South Carolina Summit

[kitefisherman]

This weekend Dive4Blood, Bucket One and I joined Slay Ride and Charlestondivin for an overnighter aboard the Slay Ride. We were blessed with plentiful fish, calm seas, warm clear water and good times.

I don't have time for a full trip report at the moment, but I thought that I'd at least get some pictures up. You guys chime in with additional pics and comments.

Here is my personal best yellowmouth grouper. It scaled out at 20.2 pounds gutted weight. I stoned it with a freeshaft spine shot in 180' as it was watching me drop on the ledge.

[kitefisherman]

We limited out on gags and came close on the scamps and yellowmouths. Here is Les (Slay Ride) with a nice yellowmouth and gag.

[kitefisherman]

Here is the biggest snapper of the trip - a monster 13# mango that D4B shot on a deep ledge.

[kitefisherman]

Rob (Charlestondivin) with a stoned gag and a big bitch hog

[kitefisherman]

Bucket and D4B ready to go

[kitefisherman]

Some artifacts Rob recovered from the 1830s era Lobster Wreck where he shot his biggest grouper ever (4x). I'll let him tell the story.

[kitefisherman]

Les and Rob's friend Greg came along to fish and help out. Greg was a great guy who fit in very well and couldn't have been more helpful. Glad that you came Greg.

Umm . . you figure out what happened.

[kitefisherman]

The monkey perch South Carolina style

[kitefisherman]

My biggest hog of the trip - 14.8 pounds gutted. I put one shaft in the head which held but didn't stone him. I put a second wild shot in his back which he quickly threw and finished him off with a third shot through the eye sockets.

[kitefisherman]

Rob with a nice alpha male, myself, and D4B with his best lobster of the trip (6#).

[kitefisherman]

We limited out on bugs too. Here is Greg posing with my best lobster of the trip - 7 pounds 4 ounces.

[kitefisherman]

Bucket came through in the stretch with the biggest hog of the trip which finally showed up after he had ascended 60 feet - 21 pounds!

[Slay Ride]

And it is November. Unbeleivable weather window that could not be coordinated better by the Carolina Panthers Cheerleaders. Good times. It seemed like we just picked at the fish all weekend. Never could could get on any big concentrations. I guess they're just all scattered out. I know where the gags would have been thick as looters in New Orleans, but we had limited out by that time.

Thanks for the RUM Armando. It will be put to good use.

Now back to some deer hunting.

[Stretcharmstrng]

great job guys! John sorry I missed ya this trip up here!

[greg1]

Thanks guys for letting me tag along and answering all my questions. I had fun and learned a lot.

Its too bad you guys slept through the Razor Fish/Squirrel Fish bite. It was red hot and I could have been giving lessons.

[Charlestondivin]

Welcome to spearboard Greg

http://www.charlestondiving.com/forums/uploads/post-3-1130084673.jpg

[Md Spear]

Very, Very nice , guys!!

[Mobile Diver]

Great trip!! Rob, let's hear from you about that grouper!

[Nsearch]

Awesome fish as always from the Carolina crew......standing by for more!

[dagodiver]

Great job all..!!!
Very cool stuff.!

Dago.

[Charlestondivin]

The grouper story.

First drop on the deep Lobster wreck Me, Kite, and les are headed down with awesome vis. I see a blimp move off the wreck and over the side, i trim out and coast to where i last saw him holding my breath and coasting silent, gun extended and finger on the trigger. He was gone! Shot a couple of nice grouper then begin exploring when i see this big tail sticking out of a little hole. He was too big to fit and hide! I shot that grouper, had my hands on him 3 times and was shook off., the fish came all the way out of the hole 3 times and back in. Finally he took off into the sand. It is a long and frustrating deco looking down into the blue thinking about that fish. I messed up over and over with that fish and i knew better. Taking bad shots, trying to grab him before i shot all my shafts into him, etc.

I choked and got my ass kicked, plain and simple. buck fever...

I very conservatively estimated the fish at 50+. Backdove the wreck with Bucket and AJ the next day and i searched every nook for my grouper. No dice.

This is a picture of where he was holed up, I was amazed this fish fit in that small spot.

[rmo8jlt69]

Damn I am soo mad at myself for not contacting you guys earlier, I have been living in SC for a year now and have not yet gone spearfishing; Lots of fishing but no diving. I have yet to contact anyone from my area who knows anything about spearfishing, just a lot of redneck that pier fish and thats not that exciting to me. It's good to see someone who is having fun out there, good job guys.

