Spearfishing Report + Bonus Shark Vid

[Hetland]

Too tired for full report, but Pensacola, 4 red snapper, 1 black snapper, and 1 amberjack. Lots of boats on the water, but we did have 50ft viz, and the temp was just right. Main complaints are strong surface currents down to 25ft, and a flotilla of hook and line fishers. XRay accidently hooked a juvenile tigershark, and I got some vide before we safley released the little guy:

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[MRXRAY]

Man those are some nice shots, Alex. As Alex said we made our way out Saturday mide mornig after a stop at the LDS to fix my dive ladder, we were on the water at about 9:40 and screaming toward the pass. The water was just a bit choppy on the way out and we made good time to our first site. We had decided to try the Kingry Barge first but we never marked it on sonar after fooling around on it for about 30 minutes. Some fisherman showed up and they bounced around where the wreck should have been but never caught any fish so we moved on. We decided to try Tug Heron/LCM which neither of us had dove so we made our way toward it. There was only one fishing boat on site when we got there so we moved around trying to get into position but it was apparent that they were sitting right on top (litterally) of the small tug. There was more structure to the West of them which we thought we'd dive but we had a heck of a time getting our anchor to set in the very soft sand at this site. We ended up getting set and dropping about 75 yards East of the wreck and swimming to the below 30 feet as the surface current was ripping down to about 25 feet. It turned out the Barge wasn't holding much fish and the big snapper were all under the boat above us fishing. We ended up taking two snapper from under the boat....Sorry fisherman! and Alex hit a monster but it got off. The fisherman wern't to happy with the location of the bubbles below so we opted to move after one set of dives...... I had a max depth of 93 feet for 31 minutes and showed a min temp of 72*. While on the surface I decided to throw out a hook and line with some old squid on it which Mrs. Xray had been bugging me to get out of the freezer, so I tossed the line over and about 10 minutes later was fighting a 4 foot Tiger Shark, which Alex was more than excited to shoot video of while hanging ont he swim ladder. So without our limit of snapper on board we decided to move about a mile to Tug Born again and try our luck there. Alex ended up with one more nice red snapper and a black snapper that rivaled our biggest red, see the pics above. I took one nicer red (Alex took all the big fish.....;-) ) And I took one AJ that was over the limit but yet would fit in my cooler! The wreck was okay but we all agreed that the Heron was a real nice wreck worth further exploration. Max depth 102' for 33 minutes and min temp of 72*. It turned out to be two nice dives with a rough ride back in so much for 1-3's all day...Thanks NOAA!

 

[jhayes75]

Awesome! I might cave in and purchase a speargun.

 

[MRXRAY]

We have extra. You just need to show up!

 

[denisegg]

Wow Barry!! You've become a shark magnet!! Nice video and catch guys!!

 

[Hetland]

Jason: No need to buy a gun. We're happy to have you along. You can share some fish cooking tips in trade for the use of a gun

Denise: Barry is indeed a shark magnet! See what kind of fun you miss out on in those boring old caves

 

[MRXRAY]

I was thinking the same thing in regards to Jason, or we'll catch 'em you cook 'em. Either way seems a win/win!

Jason: No need to buy a gun. We're happy to have you along. You can share some fish cooking tips in trade for the use of a gun

Denise: Barry is indeed a shark magnet! See what kind of fun you miss out on in those boring old caves

 

[Hetland]

One spears, one videos, one cooks. (Denise, Andy, and Andrew can clean up afterwards and pay for everything)

 

[jhayes75]

One spears, one videos, one cooks. (Denise, Andy, and Andrew can clean up afterwards and pay for everything)

I think this is a great plan. We will have to schedule this a few weeks after I get back. I don't think the wife would be happy if I run off to soon after being gone(Diving) for 8 days.

 

[MRXRAY]

LOL. My wife refers to this as a training issue. Someone hasn't trained there spouse well enough! I'll let you decide who needs more training. But at least your wife has let you go diving for 8 days, my wife complains when I'm gone the whole day. She has me trained just the way she likes!