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Old 06-17-2019, 06:03 PM   #3301
grey2112
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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Left Friday morning for an overnight trip with 4 friends. We dove mostly 90 to 105 ft. depths. Seas were kinda bumpy on Friday and Friday night but laid down nicely on Saturday. Visibility was exceptional (at least 60ft on Friday) and about 35 to 40ft. on Saturday. Temp was about 80 degrees and no thermocline at all. We had to work hard to find fish. Most spots had several shootable Mango’s and Hogs but Gags and ARS were scarce. We did finally land on one spot that had a swarm of large ARS and we quickly boated our limit of 10.

We anchored up for the night on a small ledge in 95ft. We fished the sundowner with live squirrel fish and hook into 6 or 8 large Gags that easily busted 60lb mainline on our reels. It was unfortunate we could not boat any of those big Gags but I figured we could maybe shoot a few the next morning. We fired down some live baits in the morning and managed to boat 5 legal size Gags but none of the monsters we hooked the night before seemed interested. We dove the spot and shot several nice Mangos and 5 male Hogs but the big Gags we hooked the night before had apparently moved on.

We ended up with 10 ARS, 8 Gags, 10 Hogs, and about 20 Mangos. Overall it was a great trip and looking forward to this weekend to do it all over again.
AWESOME, Kevin! Glad you are really getting back into things and in a big way
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Old 06-17-2019, 06:15 PM   #3302
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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AWESOME, Kevin! Glad you are really getting back into things and in a big way
Thanks Eric, I have finally gotten very comfortable with my new dive equipment and have also perfected my buoyancy control. I was using a weight integrated BC for the past year and for some reason I was really fighting my bouncy control with it. I finally went back to a standard weight belt around my waist about a month ago and that solved my issue. Now that my diving skills are up to snuff I can start concentrating on fine tuning my shooting skills.
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Old 06-18-2019, 04:26 AM   #3303
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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Thanks Eric, I have finally gotten very comfortable with my new dive equipment and have also perfected my buoyancy control. I was using a weight integrated BC for the past year and for some reason I was really fighting my bouncy control with it. I finally went back to a standard weight belt around my waist about a month ago and that solved my issue. Now that my diving skills are up to snuff I can start concentrating on fine tuning my shooting skills.
I'm glad you got that worked out. I've never done the weight belt thing, but wonder if that might help me out as well. I'll have to give it a try next time out.

Hope you can get on some of those numbers I gave you down in your neck of the woods.
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Old 06-18-2019, 06:45 AM   #3304
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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I'm glad you got that worked out. I've never done the weight belt thing, but wonder if that might help me out as well. I'll have to give it a try next time out. Hope you can get on some of those numbers I gave you down in your neck of the woods.
I use two 6 lb hip weights on a rubber weight belt with a 3 mil suit. This keeps the weight out from under the tank and having the weight in the rear hip area of my waist seems to keep me more balanced. I think the issue I was having with the weights in the BC was.....when I turned sideways I tended to over rotate and that made me feel out of balance all the time. When the weight was in the BC it was farther away from my body and therefore may have had more tendency to cause me to rotate. I had used this hip weight setup throughout my commercial career and I guess my body just got used to that weight distribution. It’s all good now though.
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Old 06-18-2019, 06:47 AM   #3305
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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I use two 6 lb hip weights on a rubber weight belt with a 3 mil suit. This keeps the weight out from under the tank and having the weight in the rear hip area of my waist seems to keep me more balanced. I think the issue I was having with the weights in the BC was.....when I turned sideways I tended to over rotate and that made me feel out of balance all the time. I had used this hip weight setup throughout my commercial career and I guess that weight distribution just stuck. It’s all good now though.
Good idea - I've noticed the same thing sometimes.
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Old 06-18-2019, 06:52 AM   #3306
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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Good idea - I've noticed the same thing sometimes.
Give my setup a try........it may help you.
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Old 06-22-2019, 06:31 PM   #3307
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

Headed out about 25 miles from Hernando today to give the boat a shakedown after resolving some issues. Had the family on boat so didn't go out too far but was in 32ft. Seas a little rough early but laid down in late morning/afternoon.

Viz was 10-15 horizontal with a lot of particulate in the water. Nice hard bottom with a lot of cracks and nice ledges however only managed a hog, did see a nice sized goliath. Turned the last corner before heading up and found a nice anchor with 5ft of chain and about 30ft of rope.

On the way in my dive buddy and I wanted to check out the new Ghost Ship they sunk a few months back. Downloaded to coordinated from Hernando Port Authority, went back and forth over them and never found in. Ended up diving Tanks #3 and #6. Viz the same, missed 2 nice sized gags but managed a Mango.

Not very productive but still a good day diving.
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Old 06-23-2019, 07:40 AM   #3308
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

Out yesterday with SealRock to the Middle Grounds for the TBSC. I invited jfjf along and so it was great to finally dive with him.

