We hit another spot that was dead, then on to another. I missed a really nice cobia that was sleeping on the bottom. I don’t know how I missed him I was right down on him. Albie got a triggerfish and Lou got a couple more large mangrove snapper. I shot a black grouper, not a big one. I also shot him in the tail so albie had to put a safety shot in him. The only thing that was kind of noteworthy about the fish, is the amount of current I had to swim against to get him. He wasn’t super deep or anything, 60 feet down but man the current was ripping, I was kind of amazed I was able to do it, honestly. After that we checked the vandenburg and there was nothing visible on it. Some small amberjacks, and the usual school of cudas. After that we headed in.

The next day we got on Andy and Jason’s boat and went out. Catherine had to work so it was Albie, Luis and I along with Andy and Jason. We headed out west and ended up out past Marquesas Rock. We hit a lot of big ledges in that vicinity and didn’t get a lot of fish. The big black grouper that were there  before had all disappeared. In their place there were a few commercial spearfishing boats, I don’t see commercial boats diving very often, and this was the first time I saw 3 in one day. I kind of think a lot of the big, well known ledges out there where the first spots that where cleaned out. Maybe it was just the warmer water, who knows. We got some nice fish, a black grouper here, a red grouper there, keys sized hogs and small muttons but nothing major. I shot a big mangrove it might have beat the last big one I got but didn’t have a scale. Maybe I should get a new scale.

We drifted for awhile trying to find where I saw the lane snappers were spawning, and the huge hog fish from the other day but couldn’t find it. I am going to go back and put more time in looking for it on my boat. The next spot we hit was covered with fish.  Albie shot a black, then Jason shot a black, I missed a black – they were all over. After the first drift we shot some ajs and barracuda and chopped them up for chum. We anchored up current from where the fish were and just start chopping up mass fish and chumming like crazy. Behind the boat became a feeding frenzy, 2 big lemon sharks and 5 reef sharks were zipping around fighting over pieces of fish on the bottom. A huge jewfish came out and tried to push up on the sharks. Yellow jacks and Amber jacks swimming around all over. It was great, in time red groupers and some short blacks showed up. We were having a blast watching the sharks and shooting fish. Then  I turned around and 4-5 huge fish were swimming up to me. For a second my brain didn’t recognize what they were, not king fish or barracuda. I yelled “wahoo” in case there was anyone else in their path, and shot the one the closest to me. I broke his spine and he was done. First wahoo and a pretty good sized one at that.

Next we checked jewfish rock and there was one black on it but he got away. There was bunch of Ajs and big cero mackerel circling it but I wasn’t really hungry for smoked fish so I passed.

I finally got a new mask that works, a couple weeks ago someone who will remain nameless threw my cressi occhio over board. I was able to try three replacement masks, the spetton(looks the same as the omer bandit) and the mares liquid skin, both fit me terrible. I also used an atomic frameless for a bit, that mask fit great but was too high volume for diving past 40-45 feet in my opinion, it would take way too much to clear the mask and it would suck my eyes out. I was about to order a new cressi but I tried Catherine’s omer aries 39. Wow, that mask fits great and it has the bigger lens like the cressi occhio. It’s a breeze to clear the mask and it seems to never leak, once in awhile my cressi ochio would leak, usually when I was 60 or more feet down. It’s a bad time to leak, it ruins the whole dive, so perhaps I am fortunate the occhio was lost.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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