2-20-05 Miss Conduct

[Spear337]

I decided to take my girlfriend out for a weekend of diving on Sunday morning on the highly recommended Miss Conduct with Capt. Conrad. Seas were a little choppy with 2 to 4 footers rolling through which is a breeze for me but a struggle for the old lady. We headed out of Hillsboro Inlet and did our first dive on a 60 foot reef. My girlfriend and I went down to the bottom, viz was roughly 15 ft or so. Not a dang thing to shoot at! Came back up on the boat and proceeded to the next spot. While on the boat, my girlfriend began to complain of a headache and began puking from sea sickness. We then rushed to get to the bottom and out of the current and waves. At about 25 feet down on a 50 foot reef, I saw a nice big green moray eel swimming by and tons of marine life. I thought, wow! What a great spot! At the same time, my girlfriend started to have some problems equalizing and tried to work on it for a few seconds while I seemed to be screaming at her underwater to get her ass down here already! Next thing I know, she bolts back to the surface! So what do I do? I float back to the top to see what's going on. She seemed to have some problems equalizing and decided she didn't want to dive and would rather sit on the boat and puke. So I decided to go back down buddy less and find me some fish to insert some cold-steel into. As I headed north into the reef I ran into a nice 6 lb. hogfish and nailed him to the sand. I began to put him in the bag and take the spear out which I was having trouble with since I hit him so good it went through the head and out the gills. Next thing I noticed, I was tangled in the float line with a 5 ft. nurse shark practically sniffing my bag. Since I was buddy-less, I decided to quit while I was ahead and head back to the boat with my hog and spear still intact. So, to end the day, I came up with 2200 psi after being down 5 mins and 1 hog. I was so frustrated to end the day early on such a good spot and am longing for the day when I can go back there and earn my day's worth of fish. Pic of the hog will follow.

[Spear337]

Here's some pics from the trip!

[Mobile Diver]

Look on the bright side, man. At least you got wet & shot something.

[chasintail]

Do nurse sharks have a taste for hog fish .On the one trip I made to the keys I had a big nurse shark inhale my hod full of legal hogs (not big).Before I realized what was going on the bitch had stolen almost all my fish,not to metion scare the s**t out of me.

[deepstops]

Originally Posted by Mobile Diver

Look on the bright side, man. At least you got wet & shot something.

And if nothing else, Capt. Conrad can be a source of entertainment as well.

[Spear337]

I've had a few incidents of nurse sharks being attracted to hogs. Happened last weekend off Key Biscayne as well. Had a hog in the bag and mama shark shows up... didn't do anything. Must have just been curious. Steve, where's the other Steve (aka Spearfriend) been? I haven't heard anythin from him! What's he been up to???? I guess he fell in love and is now on lockdown. I'm finally back slingin steel and haven't heard from him. If you talk to him, let him know I'm lookin for him. Conrad was a pretty good captain, I'd recommend him again and hope to go again as well. If anybody wants to set up a dive with him, let me know, I'm down to join!

[Mobile Diver]

Steve is around & married like before. He wants to go diving, but i have been out of town. Hopefully we can go this weekend.

I have had nurse sharks & moray eels go after my fish in the Keys.

[Spear337]

Sounds good, I haven't heard from him! We'll have to do a second attempt with the girlfriend on your boat like we planned before. LOL Let me know when you're heading out with Steve and I'll attempt to go. Tell him to e-mail or PM me when he's setting something up. If you don't have my e-mail address: H2OSpearo337@aol.com.

[Chad Carney]

I took an OW student on a private mid-week charter aboard the Miss Conduct.
Conrad put us on a really shallow marked reef about 12' high in 25' of water, because my student needed it.
We saw a black at least 18 lbs!!! (No gun of course.)
On the second dive in 60' we saw a nice mutton too!

Chad