Trip to the Black Thorne

[GulfCoastdiver]

We headed out of john’s pass about 745 Tuesday morning and headed for the Sheridan, not a bad ride with 2’ seas but there were rolling steady and nicely spaced. It was a 45min ride and when we got there, there was a charter fishing boat trolling around the buoy and when they saw the tanks in the bad of my boat the captain had a few word for us, so we slowly looked around for the Black Thorne, I knew it was west of the Sheridan but, never could find it. As luck would have it we ran right over looking piece of ground with about a 15’ show on the bottom finder so I dropped the anchor and in we went. As we headed down the anchor line (Marykate, Kathleen and I) I started having trouble with my mask and signaled that I was going u to change my mask, five minutes later I was at the end of the anchor line and the anchor was sitting right on the edge of the Black Thorne, nice. We spent 45 minutes wondering around this big wreck, there was a lot of wreckage scattered around the bottom and a ton of fish, the Vis was at least 60’ vertical and 25’ to 30’ horizontal. We ran into a small school of barracuda and big Jew fish and a big sting ray, and more arrow crabs than I’ve ever seen before. We made 2 dives there 45min and 50min with 80' max depth.

This guy swam right infront of Kathleen.

Marykate

Nice Vis

I think these are eggs?

Sea cucumber

More to come, video too.

 

[GulfCoastdiver]

When we where doing our safety stop at 18' we could see the Jew fish on the bottom, right under us, and he stayed under us the hole time, scarry, I've heard of them grabbing divers and pulling them down, and he was a big boy...

You looking at me, huh?

The Ray Video


Jew fish

 

[aquajon]

awesome pics and i am jelous you can get out midweek for diving. the one pic that you thought was eggs is really a algea green bubble algea is what we call it in our reef tanks.. kind of invasive but not to bad...

 

[GulfCoastdiver]

awesome pics and i am jelous you can get out midweek for diving. the one pic that you thought was eggs is really a algea green bubble algea is what we call it in our reef tanks.. kind of invasive but not to bad...

Cool, thanks for the info. Just remember when everone else is out on the weekend, I am working...

 

[Sakik]

I went out to the Sheridan on Sunday. H Vis was probably 20-25'. The sealife on the wreck was sparse. No jewfish to be found inside or out either.

 

[tampausmc]

I see some pics of the little groupers....were there any big ones out there? other then the goliaths (since i can't shoot them). I had a run in with a barracuda last weekend....he was coming at me face first with his mouth open and would get within about 3 feet and turn and swim around me. I had a stringer of fish and he was definitely hungry. I poked at him with my speargun and he moved away then came right back, so i ended up shooting him. He was a nice size one though.

Looks like you had a good dive though....i want to go back out to the sheridan but i've been a couple times and we struggle to find it....crazy for the size of it. I've only been out there once....

 

[GulfCoastdiver]

I see some pics of the little groupers....were there any big ones out there? other then the goliaths (since i can't shoot them). I had a run in with a barracuda last weekend....he was coming at me face first with his mouth open and would get within about 3 feet and turn and swim around me. I had a stringer of fish and he was definitely hungry. I poked at him with my speargun and he moved away then came right back, so i ended up shooting him. He was a nice size one though.

Looks like you had a good dive though....i want to go back out to the sheridan but i've been a couple times and we struggle to find it....crazy for the size of it. I've only been out there once....

I didn't see any grouper big enough to shoot. No hogs now that I think about it, but there were some nice size snapper. The buoy is back so its not too hard to find.

 

[Sakik]

....i want to go back out to the sheridan but i've been a couple times and we struggle to find it....crazy for the size of it. I've only been out there once....

The buoy (big yellow one) for Pinellas #2 is roughly 75-100yds NE from the Sheridan. So just find the buoy and head SW till you see it on the sounder. The wreck lies E to W. Everytime I've been out there the vis was always good enough to see the top of the ship.

 

[K Mejean]

Nice pics Bro. Now I really wish I had been out there. I still haven't ever made it to that wreck. One of these days. Oh yeah thanks again for the tanks. I will be putting them to good use very soon.

 

[GulfCoastdiver]

Nice pics Bro. Now I really wish I had been out there. I still haven't ever made it to that wreck. One of these days. Oh yeah thanks again for the tanks. I will be putting them to good use very soon.

Maybe one day you can call off and head out there with us.