Sat 5/10

[100days-a-year]

Started out nice as the Vilano ramp was backed upon to A1A @6:00 am .We head out in seas 2 foot higher than Noaa predicted,surprise.Out we go to the Bear wreck 36miles out.No fish other than amberjack,jack crevalle etc.There were a lot of #4-8 mangroves but I was waiting for a nicer fish,mistake.We the headed SE to look at some phantom #s from Rinehart,Stebbins and other Idiots who probly never dove these spots as they were slighly broken bottom with less than 1' of relief and a few sponges&soft corals.We then headed to some #s from the Jaxspots book ,are you seeing a pattern here?Dove some of these to find the same as before.Dive 3 for me was on the Capo culverts.Again no fish.I did get to see several Jewfish and did spot 1 cobia 'bout #30 on the Bear.I had put in about a dozen #s in my loran and figured on getting at least 50% to be diveable,I hadn't downloaded any more back-ups of my known S.A. #s into my GPS.Next week will find me diving out of Jax.Bottom was 71 ,top was 78.Vis was 30'+ thermocline was at about 50'.Lesson learned was top always have blackbook in possession and plan finding new spots between known spots,my crew was threatening asskicking if I tried anything else again.

[fernandezh]

Originally posted by 100days-a-year
my crew was threatening asskicking if I tried anything else again.

Sounds like to me that they take this whole spearfishing thing seriously. Too bad about the day, sorry to hear that.

Hector

[fishkilla]

yarrrrr.... keeiilll haul the skirvey

[liberty hound]

sounds like you're day was a little better than mine on thurs.
After my first dive I came up and got real dizzy and started to puke. The rest of the day I couldn't lift my head up without feeling sick.
Friday I went to the doctor and he said my tube in my ear was clogged and the dive made the inside and outside pressures alot different screwing up my equalibrium.
Now I'm on meds to stop the dizzyness and clear up the tube.
The worst thing is he said I can't dive until 5-6 days after the symptoms dissapear.
When I first came up I knew I didn't do anything wrong on the dive but I was kinda worried because I went to 109ft. on 35 nitrox. The first thing that comes to mind is I hope like hell the mix was right.
Oh well the doctor said it could be bad if the symptoms happen under the water, so I guess I'll be happy with what ended up happening. Maybe buy next week I'll be back in the water again!

a bud and I went outta Matanzas, and hit Gordon's Reef. He was there Thurs. and mixed it up with the cobs on hook and line. He has a 23' Carolina Skiff, so anything over 2' is a pounding, suck ass wet ride. 18 miles of hatefullness. But, lots of bait sahools, porpoise, turtles , and rays, upon arrival. Jug and anchor up, roll over to shit vis. 77 deg. on top. 75 on the bottom (65'). Vis maybe 10' in the concrete. A far cry from last weeks vis during the Open! Here's where my greenhorns came popping out : I had screwed on my PH before descent, in anticipation of cobs. After several minutes of no cobs, and seeing my buddy wearing out the chickens, I unscrewed the PH, and tucked it away. A triggerfish and flounder later, you guessed it...outta the puke vis comes a 4 fish school of 40-50 lb. cobia! WTF, now I'm fumbling around, trying to screw back on the PH, and load it. My hands were shaking worse tham Mohammad Ali's! I'm sure you long time shooters remember the feeling/rush. Now, I'm fu*kin' ready! My head's spinning like that chick's in The Excorcist! Nothing's gettin' past me! 10 min. or so pass. Swimming along, looking for shapes in the murk. Oh shit! Comming right at me, popping out of the puke are 7 more huge cobs. They turn slightly to flank me, I take a quick bead on the 2nd one. Pull the trigger and flinched at the same time, I think I even closed my eyes, expecting to get my world rocked. (Never fired a PH before) No excuse, just a rookie mistake. I could not believe I missed that fish! It couldn't have been 5' from my muzzle! I didn't account for the added weight on the shaft tip. Reckon I'll shoot higher next time. At first, I thought I had a dud, but Scott said the shaft went under the fish. I SUCK COBIA DICK!!! Back dove the site, never saw them again. 2nd dive only 17 min., Scott only had 1900 psi. in his other tank. I SUCK COBIA DICK!!!

[liberty hound]

I shot a nice cobia on my only dive.
There were three of them with a ray and I picked the biggest one.
It was a good shot to the back of the head and he looked like he was done in so I decided not to blast him with my power head I keep on my little gun. Well guess what! Next thing I know he had unscrewed my tip and was slowly swimming away to end up on some sharks dinner table.

That sux too! Another lesson well learned. Same thing happened to me last year with a nice AJ.

[Camp]

If I can't get a shot from the top of the cobia, like just behind the eyes in the center of his head, with my .357 I don't even try it. I'v lost too many shafts in big cobias I've shot from the side. Their head is so wide, and apparently their brain is SO SMALL, that they just swim off with my shaft (and .357 ph) sticking out...

[100days-a-year]

I feel better nowSorry bout' the cobs Greyface&LibertyHound.Bad Karma all round sounds like.

[Paul]

Tony I went out of Vilano also on Seabeasts boat. Got to ramp at 7:00 am and ended up parking truck and trailer @ 1/2 mile down A1A. One published spot Taylor culverts we tried had 6 boats on it. I had brought my numbers book but most all are in LORAN and Seabeasts boat only has GPS. Finally found some open spots out of the hotspots at the 21 bottom where I got two grouper. Cobia must be in closer as didnt see any offshore. Think on future trips out of SA Im going to go during week due to limited number of close in SA spots. Paul

[100days-a-year]

Paul,damnright I was lookin' hard for stuff.I finally found the Capo culverts 150yds from the "confirmed" GPS #s.The 21 bottom was hot for bottom droppers from what I hear.We went to far south.I'll be stickin' to Jax during the summer and into fall til all the fairweather fishermen stay home.The ramp is only 8 minutes from my house at Mayport and 50 to Vilano.We kill'em from Oct to Apr. in SA but with only 40 spots of artificial bottom or so it get's packed.Glad ya'll did good.