posted by admin on Sep 18
Catherine and I went out today, first time in a while just the two of us have gone out. We had big plans, I brought chum, lobster heads, flashers etc , in hopes of setting up a sick chum slick in like 60 feet of water. But when we got out to sand key there was about 15 feet of visibility. We debated for a while whether we should run east or west. For the hell of it we ran east, when finally got out to around the middle sambos there was 25, maybe 30 feet of cloudy green visibility. We jumped in on a patch reef in about 25 feet of water and I shot a red grouper and then shot a Spanish mackerel more for target practice.
I had recently re-rigged my rabitech apex and had not been happy with how it was shooting. I tied my bands a bit longer to take a little bit of pressure off my chest when loading it and was not really happy with the result. I took the measurements off the mako website( it lists a range of lengths), but in my opinion it’s better to stick with the lengths on the Rob Allen size chart. When I was rerigging the gun, I remembered I have a RA open muzzle laying around and a finned shaft just collecting dust in my closet, so I took the time to put the open muzzle on the a Rob Allen 130 which has also been sitting around in my closet. So I took out the Rob Allen with the open muzzle and the finned shaft today. I really like this setup, except for loading the gun without a butt. I love using a shaft where the line doesn’t connect to the rear of the shaft, and I like the rob allen open muzzle better than the rabitech open muzzle. If I could get an RA muzzle for the rabitech I would be in heaven.
Anyways, a couple days ago had a filling put on the right side of my mouth, and it seemed to cause my right ear to have a tiny ache. Diving amplified with ache considerably, and with the crap vis made it easy to head in early. We did stop to catch three lobsters for dinner, it took about half an hour to find 3 legals, and sort through 6 or 7 shorts. We also found the king of puffer fish.
The jellyfish were out but nothing like it has been the past couple weeks. The swim pants I got to replace the crappy evo lycra I was wearing are working out great. I got the pants here http://www.coolibar.com/03507.html , and they run a bit big for diving, like I seem to fit perfect into a medium. (I don’t think I have worn anything in size medium since 10th grade of high school). They seem to block the jelly fish larvae well, and are quick and easy to put on , and I also don’t look like I am in the viet cong wearing them.
posted by admin on Aug 24
Went out Friday with Brad, Brian and Catherine, stayed pretty close to Key West. My boat is really dragging I have to clean the bottom this week. We just hit some spots around western dry rocks and didn’t have particularly good luck. We saw a lot of mangrove snappers but not a lot of fish. Saw a couple spooky black groupers but not much else. Brian shot a trigger fish and spade fish( he had never eaten one). I shot a hog and a bar jack. Pretty slow day. Vis was good, water was warm. Brad did the best with two muttons and a hog.
On Sunday Catherine and I went out with Jason and Andy, on their boat along with Jason’s son. We went a bit west but the lousy vis we hit once we got past Boca Grande made us turn back. Would it have cleared up past the Marquesas keys? Maybe but it was definitely clear east of Boca Grande so we headed back. We shot a bunch of fish, yellow jacks, bar jacks, hogfish, mutton snapper and one black grouper (it was so small I had to squeeze the tail to make it legal). Conditions were great: good vis up to about 60 feet, a bit of current but manageable. We had some drama when I shot a yellow jack and it looked like it was hanging on by a thread so I called for some one to shoot it again. Andy swam down and took a shot missed and got the shaft stuck in rock, this wouldn’t have been a big deal if there wasn’t a ripping current so he was stuck dealing with that. I had Jason throw me a gun and I swam down to shoot the fish again and at the last minute the fish ran more up current so I took a desperation shot which hit but then tore out. I had let go of my float line and had to swim like crazy to get it back. After all the excitement the fish just kind of died and I was able to just slowly pull him in.
Andy saw a tiger shark, but it was too far away for Catherine to get a photo, I was in the boat at the time. I also saw a huge black grouper, cruising on the bottom in 55 feet of water. A really beautiful fish, it swam with the current for bit but took off as soon as I tried to get a little closer.
posted by admin on May 27
Went out to see the Vandenberg sink with Catherine on Wednesday, it was ok but due to us being on the windward side of the ship, the smoke from the explosions blocked most of the sinking. Also a a-hole driving a sebego parasail boat had to quick move 50 feet forward and get right in front of us as it went down. Like being 50 feet closer really improved the view. I also had a guy almost drive his catamaran into my boat, he was talking to his wife and fiddling with something totally not paying attention to where his boat was going. I guess technically he was coming from the starboard side which would possible give him the right of way, but he was running pretty much along side of me, and if I didn’t suddenly stop and swerve to the side we would have collided. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that a big percentage of boaters are totally idiots and should be avoided as much as possible. Which is part of the beauty of living in the Key West. Drive a few miles west and there is next to no boats, and most you see are professional fisherman, who aren’t just out messing around.
After the sinking Catherine and I went a few miles west and did a drift. There where perfect conditions 60+ feet of visibility and next to no current. We dropped anchor in 50 feet of water and put a block of chum out. Its very rare that conditions are good for chumming. There has to be next to no current for it to be enjoyable to me. Immediately schools of speedos and bar jacks where all around us. There was also a large mutton snapper who took off as soon as I got half way to the bottom. I shot some ciro mackerel and jacks and cut them up and let them sit on the bottom. The big mutton came back and again took off when I started to dive. A few short grouper showed up and more cero mackerel. An amberjack around 25# showed up and I shot him. Most Amberjacks I have shot in the vitals and really didn’t put up much of a fight. This one I hit high in the back and fought like crazy. I was enjoying the fight until a big lemon shark came in, then I got in the boat and pulled the jack out. It was taking forever to fight him in the water and shark would have probably eaten him.
After gutting and bleeding the AJ, the shark was kind of fired up, but since it was staying on the bottom we kept fishing. I saw nice black grouper but lost sight of him. So shot a bar jack and let him run around on my shooting line, immediately the grouper appeared but so did the lemon shark. I was the only one with a gun so the live chumming was kind of pointless. The shark grabbed the jack and a barracuda hit the crimp in my shooting line and cut the line. So then I had to swim down and find my shaft, re-rig my gun and again have no idea where the grouper went.
We played hide and seek with the grouper for awhile longer and then called it a day. Kind of slow day but a good time and an amberjack for the smoker.
I went back the next day to the same spot and took this 21# black off it, not sure if it’s the same one but pretty good either way.
