JPENDERGRAST
Contributor
7-22-09 The trip got off to a lame start since we rode in to terrible weather forecasts Wednesday morning, but arrived to find a nice sunny day, and good viz from the shore. My brother and I wanted to go for a shore dive first since this was his first trip to SW. We stopped by Bay Breeze Dive Center since I've never tried them out before, and were very impressed with how they run things. The owner, Carlos, seems like a great guy, and was very helpful as was the rest of his staff. We rented four tanks and then drove to Fort Pickens for our first dive. High Tide was forecasted for 11:12am, and by the time we were geared up and checked, we were in the water right on time. We made our way from the furthermost Jetties, all the way to the fishing pier, and back. Max depth was 46', and the water temp lingered around 79 degrees. We swam into a pod of dolphins right off the start, but unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on 
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7-23-09 Thursday we decided to try the Navarre Pier since we were staying in Navarre. We caught high tide, and it was a short dive, but still fun. We saw six Stingrays, one of which was the biggest I've seen. We also saw two juvenile Loggerheads, a nice size Cobia, and millions of bait fish.
There are a few pictures below of both dives, but most came from Fort Pickens since I forgot to charge my battery after the Fort Pickens Dive. I know they're not very good, but I'm not a professional, so anyone with some input on how I can do better next time, please send it my way.
7-24-09 Friday morning we went out with Dr. Dive to check out the Russian Freighter and to see if we could shoot some fish for dinner. Very cool dive, and we got about 40-45 foot visibility and saw an abundance of marine life. I didn't have much time to do much exploring since I was trying to keep an eye on my brother as well as the diver who was with us since he was an odd man out. I shot a nice Black Snapper off the bat, and Alex speared a nice Spadefish. We made our way towards the bow, but only got about half way before we had to turn around due to being on air. We returned to the boat, and decided that we would dive it again since the viz was decent, and since we had seen a lot of fish down there. Reports from other sites were coming in with poor visibility due to the cloud cover, and so all thought it would be best to stick it out there. In retrospect I wish that we would have at least moved the anchor to the bow and started from there, but over all they were both good dives. On the second dive, we got down about 40' and ran into a huge school of spades. I didn't have my gun loaded since the other diver wanted me to take a picture of him, but my brother shot a nice sized fish out of the group. I got to the bottom and made sure the anchor was clear, and then was able to load my gun. I shot a Gag that ended up being 2 inches too short, but then made right on a huge Spade. I missed another keeper Gag which allowed me to find a Toadfish hiding in a hole which I have on the video if you look close enough. The second dive was more of sight seeing for me, and was a lot of fun. We got a little further this time, and turned around at 800 to start back to the stern. I thoroughly enjoyed the outing with Dr. Dive, and he's got a very comfortable boat. I highly recommend him to anyone that will be in the Pensacola area.
7-25-09 My wife, brother, his Girlfriend, and I drove to Harborwalk Marina early Saturday morning to meet up with Aaron who has a private boat which they dive from. We got out on the water with Thunderclouds about 6 miles off, but blowing Southeast. We decided to hit the Destin Liberty ship. It's a bathtub wreck (if someone can give a vessel name, that'd be much appreciated), and sits in 95 fsw with about 9 feet of relief. We splashed at 0751 and would have had great viz if the sun had been out. As I neared the bottom I spotted a small school of Lesser AJ's running baitfish and shot the biggest one (or at least I thought), and then moved inside the boat where I had seen some decent sized snapper. I shot another Black Snapper that was running with some smaller Red Snapper (none big enough to shoot), and as I was stringing him up found two Shovelnose sitting on the side of the ship. I picked them up and put them in my BC pocket, and then swam out of the wreck just as the group of Lesser AJ's was coming back around. Two people missed the biggest one in the group, and I picked him off as he came around my way. Alex and I were getting low on air, so we started our ascent back, and attempted to thin out two more Spadefish on our return swim. I missed one, and Alex stoned one. We got back on the boat to find the girls rather,,,,, unhappy since it had been raining while we were down, and they had gotten sick due to the swells. This put somewhat of a,,,,, damper on the mood, but once we got underway to the next site, they started to feel better, and the sun came out.
