Well grouper season has been open and I have had some stellar trips. But none of them have the involved a camera. Catherine came out one day with me with her camera and of course the vis sucked and no one shot anything that great. Well I shot a black and 2 reds all of which required measuring, so I did not take photos of them. Cal and Rob both shot decent blacks on scuba dives but since Catherine was in the boat I didn’t get any photos of them either. Then the vis on the reef was ok to to dive but pretty sucky for photos.
Catherine also came out another day when we dove the Vandenberg and the you could see the bow the boat 90 feet down with amberjacks and barracudas swimming all over, but her weight belt broke so we got no photos of that either. I did like a85 foot dive and shot a black off the bow and then it ran into the windlass in the front of the wreck and tangled itself there, about 90 feet down. Which was pretty awesome.
Another day we had like 80 feet of vis and found an area that was covered in blacks. Stoner shot one and when it rocked up like 5 of its friends came over to check it out. We all shot one, and I had 30+ pounder rip off. I shot it in the tail so other then the ripped tail it will be fine. It will probably have the ripped tail for the rest of its life most likely. No camera on the boat that day.
Then there was a day of diving out west when were drifting in 100 feet of water with flashers dropping sand balls. It was pretty good, 40-50 pound amberjacks and numerous king fish would swim up to check them out and get shot. There were also 3-5 sharks swimming with us as well. I probably should have brought the gopro or something. Vis was like 70 or 80 feet that day.
I also shot like 7 muttons the other day, I still have yet to ever shot my limit of them. I thought that might be the day but no dice.
I also have tried scuba a few times now and mostly hate it. It’s kind of fun being down on the bottom and shooting fish. But frankly I much prefer free diving.
We have also been shooting big lionfish and eating them raw. They are fantastic.
I wish I had a smaller camera, I am going to try to make myself bring camera next trip out west.
