Full Metal Freeshaft. Jolly Rogers 2

Guests
Another Sarasota crew organized by Makanic (Steve) who brought along his daughter Stephanie, Herc83 (Mike), Stu, and Mike. Stu makes a sharp looking custom enclosed track gun which shoots a Biller shaft that many Sarasota spearos use. Maybe someone ought to tell him to register on Spearboard, and he might be surprised at the amount of new business he would probably get.

Weather
We haven't had a clear weather picture on a charter in I don't know how long, and this trip was no different as we waited on every forecast update until literally the night before. The end result was that we had to scrap the MG, and go in Plan B mode off the Hatch for a single overnighter. We still left in a 3'-4' sea, but thankfully it progessively laid down to glorious perfection by evening. Of course that was too much of a good thing, and in the dead of night the the wind started howling 20 knots as if someone had flipped a switch. We awoke to a very sloppy 4'-5' with plenty of 6 footers thrown which curtailed our diving somewhat on the last day. Water temps are inching up at 65*, and vis ranged from 50' to top to bottom.

Slay Report
The fish looked all of 23#-25#, and had holed itself at the very back of a deep undercut in the rock pile. Sitting there plain as day with a freeshaft sticking out of its flank, I couldn't even come close the fish, reaching in as far in as my gear would allow trying to drag the shaft closer with my outstrected speargun. I went to the top of the rock where a deep vertical crack allowed me to see a glimpse of the shaft 5' below. I emptied my stringer stuffing all the fish under crevices to make sure they didn't float away, and used it to loop under the shaft, but could not get the leverage to pull it parallel to the crack to lift the fish out. Frustrated beyond belief, I surfaced and announced to the crew that the big fish of the trip was waiting down there for whomever wanted to be guided to it for an easy lineshaft shot. Makanic jumped at the offer, and he followed yours truly Gunga Din extraordinaire for the back dive. We went down the jug line on the opposite side of the rock pile that we needed to be at, and immediately saw something you don't see off the Hatch in 70 fsw...... a monster dusky shark in the 10' range along with two others easily 7'-8'. These three guys were fully amped with pecs fins down, swimming erratically, and literally sniffing like dogs right over the area where the fish was holed up. In one fluid motion the 7.62 mm goes on the shaft, the international shark signal is given followed by the let's get the f*ck out of here signal. Score one for the sharks....

Other than that episode, the trip was what one would expect diving off the Hatch this time of year, and all the usual suspects were harvested in abundance except for amberjack which have probably moved out deeper than the 65-85 fsw depths we were diving. We did blow out a fuel injector on the starboard engine the second day knocking us back to one motor at 8-10 knots which combined with the sloppy seas slowed down our dive rotations. Shit happens even with the most meticulously maintained vessels like the JR2, and at least you always make it back on one engine if you have twins. Collect charter money, and hand it right to the mechanic. That's why the brand of boat I own is an OPB- Other Person's Boat. Standing by....