Went out today with Cal (njspearo) and Catherine, it wasn’t too great. Visibility on the main reef was terrible 15-20 feet tops from Sand Key to a little west of Satan Shoal. Wind was blowing from the northeast 14-18 knots and later in the day switched to east.
We drifted the bar most of the day, I shot some yellow jacks and a mackerel, there was blue water on the bar with visibility ranging from 50-80 feet. I don’t know that many spots on the bar yet so we mostly just drifted along blindly in water 40-65 feet deep. We didn’t see a lot of fish, except towards the end of the day, I think Cal may need to wear some contacts or something because even though fish were few he didn’t see any at all.
I tried to take some UW pics but as soon as I grabbed the camera a fat triggerfish appeared and I ditched it camera. The couple pics I took came out shitty. I beggining to think that when you see a picture showing 40-50 feet of the water column and it looks good, the water has to be ridiculously clear. Anything over 25 feet away even in decent vis is shot pretty much.
We drifted over some good bottom and for awhile a large school of speedos seemed to be hanging out with us following the boat. Then the wind picked up. Once the waves started pushing 4-5 feet, I had to bring the boat in, girlfriend and cal not really feeling it. Ironic that was when I started finding the better structure the wind started whipping. We tried a couple more spots on the main reef that are marked last weekend and vis was even worse then earlier in the day. Cal said “I have never seen vis this bad in the keys” , he almost sounded really upset, which made it sort of funny.
I switched my Rob Allen gun back to a single 20mm band it came with, and found it shoots much better at least for me. It was shooting high with the 2 16mm bands on it. I’m not sure if that was because the bands where a couple centimeters longer then they should be, or maybe the band material was weak. Well whatever it is, the single 20mm seems to shoot better, I just point and shoot rather then aiming for the bottom of the fish. Its not as bad to load as I originally thought , haven’t done any really longer range shots with it yet though.
