SBO Trip Report? Let's Hear It!

[Dive4Blood]

The Jolly Rogers 2 left Friday evening with barely enough time to spare after having spent all week repairing a dinged up prop. Guests on this trip were TropicalDiver, Fish Fryer, Sharkbait 101, and Spearooo.

Left the Hatch in calm seas, and overnighted on a ledge in 110 fsw where Spear One had been rumored to have caught a large "nurse" shark . In the water at the crack of 630AM, and most were able to get their jacks as well as some nice grovers, and AR's. A couple hours later on a nearby ledge, I put a freeshaft into an estimated 30# blackfin tuna that swam by. Upon impact, the tuna did a straight nose dive downward, and I'm thinking stoneshot! As I'm mentally prepping the sashimi, the tuna goes beserk when it hits the sand, and throws the shaft before I could load up the lineshaft on my 52 Commercial Rhino. Spearooo stumbled into the scene, and was also just a couple seconds late on letting rip with a second shaft.

My highlight was diving a small wreck in 120 fsw that Jimmy Z let me dive (it was his turn) because he was getting a bad tooth squeeze from a temporary filling. This was a spot that he traded for with a commercial hook and liner, and had been fished, but never dove. While TropDiver and Fish Fryer were fully engaged battling jacks in midwater, I experienced steelslinger nirvana of having a virgin wreck to myself loaded with gags, grovers, and AR's for over half my dive. The H.O.D was in full effect although I regret how skittish the big AR's were as several that would easily have taken 1st place only came within Rhino range when I was involved stringing other fish. I put myself into eleven minutes of deco which was very comforting holding onto 100+ pounds of fish during the sharkiest time of the year in our area.

We rounded the day off trying to get hogs/sheeps/triggers on the 60-80 fsw rockpiles which was tough row to hoe with the massive gumbo that still lingers on this late in the season. We did end up with respectable showings for all members of the trip.

Needless to say great tournament, I think the 2004 SBO has set quite the precedent. Scott certainly crossed all his "t"'s, and dotted all his "i"s with every aspect of the tourney from venue, food, fermented beverages, prizes, weigh-in, and band (louder next year with more heavy metal tunes please) going off without a hitch. Congrats to TropicalDiver who won the women's category Wong gun! Let's drag out your poor husband Fish Fryer some more so you can break in that bad boy! Standing by.

AJ Suarez