Went out with Jupiter Dive Center this morning. I worked last night and in the rush to wake up forgot my pole spear. Last time I dove Jupiter and forgot it I saw a large Lionfish and only had a 2" blunted DIR knife. I bought a red 5' pole spear with three prong tip in the shop.. just in case.
The vis was reportedly bad yesterday so we headed deeper today at around 100'. On the first drop I hit nuetral right over a small hole with a familar brown pattern in it. Slipper lobster. I pointed it out to another diver who looked in and gave me the "Huh" sign. I reached in, pulled it out and handed it to him. Not having a catch bag I was not willing to carry the bugger for the whole dive. THe vis was under 30' some said 30 but that is a stretch. Saw several flamingo tongues. A friendly turtle. Many small tropicals. Swimming next to Jupitermermaid I saw several sharks sitting in the sand up ahead in the haze. KEWL Lemon sharks! As I got closer I saw they where only nurse sharks. Scubadad caught FOUR lobster and the spearo's got a Porgy.
Second drop was also around 100' and more ledgey. I found a legal lobster under a small ledge and was using the looped end of the pole spear to convince him to give up. The DM swam back to me and gave me the "shooting" sign. There were several high dollar spearos on the boat and he knows I am out to kill Lionfish so I followed him. Sure enough a tiny little Lionfish was hanging out near the bottom of a sponge. I lopped the band and released. Bullseye! I put all three prongs around the Lionfish and he swam out between them under the sponge and into a hole. This is early in the dive I have plenty of time, air and now a Mission. I waited shining my light into the crevices and holes. I finally see the spine sticking out so I choke up on the spear and wait. It rises up from the hole and I line up one prong near his middle. Instead of using the band to propel the spear I just stabbed him up against the rock face. I then wiped him off and left him in the hole. He was small like body size of 2".
Saw two more turtles and watched some butterfly fish playing around. THen a lobster half under a rock. I free hand grabbed him and carried him for about 10 minutes then to the surface.
On the ride back we saw a large LeatherBack turtle on the surface. This is the first one I personally have seen in the wild. Awesome.
In summary-- Killed a Lionfish. Have a lobster tail in the Fridge. Got to see a first ever leatherback. That's a better day than sitting here watching TV for sure.
The vis was reportedly bad yesterday so we headed deeper today at around 100'. On the first drop I hit nuetral right over a small hole with a familar brown pattern in it. Slipper lobster. I pointed it out to another diver who looked in and gave me the "Huh" sign. I reached in, pulled it out and handed it to him. Not having a catch bag I was not willing to carry the bugger for the whole dive. THe vis was under 30' some said 30 but that is a stretch. Saw several flamingo tongues. A friendly turtle. Many small tropicals. Swimming next to Jupitermermaid I saw several sharks sitting in the sand up ahead in the haze. KEWL Lemon sharks! As I got closer I saw they where only nurse sharks. Scubadad caught FOUR lobster and the spearo's got a Porgy.
Second drop was also around 100' and more ledgey. I found a legal lobster under a small ledge and was using the looped end of the pole spear to convince him to give up. The DM swam back to me and gave me the "shooting" sign. There were several high dollar spearos on the boat and he knows I am out to kill Lionfish so I followed him. Sure enough a tiny little Lionfish was hanging out near the bottom of a sponge. I lopped the band and released. Bullseye! I put all three prongs around the Lionfish and he swam out between them under the sponge and into a hole. This is early in the dive I have plenty of time, air and now a Mission. I waited shining my light into the crevices and holes. I finally see the spine sticking out so I choke up on the spear and wait. It rises up from the hole and I line up one prong near his middle. Instead of using the band to propel the spear I just stabbed him up against the rock face. I then wiped him off and left him in the hole. He was small like body size of 2".
Saw two more turtles and watched some butterfly fish playing around. THen a lobster half under a rock. I free hand grabbed him and carried him for about 10 minutes then to the surface.
On the ride back we saw a large LeatherBack turtle on the surface. This is the first one I personally have seen in the wild. Awesome.
In summary-- Killed a Lionfish. Have a lobster tail in the Fridge. Got to see a first ever leatherback. That's a better day than sitting here watching TV for sure.
