mini season results
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paulwall
Contributor
Nice.
I got 2 + 1 with eggs (that went back into her hole for a month or so).
How heavy was that big guy?
I got 2 + 1 with eggs (that went back into her hole for a month or so).
How heavy was that big guy?
This was our first year, mine and my buddies. We chose Sebastian for a number of reasons. However, being newbies to the whole scene, we weren't really sure what we were doing. I'm relatively new to diving anyway, and still rent my gear. I had reserved gear 3 weeks in advance, and they still lost my paper work. That's the second time the shop has rented the gear I had reserved to someone else... but that's another story. Anyway, they cobble together some gear for me, including a console with the oldest computer I've ever seen, no compass, and, as I would later find out, a leaking first stage. All the 80's were rented so they found me two 100's.
Our first dive the first day was in 60' on a reef only marked by some Loran numbers that we stumbled across. I knew the vis would be crap, so I decided to tie a 100' reel to the anchor so we could avoid a long surface swim. Both of us being very eager to get a bug, we both took a tickle stick, net, and catch bag, and I had the 100' line attached to me. We went down the anchor line into 10' vis below the thermalcline. Sand..., nothing but sand.. So we swim off in the direction I thought the depth finder indicated for structure. 100' later, I'm at the end of the line, and we're still in sand. I figure we'll make a 100' radius, see if we can't come across this mysterious structure. 20' to our right, was the reef. It had been there the whole time, just out of site. At least we found out. We swim the edge searching for good territory and finally come across a nice lobster. He's sitting in the mouth of the overhang, just begging to be caught. We both try to get organized when we realize that our sticks are tangled in our nets, which are tangled in our catch bags, which are tangled in the 100' line, which is tangled around me and the reef.... The lobster watched the show until we got untangled then dissapeared... Ok, so our first dive didn't go well... we'll make adjustments on the surface.
We decide to do away with the line, and this time, we'll work as a team. My buddy wants to try the stick and net, so I carry the catch bag and this time the pole spear too. Lots of tasty fish down there
We head back down the line, immediately find good territory, and swim up on a lobster sitting almost all the way out of his hole again. My buddy gets into position, then starts pointing to the top of the ledge. He won't stop, he's obviously trying to get me to go over the ledge, but I have no clue why. Nor do I have any clue why he's ignoring the lobster which has so gratiously presented itself outside it's whole. I go over, still trying to figure it out, and he's now madly taping the ledge right in front of me. I look down, and I'm hovering over a big doormat sized flounder. I get the flounder, but am in total disbelief that he's ignored the lobster for this. He then goes to work on the lobster. 20 minutes into the dive, he still doesn't have the lobster, and he's almost out of air. Time to go back up, at least we know where it is.
Once on the surface, I start asking what was happening. "What wasn't working?", I asked. He couldn't say. So I told him what I had read, and thought he had read, finnesse, finnesse, finnesse. Don't try to pull them out the hole, it's too deep. He agreed, and said that's what he was doing. I offered to trade, and he said he wanted one more chance. This time we went right back to the same big ledge, and the nice big bug had een replaced by MOBY BUG! This thing was huge. I have no idea what it weighed, but it was as long as my buddy's arm. He's goes to work. This time, I let him use one of the 100's. He worked on that one bug for 25 minutes, and was once again out of air... That was our last tank.
The decision was made to try a night dive, even though my buddy had never been on one, and he was obviously apprehensive about the whole subject. Whenever we talked about it, he didn't say anything, he kind of looked away, like who me? We peer pressured him into it later that night. Unfortunately, our captain, my dad, had kept his navs on the dash all day and night, which blocked the oil lights. So when the beeping started, indicating that the oil was almost gone, it was already 3AM and we were 10 miles from either inlet. He had also forgotten to put extra in the boat. The solution was find some structure and park over it. We thought we saw some, but when we dropped in, we were once again in a desert. At 45' in the sand, vis was about 3'. We swam vigorously into the current looking for any sign of reef, and saw nothing but sand dollars, and some annoying fish that were so thick, they were like mosquitos bouncing off of us. We didn't realize how far we had gone looking for structure and came up 200yrds from the boat. My dad couldn't pull the anchor, so we had a long night swim, after our long desert swim.
We had to wait for 4 hrs for Seatow to get there with oil, then we continued on to our original destination, Ft Pierce Inlet. Our numbers were obvioulsy right becasue the reef was covered in dive boats. We decided on a place at the edge of the reef that appeared to have good structure. We dropped in 35', vis was around 6' here. All the ledges were too small for bugs, so we swam in to find bigger ledged. 10 minutes of searching turned up antennae. This time I had the stick, and for the final 10 minutes of the dive I got all 4 lobsters that we saw. We came up feeling great, we didn't get skunked, and now we sort of knew what we were doing. The surface swim was once again a long one. The waves had increased in intensity, and just as my dad threw me a line, a big wave hit the boat pretty hard, and he broke his foot. He wanted us to go again with the remaining tanks, but we were sitting there watching his foot swell up and decided to head the 20 miles back.
