PatMyGreen
07-10-2004, 09:51 PM
Went out with my buddies Mike and Scott (letrappes) today. We did a poor job of putting fish in the cooler but had a blast. I didn't scrub all that coating that they put inside of masks from the factory on my new Oceanic Shadow. Had to flush the mask every 10 seconds to see at all and Scott informed me that I almost impaled several fish on accident, that I never saw, I only shot 1 Red Grouper on the first Dive Scott nailed a larger grouper and a good ARS as well. Mike was up to his shoulders in cracks and holes looking for shovel nose but only found 1 male. Mike and I both noticed an adjacent patch of hard bottom on the way up, so an hour later we went back down to check it out.
All the fish were in their holes and wouldn't come out for nothin'!!! I made the mistake of shooting one right off the bat that I could see slipping deeper into his ledge. Long story short; I wate a lot of time trying to pull it out, to no avail, give up and then spend 5 minutes trying to pull my freeshaft out of the fish. Finese couldn't get it done so I had to stand on my feet and bend the shaft alittle for leverage and pull it out of the fish. I bent the fluke on my shaft but didn't notice till I missed an easy shot on a snapper. Zilch on dive 2 for me and Scott, but Mike brings up 3 more shovel nose and a Red Grouper.
We move on to a Bridge Span that I thought might have some nice AJs on it. Scott and I thinking we will freeshaft our first ones. Mike agrees somewhat reluctantly, he wanted more hard bottom, but was a good sport about our desire to lose freeshafts. I don't see the first AJ of legal size but was pretty sure I saw a good sized Almaco Jack, it was thicker proportionally than it should have been if it was an AJ. I am not 100% on the ID so I decide not to shoot.....for now. It was a really pretty dive and I resigned my self to enjoying the aquarium. I did take 2 really long shots on a big pin fish but only managed to knock a few scales off. Scott however nailed one and as he was stringing it he saw a small shark soming towards him. No, it was a big AJ but it is gone into the blue, appearantly no longer curious after one pass, before he could reload. Mike spent the entire dive looking for lobster underneath the span and was rewarded with a flounder. Somehow he got back onto the boat after 33 minutes ON THE BOTTOM with 1200#s left in his tank. I was pretty much 20' higher in the column than him the whole time and only had 450 back on the boat, I swear that guy doesn't breathe. 30 min at 97' on AL80S and his tank is still more than a 1/3 full (I'm an optimist)!. Great day off wish we could have got more fish though.
Sorry no pics this trip, you just have to take my word for it..
All the fish were in their holes and wouldn't come out for nothin'!!! I made the mistake of shooting one right off the bat that I could see slipping deeper into his ledge. Long story short; I wate a lot of time trying to pull it out, to no avail, give up and then spend 5 minutes trying to pull my freeshaft out of the fish. Finese couldn't get it done so I had to stand on my feet and bend the shaft alittle for leverage and pull it out of the fish. I bent the fluke on my shaft but didn't notice till I missed an easy shot on a snapper. Zilch on dive 2 for me and Scott, but Mike brings up 3 more shovel nose and a Red Grouper.
We move on to a Bridge Span that I thought might have some nice AJs on it. Scott and I thinking we will freeshaft our first ones. Mike agrees somewhat reluctantly, he wanted more hard bottom, but was a good sport about our desire to lose freeshafts. I don't see the first AJ of legal size but was pretty sure I saw a good sized Almaco Jack, it was thicker proportionally than it should have been if it was an AJ. I am not 100% on the ID so I decide not to shoot.....for now. It was a really pretty dive and I resigned my self to enjoying the aquarium. I did take 2 really long shots on a big pin fish but only managed to knock a few scales off. Scott however nailed one and as he was stringing it he saw a small shark soming towards him. No, it was a big AJ but it is gone into the blue, appearantly no longer curious after one pass, before he could reload. Mike spent the entire dive looking for lobster underneath the span and was rewarded with a flounder. Somehow he got back onto the boat after 33 minutes ON THE BOTTOM with 1200#s left in his tank. I was pretty much 20' higher in the column than him the whole time and only had 450 back on the boat, I swear that guy doesn't breathe. 30 min at 97' on AL80S and his tank is still more than a 1/3 full (I'm an optimist)!. Great day off wish we could have got more fish though.
Sorry no pics this trip, you just have to take my word for it..