Well brought the camera out the last couple times diving and have been pretty happy with the photos. I try to keep up with the site but without photos not much point. There have been a couple calm days none of which fell on days Cat had off.
I went last week with Stoner, Cal and Andy. Stoner and Cal went down on tanks and scored some decent cubera snappers on a wreck in 180 feet of water. I picked up some decent muttons and snappers on the patches as did Andy but nothing that big. It was kind of dirty windy but an ok day.
Then we went out for a half day because Dan called us and said the bar was crystal clear. On the way out we saw some clear water in hawks channel, so we jumped in and got nothing. So we went out the bar and it was crystal clear but no fish. So then we dropped stoner on a wreck in 130 and he came up empty. So I started chumming in around 75 feet of water and fish started to come in quick. Nothing good just triggers, and ceros but I started shooting them. Then a big wahoo came in on a falling piece of chum. I was pretty sure I could stone him so I took the shot, and I shouldn’t have, of course. It quickly spooled the reel and tore off. I find it extremely annoying when others wound fish and don’t land them, it just shows a lack of skill and preparation. It happens to everyone but some people it seems to happen all time to. If you are shooting fish and not landing them then you need to get closer and take better shots. But I guess I can’t say that now, because I lost that fish.
We headed back out to around 80 feet and started chumming again. I felt like there was no way another wahoo would show up, so I kept shooting with my reel gun. Then my reel jammed after i shot a mutton at 67 feet so once I got it to the surface it was a nightmare of tangles. So I switched to flashers and my wahoo gun. Stoner had shot a big trigger not 20 minutes later and another wahoo came in, I shot him and let him fight the float until it was tired and then landed him. I drove the rest of the day while the other guys dove and they saw one more fish but that was it.
Then the next day we got up at the crack of dawn and went out looking for wahoo most of the day and didn’t see one. Niko brought out Stoner’s new 666 blue water hybrid and it shoots awesome. Although we didn’t see any wahoo, Niko smoked 3 kings with it the first three times he shot it. I test fired it a bit as well, and as much as I don’t like mid handles the gun swings through the water so much easier then a wood gun, it was pretty nice. I got to dive some deep stuff for a change though, which was fun. I shot a bunch of muttons, big hogs and other reef fish all diving 75-85 feet. I had one of those days where I was just freediving awesome and those depths felt like nothing. It was a lot of fun, and moderately productive. Although Niko shot a mutton bigger then any of the ones I got diving deep, in like 30 feet of water at the end of the day. Andy also shot a 7 or 8 pound hog at like 90 feet freediving.
The yesterday we went out to the Vandy and chummed for awhile but all that came in were ceros, baby ajs and crevelle jacks and a small hammerhead. I took some time to swim around with the camera and get some photos. We shot ceros, and barracuda for cut bait and then headed out to a deeper wreck. We started chumming and drifitng around. Not a half hour in the water a big wahoo swam under me and I sank a shot into its back. He pulled the float down about 40 or 50 feet and the fight was on. Once it started to tire Niko went down and finished it off and it was in the boat. We stayed out there for hours and did not see another fish.
