JustJoe
Contributor
Hey All,
I told CBulla that I would post a dive report. I want to let you know that this was my first dive in the Gulf (not including the Keys, but the real Gulf). My experiences are mostly from the East Coast of Florida and the Keys, so take that into consideration.
The boat: Nauti-Gal. The captain was a nice enough fellow. The only other crew member was his son. The boat was definetly setup for spearfishing. The seating was mostly the coolers for keeping the fish. Defininetly a bare bones boat. No frills at all. Only enough room for 6 or 7 divers. The divers just chose up buddies and we got in the water.
The dives: It took several hours to get to the first dive and then again quite a bit of time to get back. We left at 7:30am and returned at 3:30pm. 1st dive was to 72', water temp 83, slight thermocline but it wasn't a large drop in temp. Vis about 10 feet. 2nd dive to 65', water temp about the same but this time there was a big thermocline that took the temp to the mid 60's, vis 25'. 3rd dive to 70', water temp 83, vis 15'.
I was both disappointed and happy with the dives. I was disappointed with the visibility, but I knew that going in to the dives. I was pleasantly suprised by the fish life that I did run into. I have never seen so many jewfish in one place. I saw three on the first dive alone. One of the two buddies I shared today saw 6, but he was the guy with the spear and was in front of the threesome. Vis was so poor that he could see a fish and it was gone before myself and the other non-shooter could see it. This was the first time where a big fish has challenged me because I was in his territory. I also got a chance to watch a jewfish hunt baitfish. Awesome. Not many keeper fish in this spot and we believe it was due to the number of jewfish.
Second dive brought us some small groupers, small snappers and some sheepshead. It was kind of boring to tell the truth. Although the visibility was slightly better here, the fishlife was a little scarce.
The third dive was the best for fishlife. The shooter in the group got to take his pick between a 4.5' to 5' cobia and a 3.5' to 4' cobia, both cruising with an 8' nurse shark. He chose the bigger cobia, hit him with a great shot right to the back of the head in front of the dorsal, stunned him for a second and scattered the other two fish, then the damn thing woke up (as I was celebrating), shook the spear and left. We gave chase and caught up to all three of them again as they circled back. The shooter tried to get another shot off but the angles didn't work and the little pack was moving out. They did not want to be a part of that again. We looked around a bit to hopefully find the cobia laid up someplace but they were gone. Then as we continued to hunt the ledge and explore, I ran right into another nurse shark. Slightly smaller than the 8 footer we saw with the two cobia, but still pretty big. We startled each other and he was fastest so he left. I would of if I could have bolted but I was just a big obstacle for the shark.
Overall I had a good time. It is not like diving the East Coast and will reserve judgement until I get more dives in over here. I do believe that the quality of fish here is better and I think I will take up spearfishing. I want to get better acquainted with spearfishing before I pick up a gun though. I don't want to make any mistakes by killing a small fish or hitting something I misrecognize. So I will observe a few more times and study some fish before picking up the hunt.
Okay, so that is my dive report. Did I miss something?
Joe
I told CBulla that I would post a dive report. I want to let you know that this was my first dive in the Gulf (not including the Keys, but the real Gulf). My experiences are mostly from the East Coast of Florida and the Keys, so take that into consideration.
The boat: Nauti-Gal. The captain was a nice enough fellow. The only other crew member was his son. The boat was definetly setup for spearfishing. The seating was mostly the coolers for keeping the fish. Defininetly a bare bones boat. No frills at all. Only enough room for 6 or 7 divers. The divers just chose up buddies and we got in the water.
The dives: It took several hours to get to the first dive and then again quite a bit of time to get back. We left at 7:30am and returned at 3:30pm. 1st dive was to 72', water temp 83, slight thermocline but it wasn't a large drop in temp. Vis about 10 feet. 2nd dive to 65', water temp about the same but this time there was a big thermocline that took the temp to the mid 60's, vis 25'. 3rd dive to 70', water temp 83, vis 15'.
I was both disappointed and happy with the dives. I was disappointed with the visibility, but I knew that going in to the dives. I was pleasantly suprised by the fish life that I did run into. I have never seen so many jewfish in one place. I saw three on the first dive alone. One of the two buddies I shared today saw 6, but he was the guy with the spear and was in front of the threesome. Vis was so poor that he could see a fish and it was gone before myself and the other non-shooter could see it. This was the first time where a big fish has challenged me because I was in his territory. I also got a chance to watch a jewfish hunt baitfish. Awesome. Not many keeper fish in this spot and we believe it was due to the number of jewfish.
Second dive brought us some small groupers, small snappers and some sheepshead. It was kind of boring to tell the truth. Although the visibility was slightly better here, the fishlife was a little scarce.
The third dive was the best for fishlife. The shooter in the group got to take his pick between a 4.5' to 5' cobia and a 3.5' to 4' cobia, both cruising with an 8' nurse shark. He chose the bigger cobia, hit him with a great shot right to the back of the head in front of the dorsal, stunned him for a second and scattered the other two fish, then the damn thing woke up (as I was celebrating), shook the spear and left. We gave chase and caught up to all three of them again as they circled back. The shooter tried to get another shot off but the angles didn't work and the little pack was moving out. They did not want to be a part of that again. We looked around a bit to hopefully find the cobia laid up someplace but they were gone. Then as we continued to hunt the ledge and explore, I ran right into another nurse shark. Slightly smaller than the 8 footer we saw with the two cobia, but still pretty big. We startled each other and he was fastest so he left. I would of if I could have bolted but I was just a big obstacle for the shark.
Overall I had a good time. It is not like diving the East Coast and will reserve judgement until I get more dives in over here. I do believe that the quality of fish here is better and I think I will take up spearfishing. I want to get better acquainted with spearfishing before I pick up a gun though. I don't want to make any mistakes by killing a small fish or hitting something I misrecognize. So I will observe a few more times and study some fish before picking up the hunt.
Okay, so that is my dive report. Did I miss something?
Joe