The second dive was on a natural bottom reef, sitting in 83 fsw. We splashed, and I had some equipment difficulties right off, so it took me a few minutes to get everything situated. We got to the bottom to find there wasn't much going on. We swam around, but didn't see anything other than a few Angelfish, and some Porgies that wouldn't allow you to get close. I shot one Triggerfish which turned out to be a Barracuda magnet as you can see in the video. We got buzzed by a shark on our safety stop, and I couldn't tell what it was but it had to be a Sandbar shark. My brother had a desire to shoot a Remora (which by the way, tasted pretty good), and shot one right off the shark which I thought to be rather impressive, and maybe a little dumb at the same time. The cuda in the video was in between us and the ladder, and as you can see, wasn't moving. I tried to get him to move, but when I looked around and noticed about 12 others waiting for me to drop that Trigger, so we just decided to go around him.
We got back on the boat, and ate lunch before moving to the site of the third dive. The weather was very nice, and the seas were calm at this point. We moved about 8 miles to another, very large, natural bottom reef. We splashed into a school of Jellies which seemed to follow us until we got down to about 60 feet. This is where things got interesting. When we reached the bottom (no other divers around), I noticed a lot of sand had been stirred up, and all the fish were schooling. I know this as a sure sign of a predator in the area, and made sure I stayed close to Alex. I gave the shark signal to him, and we kept our eyes open as we got to a clearer part of the reef. We arrived to find a nice school of keeper Triggerfish and started shooting. We both popped off a nice Trigger almost as soon as we got to the bottom of the Reef, and as I was stringing them up, a huge school of large Jack Crevalle swarmed us. Alex was going to shoot one, but I told him not to since they wouldn't be worth the ride they would probably take him on. We shot two more Triggers a piece, and I shot two nice Porgies. About the time I stringed up the 2nd Porgy, I noticed Alex above me having trouble with his gun. I ascended to assist, and when I looked back down, I noticed a Blue Trailer sitting on the bottom. I looked again and realized that it was actually an 7-8 foot Bull hunting on the Reef. I knew that we needed to ascend at this point, especiailly with six bleeding fish on my stringer, but had been watching a nice sized Snapper swimming in front of me, so I swam towards it, keeping my eye on the Bull the whole time. I popped the Snapper (which I beleive turned out to be a Mutton Snapped, but if anyone can tell from the picture in the video, please let me know - sorta looks like a Hogfish mouth), and as soon as I did, the Bull swam off very fast to my right. Alex and I decided to skip our half way stop since the Bull started following us again. We went back to back on our 15 foot safety stop, keeping an eye out for our,,, friend who looked like he was doing figure 8 loops since he would go out of view and then come back in from a different direction. At one point, he came in so close that I could see the detail in his eye and this was the point I wished that I hadn't made fun of people who carry Powerheads (I ordered one yesterday). After that, the shark turned, and went back down towards the bottom, and we didn't see him again. We yelled at the girls to make sure the ladder was down and got back on the boat in record time. About the time I layed my speargun on the deck, Eric surfaced, acknowledging the big shark. I picked his stringer up from him, and his gun, and helped him on the boat. As soon as he was up, Aaron surfaced about 30 yards our from Starboard Bow yelling for us to pick him up. We pulled anchor, and Eric taxied to him. By the time we arrived, the Bull had taken two Triggers off Aaron's stringer, and was trying for a Sheepshead.
