The 4th of July
At 4AM the phone rang. I stumbled over to the cordless phone and headed out to the computer to check the weather on the Seahunters.com web site and make a decision to go or stay. After a quick conversation with Tony, I went back to bed. At 6AM the phone rang. No go, back to bed. The seas were tight, not tall. I had other things to do than get beat up on a day off. When the phone rang at 8AM it still looked as if it were going to be too choppy, but the 9AM graph of the wave height at the 20 mile buoy finally started to fall and I decided that we would all be sorry if we didn't go. We left the inlet at noon.
My first dive was on my favorite barge. I was thrilled to have found good vis at last- I could see 15' in all directions. Perfect for hunting. There were no grouper at all, except my old buddy "barge" the jewfish and his smaller companion of the same species (around 75lbs). I shot the big jewfish three times, with a camera, and I hope the pictures are going to show the true massive size of this fish. I saw other edible fish deep in the wreck, but I didn't want to shoot one and stir up the silt. On the top of the ship were schools of bait of such abundance that when the school encircled you it became black as the night. Cudas, jacks and other assorted fish were abundant. I found an unusual ring on the offshore side of the ship. It was white telesto in the shape of a Christmas wreath, about the size of a car tire in diameter. I looked to see if there was a porthole or some other man made reason for such a perfect circle but found none. As I was looking closely, I noticed small anemones growing in the encrusting hull. There were also millions of snails.
My second dive was on a pile of culverts placed by JL's gang back in '82 (or was it '90-haha). There were flounder everywhere, and cudas of impressive size schooled up in the hundreds. As I worked the pile I could see a large shark swimming right at me. It was just a nurse shark, but I was holding on to some tasty flounder. I spooked her pretty good and never saw her again. When I returned to the hunt, I saw the first Nassau grouper I have ever seen and it was big. My guess would have been 18-20lbs. What a beauty. With those distinctive patterns there is no way to mistake this fish for any other. Back to the hunt I found mango snapper, but not of impressive size. There were more fish on this reef than there were on the wreck, and some pretty interesting small tropicals too. There were a few small stony corals growing on the culverts. There were no gag grouper on this sight.
Happy Hunting,
Capt Moose
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