WPB RPT Jun 10 - Ripping current

[Johnoly]

Dove WPB today between Breakers and the inlet with ScubaBoard members @jeffsky29 & @Steve Roquemore . Diving also was SteveL & BJ in the picture below.

Current was screaming at 3 knots, sinking the dive flag fully underwater when hooked off. I started out on the deep spots at a very hazy 40ft and 77 degrees. On my second tank, moved inside at 80 ft deep and it was 80 ft of viz and still screaming current. Got 10 lions and I'm starting the FWC tourney rather slow this year. For photographers reading here, this picture is proof that even this 2 inch long tiny Lion fish makes the picture look good when you do the famous Florida camera push & forced perspective. Huge Thanks to Steve & his wife BJ for inviting us today.

 

[jeffsky29]

Great day on and under the water! Steve and BJ, are always a great team to dive with. And John as usual, knocked the cover off the ball with his hot lunch of mac n cheese, hot polish sausage and chicken. Hit the spot after burning all those calories fighting a heathy current on both dives.

 

[Eric802]

Do you use a Zookeeper under water and then transfer the lion fish to a stringer? If not, how do you keep from getting jabbed?

 

[Johnoly]

Do you use a Zookeeper under water and then transfer the lion fish to a stringer? If not, how do you keep from getting jabbed?

Stringer is just for topside to keep them between dives so I can empty the bag. Like all dive gear there are plus's and minus's on every type and it just depends on the conditions you normally dive in. (Like LP vs HP vs AL tanks as an example). I own 2 different zookeepers but I only use them on no-current dives or non drifting dives. (great product too! )

But I often need to zig-zag side to side in order to cover more underwater realestate. Most of my dive gear is customized. In the case of the lionfish containment, I have a normal size lobster hotel bag. It has been modified with a thick Naugahyde (thick leather type material) sewn both sides onto the bag to prevent the spines from fully poking thru. The bag is fully open on the bottom with the containment mesh still sandwiched in between. By doing this, it allows almost 95% full water flow to enter the bag and escape out the bottom almost unrestricted. This means I'm not fighting a closed funnel creating massive drag (unless the mesh is full of lions, but that's a good problem to have).

I also don't waste precious bottom time & air cutting off the spines. Many times I also won't even remove1-2 lions on the prongs but rather just keep spearing & stacking them until the prongs are full with 3-5. Then I'll insert them all into the bag and remove them all at once. This saves an incredible amount of time and is a 300% increase in capture rates when finding a honey hole. Ohh yea, the bag still holds lobsters at the same time too so no extra gear to lug. In the picture below you can see how the water flows easily thru the fully open bottom, almost eliminating water drag.