Luckily we all arrived back on the boat with all our fingers, and toes, and most of the fish. I checked my camera since I knew my gun had been pointed directly at him for a good 60-90 seconds only to find that my 2GB SD card filled up two minutes into the dive!!!!!!!!!!!:mooner:
I guess XRAY is right about cameras being shark repellents.. Oh well, maybe that was a sign. Anyway, we had a great time, and will be going back before Fall. Thanks to all, especially XRay and Hetland for allowing me to use several of your ideas. I had a great time, and some good memories that I have on film.
Spearfishing the Russian Freighter and Destin Liberty Ship on Vimeo
... 7-23-09 Thursday we decided to try the Navarre Pier since we were staying in Navarre. We caught high tide, and it was a short dive, but still fun. We saw six Stingrays, one of which was the biggest I've seen. We also saw two juvenile Loggerheads, a nice size Cobia, and millions of bait fish.
There are a few pictures below of both dives, but most came from Fort Pickens since I forgot to charge my battery after the Fort Pickens Dive. I know they're not very good, but I'm not a professional, so anyone with some input on how I can do better next time, please send it my way.
7-24-09 Friday morning we went out with Dr. Dive to check out the Russian Freighter and to see if we could shoot some fish for dinner. Very cool dive, and we got about 40-45 foot visibility and saw an abundance of marine life. I didn't have much time to do much exploring since I was trying to keep an eye on my brother as well as the diver who was with us since he was an odd man out. I shot a nice Black Snapper off the bat, and Alex speared a nice Spadefish. We made our way towards the bow, but only got about half way before we had to turn around due to being on air. We returned to the boat, and decided that we would dive it again since the viz was decent, and since we had seen a lot of fish down there. Reports from other sites were coming in with poor visibility due to the cloud cover, and so all thought it would be best to stick it out there. In retrospect I wish that we would have at least moved the anchor to the bow and started from there, but over all they were both good dives. On the second dive, we got down about 40' and ran into a huge school of spades. I didn't have my gun loaded since the other diver wanted me to take a picture of him, but my brother shot a nice sized fish out of the group. I got to the bottom and made sure the anchor was clear, and then was able to load my gun. I shot a Gag that ended up being 2 inches too short, but then made right on a huge Spade. I missed another keeper Gag which allowed me to find a Toadfish hiding in a hole which I have on the video if you look close enough. The second dive was more of sight seeing for me, and was a lot of fun. We got a little further this time, and turned around at 800 to start back to the stern. I thoroughly enjoyed the outing with Dr. Dive, and he's got a very comfortable boat. I highly recommend him to anyone that will be in the Pensacola area.
7-25-09 My wife, brother, his Girlfriend, and I drove to Harborwalk Marina early Saturday morning to meet up with Aaron who has a private boat which they dive from. We got out on the water with Thunderclouds about 6 miles off, but blowing Southeast. We decided to hit the Destin Liberty ship. It's a bathtub wreck (if someone can give a vessel name, that'd be much appreciated), and sits in 95 fsw with about 9 feet of relief. We splashed at 0751 and would have had great viz if the sun had been out. As I neared the bottom I spotted a small school of Lesser AJ's running baitfish and shot the biggest one (or at least I thought), and then moved inside the boat where I had seen some decent sized snapper. I shot another Black Snapper that was running with some smaller Red Snapper (none big enough to shoot), and as I was stringing him up found two Shovelnose sitting on the side of the ship. I picked them up and put them in my BC pocket, and then swam out of the wreck just as the group of Lesser AJ's was coming back around. Two people missed the biggest one in the group, and I picked him off as he came around my way. Alex and I were getting low on air, so we started our ascent back, and attempted to thin out two more Spadefish on our return swim. I missed one, and Alex stoned one. We got back on the boat to find the girls rather,,,,, unhappy since it had been raining while we were down, and they had gotten sick due to the swells. This put somewhat of a,,,,, damper on the mood, but once we got underway to the next site, they started to feel better, and the sun came out.