Great weather all day. Less than two foot seas and we had the wind at our back on the way in. Viz was about 50 ft. most of the day. 82 on the surface, a brisk thermocline at around 50 ft. Diving in a shirt and pants felt like I got punched with each drop, but I adapt well and after a few seconds it doesn't bother me. Hard work to find the fish. The first area we worked killed our chances of competing as we ran through half our tanks searching. Finally we decided to move to a different area and found the fish. Jfjf did well and should score some good points.

I am learning more and more about diving the grounds, you gotta be willing to move to different types of bottom to find fish and that could mean moving 5-10 miles. It's all a learning experience and I hope with more trips we'll become more effective.

I hit the trifecta on sharks. A bull, a sandbar, and a dusky. None were aggressive and a little dominant posturing sent them off.

On a side note, I got my first MG black. I spotted him hiding under a ledge. I slipped my line kit on knowing retrieval might be difficult, somehow the shaft went through the ring, fortunately I stoned the black. However, I had turned my shark shield on just a few minutes earlier from a shark... Well, when I went inverted the shark shield leash landed on my head and caught on my camera. I thought I was in the electric chair. Jim had just strung a gag and came into the tight restriction to grab the shaft and I shocked his ass too. LOL. Shit! He's yelling at me, I'm wanting my fish, I circled out and he was able to grab my shaft. Some laughs topside, but I need to figure out a better way to deal with this thing. I believe it is an effective deterrent, but I need a better way to rig it to the fin. It has a little loop for this, but I've been reluctant to have it clipped creating a hole shot for something to tangle on it.

Anyway, hopefully I'll score something nice at the raffle today.

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Last edited by CuzzA; 06-23-2019 at 07:52 AM.
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Old 06-23-2019, 03:58 PM   #3309
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

Congrats on your grouper Cuzza!! Great story. That is a reimbursable code where I work in the hospital what you did with your shark shield you know.....!!! But not recommended under water for sure 😎

Great to meet your son, jfjf and Seal Rock at the weigh in!!

My son with Santos's tourney winning big Hog at 19.5# is pictured. My buddy Ben was on the boat and shot a big Hog in the mid teens and saw this one. Cpt Frank elected to back dive the spot and Santos found the tourney winner. Cool stuff!
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Old 06-23-2019, 10:37 PM   #3310
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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Congrats on your grouper Cuzza!! Great story. That is a reimbursable code where I work in the hospital what you did with your shark shield you know.....!!! But not recommended under water for sure ��

Great to meet your son, jfjf and Seal Rock at the weigh in!!

My son with Santos's tourney winning big Hog at 19.5# is pictured. My buddy Ben was on the boat and shot a big Hog in the mid teens and saw this one. Cpt Frank elected to back dive the spot and Santos found the tourney winner. Cool stuff!
Nice haul, D! Always a pleasure to see you and it was a fun filled day. I had a good time and came away with a charter with 2 Shea.

So, I heard from some of you fellas today that you got a kick out of the Carbo story and since I'm not afraid to share when things go wrong...

I present...

Capital Punishment at 90 fsw.


On a side note, I never felt like there was an issue or I was effected by the shock that it could jeopardize the success of the dive. And no, I wasn't really seeing stars, but I'm going to solve the Shark Shield issue once and for all.

It is funny though how something as simple as a ring getting hung on the flopper can set off a chain of events. I had no idea until I saw the video.

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Old 06-24-2019, 08:22 AM   #3311
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

I was on the leader board with 17.75 for most of the day until someone noticed the 19.5. Wish I had seen it when you guys weighed it. That's a great fish. Beautiful conditions out there and a great time for sure.

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Congrats on your grouper Cuzza!! Great story. That is a reimbursable code where I work in the hospital what you did with your shark shield you know.....!!! But not recommended under water for sure 😎

Great to meet your son, jfjf and Seal Rock at the weigh in!!

My son with Santos's tourney winning big Hog at 19.5# is pictured. My buddy Ben was on the boat and shot a big Hog in the mid teens and saw this one. Cpt Frank elected to back dive the spot and Santos found the tourney winner. Cool stuff!
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Old 06-25-2019, 06:31 PM   #3312
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

Went to the Vet on 6/22 and the nice vis we’ve been lucky to have is diminishing. Lots of bait covering the structures and made it difficult to see.

The previous weekend, 6/15, was better in 40-45’.
https://youtu.be/gLvmDkMDpj8
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Old 06-28-2019, 01:18 PM   #3313
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

Went to 25-30 ft today and you can see the structure while snorkeling on the surface. Vis below was 15’ horizontal if you had the sun behind you.
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Old 06-29-2019, 08:52 PM   #3314
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

Same spot. Same vis. Might be my PB gag.




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Old 06-29-2019, 10:07 PM   #3315
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Re: Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

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Same spot. Same vis. Might be my PB gag.




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Congrats! Fat gag for sure!!
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