keezdiver
09-15-2003, 02:55 PM
Keysspearfisher and i decided to head out for some killing before this hurricane kicks our butts down here in south florida.
we decided to give the Thunderbolt a try. the day was beautiful, light breeze, sunny and almost no waves!! we got out to the wreck and were greeted with a horrible current. it took us nearly 1.5 hours just to get moored up to the subsurface bouys. we had to have the boat above idle just to stay in one place, and then had to attempt to dive down against the flow to attach the line! NOT EASY...but with a little persistence brian managed to get us hooked up.
next came the task of getting in the water without drifting to bimini, and donning the gear and dragging ourselves to the anchor line without losing our guns. the surface water looked decent, but once we dropped to the thermocline we were in the middle of brown soup...and upon hitting the deck it was only about 15' of vis!
after several trips around the wreck, and several failed shots, we realized that the only fish that could be taken required a line gun, which neither of us had.
skunked on the thunderbolt is like not getting laid in a $2 whore house with a $10 bill in your pocket! great way to start the day!
on the plus side, brian did manage to spot a trio of billfish as we were doing our safety stop, but i missed them :mad:
we then decided to try our luck farther east in some shallower and hopefully slower current water. we drove up to some numbers off of Long Key bridge, in about 25-30' of water. brian jumped in to see if it was worthwhile, and after 5 minutes came back and said "no go".
so we cruized out a little deeper, we both jumped in to do a little freediving in about 50' of water. although it was nice reef, i saw no shootable fish. brian managed to shoot a respectable hog and that was the only fish shot.
i was getting dissapointed!
we then procceded out a little deeper, some reef in about 80'. i dropped down first and was surprised by the nice reef structure, large holes and some high sponge and coral formations. but no fish! the first 10min and i hadn't seen a single shootable fish...not even a mango!
i was really discouraged now!
then i came across this large sand patch, and i figured i might be able to muster up a hog or maybe get lucky with a mutton. i then proceeded to make a bad decision and shoot a hog that turned out to be 1/2" under size...DAMNIT...pretty much par for the day! BUT...as i was unthreading him from my shaft, i spotted a larger hog swim by to check out the commotion...
i quickly reloaded and blasted it, and spent a few minutes digging it out of a hole. nice 15" hog...thinking to myself..."least i have dinner!" as i finished getting i on my stringer, i felt something dangling from my wrist...i look down to see my nice dive watch hanging buy a broken band, only held on by the sleeve of my wetsuit! with a sigh of releif i slipped it inside my wetsuit and moved on.
THEN I SAW IT! at first i had to do a double take...thinking that the nitrogen was playing with my sense of sight! then as i looked closer i couldn't figure out what it was, cause it looked like a fish with a crab hanging out of it's mouth:confused:
then i realized...it was the the big daddy...the male hogfish of the harem! and he was BIG!!!
i slowly positioned myself for a downward facing shot and blasted him through one eye and out the other side of the stomach...he didn't go far.
my heart was beating over 100 as i threaded him on my stringer...not beleiving what i was seeing. i had only seen one hog that big, and it was on someone elses stringer...
i cruized around for another 10 minutes...bubbling with excitement, as the rest of the harem followed close behind me. to bad they were all below legal!
as i got to the boat i was pleased to see i beat brian up, and started formulating a "slick" way of showing off my prize! he came up several minutes later, and slung a nice stringer of 4 mangos on deck. i complimented him...and mentioned that if he needed fish for a dinner party he was going to, i had a nice hog he could have...as i proudly lifted the monster out of the cooler saying "cause i have this one!!"
i'm not sure if he liked my joke or not...but i didn't care...i was exstatic!
it measured out at 31 inches to the fork, and gutted about 11 or so pounds!
our third dive was exciting too, but since brian outshot me on that one, i'll let him tell the story.
as for me, i was content with my trophy fish. my biggest fish ever and one hell of a hog to boot...particularly for the keys and even more so on a day that started off so horribly.
we decided to give the Thunderbolt a try. the day was beautiful, light breeze, sunny and almost no waves!! we got out to the wreck and were greeted with a horrible current. it took us nearly 1.5 hours just to get moored up to the subsurface bouys. we had to have the boat above idle just to stay in one place, and then had to attempt to dive down against the flow to attach the line! NOT EASY...but with a little persistence brian managed to get us hooked up.
next came the task of getting in the water without drifting to bimini, and donning the gear and dragging ourselves to the anchor line without losing our guns. the surface water looked decent, but once we dropped to the thermocline we were in the middle of brown soup...and upon hitting the deck it was only about 15' of vis!
after several trips around the wreck, and several failed shots, we realized that the only fish that could be taken required a line gun, which neither of us had.
skunked on the thunderbolt is like not getting laid in a $2 whore house with a $10 bill in your pocket! great way to start the day!
on the plus side, brian did manage to spot a trio of billfish as we were doing our safety stop, but i missed them :mad:
we then decided to try our luck farther east in some shallower and hopefully slower current water. we drove up to some numbers off of Long Key bridge, in about 25-30' of water. brian jumped in to see if it was worthwhile, and after 5 minutes came back and said "no go".
so we cruized out a little deeper, we both jumped in to do a little freediving in about 50' of water. although it was nice reef, i saw no shootable fish. brian managed to shoot a respectable hog and that was the only fish shot.
i was getting dissapointed!
we then procceded out a little deeper, some reef in about 80'. i dropped down first and was surprised by the nice reef structure, large holes and some high sponge and coral formations. but no fish! the first 10min and i hadn't seen a single shootable fish...not even a mango!
i was really discouraged now!
then i came across this large sand patch, and i figured i might be able to muster up a hog or maybe get lucky with a mutton. i then proceeded to make a bad decision and shoot a hog that turned out to be 1/2" under size...DAMNIT...pretty much par for the day! BUT...as i was unthreading him from my shaft, i spotted a larger hog swim by to check out the commotion...
i quickly reloaded and blasted it, and spent a few minutes digging it out of a hole. nice 15" hog...thinking to myself..."least i have dinner!" as i finished getting i on my stringer, i felt something dangling from my wrist...i look down to see my nice dive watch hanging buy a broken band, only held on by the sleeve of my wetsuit! with a sigh of releif i slipped it inside my wetsuit and moved on.
THEN I SAW IT! at first i had to do a double take...thinking that the nitrogen was playing with my sense of sight! then as i looked closer i couldn't figure out what it was, cause it looked like a fish with a crab hanging out of it's mouth:confused:
then i realized...it was the the big daddy...the male hogfish of the harem! and he was BIG!!!
i slowly positioned myself for a downward facing shot and blasted him through one eye and out the other side of the stomach...he didn't go far.
my heart was beating over 100 as i threaded him on my stringer...not beleiving what i was seeing. i had only seen one hog that big, and it was on someone elses stringer...
i cruized around for another 10 minutes...bubbling with excitement, as the rest of the harem followed close behind me. to bad they were all below legal!
as i got to the boat i was pleased to see i beat brian up, and started formulating a "slick" way of showing off my prize! he came up several minutes later, and slung a nice stringer of 4 mangos on deck. i complimented him...and mentioned that if he needed fish for a dinner party he was going to, i had a nice hog he could have...as i proudly lifted the monster out of the cooler saying "cause i have this one!!"
i'm not sure if he liked my joke or not...but i didn't care...i was exstatic!
it measured out at 31 inches to the fork, and gutted about 11 or so pounds!
our third dive was exciting too, but since brian outshot me on that one, i'll let him tell the story.
as for me, i was content with my trophy fish. my biggest fish ever and one hell of a hog to boot...particularly for the keys and even more so on a day that started off so horribly.