The second dive was on a natural bottom reef, sitting in 83 fsw. We splashed, and I had some equipment difficulties right off, so it took me a few minutes to get everything situated. We got to the bottom to find there wasn't much going on. We swam around, but didn't see anything other than a few Angelfish, and some Porgies that wouldn't allow you to get close. I shot one Triggerfish which turned out to be a Barracuda magnet as you can see in the video. We got buzzed by a shark on our safety stop, and I couldn't tell what it was but it had to be a Sandbar shark. My brother had a desire to shoot a Remora (which by the way, tasted pretty good), and shot one right off the shark which I thought to be rather impressive, and maybe a little dumb at the same time. The cuda in the video was in between us and the ladder, and as you can see, wasn't moving. I tried to get him to move, but when I looked around and noticed about 12 others waiting for me to drop that Trigger, so we just decided to go around him.
We got back on the boat, and ate lunch before moving to the site of the third dive. The weather was very nice, and the seas were calm at this point. We moved about 8 miles to another, very large, natural bottom reef. We splashed into a school of Jellies which seemed to follow us until we got down to about 60 feet. This is where things got interesting. When we reached the bottom (no other divers around), I noticed a lot of sand had been stirred up, and all the fish were schooling. I know this as a sure sign of a predator in the area, and made sure I stayed close to Alex. I gave the shark signal to him, and we kept our eyes open as we got to a clearer part of the reef. We arrived to find a nice school of keeper Triggerfish and started shooting. We both popped off a nice Trigger almost as soon as we got to the bottom of the Reef, and as I was stringing them up, a huge school of large Jack Crevalle swarmed us. Alex was going to shoot one, but I told him not to since they wouldn't be worth the ride they would probably take him on. We shot two more Triggers a piece, and I shot two nice Porgies. About the time I stringed up the 2nd Porgy, I noticed Alex above me having trouble with his gun. I ascended to assist, and when I looked back down, I noticed a Blue Trailer sitting on the bottom. I looked again and realized that it was actually an 7-8 foot Bull hunting on the Reef. I knew that we needed to ascend at this point, especiailly with six bleeding fish on my stringer, but had been watching a nice sized Snapper swimming in front of me, so I swam towards it, keeping my eye on the Bull the whole time. I popped the Snapper (which I beleive turned out to be a Mutton Snapped, but if anyone can tell from the picture in the video, please let me know - sorta looks like a Hogfish mouth), and as soon as I did, the Bull swam off very fast to my right. Alex and I decided to skip our half way stop since the Bull started following us again. We went back to back on our 15 foot safety stop, keeping an eye out for our,,, friend who looked like he was doing figure 8 loops since he would go out of view and then come back in from a different direction. At one point, he came in so close that I could see the detail in his eye and this was the point I wished that I hadn't made fun of people who carry Powerheads (I ordered one yesterday). After that, the shark turned, and went back down towards the bottom, and we didn't see him again. We yelled at the girls to make sure the ladder was down and got back on the boat in record time. About the time I layed my speargun on the deck, Eric surfaced, acknowledging the big shark. I picked his stringer up from him, and his gun, and helped him on the boat. As soon as he was up, Aaron surfaced about 30 yards our from Starboard Bow yelling for us to pick him up. We pulled anchor, and Eric taxied to him. By the time we arrived, the Bull had taken two Triggers off Aaron's stringer, and was trying for a Sheepshead.
Luckily we all arrived back on the boat with all our fingers, and toes, and most of the fish. I checked my camera since I knew my gun had been pointed directly at him for a good 60-90 seconds only to find that my 2GB SD card filled up two minutes into the dive!!!!!!!!!!!:mooner:
I guess XRAY is right about cameras being shark repellents.. Oh well, maybe that was a sign. Anyway, we had a great time, and will be going back before Fall. Thanks to all, especially XRay and Hetland for allowing me to use several of your ideas. I had a great time, and some good memories that I have on film.
Spearfishing the Russian Freighter and Destin Liberty Ship on Vimeo
