Hetland
Contributor
MrXRay made plans for our group to do a three-tank trip out of Panama City aboard the Wreck Raider during SpringFest last Saturday. XRay, Recharge, JHayes, Airstream and myself all met up at the boat and started loading our gear and signing releases. The Forecast was 1-3ft seas, and we started out in the middle of the two.
Our first drop was the USS Accokeek a 140ft long ocean tug once owned and operated by the United States Navy. She's a beautiful wreck, mostly intact, and sitting in water just over 100ft deep. There was an abundance of life on the wreck, including at least two Goliath Grouper, one of them, as big as a couch. I called viz at 40ft in beautiful blue water. For some unknown reasons, the "hunters" in our group ignored all the lane snapper
Our second drop was on a bridge span, always a favorite of mine, and against my better judgment, I took a speargun instead of a camera. Needless to say, there were tons of chromis, damsels, butterflies, and other colorful reef fish, dancing in front of equally colorful reefing critters. I was unhappy within 5 seconds of eying the structure. Always one to make lemonade out of sour grapes, I started looking for lane snapper. I saw a few mangroves, but they were super-spooked, so I didn't bother stalking them. Instead I shot a beeliner and restrung just before spotting a trio of sheepshead. One, Two, Three shots later, I had... Two sheepshead (I had to shoot one twice
) I got one more beeliner, and missed two or three to boot (those little suckers are hard to hit). Recharge ended up shooting a triggerfish and XRay said he got some shark footage, which I'm hoping he'll post here soon.
Last stop had to be re-planned as some hook and liner was hogging the place and Captain Rod wanted to be a gentleman. Instead, we hit the Black Bart, which everyone and their grandmother has dove, but amazingly, none of us have ever hit it. We found viz in the 25ft range, and more Goliaths. I took my camera this time, and lazed around the boat a few times, catching JHayes spear a sheepshead, and spotting a shovelnose near the end of the dive. It was against all odds, but XRay was able to use his gun as a tickle stick and coaxed the lobster out of what otherwise would have been a bulletproof lair. I still don't know how he did it, but he captured that little bugger.
On all of our dives, the seas had roughened up a bit, and it was a chore getting on the boat after our dives. Capt. Rod and his divemaster did a great job of watching our backs and gave us tons of free advice on area diving. We will definitely be visiting the Wreck Raider again soon!
Once back at the dock, XRay cleaned the fish, and we loaded gear. I was ready to eat anything at that point, including rotten sashimi, but luckily, the awesomest hot dog cart in the world was open (in front of Pat Green's shop Panama City Dive Charters) so we all grabbed some grub there and turned back to Vortex for a night of food, fun and fellowship.
-h
Our first drop was the USS Accokeek a 140ft long ocean tug once owned and operated by the United States Navy. She's a beautiful wreck, mostly intact, and sitting in water just over 100ft deep. There was an abundance of life on the wreck, including at least two Goliath Grouper, one of them, as big as a couch. I called viz at 40ft in beautiful blue water. For some unknown reasons, the "hunters" in our group ignored all the lane snapper
Our second drop was on a bridge span, always a favorite of mine, and against my better judgment, I took a speargun instead of a camera. Needless to say, there were tons of chromis, damsels, butterflies, and other colorful reef fish, dancing in front of equally colorful reefing critters. I was unhappy within 5 seconds of eying the structure. Always one to make lemonade out of sour grapes, I started looking for lane snapper. I saw a few mangroves, but they were super-spooked, so I didn't bother stalking them. Instead I shot a beeliner and restrung just before spotting a trio of sheepshead. One, Two, Three shots later, I had... Two sheepshead (I had to shoot one twice
) I got one more beeliner, and missed two or three to boot (those little suckers are hard to hit). Recharge ended up shooting a triggerfish and XRay said he got some shark footage, which I'm hoping he'll post here soon.Last stop had to be re-planned as some hook and liner was hogging the place and Captain Rod wanted to be a gentleman. Instead, we hit the Black Bart, which everyone and their grandmother has dove, but amazingly, none of us have ever hit it. We found viz in the 25ft range, and more Goliaths. I took my camera this time, and lazed around the boat a few times, catching JHayes spear a sheepshead, and spotting a shovelnose near the end of the dive. It was against all odds, but XRay was able to use his gun as a tickle stick and coaxed the lobster out of what otherwise would have been a bulletproof lair. I still don't know how he did it, but he captured that little bugger.
On all of our dives, the seas had roughened up a bit, and it was a chore getting on the boat after our dives. Capt. Rod and his divemaster did a great job of watching our backs and gave us tons of free advice on area diving. We will definitely be visiting the Wreck Raider again soon!
Once back at the dock, XRay cleaned the fish, and we loaded gear. I was ready to eat anything at that point, including rotten sashimi, but luckily, the awesomest hot dog cart in the world was open (in front of Pat Green's shop Panama City Dive Charters) so we all grabbed some grub there and turned back to Vortex for a night of food, fun and fellowship.
-h
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