SeaYoda
Contributor
The now standard "wait and see how the weather is" turned out well for a couple dives this morning. There were storms out in the Gulf but none on shore. The sky was overcast as I left the house but was breaking by the time I wheeled the sand-yacht down to the water. Crowds were very thin at 08:45 but there were two divers headed out of the water and a few fishermen around. The water was a nice shade of blue and was calm on the surface. High tide was about when I started dive number one. There was an unusual medium strong current on the north side of the jetty that pulled out toward the pass. Viz was the usual hazy 20' - no June grass and few particles. Temperature was 83*. Upon reaching the point the current changed, flowing in from the Gulf. It was not so strong that you couldn't swim against it so I made my way to the south side of the jetty where I found another strange current. The flow was from the beach into the pass. All that movement seemed to keep the fish low to the rocks and in sheltered areas. I had one black sea bass that became my shadow all the way along the south side. He would even swim up to me when I stopped to look at something. On the way back He stayed on the south side - maybe he thought I was trying to muscle in on his turf? As I turned the corner to go back north, a school of jack crevalle swam up behind me and spooked me - they love to do that. I noticed the water getting more hazy and wondered if dive number two was going to be worse viz. I didn't get to think too long when that school of jacks started heading out of the gloom straight toward me - crazy fish! I came back to the north side and collected myself before exiting to swap tanks. Dive number two brought a lack of current and slightly better viz than dive one. I went out to the anchor, seeing the fish all out swimming because of the lack of current. On the way back I got another surprise - a small eagle ray was swimming along the trough headed toward the bay. I got two pics of his butt before I pulled a cramp in my thigh from trying to catch and keep up with him - he obviously was shy and didn't want to play. By the time dive two was over, there were two snorkle boats and several swimmers in the shallows. The crowd was still a lot less than the vacation bunch. Two great dives and a sunny walk back to the car - who could ask for anything more?