I was invited to go out of Homestead with Pantoja and his friends. The boat owners were a father and son, cool guys, they have a very nice boat. The divers were myself, Pantoja and his friend Guille, the boat owners line fished although the son is showing interest in spearfishing.
It was a cold day that started out sunny then cloudy on and off. The water felt cold to me in a two piece 3mm suit. Visibility was great, top to bottom everywhere though I don't think we went deeper than 45ft. We didn't go to the best spots but I could feel that the fish weren't around and those that were around seemed spooky. Even the ones that normally don't move around too much like the small grey snapper. I don't know if it was pressure on those spots or what.
I got a nice cuda close to the start but quickly got discouraged and sat out quite a bit talking dogs with the boat owner. Pantoja persevered all day with his trademark stick-to-it-ivness. At one point he was diving in shorts and rashguards.
I saw a couple of gags or blacks on different occasions. One was trucking and never gave me a chance, pantoja saw him too. Another time I was racing to reach the boat, the boat would come close but was very hard to reach. I believe the canopy which was very big acted like a sail, it was windy, and would push the boat away. I finally reached it and grabbed the step, took one last look down and saw a grouper go into a small hole. I let go of the boat and swam over, I thought for sure he was mine but just when I finished loading the second band he took off out of the hole. It was about 40ft there.
Pantoja kept raking the bottom for hogs. Towards the end of the day we were coming over to pick him up when he signalled big fish. 15 minutes later he swam over with a very nice cubera, around 15lb? Apparently it holed up in a bad way after being shot and he had to work hard to get it out.
It was a nice day even though the lack of fish as most all days on the water with good friends are but Pantoja saved it with the Cubera. Very generous of him to leave it to the boat owner who BTW wouldn't accept any money for the expenses.
