Anybody interested in the Meg ledges?

[AustinV]

Yes, good times for sure! I think I may have had two partials bigger than anything you got, but the partials don't excite me much. I got a good amount of smaller teeth, but really only 3 or 4 nice looking whole teeth as far as shape/color goes, most probably 2.5"-3.5" range. I'll post a pic when I can, hopefully tonight. Wasn't the best day for me on the ledge, but it was fun and everyone on the boat went home with some. I think the prettiest tooth I got was the one I actually gave to our pilot buddy while we were on the bottom on our first dive - I had picked up a somewhat triangular rock to show him what NOT to grab and then I saw a tooth right away and gave it to him to show him what to look for, that was a pretty tooth. But there's more out there for next time! I do have to say I was pretty envious of the bottom times you were getting on the rebreathers versus what we get when facing the NDLs...

 

[stuartv]

Our bottom times were nice. But, really only about 50 minutes on the bottom. Over 2 dives, that's only 100 minutes. You guys did 3 dives and were getting around 30 minutes per, weren't you? So, 90 minutes versus 100. Not THAT big of a difference.

Feel free to join us in the CCR ranks!

 

[AustinV]

Yeah, I just checked - 3 dives @ 26, 29, and 29 minutes. So you're right, not that big of a difference. Had a blast though, there's something about that rush to find something when you hit the bottom. One of these days I want to try Cooper River as well, totally different type of dive from what I understand.

 

[stuartv]

Next time, I might try doing 3 slightly shorter dives. With the CCR, according to the Subsurface planner, I could do 3 dives with 40 minutes bottom time each, on the same basic intervals as the OC guys (just a little bit shorter SI, but still over an hour). Or we can just do 2 dives of 60 minutes bottom time. We were being conservative on deco this time. 120 minutes total bottom time, instead of 100. That would be sweet!

Come to the dark (and silent) side!

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

Good times this past weekend, Austin. This is what I brought home. Pre-cleaning, obviously. Sadly, I gave my biggest one away before I took the picture. I think it was another 1/2" or so bigger than the biggest one in the picture. Austin you should post a pic of what you brought in. I think you had a couple that were bigger than any I found.

View attachment 511664

Nice haul. I'm hoping to make it down there at some point this season.

 

[Bestshooter]

Anyone interested in going next month between the 5-12? Or say 20-21? If not what charters are there that I can set up a trip with ? I tried with one and they are booked .

 

[AustinV]

The charter I prefer for Ledge dives - WB Diving - books pretty far out, might be able to call them, sometimes they have cancellations.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

For WB Diving...are dives to the inshore ledge as productive as dives on the offshore ledge?

I've not read any operator specific comments about the inshore ledge (ex. Operator 'A' can put you on a good spot), but the general consensus seemed to be (from reading comments here and elsewhere) that the offshore ledge is more productive than the inshore ledge, in terms of finding teeth. Thoughts? Thank you.

 

[AustinV]

I haven’t been to the inshore ledges with WB. I have been to the inshore ledges with Aquatic Safaris. I like the ledge they go to, but they only do one dive there and then move the boat during the surface interval to another ledge even closer in - “Shark Tooth Ledge” it’s called - which I never have any luck at.

WB has a faster boat so they get to the offshore ledges in almost the same time that AS gets to the closer ledges.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

From looking at the WB page for their two tank inshore dive, it sounds like both of the dives are 27 miles out / 90' ledge.

When I get a bit closer to being able to firm-up a trip, I can give them a call and ask if there's a difference (success rate wise) between diving at their inshore vs. their offshore sites. If it's about the same, I'd probably go with the inshore site (shorter boat ride, more bottom time, etc.).