Got an invite to dive some of the waters I used to call home. Some of the points used to consistently produce black groupers on just about every outing. I was curious to see if some of them still held fish; we weren't disapointed. We started out early and while suiting up on the dock, some guys asked us if we were diving a tournament. We had no idea there was one going on or else I may have gone to an alternate ramp. Some guy asked us if we wanted to sign up and dive it, but we passed the opportunity and hoped none of the participants would crowd or dive some of our spots. In any event, we headed out and had a real good day.
Conditions were fantastic with minimal current, clear viz about 50-60' and flat seas. First spot got me a real nice lobster, which weighed in and just under four pounds. It was in a group of about half a dozen, but the rest were short. Second spot, my buddy Greg landed a real nice hog about 22" and Adrain shot a Red. The 3rd waypoint, Adrian shot a nice 12 pound Black. I was happy to see a black on the boat as I was starting to wonder if some of these old points were now fished out and dried up. As Adrian was telling me about his grouper, I mentioned that I had a nice catch over by my tied up bouy. We pulled anchor and drove to the my buoy and pulled up a still relatively new Simpson-Lawrence 22# galvanized Delta Anchor...look for it on a craigslist near you:0.
We hit a few more spots and on one of them, I saw a few Dog Snappers peeking about and played the hide n' seek game with one of them and after about 5-6 dives, I impaled him in the face deep inside its hole, Dog went 6 pounds. After about a half hour swimming this one spot, I look towards the boat and notice the guys are back on board and looking to change spots. So, I gingerly start swimming towards them. After about a few kicks, I come across this nice Black just slowly swimming along the reef. He did not seem too skittish as some of the others I had seen earlier on and I thought that this one may be the one. I dove down on him and he started to move away, but still within striking distance. As I closed the gap, I knew that he may not give me a better shot and I knew he was about to realize he was in danger and he'll soon kick and disappear. I took a long shot and hit him behind the neck and he started to twitch. He looked as if I stoned him. As I pulled the shaft a bit, I noticed it did not penetrate him and I could clearly see the barb on my broadside of the fish. I stopped pulling and dove on him and as I grabed him, the shaft came off, some times it pays to be lucky. Weighed him this morning and he was a solid 18#.
We added a few other nice fish to the box including some hogs, Ceros and triggers. The one I ended up shooting weighed in at 9 pounds gutted and he was a horse. It was good to see some of the waters I used to call home are still healthy and full of life. It was a good day...
Jim shot a very nice YJ on Friday. The fish broke the mono and took off with the spear. The vis was poor and there was a strong current. We were diving on a wreck in 70ft. We'd find the wreck by chance on a dive here or a dive there. On one of these dives I saw a shining object on the wreck, getting closer I saw it was a fish belly up. I thought for a moment of shooting it because I couldn't quite reach it but then decided to not do it. I thought it was an undersized AJ dumped there by anglers and already rotting. I didn't know at the time Jim has lost the fish and his shaft. By chance it was that the fish ended up on top of the wreck and that Jim saw it on one of his dives 20 minutes later. We joked around about diver A diver B afterwards when I said I thought about shooting it.
