Palm Beach Dive Thread

[HalcyonDaze]

Behavior contributes heavily to me calling a shark a bull. They tend to be among the most aggressive & thuggish. I read somewhere that they have one of the highest testosterone levels of any animal on the planet.

I have sometimes seen them shoot straight up, completely out of the water, with the front end of a large fish falling on one side of them & the tail section falling on the other side. After that happened twice inside of 15 minutes within about 50 feet of the 12 foot skiff I was fishing out of, I decided it was time to go in for the day. I think that was probably the only time in 50+ years that I have been spooked off of fishing by anything other than terrible weather.

I had another time that I was fishing out of a 17' center console & the other guy in the boat hooked up on a large fish in sharky waters. He loosened the drag & we chased the fish for about a mile, then he tightened up & brought the fish boat side. Just as the fish got close, 2 bulls, that had followed us, made a b-line for the boat from two different angles. They hit the side of the boat so hard that the 250ish pound guy in the front of the boat got knocked off his feet. We lost that fish to 2 determined sharks that I assume to be bulls.

Makos, great whites, tigers, hammers & threshers are also known to be aggressive. I have one reliable report of a large mako biting the propeller of a running outboard & stalling it. The guy had pictures on his phone. He was a well respected tournament fisherman.

When the water gets chummed up & bloody, the sharks wake up and get frisky. In other conditions, I have dove in their proximity countless times with no issues.

Just north of Lake Worth Inlet, is a well known breeding spot for spinners. That may be part of the reason why so many of that type tend to be in this area.

The funny thing is that the day I got those shots of Caribbean reef and bull sharks together, it was a relief when the latter ran off the former - reef sharks can get a Napoleon complex at times; they figure if they're quick and fast enough they can zip in and grab a fish before you can react. Not a fun feeling with something that has a nasty set of teeth. Bulls in my experience are usually more standoffish. The testosterone thing is BS; that was from one crappy outlier sample in one study - not sure if it was Shark Week or Grand Theft Auto that popularized it.

One thing that I'll maintain though is that sharks tend to be pretty calculating when it comes to their odds; in poor viz or in a situation where they have a numbers advantage they'll get bolder.

 

[johndiver999]

yesterday out of wpb, little current, blue on top, cold and green below 80 and vis 15-25 in around 100.

 

[MrChen]

I went out Palm Beach on a private boat yesterday, Sunday. The forecast looked sketchy, but we felt like the morning gave us an opportunity for some diving. Our hunch was correct, the West wind flattened the seas. As the day progressed, the winds shifted from the north and the seas really picked up. We did 4 dives, splitting the boat 2 each.

The first dive had a wicked north current. I was towing the flag and it made it difficult to catch lobster. My cousin was with me so he caught all the lobsters on dive 1. The current was so strong, the dive flag on a large float ball would go completely under water when I hooked it off to the ledge. My dpv batteries discharged at a different rate and my scooter stopped working mid dive. I filed a warranty claim with DeWalt

Dive 2 was south of Black Rock. The current was still ripping but not as bad as dive 1. We found and caught a lot of lobster, but every single one had eggs.

Other divers reported a lot of eggers too. We managed to find 29 keepers, short of limiting the boat.

Visibility was around 50ft, water temp 74.

 

[Johnoly]

Dive 2 was south of Black Rock. ..... We found and caught a lot of lobster, but every single one had eggs.

Really glad you got out before the bad storms this week. I was watching the inlet cams just kicking myself for not jumping on a boat Sat&Sun. NOAA and all the others missed the wind direction and with it being leeward, it looked really nice out there. At least you found bugs, cause most out of WPB are struggling at the end of this season. FWC's Free lionfish tourney starts May 24th. Thanks for the conditions report!!

 

[MrChen]

Since you mentioned it

Lionfish Challenge | Reef Rangers

 

[revise]

I went out Palm Beach .... As the day progressed, the winds shifted from the north and the seas really picked up.

Visibility was around 50ft, water temp 74.

Glad to see this temp report. I went out with Pura Vida Sun afternoon and we managed to get one dive in before the weather turned and they called it. BUT, my watch computer was saying it was 77. There was no way it was 77. I was COLD, l a few others agreed it couldn't have been 77. Need to figure out how accurate this temp reading on my computer is.

 

[MrChen]

Glad to see this temp report. I went out with Pura Vida Sun afternoon and we managed to get one dive in before the weather turned and they called it. BUT, my watch computer was saying it was 77. There was no way it was 77. I was COLD, l a few others agreed it couldn't have been 77. Need to figure out how accurate this temp reading on my computer is.

I double checked my dive log.

Dive 1 temp was 74-75.

Dive 2 temp was 75-76.

 

[revise]

I double checked my dive log.

Dive 1 temp was 74-75.
View attachment 833597
Dive 2 temp was 75-76.
View attachment 833598

Thanks. I will confess there's a good chance I may not have actually zipped my wetsuit which would be a contributing factor to cold.

 

[MrChen]

We were planning to out of Jupiter on Sunday, but vis reports north of the PB inlet matched the vis at BHB. We called an audible and went out PB and south. A lot of dive charters were observed doing the same thing. Unlike last week where every lobster I caught had eggs, this week I only found one with eggs! The last day of lobster season was giving! Easily limited between 2 dives.

We actually did 3 dives, one was in 125ft of water, and we were looking for cobia that were seen the day prior (no luck).

Most of the lobsters I caught were males and they were displaying the oddest behavior. I saw the tips of the antennae sitting in the sand, so I dropped in and while tickling it out, 2 ft in front of me is a lobster just walking on the reef. I look around thinking it was running from one of my dive buddies, but no one was there. So, I snag him quickly and go back to the hole. 60 seconds later, I see two lobsters a few ft apart just standing on the reef. Ok, bagged them. Maybe another minute after that I'm working another hole and another lobster is just walking across the reef. I appreciated the freebie because the lobster in the hole wasn't going to be caught this day. I did find 1 egger and a couple of shorts.

Water visibility was incredible. From 95ft down, I could see a boat driving above me. I don't feel like I had the same visibility horizontally, maybe 60+ ft. The water was a beautiful deep blue. Between dives 2 and 3 we started seeing a lot of action on the surface. Fish fins were breaking the surface, so a couple of us grabbed our guns and jumped in the water. It was a bunch of small rainbow runners and chubs. From the boat, we could see the sea floor and all the fish swimming by.

On dive 2, I didn't take my speargun because I wanted to hit the lobster hard. Ugh, never fails. I see a large snapper (not sure which kind). Then I was surrounded by a LARGE school of African Pompano. Even with my DPV, they came within arm's length.

I haven't downloaded my dives yet, but if I had to guess, water temp was mid 70's. There was only a light current.

Upon returning to the dock, the park was chaos. There were so many boats trying to go out while the morning boats were coming back in. Peanut Island was nothing but parked boats.

 

[johndiver999]

Dove PB on Easter too. I think I caught 5 eggers in a row. Ended up with just a few. Second dive we tried spearfishing, I shot nothing but it is good to see one or two gags, I almost thought they were extinct around here. Buddy lost a yellow jack and it was amazing to see how well 3 large bulls could follow a faint blood trail, even though the fish was long gone. Kinda scary when 500 lb animals get amped up so quickly.