Dive Report for Panhandle Spearfishing Trip

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JPENDERGRAST

Contributor
Messages
410
Reaction score
1
Location
Memphis, TN
# of dives
100 - 199
7-22-09 The trip got off to a lame start since we rode in to terrible weather forecasts Wednesday morning, but arrived to find a nice sunny day, and good viz from the shore. My brother and I wanted to go for a shore dive first since this was his first trip to SW. We stopped by Bay Breeze Dive Center since I've never tried them out before, and were very impressed with how they run things. The owner, Carlos, seems like a great guy, and was very helpful as was the rest of his staff. We rented four tanks and then drove to Fort Pickens for our first dive. High Tide was forecasted for 11:12am, and by the time we were geared up and checked, we were in the water right on time. We made our way from the furthermost Jetties, all the way to the fishing pier, and back. Max depth was 46', and the water temp lingered around 79 degrees. We swam into a pod of dolphins right off the start, but unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on :shakehead:...

7-23-09 Thursday we decided to try the Navarre Pier since we were staying in Navarre. We caught high tide, and it was a short dive, but still fun. We saw six Stingrays, one of which was the biggest I've seen. We also saw two juvenile Loggerheads, a nice size Cobia, and millions of bait fish.

There are a few pictures below of both dives, but most came from Fort Pickens since I forgot to charge my battery after the Fort Pickens Dive. I know they're not very good, but I'm not a professional, so anyone with some input on how I can do better next time, please send it my way.

7-24-09 Friday morning we went out with Dr. Dive to check out the Russian Freighter and to see if we could shoot some fish for dinner. Very cool dive, and we got about 40-45 foot visibility and saw an abundance of marine life. I didn't have much time to do much exploring since I was trying to keep an eye on my brother as well as the diver who was with us since he was an odd man out. I shot a nice Black Snapper off the bat, and Alex speared a nice Spadefish. We made our way towards the bow, but only got about half way before we had to turn around due to being on air. We returned to the boat, and decided that we would dive it again since the viz was decent, and since we had seen a lot of fish down there. Reports from other sites were coming in with poor visibility due to the cloud cover, and so all thought it would be best to stick it out there. In retrospect I wish that we would have at least moved the anchor to the bow and started from there, but over all they were both good dives. On the second dive, we got down about 40' and ran into a huge school of spades. I didn't have my gun loaded since the other diver wanted me to take a picture of him, but my brother shot a nice sized fish out of the group. I got to the bottom and made sure the anchor was clear, and then was able to load my gun. I shot a Gag that ended up being 2 inches too short, but then made right on a huge Spade. I missed another keeper Gag which allowed me to find a Toadfish hiding in a hole which I have on the video if you look close enough. The second dive was more of sight seeing for me, and was a lot of fun. We got a little further this time, and turned around at 800 to start back to the stern. I thoroughly enjoyed the outing with Dr. Dive, and he's got a very comfortable boat. I highly recommend him to anyone that will be in the Pensacola area.

7-25-09 My wife, brother, his Girlfriend, and I drove to Harborwalk Marina early Saturday morning to meet up with Aaron who has a private boat which they dive from. We got out on the water with Thunderclouds about 6 miles off, but blowing Southeast. We decided to hit the Destin Liberty ship. It's a bathtub wreck (if someone can give a vessel name, that'd be much appreciated), and sits in 95 fsw with about 9 feet of relief. We splashed at 0751 and would have had great viz if the sun had been out. As I neared the bottom I spotted a small school of Lesser AJ's running baitfish and shot the biggest one (or at least I thought), and then moved inside the boat where I had seen some decent sized snapper. I shot another Black Snapper that was running with some smaller Red Snapper (none big enough to shoot), and as I was stringing him up found two Shovelnose sitting on the side of the ship. I picked them up and put them in my BC pocket, and then swam out of the wreck just as the group of Lesser AJ's was coming back around. Two people missed the biggest one in the group, and I picked him off as he came around my way. Alex and I were getting low on air, so we started our ascent back, and attempted to thin out two more Spadefish on our return swim. I missed one, and Alex stoned one. We got back on the boat to find the girls rather,,,,, unhappy since it had been raining while we were down, and they had gotten sick due to the swells. This put somewhat of a,,,,, damper on the mood, but once we got underway to the next site, they started to feel better, and the sun came out.

