Pinellas 100-130 sat

[Doc]

Conditions pretty uniform throughout the day. All depths doven to had the mirky layer about 20 feet from the bottom with 10-25 foot vis; very shootable. Snappers would not bite at night, but were everywhere in the am. Lots of AJ' around. Grouper few and far between.

[JimW]

This thread needs to be spiced up a little =)

First of all, thanks again capt for the adventure, we all had a blast on the vessel "Long Shot".

The ride out of Johns pass Friday afternoon was nice, smooth 1-2'. Anchored up and started chumming at 50' on the wreck. We were the only ones there and hoped to get ars, but none were to be had. Tons of vermilion and small sharks... All Fri night was nice until about 4am. Thunderstorms all around us but none hit us. Shooting stars everywhere! Seas picked up to about 3-4' when we woke up Sat am. It wasn't that bad, but it was not what we were expecting. Clay and myself made the first drop. Very nice vis! 30 - 40' all the way down to about 110'. As Doc said the bottom 20 was murky and varied from 8' to 20' viz. It seemed to of come and go.

My first dive I hit the bottom and started stalking at 128', the viz was erie... On the sand, on the side of the wreck, I just came down and this shadow slowly moves across my path ~8 feet in front of me. It is about 50+# grouper. I had my line shaft on, was slightly under the wreck with debris everywhere, eerie viz. I didn't shoot him. Glad I didn't try. It was way too sketchy for me at my experience level... But, a few minutes later I see this smaller red grouper under a piece of steel. Boom, got him. He weighed about 15# gutted =) Nice fish for sure (for me)

We dove a few other spots in the afternoon... nice diving and basically 10- 30' viz. Standard AJs, goes, a couple ars, couple gags. Basically lots of fish imo and the freezer is stocked. Very few gags though.

As most of us know, always have some extra beer in the cabin with all of your emergency gear. Some gnarly drunken shrimpers came up to us begging for beer. Clay and I only had an extra 12 pack. So, we got ~15# of fresh shrimp for 12 beers =)

Good times with good guys.... Nate came down from Minnesota and was on the boat for some practice. He was commenting about experiencing getting narc'd. It was funny... he was like "it was like smokin doobies down there!" hehehe =)

Also, it was nice meeting some of the Mad Beach crew. Cwitch, HS Ben and Doc.

Not all of the catch, but some of it. A few weeks supply =)


Nate and Clay chillin on the way out in the lounge area


Drunkin shrimper trade off booty for tonight's din din =)

[Eric Tuley]

Awesome. If you don't mind me asking what kind of boat is that? Looks like a nice beam.

[Silent Hunter]

Nice haul!! Maxin and relaxin!!

[Old Bateman]

I'm sure Nate had a good time with you guys. He was a lot of fun in Ft. Pierce with us!

[23Dusky]

Nice Gag Jim. Glad to hear you guys did well.

[Doc]

The boats a 31 foot morgan, 12 foot beam gives over 200 square feet of uninterupted deckspace; plus a nice sized cabin. Plenty roomy. Glad you guys had fun. Hope to have you all aboard again.

[one shot]

"Good times with good guys.... Nate came down from Minnesota and was on the boat for some practice. He was commenting about experiencing getting narc'd. It was funny... he was like "it was like smokin doobies down there!" hehehe =)"


[/IMG]
All I could think about when was I down there was the part from the movie "old school" when he got hit in the neck with the tranquilizer dart! The simplest tasks seemed to take forever, but I was smiling all the way through it! This was the second time I got narced the first time was pretty scary. I learned about it in training but was unprepared for the actual exp.
Tried free-shafting for the first time and LOVED IT Lost a shaft though.

Had a great time diving with you guys. Look forward to our trip with fishkilla on the Holy Spear-It. Doc thanks again for having me. Sorry about the snoring and keeping you guys up but I had just completed a couple of awesome days with the Batemans, Scott, and Mike in ft pierce chasing lobster![IMG] I was almost ready to quit my job and move down there but then realized I would not be able to replace lost dive computers and such

attn ft pierce divers lost suunto vyper wrist mount dive computer.

Had to pay $50 to airport for overweight luggage. That probably averages $2 a lb for fish and lobster, I can live with that. It all made it back frozen.