Guests
Bubblejunkie, Gary H, Gorilla Diver, Ascotgregory, and Holy Spearit
Platinum VIP client Glenn Davis.
Sea Conditions
With the exception of our second dive day which was mostly 2'-3' the
entire trip was calm. Vis ranged wildly from 20' all the way to top to
bottom depending on the dive site, and water temps were 76*-77*. New
moon currents were a pain in the ass for diving and hook/line fishing.
Slay Report
Man, I was just thinking the other day that I have been doing this
JR2 gimmick a long time......a looooong time. I frequently get asked by
returning guests if I remember specific instances from their past trips,
and more often than I care to admit the answer is no. These trips have a
tendency to meld together in much the same way as Capt Jimmy Z's
vaudeville style jokes. So in an effort to remember as much about this
trip as possible I present to you the Top Ten Things I'll Remember About
This Trip (prettty original huh?).
10. Descending on my first dive of the trip off the Hatch with Gary H,
and being met midwater by a massive school of MG size mangos and red
snappers. After "herding" the school to the bottom launching a freeshaft
into a large snapper, and almost hyperventilating at the amount of
targets on this virgin dive site that was given to Jimmy Z by a
commercial fishing buddy who wated us to retrieve his lost anchor. Sorry
dude, we'll get the anchor next time...
9. What in the hell is that growing on the bottom? There were large
areas of the MG that were completely covered with a weird green algae
that almost looked like intestines.
8. Ascotgregory brought his ten year old daughter Rae who was as behaved
as I have ever seen a ten year old. She never complained once, and
caught a few fish on hook and line. Oh, and she loves Jolly Dogs and
Spaghetti-O's too.
7. Bubblejunkie always has a positive attitude, is perpetually cheerful,
and looks on the bright side when his dive doesn't go as planned . Wait,
I think I hallucinated that when I was smoking Salvia the other day.....
6. Staying awake the first night until 4AM after getting only four hours
of sleep the night before because the king mackerel were going off, and
waking three hours later raring to go. Thinking to myself that the dudes
on The Deadliest Catch are a bunch of pussies, and that they need to go
on a JR2 trip for the real deal.
5. Staying awake until 5AM the second night after diving hard all day
because the mangos were absolutely going off, and waking up a couple
hours later feeling as if I have been beaten for hours by circus carnies
with meat tenderizing mallets. Those dudes on The Dealiest Catch are
some hardcore motherf*ckers.....
4. Watching Jimmy Z do a full ass over elbow, cartoon style slip on a
banana peel type fall on the deck while horsing around reeling in a big
mango. The knot on his back was about the size of a small apple....
3. Kneeling on the ledge while stringing yet another mango, and looking
down to realize that the biggest spotted moray eel I have ever seen in
my life is literally sitting on my lap mere centimeters away fom my
Cuban man junk. Instinctively realizing that a marine eel swinging from
my meat whistle would not be a good thing, and calmly bashing the
denzien of the deep in the skull with the butt of my gun sending it
scampering away.
2. Stoning a good size amberjack in 135 fsw, and watching a Mini Cooper
size jewfish emerge from a cave of the very large ledge we were diving
swallowing my fish leaving only the tail sticking out of its mouth.
And the number one thing I'll remember about this dive trip....
1. Epic wakeboard gunnel hunch riding an Igloo cooler lid while cruising
at 17 knots.
Standing by.......
AJ Suarez
Got paid a little visit from the
FWC offshore patrol boat Guardian out of Crystal River. After a cursory
examination of the fish box and vessel documentation we showed them our
fish tally sheet separated by diver and by species which they were
impresed by. My advice to you.....keep a running tally of everything you
have harvested by diver. One of the officers seemed pretty fascinated
with a large rock hind grouper that we had shot. No size limit, but they
count against your grouper bag.