The second dive was on a natural bottom reef, sitting in 83 fsw. We splashed, and I had some equipment difficulties right off, so it took me a few minutes to get everything situated. We got to the bottom to find there wasn't much going on. We swam around, but didn't see anything other than a few Angelfish, and some Porgies that wouldn't allow you to get close. I shot one Triggerfish which turned out to be a Barracuda magnet as you can see in the video. We got buzzed by a shark on our safety stop, and I couldn't tell what it was but it had to be a Sandbar shark. My brother had a desire to shoot a Remora (which by the way, tasted pretty good), and shot one right off the shark which I thought to be rather impressive, and maybe a little dumb at the same time. The cuda in the video was in between us and the ladder, and as you can see, wasn't moving. I tried to get him to move, but when I looked around and noticed about 12 others waiting for me to drop that Trigger, so we just decided to go around him.

We got back on the boat, and ate lunch before moving to the site of the third dive. The weather was very nice, and the seas were calm at this point. We moved about 8 miles to another, very large, natural bottom reef. We splashed into a school of Jellies which seemed to follow us until we got down to about 60 feet. This is where things got interesting. When we reached the bottom (no other divers around), I noticed a lot of sand had been stirred up, and all the fish were schooling. I know this as a sure sign of a predator in the area, and made sure I stayed close to Alex. I gave the shark signal to him, and we kept our eyes open as we got to a clearer part of the reef. We arrived to find a nice school of keeper Triggerfish and started shooting. We both popped off a nice Trigger almost as soon as we got to the bottom of the Reef, and as I was stringing them up, a huge school of large Jack Crevalle swarmed us. Alex was going to shoot one, but I told him not to since they wouldn't be worth the ride they would probably take him on. We shot two more Triggers a piece, and I shot two nice Porgies. About the time I stringed up the 2nd Porgy, I noticed Alex above me having trouble with his gun. I ascended to assist, and when I looked back down, I noticed a Blue Trailer sitting on the bottom. I looked again and realized that it was actually an 7-8 foot Bull hunting on the Reef. I knew that we needed to ascend at this point, especiailly with six bleeding fish on my stringer, but had been watching a nice sized Snapper swimming in front of me, so I swam towards it, keeping my eye on the Bull the whole time. I popped the Snapper (which I beleive turned out to be a Mutton Snapped, but if anyone can tell from the picture in the video, please let me know - sorta looks like a Hogfish mouth), and as soon as I did, the Bull swam off very fast to my right. Alex and I decided to skip our half way stop since the Bull started following us again. We went back to back on our 15 foot safety stop, keeping an eye out for our,,, friend who looked like he was doing figure 8 loops since he would go out of view and then come back in from a different direction. At one point, he came in so close that I could see the detail in his eye and this was the point I wished that I hadn't made fun of people who carry Powerheads (I ordered one yesterday). After that, the shark turned, and went back down towards the bottom, and we didn't see him again. We yelled at the girls to make sure the ladder was down and got back on the boat in record time. About the time I layed my speargun on the deck, Eric surfaced, acknowledging the big shark. I picked his stringer up from him, and his gun, and helped him on the boat. As soon as he was up, Aaron surfaced about 30 yards our from Starboard Bow yelling for us to pick him up. We pulled anchor, and Eric taxied to him. By the time we arrived, the Bull had taken two Triggers off Aaron's stringer, and was trying for a Sheepshead.

Luckily we all arrived back on the boat with all our fingers, and toes, and most of the fish. I checked my camera since I knew my gun had been pointed directly at him for a good 60-90 seconds only to find that my 2GB SD card filled up two minutes into the dive!!!!!!!!!!!:mooner:

I guess XRAY is right about cameras being shark repellents.. Oh well, maybe that was a sign. Anyway, we had a great time, and will be going back before Fall. Thanks to all, especially XRay and Hetland for allowing me to use several of your ideas. I had a great time, and some good memories that I have on film.

Spearfishing the Russian Freighter and Destin Liberty Ship on Vimeo
 

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Nice report. Sounds like you guys had several good days out on the water.

I try to recharge my batteries after every day of diving. I can usually get 3-4 dives off a single set, but I never try to use the same set the next day unless they have been recharged.

There are two Liberty Ships in the Destin Area, but I think the "Thomas Hayward" is the closest. The other is off a good bit to the SW I believe, and I can't remember the name anyway.

