Getting Cold

Haven’t been posting reports on here recently because the days when Catherine have off have not all corresponded to days where she could go out in the boat. I am more into posting photos on here then writing stuff. I have gone out a couple times and did pretty well but nothing outstanding. I am not as into taking pictures of fish out of the water as I used to be. Only if the fish is big does it seem to warrant taking a photo out of the water and nothing I have shot recently has been big, whereas a photo of a barely legal red about to be shot under water is worth taking.

The water has cooled and fish are everywhere.  The couple times I have been out we shot our limit of black grouper, sometimes our limit of reds as well.  All the grouper have been less than 20#, so nothing that special. The water has cooled to the low 70s and all my old  spots are covered with fish. Big rocks that had nothing in the summer, have schools of yellow jacks, yellow tails, and black grouper on them now. It has been very interesting to me paying attention to the fish and bait movements due to temperature changes.   The wind and vis have been the biggest obstacles to getting fish, because it seems like every rock on the reef has fish on it.

I saw the biggest kingfish ever the other day.  I had just jumped in and my gun was not even loaded. The thing looked like a log in the water, like it had reached a certain length and just started growing thicker.  Nurse sharks are clumping up all over reef, perhaps it is mating time for them. Also turtles seem very inquisitive, possibly mating time for them as well.

During the recent cold snap, I switched to diving in the 5mm farmer johns under my 3mm top. So much warmer but such a pain in the ass to dive in. Wearing all that weight takes some getting used to. I don’t really feel comfortable diving past 50 feet because the wetsuit compresses so much that I start sinking like a stone. I also feel like I am spooking fish more.  It seems like I splash more diving even though  I think I am weighted properly. On the plus side I dive right in on that inshore 68 degree water and feel great.  Once the air warms up a bit I am going to switch back to the 3mm pants.