[inletsurf]

That is incredible!!!! Nice report guys.

[Dive4Blood]

Thanks for the opportunity to go spearfishing with you guys last weekend. With all the weather blowouts we had last year, I guess we earned enough good karma to be served with a flat calm three day stretch on the first of our three weekend "weather window". Damn, Les is about as consummate a host as you can get! Upon arriving there Friday night, we first loaded the boat, and then went back to Les' for a dinner of fresh venison, and Charleston Bay shrimp that he had recently caught. We were made to feel at home both at his residence, and on the very smooth running Bertram Slay Ride that is his pride and joy.

The first day we primarily worked a lengthy break that they have in 180-190 fsw called "The Ledge" using single cylinder helium mixes with high nitrox deco ponies. The structure down there consists of long flat plates of various kinds of rock which are for the most part bare of the marine invertebrate or coral life that you would normally see in Florida. We got most of our larger scamps and yellowmouth grouper there along with a few bigger female hogs as well as some gags. Lionfish, which I saw underwater for the first time on this trip, were everywhere.

On Sunday we stopped back on a 19th century wreck in 160 fsw where Rob had lost a huge rusty belly gag the day before. While Rob searched for his trophy, and unearthed some artifacts in the process, Bucket and I did our part to trim the huge population of scamps that resided there. From there, we kicked it in turbo mode diving the 70-100 fsw depth range. Gags from 8#-25# were everywhere as were lobster, both of which we easily limited out on. I even tied my personal best mango at 13# which was dropped stone dead with my SS Rhino. The amazing part was shooting MG size hogs only 20-30 miles from shore, and the amount of amberjack in the 30#-50# average size range on those same reefs. Unfortunately due to the amount of worms that they typically have up there we didn't mess with them otherwise Bucket and I would have been laying down a reef donkey beatdown of epic proportions.

With most of my diving being on either rec charter or commercial trips, this weekend was a welcome change of pace. Flat seas, top to bottom vis, perfect water temps in the low to mid seventies, good food, good friends, and an ass load of fish and lobster for the dinner table. Thanks again, sign me up for that program anytime. Standing by.....

AJ Suarez

[Dive4Blood]

I see that Rob and Les' buddy Greg signed up on Spearboard (greg1) the other day. Greg did a great job as boat bitch, razorfish slayer, and extra bag limit :D :D :D . Seriously, Greg is a long time hook n' liner, new spearfisherman, and all around good guy. It won't be long before you start seeing some serious stringers from this guy....

[SpearDiverTampa]

Awesome report guys!!!

[Bucket One]

All I can say is Les and Rob went out of their way to be the best hosts ever. Lots of laugh's, great food and great friends. It was for sure one heck of a cool trip. I did my best to show them boys the HeadHunter style of diving. Dive, dive, dive..... While I didn't get to break the two personal best records that I was trying to. I did manage to break my seabass record. I shot a 3 pound seabass along with 4 of his other 2 pound friends that were following John down the ledge. You don't see them around here that big. While John was practicing his Sheri Daye style of shooting, I made sure that I showed him the correct shot placement after every dive.:D

[bgbill]

While John was practicing his Sheri Daye style of shooting, I made sure that I showed him the correct shot placement after every dive.:D

Does that mean you gut shot all of your fish? :D

[kitefisherman]

I may have shot a couple fish in the back due to bent shafts and having to shoot a holed up fish from the rear, but I don't believe that I had any gut shots. I also left Bucket some of the smaller fish that I passed on. I may not have as consistently stoned my fish, but I believe that I matched or came very close to matching his production - except when it came to blackfish. :D

[kitefisherman]

One more thing, you can compare my shooting to Sheri's all you want. The only one that might get upset about it is Sheri. :D

[bgbill]

One more thing, you can compare my shooting to Sheri's all you want. The only one that might get upset about it is Sheri. :D

Chad you don't have to keep kissing her ass :D

[kitefisherman]

That's not ass kissing. That's just respect for the lady's skill.

[PatMyGreen]

Great trip report guys, a pleasure to read for sure. I have been one of those guys that has spent alot more time on spearboard than actually spearing this year so thanks for keeping me entertained, as I pretty much follow all of yalls posts. Nice that you guys all got together on the same boat, definately an allstar line up.

[Spearo_Fla]

As always Nice fish guys.