Did I understand that your man had a bull nibbling fish off the stringer he was still holding??? Wow... I'll check out your vid a little later.
 
Hey thanks, we had a great time. Since the dives I've bought a spare battery, and SD card to swap out every two dives.

Yes, the Thomas Hayward was the name, I remember them saying that now.

We think there may have been two Bulls on the Wreck. Eric and I both called 7-8 feet on the one that was following my brother and I, but Aaron (the one who lost two fish but still held on to his stringer) called 5 on the one that was messing with him. Plus when we were all back on the boat, there was a shark finning the water about 50 yards from us, and it looked different from the fin of the shark Eric, my brother, and I saw.
 
I have never heard of anyone eating Spade fish...I have heard that the meat is very fishy? We could sure get a bunch of them if they are any good. I have lived on the Gulf all my life and have never known anyone to eat them. Any folks out there eat Spades on a regular basis?
 
I do. Spade is good, and very abundant down there. I will shoot or catch a Spade any chance I get. They are very easy to filet, and the bloodlines sit right on top of the meat, and shave off very easy if you don't like that stuff.
 
There is NO reason to powerhead a shark. If getting buzzed by a big fish scares you, don't spearfish. There are lots of things you can do to get the shark to be much less interested in you. Bag your fish, shoot it to the surface, don't fish, etc. Make yourself big, loud, and blow bubbles. Don't jump at the chance to shoot a shark.



Great report though, I've also heard of people eating spadefish. I've never done it, but heard they are good. Sounds like you guys have good luck overall, in all your fishing. Sucks about the short gag, but I guess thats part of the learning process.
 
Now before everyone else goes off getting mad, or defensive about what I said about the power head, let me clarify that I've been around a bunch of sharks, and never had one as bold as this one - I'm fully aware of the risks of spearfishing, and this happens to be the closest encounter I've had. Even if I did have a power head on this trip I wouldn't have used it since the shark didn't directly attack me, and that's the ONLY time I would ever use one. However, you can rest assured, that if I'm ever physically attacked by a shark of formidable size, and I have a powerhead, I won't hesitate to use it. Being buzzed by a shark doesn't scare me and should be expected when you have bleeding, dead fish attached to you, but being attacked by one is a different story. I wouldn't "jump" at the opportunity to kill anything that I don't intend on eating.

We did have a great time though, and it was a good learning experience for my brother. Hopefully we'll plan on going back soon.
 
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I picked up a spade filet a few weeks ago that someone else shot, and found it to be pretty good. Not my favorite, but I would not turn my nose up at it, and would eat it before I would eat an amberjack, which I don't particularly care for. Snapper, flounder and trigger are still safe at the top of my list though :wink:

I think no one eats them because they are not typically caught on hook and line. The only time I've landed them was when using circle hooks (circle hooks can catch anything). I'd bet that angelfish probably taste pretty good too, but I'll leave that to someone else to test out.
 
Now before everyone else goes off getting mad, or defensive about what I said about the power head, let me clarify that I've been around a bunch of sharks, and never had one as bold as this one - I'm fully aware of the risks of spearfishing, and this happens to be the closest encounter I've had. Even if I did have a power head on this trip I wouldn't have used it since the shark didn't directly attack me, and that's the ONLY time I would ever use one. However, you can rest assured, that if I'm ever physically attacked by a shark of formidable size, and I have a powerhead, I won't hesitate to use it. Being buzzed by a shark doesn't scare me and should be expected when you have bleeding, dead fish attached to you, but being attacked by one is a different story. I wouldn't "jump" at the opportunity to kill anything that I don't intend on eating.

I think the issue is that I've never heard of a diver actually being attacked underwater. The bigger issue is that several times a year, someone kills a shark and claims it was acting aggressive or whatever... and thats basically because the shark buzzed them too closely or acted aggitated or whatever, they get scared and pop the shark.

Not long ago a nice sized Tiger was killed by a freediver "saving his buddy". This meant putting several shafts into the shark for over an hour. They even video'd it, it was quite evident the shark wasn't interested in hurting anyone and the diver just lost his nerve around a big fish.
 
I know the story of Clasen and his reported "feeling" that they were about to be attacked. That's a completely different and unjustified reaction in my opinion, and if you read my post again, I specified that I honestly believe that it would require me to be physically attacked for me to use a powerhead on a shark.
 
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