Went out yesterday with Brad and Cal, winds were a bit much, 15-18 knots so Catherine sat this one out. Outside of the little bit wind the conditions where awesome, 100 plus feet of visibility through almost all the day. We speared in 30-50 feet of water all day.
We drifted most of the day, but anchored a few places.
We saw some really nice black groupers but could not put any in cooler. Brad estimated one we both followed for a bit to well over 30 pounds. I have always heard people say sometimes the visibility is too good and kind of see where they are coming from. But at the same time I would rather shoot 2 fish in afternoon of swimming in 100 foot visibility, than shoot 10 fish in 20 foot visibility. The grouper definitely see you coming, and more and more I can see why people get so excited about shooting black grouper. They seem to be very aware once they get any size to them. I shot a bunch of blacks over the winter in shallower waters, but hunting these bigger fish in 50+ feet of water is way more challenging. I actually thought I was sneaking up on one, as he was slowing swimming along, but when I stopped to rest for a second he actually turned around and looked at me, like he was saying “Are you done with this chasing nonsense?”
Only saw one shark today, saw several big jewfish, sea turtles, huge schools of balled up mangrove snappers, giant horse eye jacks, sting rays, porpoises (swimming with the dolphins is pretty cool, even if it sounds like a tourist attraction) , and probably 100 more sea creatures you forget to even notice after awhile.
Cal shot a 22# crevelle jack, which he was all excited to try to eat, we will see how that turns out. We shot yellow jacks, mutton snapper, black Margate, hogfish, and cero mackerel.
