landing craft reapir vessel USS Indra.

Here in North Carolina, we are blessed with a well funded Artificial Reef division of the Marine Fisheries department. Other than the wrecks and ledge systems, our ocean floor is barren sand. This reefs create the structure that starts the marine food chain.

http://www.ncfisheries.net/reefs/index.html

The hook and line fishermen utilize these sites, but not the spearos so much. In the case of the Indra, Spar and Aeolus, all intentionally scuttled vessels, the dive operations frequent almost daily. But it is the random reef material dropped on these spots that holds the most fish with practically no diving pressure. We have been dropping on them for a couple of years now and some spots are better than others.

Great report and fish! I'm hoping to get out in that area in a few months myself (see new post).
Brent Harris
port saint lucie,fl

Unfortunately SilentKiller's guns were just that - Silent. My stringer was awfully lonely all day. Must have been that damn bannana I ate at the dock, either that or the fact that I couldn't quite focus on the grouper as thoughts of Captain Morgan's barrells of rum, general gluteny, and the Governor's imported prostitutes kept my mind racing onboard the Tortuga. On a more positive note, the following day SilentKiller's 2 year old (we'll call him L'ilKiller till something more appropriate arises) performed his first succesful gunnel hunch at the Cape. For anyone down current please accept his humble apologies for the numerous "floaters". He's only a more fiberous diet away from releasing War Hammer's at will. When L'ilKillers onboard and the Thomas the Tank undies are dropped, lookout...............