gnominic
03-10-2007, 08:25 AM
Well, I got to do some diving last week (at work!), but it was a little dissappointing. I dove twice in Eugene Island 330 and twice in South Marsh Island 128 fields. Water depth there is around 220. Didn't see crapola. A couple of small AJs on one rig, one mangrove on another and a rock hind on the last. There wasn't even that much other stuff to look at out there. I don't know what was up out there. The guys on deck couldn't manage to catch much on rods either.
On the way in we stopped at SMI 40 (100ft depth) and holy hell the number of fish and the number of HUGE fish there... When the season opens someone should definitely go limit out there. I think about 15 divers could hunt this rig and not clean it out in a weekend. And they would have to have a sizable boat to haul all the fish home.
I counted about 10 snapper in a couple of minutes that cruised by that were in the 20# range. I also saw a granddaddy with a long-line drop complete with snap hanging from his mouth. It came so close he almost hit me with the snap. I admit I thought hard about grabbing the clip, but a 28# live snapper on 3 feet of line, well, I just ain't that good (oh, and the season is closed of course). There were plenty of undersized fish too. They were more skittish than the old timers.
Vis at the surface was crappy, less than 10 feet, but it cleaned up to around 40-50 at depth. The murk was pretty high though, the last 15-20 feet. The highest I've ever seen it anyway. But looking down at the murk was like watching a box of worms, squirming and teaming with life.
Water temp was 68F on all these dives. I didn't stick my head in the murk on the last one to see the temp, but it looked cold, or maybe that was my 3mm suit getting to me. Viz in the deep water was around 40ft all the way down to 80 feet. I didn't go deeper than that because there wasn't much light upstairs and it was getting dark down there.
I know this isn't a Texas story, but the fish were Texas size fish, and I'm from Texas, so that's my excuse for posting over here.
Fair winds....
-dennis
On the way in we stopped at SMI 40 (100ft depth) and holy hell the number of fish and the number of HUGE fish there... When the season opens someone should definitely go limit out there. I think about 15 divers could hunt this rig and not clean it out in a weekend. And they would have to have a sizable boat to haul all the fish home.
I counted about 10 snapper in a couple of minutes that cruised by that were in the 20# range. I also saw a granddaddy with a long-line drop complete with snap hanging from his mouth. It came so close he almost hit me with the snap. I admit I thought hard about grabbing the clip, but a 28# live snapper on 3 feet of line, well, I just ain't that good (oh, and the season is closed of course). There were plenty of undersized fish too. They were more skittish than the old timers.
Vis at the surface was crappy, less than 10 feet, but it cleaned up to around 40-50 at depth. The murk was pretty high though, the last 15-20 feet. The highest I've ever seen it anyway. But looking down at the murk was like watching a box of worms, squirming and teaming with life.
Water temp was 68F on all these dives. I didn't stick my head in the murk on the last one to see the temp, but it looked cold, or maybe that was my 3mm suit getting to me. Viz in the deep water was around 40ft all the way down to 80 feet. I didn't go deeper than that because there wasn't much light upstairs and it was getting dark down there.
I know this isn't a Texas story, but the fish were Texas size fish, and I'm from Texas, so that's my excuse for posting over here.
Fair winds....
-dennis