Party Like A Rock Pile Star! Jolly Rogers 2
Guests
Roll out the fish blood stained red carpet for the A-listers in
Sarasota's Team Deep Penetration......TrailsEnd (Sam), the incomparable
Marty Martel, Gillfish (Carl), Inhognito (Jason M), and Jason Angelo who
is one of the divers in Marty's dive service. Also along for some hook
and lining was long time JR2 friend Army Seargant Doug Black who just
completed two tours of duty in Iraq. Major thanks to Sam for bringing
some absolutely incredible venison chili and Carolina style pulled pork
for dinner, and to Carl for his smoked amberjack dip. I am beginning to
wonder why our guests seem to be bringing dinner on every trip lately .
C'mon people Jolly Dogs don't eat themselves!
Sea Conditions
Man, I was a little apprehensive hearing the flag poles ringing upon
arrival at the marina. Despite the early morning howling wind, the seas
on the first day were very manageable 3'-4' left over swells that died
out as the day progressed. What was odd was the amount of surge in as
much as 80 fsw on the first few dives which felt like we diving right
off of a beach. Later that night we experienced different weather
phenomena which changed it seemed like every hour......seas picking up,
then thick swirling Scotland style fog banks, massive thunderstorms with
lightning flashing through the fog, and heavy monsoon-like rain followed
by eerie calm. Our last day gave us flat seas and some heavy fog that
luckily burnt off by mid-day. Vis was top to bottom on almost every spot
with water temps at 63*-64*.
Slay Report
It is pretty much a waste of time at this point to do a full three
day trip. Despite this being only a four tank single overnighter we were
pretty much left as we did a couple of weeks ago to shooting mangos and
triggers on our last dive. Limits of mainly gag grouper, but with a few
hefty inshore reds thrown in along with hogfish were easily obtained. A
few more and bigger jacks were harvested than the last trip, but we had
to really take a few minutes to pick out bigger ones through the schools
of smaller pups that were swarming on all the wrecks and a couple of the
rock piles. The Hatch is just plain lit up right now.....
Jason A, Marty and I slap that
ass on the first dive of the trip. Marty and yours truly do it again on
the second dive and pose for the camera with some f*cked up mugs.
We have been seeing some bigger
red grouper regularly off the rock piles that would have been unheard of
just a couple of years ago. Jason A showcases his toad.
Marty and Sam
Carl, Jason M, and I dropped in
a rock pile right as the sun was dipping below the horizon. What we
encountered was nothing less than incredible.....HUNDREDS (absolutely no
exaggeration) of hogfish swarming everywhere with many of them being
solid inshore male brownsnouters. We did what we could in the ten
minutes before it went into full night dive conditions although Carl's
HID light probably bought us a couple extra shots. Carl and Jason show
off their stringers.....no amount of remediation would make mine SFP
friendly .
Jason M and I dropped in on a
big rock pile the second day that was separated a sand valley. We each
grabbed a section and proceeded to sling heavy steel on the loaded fish
population. I holed up a big gag in a deep undercut right at the end of
my dive, and not having a line shaft I moved the jug weight to mark the
exact spot so that a back dive team could dig out the fish. Right as I
was getting ready to ascend it happened....THREE 7'-8' fully amped dusky
sharks bum rushed me out of nowhere. These guys weren't doing the normal
pass and go and pure instinct took over. I ended up having no choice but
to freeshaft one, then another, and had the last one circle me (at a
distance) to the surface before breaking off. What was weird was how
calm I was during the whole episode because despite having a shit pile
of dives under my belt seeing any shark still give me the willies. Jason
M subsequently reported seeing a shark too, but it was not as
aggressive. Jason A and Marty aggreed to do the back dive (Marty
reluctantly ) where they saw yet another shark, and got my gag along
with some more fish. Jim let me know (after the fact) that this was the
same spot that Makanic (Steve) also from Sarasota and I were chased out
of the water by sharks a year or two ago. Thanks skipper......
I have had to shoot two sharks in one day, but never two in one dive.
Here is my well earned HOD. Jason M either got so excited by the dive or
so overcome with the venison chili that it looks like he is about to
release a neoprene vaporizing shart in the picture :
Jason A was using his brand new
Wong on this trip, and with the amount of targets available found out
the hard way that the gun is buoyant with no shafts in it......TWICE.
Normally if we see a gun float to the surface, we pick it up, hide it on
the boat, and let the frantic diver sweat it out for a while before
clueing him in, but this time we were nice to give it right back so he
could finish his dives. The THIRD time that this happened was too much
to bear . Here we see Jason desperately scouring the horizon for his
"lost" Wong minutes before "finding" it down below in the shower .
Marty was also using a new gun
on this trip.....a custom double barrel with wahoo finish made by
Sarasota spearfisherman Stu Daneman. By the looks of it the gun shoots
pretty well. Each of these are stringers from separate dives. Homey
don't play those reindeer picture games
At the end of the trip when the
dive bag is packed and the bow is pointed towards the beach most
charters go into hypersleep style suspended animation....not Team Deep
Penetration. They realize that to mitigate the crushing effects of
nitrogen and cold water one has to imbibe plenty of fermented deco fluid
administered through a pressurized high volume delivery vehicle. Here we
see Marty, Jason, Carl (with some spillage), and myself using the
miracle of barley, yeast, hops, and malt to cure what ails us. Sam also
was in on the deco treatment but I f*cked up his picture. Post up your
pic if you have one from another camera!
Here are some close ups of
Marty's "Bad Ass Double Barrel" which was customized with a pelagic blue
wahoo finish. The gun has two fully enclosed tracks each with its own
trigger pull which shoots 66" Riffe style shafts. The second shaft which
is set up below the stock allows you to shoot a second time in seconds
without reloading. I saw Marty use this to put a kill shot on an
amberjack so quickly it looked like he shot two shafts simultaneously.
Stu Daneman has been making spearguns for years but is now ready to go
into full production. Call him at 941-232-5735 for pricing, details, or
to place an order......just please mention that I sent you. Not that I
would want a free gun for referrals or anything. Mmmmmm OK .
