Hardline's Dive Reports

Ocean has finally calmed down a bit so I went out off Lauderdale today to check conditions and see if I could find any dinner. Viz was decent at around prob 20-30 feet on the first reef and the current was mild coming from the South.

Was surprised to find a Hogfish almost as soon as I hit the reef because I NEVER see Hogs at this spot. Sure enough I saw two baby ones a little later so hopefully they are making a comeback. He wasn't HUUUGGEE. But he/she will make some tasty fish tacos.

Also saw a Green Turtle which is pretty standard for this spot.

Green Sea Turtle - YouTube

Quote from Dan

Very cool pics! Which camera are you using? Don't tell me these are Gopro frame captures.

Those were taken with my Olympus TG-2 including the video.

White Balance was set on 'Underwater' and some minor color correction was performed.

Got out with Mark today to break in our suits for the winter here haha! Didn't go out too long since it was getting dark and we got a pretty late start. But it's nice diving in the late afternoon occasionally. Mark got two lobsters.

I got more pics but here are a few from today.

More Pics from the dive:

Quote from hau

Hardline----More GREAT pictures from you sir. Thanks for sharing.

Question--
1. isn't the Olympus TG-2 iHS only rate to 50feet sir?
2. How deep have you taken your Olympus TG-2 iHS with no problems?
Thanks

Thanks Hau.

The TG-2 is rated to 50ft and it has a optional housing if you wanted to take it deeper than that. I have taken it down to 30 feet or so with no problems. It's also been banged up, dropped and full of sand and still operates perfectly.

Quote from hau

Thank you for your rapid answer Hardline and please keep your great pictures coming sir
I would love to produce pictures as nice as yours :thumbsup2:

Thanks bud. Just keep shooting and experimenting and I'm sure you will get some cool shots. Especially with that awesome viz over there!

Mark and I braved the 45 degree Florida temps to hit the clear, calm chilled ocean this morning. Viz was awesome and the current was nil. Everything was perfect except for the damn cold.

Saw lots of fish activity which was good and Mark found some skittish lobsters but he managed to snag one nice size bug.

Quote from Marco

Nice pics, as usual.

Thanks Marco! :thumbsup2:

Mark (ReefChief) and I got out today for a little afternoon delight aka Afternooner aka beach dive in the afternoon because the beach cams looked redicously awesome. When we gaot to the beach around 3pm, the ocean looked flat after the surf zone so we geared up and swam out. Immediately we were hit with milkiness and poor vis but as we got out further it was getting better.

By the time we hit the first rock area around 500 yards from shore, I could barely make out the bottom and got buzzed by about 30 Bluefish. They disappeared into the murk so I waited, dropped down and waited on some rocks and sure enough they came buzzing back by me again. I lined up on one of the bigger ones, shot and fired and the shaft went into the murk. I swam back up the surface and began bringing my shaft up and all of a sudden the fish came to life. I didnt even realize I had hit him cause it stoned him after it went out of my range of vision. I brained him, grabbed him and took the shaft out of him then watched him flop his way back into the water despite me stabbing him in the head more than once. I swam after him, bear hugged him on the bottom, got a solid grasp on him and brought him back to the surface.

While I was doing that Mark saw a small Blacktip shark that seemed interested in what was going on but he left us alone.

We continued along the rocks with the intentions of swimming out to the second reef line. Along the way I shot a decent Hogfish and shortly thereafter, we saw a big Male hogfish swimmming in from the deep towards the shallows behind us. So of course we turned around to follow it with no luck. We started heading deeper again but kept seeing hogs in shallow and Mark connected with one so we decided to just stay shallow and patrol that area since it was already getting dark and we were having good luck.

Using that strategy, Mark landed a second hog and I found a lobster. Mark came over and grabbed the Lobster while I filmed him and after that guy we started heading slowly back in. Right before we hit the end of the rocks, Mark sees a huge lobster and while he's going for it, this huge Hogfish swims practically right up to him. His gun is on the bottom about 5 feet away so he slowly swims over to get the gun and surprisingly the fish doenst bolt. He lines up, takes the shot and connects. He never got that big bug but at least he got his big hog.

All in all a very successful "shallow" dive. I don't think we ever got any deeper than 15-20 feet max.

Here's some of the rest...

Oh yeah...We got got buzzed pretty close by a large catamaran sail boat. I got the video I will post shortly.