gumshoe
08-10-2004, 10:48 AM
into the cooler!
When Capt. Tom called and asked if I had would rather go on a serious spearing day rather than work, I had quite a dilemma…
Well, not really.
Following 20+ foot seas last week during Hurricane Alex, we were excited for Monday’s trip, especially knowing that NOAA’s predicted mild, 5mph north/northeast breeze would allow for perfectly flat conditions. OK, it wasn’t exactly flat, and it wasn’t exactly a 5mph breeze, but conditions were fantastic, nonetheless.
We left the dock at 7:30am and headed out to Frying Pan Shoals. For those of you that have not been, you might want to consider it. These shoals rise up out of the deep, and come up to as shallow as 15’ in some locations. These once manned towers were placed many moons ago to signal oncoming ships of dangerous bottom structure and forecast oncoming weather conditions. The towers have since been abandoned, replaced by computers and weather buoys. Both the tower and vast bottom structure still exist and makes for some fantastic diving – offshore water clarity at shallow depths.
In between dives, the bottom fishing and light lining was nonstop action. Although designed for deep water applications, it turns out that by using the electric reel, your arms don’t get tired from all that reeling. :D
Now for the tally, we each did 3 tanks in 45 – 60 feet of crystal clear blue water. Viz approached 100 feet – although it was hard to tell since from the boat you could see bottom in 60 feet. Between 3 of us, we filled the SSI cooler – within our recreational limits, of course. Totals – 4 grouper to 20 pounds (2 gag, 1 yellowmouth and 1 red), 9 hogs to 20pounds, a variety of bottom fish and a 20+ light lined king that was a challenge, to say the least.
Mark (SB member Hogfish) applied a “freeshaft earring” to one of two giant African Pompano that were following us around. Unfortunately, it casually swam out of sight, half of the 60 inch shaft hanging from each side of it’s head, only to be lost to the sea. We also passed on the “sleigh ride” that would have been provided by the hundreds (literally) of AJ’s that were all around us during these dives – most notably the twins that were uncharacteristically lying near the bottom, apparently resting in their old age. We decided to pass on these, saving them for next year’s Spearboard Tournament. I am not going to take a guess on their weight, let’s just refer to them as big.
All in all, a good day. Make that a great day, being a weekday and all.
Not from yesterday, but this is a pic of the tower:
When Capt. Tom called and asked if I had would rather go on a serious spearing day rather than work, I had quite a dilemma…
Well, not really.
Following 20+ foot seas last week during Hurricane Alex, we were excited for Monday’s trip, especially knowing that NOAA’s predicted mild, 5mph north/northeast breeze would allow for perfectly flat conditions. OK, it wasn’t exactly flat, and it wasn’t exactly a 5mph breeze, but conditions were fantastic, nonetheless.
We left the dock at 7:30am and headed out to Frying Pan Shoals. For those of you that have not been, you might want to consider it. These shoals rise up out of the deep, and come up to as shallow as 15’ in some locations. These once manned towers were placed many moons ago to signal oncoming ships of dangerous bottom structure and forecast oncoming weather conditions. The towers have since been abandoned, replaced by computers and weather buoys. Both the tower and vast bottom structure still exist and makes for some fantastic diving – offshore water clarity at shallow depths.
In between dives, the bottom fishing and light lining was nonstop action. Although designed for deep water applications, it turns out that by using the electric reel, your arms don’t get tired from all that reeling. :D
Now for the tally, we each did 3 tanks in 45 – 60 feet of crystal clear blue water. Viz approached 100 feet – although it was hard to tell since from the boat you could see bottom in 60 feet. Between 3 of us, we filled the SSI cooler – within our recreational limits, of course. Totals – 4 grouper to 20 pounds (2 gag, 1 yellowmouth and 1 red), 9 hogs to 20pounds, a variety of bottom fish and a 20+ light lined king that was a challenge, to say the least.
Mark (SB member Hogfish) applied a “freeshaft earring” to one of two giant African Pompano that were following us around. Unfortunately, it casually swam out of sight, half of the 60 inch shaft hanging from each side of it’s head, only to be lost to the sea. We also passed on the “sleigh ride” that would have been provided by the hundreds (literally) of AJ’s that were all around us during these dives – most notably the twins that were uncharacteristically lying near the bottom, apparently resting in their old age. We decided to pass on these, saving them for next year’s Spearboard Tournament. I am not going to take a guess on their weight, let’s just refer to them as big.
All in all, a good day. Make that a great day, being a weekday and all.
Not from yesterday, but this is a pic of the tower: