Hetland
Contributor
Met up with XRay, Recharge and Brandon at the dock, and hit the water a few minutes after the sun broke the horizon. We were fortunate to have near flat conditions from the launch to our first dive spot about 18 miles out. Even the pass only threatened the occasional swell. Recharge and I splashed on the Eilene Beard Reef at 7:51am. We found that there was no surface current whatsoever, and that temps ranged from 82 at the surface to 67 at 92ft. It was so calm, we had trouble keeping the safety buoy behind the boat. Our good fortune did not stop there. Upon making our descent, we found that there was between 50 and 60 feet of visibility. We explored the reef, and found mostly tropicals and bait fish in and around the pyramids. I noticed that the predators were all off to the South of the structure, which jibed with our marker buoy placement, and the markings on the sonar. The snapper I saw were of two general varieties, the kind that were too small to spear, and the kind that were too far away to spear. The rest of them had undoubtedly moved to other reefs. About halfway through my bottom time, I did get a good shot at an aj, so I took it, and then he took me for a little whirl around the water. Once I got him in close I reached for my ankle knife and found that it had abandoned it's sheath sometime earlier in the dive. Luckily I had another knife on my bc, so I used it to quiet the fish for transport back to the boat. On my way to the safety stop, I noticed that recharge had strung a nice trigger, and I was already hoping to trade him for my jack Barry and Brandon rolled a few minutes after we made it on board. Barry returned with an amberjack, a nice tilefish and a red snapper. Brandon returned with a lane snapper, red snapper, and two or three black snapper.
For our second dive, Larry and I splashed on the Rusty B Reef. All I'll say is that I was not impressed. I shot what I thought at the time was a black snapper, that turned out to be a 15" red. Luckily, there was a hungry barracuda at the surface that was more than happy to profit from my loss. That was the best part of the Rusty B.
After making it back, Larry and I talked XRay out of diving the Rusty B. Instead, we moved over to the REDACTED and XRay splashed there instead. I won't spoil XRay's story by trying to tell it, so he'll have to chime in on the board and give us all a good telling. I will say that we will definitely head back to the REDACTED for some follow-up dives.
On the way back in, we rolled on the Mass, but I'll save that for another post.
At the end of the day, we made it back to the fish fry with two AJ's, two Red Snapper, six Black Snapper, a Lane Snapper, Triggerfish, and Filefish. Not a bad haul.
Video:
For our second dive, Larry and I splashed on the Rusty B Reef. All I'll say is that I was not impressed. I shot what I thought at the time was a black snapper, that turned out to be a 15" red. Luckily, there was a hungry barracuda at the surface that was more than happy to profit from my loss. That was the best part of the Rusty B.
After making it back, Larry and I talked XRay out of diving the Rusty B. Instead, we moved over to the REDACTED and XRay splashed there instead. I won't spoil XRay's story by trying to tell it, so he'll have to chime in on the board and give us all a good telling. I will say that we will definitely head back to the REDACTED for some follow-up dives.
On the way back in, we rolled on the Mass, but I'll save that for another post.
At the end of the day, we made it back to the fish fry with two AJ's, two Red Snapper, six Black Snapper, a Lane Snapper, Triggerfish, and Filefish. Not a bad haul.
Video: