The Venture was loaded yesterday with five divers, all members of the Suncoast Seals.
We all met up at IHOP at 7:00AM, and, after having some breakfast, left the dock at around 8:45. The forecast, originally 1-3s, was changed to 2-4s. The plan was to head about 35 miles offshore to some productive ledges. For the first half of the day, it was a solid 3, but not too bad. It flattened out real nice during the afternoon, to probably 1-2s.
Who could have known that animals like Shooter Dan so much? During his first safety stop, a dolphin came right up next to him and did the safety stop and the remainder of the ascent with him. The dolphin then accompanied him to the boat.
Dan, appreciative of the body guard services provided by his new friend, doffed his stuff and reentered the water to reward his new dive buddy.
Dolphin approaches Dan for his "treat", a still kicking hogfish:
Dolphin Swims with Hog in mouth
My team was up next, so we move to a ledge only a mile away. And who is there? It's Dan's buddy, willing to "work for food." This was really cool. He waiting by the boat, and as I rolled off, and swam for the jugline, he stayed right with me. He stayed with me the entire trip down the jug line, and then flanked my shoulder as I promptly shot the first keeper AJ I saw through the head (son of a bith! I fogot to attach my line again). I finally get on top of the fish, and am flailing away with my dive knife like a homicidal maniac. And that dolphin is right above me the whole time.
Well, now I am pretty much exhausted, having blown through about 1000psi of air, and wrestling with this damn AJ. So I am thinking, I am going to go shoot some hog fish, when a bigger AJ swims right in front of me. I know my line is still not hooked-up, so I hope for a brain shot. It wasn't bad, right through his eyes, but didn't stone him. He swam off, and I chased after him as long as I could, with the first AJ on my stringer smacking me up side the body still. The second AJ is swimming off with my arrow through his head, like he is wearing an Indian novelty hat. I couldn't chase him anymore because I was too tired, and he was left for the cudas. How the hell do these things swim away with a damn shaft through their noggin?? (Good thing Spear One is in Vegas, or he'd be telling me for the second straight week how they do that!
).
Even at 31", AJ's are a handful when fighting them at 90 feet. Having freeshafted 3 of them in less than a week, I won't shoot them anymore without attaching the line:
Enough of the war stories. We did real well and came back with a full cooler.
The visability off of Pasco in 70-80ft was a good 20' and plenty for good hunting. Dan tells me his last dive, which was only in 60", had some dimishing visability, although judging by his stringer it didn't cause too bad a handicap for him. I decided to drop on a very shallow area at the end of the day in only 20 feet, and visability was poor, at about 5 feet.
The ledges are looking fishier and fishier, with bigger grouper moving in. Plenty of hogs and Gos' running around those ledges. And, amberjacks are easy to find around rocky bottom holding schools of bait.
By the way, some of the other members were telling me they saw several sharks. One guy, on a relatively large nearshore ledge, reports seeing a hammerhead and bull shark on the same dive. The sharks ran him back to the boat, at which time he reentered with a dive buddy and powerheads, but they didn't re-encounter the sharks.
We all met up at IHOP at 7:00AM, and, after having some breakfast, left the dock at around 8:45. The forecast, originally 1-3s, was changed to 2-4s. The plan was to head about 35 miles offshore to some productive ledges. For the first half of the day, it was a solid 3, but not too bad. It flattened out real nice during the afternoon, to probably 1-2s.
Who could have known that animals like Shooter Dan so much? During his first safety stop, a dolphin came right up next to him and did the safety stop and the remainder of the ascent with him. The dolphin then accompanied him to the boat.
Dan, appreciative of the body guard services provided by his new friend, doffed his stuff and reentered the water to reward his new dive buddy.
Dolphin approaches Dan for his "treat", a still kicking hogfish:
Dolphin Swims with Hog in mouth
My team was up next, so we move to a ledge only a mile away. And who is there? It's Dan's buddy, willing to "work for food." This was really cool. He waiting by the boat, and as I rolled off, and swam for the jugline, he stayed right with me. He stayed with me the entire trip down the jug line, and then flanked my shoulder as I promptly shot the first keeper AJ I saw through the head (son of a bith! I fogot to attach my line again). I finally get on top of the fish, and am flailing away with my dive knife like a homicidal maniac. And that dolphin is right above me the whole time.
Well, now I am pretty much exhausted, having blown through about 1000psi of air, and wrestling with this damn AJ. So I am thinking, I am going to go shoot some hog fish, when a bigger AJ swims right in front of me. I know my line is still not hooked-up, so I hope for a brain shot. It wasn't bad, right through his eyes, but didn't stone him. He swam off, and I chased after him as long as I could, with the first AJ on my stringer smacking me up side the body still. The second AJ is swimming off with my arrow through his head, like he is wearing an Indian novelty hat. I couldn't chase him anymore because I was too tired, and he was left for the cudas. How the hell do these things swim away with a damn shaft through their noggin?? (Good thing Spear One is in Vegas, or he'd be telling me for the second straight week how they do that!
).Even at 31", AJ's are a handful when fighting them at 90 feet. Having freeshafted 3 of them in less than a week, I won't shoot them anymore without attaching the line:
Enough of the war stories. We did real well and came back with a full cooler.
The visability off of Pasco in 70-80ft was a good 20' and plenty for good hunting. Dan tells me his last dive, which was only in 60", had some dimishing visability, although judging by his stringer it didn't cause too bad a handicap for him. I decided to drop on a very shallow area at the end of the day in only 20 feet, and visability was poor, at about 5 feet.
The ledges are looking fishier and fishier, with bigger grouper moving in. Plenty of hogs and Gos' running around those ledges. And, amberjacks are easy to find around rocky bottom holding schools of bait.
By the way, some of the other members were telling me they saw several sharks. One guy, on a relatively large nearshore ledge, reports seeing a hammerhead and bull shark on the same dive. The sharks ran him back to the boat, at which time he reentered with a dive buddy and powerheads, but they didn't re-encounter the sharks.
