Palm Beach Dive Thread

[PBcatfish]

So there's an 'un-written courtesy' that most of us WPB spearo's follow (Not all do)
We don't spear on Flower Gardens nor Breakers reefs, but do catch lobster/lionfish there. Just those 2 spots and all the captains know about it. It's kinda like you don't blast music at 2am cause your neighbor's 'silent revenge' may not be pretty. It's a big ocean with plenty of other places to hunt.
Great picts and glad you got out on the reefs for a change of scenery from the bridge.

Thanks for filling me in. I had missed that memo & since I dive from my own boat, I don't have the backstop of a captain to fill me on on things like that.

Several year ago, I made a somewhat related gaff while fishing. I hooked into a really big sailfish & when I got him boatside, I realized that he was WELL over the 65" lower jaw size limit, so I grabbed a gaff & invited him aboard. The boat had the proper HMS permit, so I didn't see any reason not to. Somewhere, I have a picture of that monster hanging off both sides of the tailgate of an F250. A year or two later, I was fishing from one of the charter boats out of Sailfish Marina & asked for the gaff when I got a sailfish boat side. I got dirty looks, followed by an explanation. Billfish are unofficially catch & release in this area & it's been that way for years. The local fishing club has even retired the species from their biggest fish caught records. Apparently the local "spindle beak boys" have farmed a local population of of sailfish that no longer migrates out of the area & stays here year round. They are quite protective of their pets that live in the big fish bowl out in front of the inlet. So now it's just KDW, tuna & bottom fish on my grocery list.

 

[MrChen]

I dove with Kyalami out of Jupiter this Saturday, so why am I posting it here? Because we took a trip down the intracoastal to the palm beach inlet and back.

We had at least 3 people on the boat puking. Surface conditions weren't that bad except for the occasional big roller. The sketchy part was getting back on the boat after each dive when one of the rollers would hit. There was a big surge top to bottom. I went to catch a lobster, and the surge threw me into the hole. I still caught it, but it was short.

In the morning, we had 30 ft of vis near the ledge and 50 ft away from the ledge. On dive 2 which we dropped about where the last dive ended, the bottom 15 ft of depth was 5 ft of vis. The surge had silted it all out. Above the 15 ft of silt, you could see the surface 70ft up.

Water temp was 81 degrees. We treated both dives as if we had a south current. I honestly don't know if it was going one way or the other as I was on my DPV. I tried to feel it out at the beginning of the dive and couldn't.

 

[Johnoly]

Because we took a trip down the intracoastal to the palm beach inlet and back.

I saw the Emerald inlet waves video and it was a 60 degree lean over and scary.

 

[Pavao]

I had the wildest thing today in WPB.
We went north for first dive, water looked blue and in fact was great viz on the top 50ft of water, but below 50ft it deteriorated rapidly, put it this way, at one point I went vertical as I descended, fin touched bottom at 82ft and I still didn’t see the bottom.
Everyone aborted their dive and we went 3 miles south of first spot, jumped in and had 80+ ft of viz on beautiful blue water, would’ve been a 100ft viz day if sun was out.
I have never seen such a drastic difference in conditions in such a short distance and short time.

And just like it has been this whole week, lobsters are everywhere.

 

[johndiver999]

715 buoy check, blue and slight north current look like 70 ft vis from boat

 

[tekkydiver]

Thanks for filling me in. I had missed that memo & since I dive from my own boat, I don't have the backstop of a captain to fill me on on things like that.

Several year ago, I made a somewhat related gaff while fishing. I hooked into a really big sailfish & when I got him boatside, I realized that he was WELL over the 65" lower jaw size limit, so I grabbed a gaff & invited him aboard. The boat had the proper HMS permit, so I didn't see any reason not to. Somewhere, I have a picture of that monster hanging off both sides of the tailgate of an F250. A year or two later, I was fishing from one of the charter boats out of Sailfish Marina & asked for the gaff when I got a sailfish boat side. I got dirty looks, followed by an explanation. Billfish are unofficially catch & release in this area & it's been that way for years. The local fishing club has even retired the species from their biggest fish caught records. Apparently the local "spindle beak boys" have farmed a local population of of sailfish that no longer migrates out of the area & stays here year round. They are quite protective of their pets that live in the big fish bowl out in front of the inlet. So now it's just KDW, tuna & bottom fish on my grocery list.

I too dive off my own boat and consider myself a steward of the environment. That said I have no problem harvesting a legal grouper either by spear or hook & line if the area is open. I generally release all sailfish however there have been times when a fish is boat side and in poor condition it will become smoked fish dip. Nothing wrong with that either. There are so many regulations, no need to add fake ones.

 

[DiveFlag = Target]

Went out on Pura Vida on Sunday morning. We did Governors twice. 40-50 foot vis. Light current. Saw a Nurse, Lemon and Bull. Pavao, another boat radioed that there was no vis on the corridor so we stayed and double dipped. Not that i mind. Lots of good life there.

 

[MrChen]

I saw the Emerald inlet waves video and it was a 60 degree lean over and scary.

I saw that as well, yet another reason I'll never dive on that boat

 

[MrChen]

For those who haven't seen the Emerald video from this weekend. Hopefully the link will work.

 

[Pavao]

Went out on Pura Vida on Sunday morning. We did Governors twice. 40-50 foot vis. Light current. Saw a Nurse, Lemon and Bull. Pavao, another boat radioed that there was no vis on the corridor so we stayed and double dipped. Not that i mind. Lots of good life there.

Yeah, we had about the same at the Breakers on the afternoon dives. A lemon and a bull was seen there as well, I also saw a bull on my morning dive.