Matteo
Contributor
just back from 3 fantastic days in Islamorada....a buddy from Atlanta drove down and we dragged my boat to the Keys for some inexpensive fun beneath the waves...first day was mostly setup and only had enough daylight for one dive...went to the deeper backside of Alligator and found a nasty current, so we moved in to the shallower areas west of the light and enjoyed fairly good vis of about 30 to 35 and lots of marine life with the main attraction being huge schools of large cudas....second day we made the run out to the Eagle which was exciting for me as I have fished this wreck for years and have always been curious to see it up close and it was my buddy's first wreck ever.....as we descended onto the bow section, the vis was horrible down to about 60 feet, but as we crossed this barrier the wreck came into view and everyting lit up with vis being well over 50 ft....we made the most of our limited bottom time finning the entire length of the wreck to stern and back to bow all on the deck side with a quick look at the hull and props/rudders......dive 2 of day 2 and both dives on day 3 were back on the shallower sections of Alligator where the diving was top notch.....temperate waters, very light current and vis ranging from 30 to 40....sights included 2 big jewfish, 2 green morays one of which was an absolute monster, the other we got to witness free-swimming, free swimming nurse shark, a couple big snook under a ledge, several lobsters(too bad we were inside the sanctuary), a foul-hooked cuda with the lure still hanging out of his side, and a wide variety of snapper, grouper, parrots, angels and huge schools of various tropicals....can't wait until next time!!!