We're learned alot and have some great stories to tell, so it was a worth while trip. The old man doesn't even regret it with a broken foot. In any case, we'll get 'em next time!
Our first dive the first day was in 60' on a reef only marked by some Loran numbers that we stumbled across. I knew the vis would be crap, so I decided to tie a 100' reel to the anchor so we could avoid a long surface swim. Both of us being very eager to get a bug, we both took a tickle stick, net, and catch bag, and I had the 100' line attached to me. We went down the anchor line into 10' vis below the thermalcline. Sand..., nothing but sand.. So we swim off in the direction I thought the depth finder indicated for structure. 100' later, I'm at the end of the line, and we're still in sand. I figure we'll make a 100' radius, see if we can't come across this mysterious structure. 20' to our right, was the reef. It had been there the whole time, just out of site. At least we found out. We swim the edge searching for good territory and finally come across a nice lobster. He's sitting in the mouth of the overhang, just begging to be caught. We both try to get organized when we realize that our sticks are tangled in our nets, which are tangled in our catch bags, which are tangled in the 100' line, which is tangled around me and the reef.... The lobster watched the show until we got untangled then dissapeared... Ok, so our first dive didn't go well... we'll make adjustments on the surface.
We decide to do away with the line, and this time, we'll work as a team. My buddy wants to try the stick and net, so I carry the catch bag and this time the pole spear too. Lots of tasty fish down there
We head back down the line, immediately find good territory, and swim up on a lobster sitting almost all the way out of his hole again. My buddy gets into position, then starts pointing to the top of the ledge. He won't stop, he's obviously trying to get me to go over the ledge, but I have no clue why. Nor do I have any clue why he's ignoring the lobster which has so gratiously presented itself outside it's whole. I go over, still trying to figure it out, and he's now madly taping the ledge right in front of me. I look down, and I'm hovering over a big doormat sized flounder. I get the flounder, but am in total disbelief that he's ignored the lobster for this. He then goes to work on the lobster. 20 minutes into the dive, he still doesn't have the lobster, and he's almost out of air. Time to go back up, at least we know where it is. Once on the surface, I start asking what was happening. "What wasn't working?", I asked. He couldn't say. So I told him what I had read, and thought he had read, finnesse, finnesse, finnesse. Don't try to pull them out the hole, it's too deep. He agreed, and said that's what he was doing. I offered to trade, and he said he wanted one more chance. This time we went right back to the same big ledge, and the nice big bug had een replaced by MOBY BUG! This thing was huge. I have no idea what it weighed, but it was as long as my buddy's arm. He's goes to work. This time, I let him use one of the 100's. He worked on that one bug for 25 minutes, and was once again out of air... That was our last tank.
The decision was made to try a night dive, even though my buddy had never been on one, and he was obviously apprehensive about the whole subject. Whenever we talked about it, he didn't say anything, he kind of looked away, like who me? We peer pressured him into it later that night. Unfortunately, our captain, my dad, had kept his navs on the dash all day and night, which blocked the oil lights. So when the beeping started, indicating that the oil was almost gone, it was already 3AM and we were 10 miles from either inlet. He had also forgotten to put extra in the boat. The solution was find some structure and park over it. We thought we saw some, but when we dropped in, we were once again in a desert. At 45' in the sand, vis was about 3'. We swam vigorously into the current looking for any sign of reef, and saw nothing but sand dollars, and some annoying fish that were so thick, they were like mosquitos bouncing off of us. We didn't realize how far we had gone looking for structure and came up 200yrds from the boat. My dad couldn't pull the anchor, so we had a long night swim, after our long desert swim.
We had to wait for 4 hrs for Seatow to get there with oil, then we continued on to our original destination, Ft Pierce Inlet. Our numbers were obvioulsy right becasue the reef was covered in dive boats. We decided on a place at the edge of the reef that appeared to have good structure. We dropped in 35', vis was around 6' here. All the ledges were too small for bugs, so we swam in to find bigger ledged. 10 minutes of searching turned up antennae. This time I had the stick, and for the final 10 minutes of the dive I got all 4 lobsters that we saw. We came up feeling great, we didn't get skunked, and now we sort of knew what we were doing. The surface swim was once again a long one. The waves had increased in intensity, and just as my dad threw me a line, a big wave hit the boat pretty hard, and he broke his foot. He wanted us to go again with the remaining tanks, but we were sitting there watching his foot swell up and decided to head the 20 miles back.
We're learned alot and have some great stories to tell, so it was a worth while trip. The old man doesn't even regret it with a broken foot. In any case, we'll get 'em next time!
DennisS
Contributor
One beach dive each day
3 on day 1
2 on day 2
3 on day 1
2 on day 2
Nice Report. Thank you!!
Someday I'd like to try it.
Someday I'd like to try it.
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