Went out diving a couple days this week, had a lot of fun. One day Catherine and I went out and practiced freediving on the wrecks out front. It was fun but we really didn’t see any fish; even the jewfish were missing. We came back in to the reef and I shot a black grouper and a mutton snapper. The water was clear with at least 60-70 feet of vis and around 85 degrees. Not a lot of fish but still a great way to spend the day.

Then one day I went out with Andy and his girlfriend Cally. We did some dives on the edge of the reef in 65-70 feet of water. I saw a couple nice groupers but couldn’t get them. We drifted in the shallows and I shot a 15# black grouper. He was just chilling in the sand in the middle of nowhere. I almost felt bad shooting him, I think he thought he was camouflaged.

We found a grassy garden in the shallows filled with conchs and hogfish, it was pretty neat. We also hit one spot where there must of have been 4-5 black grouper all in around 45 feet of water. We both took off chasing the larger ones of the group. We were then joined by a big nurse shark with a yj in tow, he surprised the hell out of me suddenly appearing at the tips of fins and then following me on my dives to look up in rocks. I poked him with my spear but he came right back. He kind of screwed up my dives but I already had a grouper so I really didn’t care. I wish I could have gotten a photo or video of how ridiculous this nurse shark was acting.

Both days we left around 9 and 10 am and were back around 5 pm. I think total amount of gas burned was around 25 maybe 30 gallons for two days. Pretty sweet really, dive in 70 foot vis 85 degree water and shoot enough grouper for a cookout and a bunch of dinners. People may get better bigger fish diving in the other places of the US, but it always seems to involve diving in cold and dirty water or driving really far, and sometimes both. I think I am going to stay right here personally.