Guests
JaxReefSounder, Spearboard Paul, Tally_Luke, Blueblood, and Michael Word. A mixed crew with a couple JR2 first timers.

Sea Conditions
There is no vis in the MG they said!! There is no vis in the MG? Don't believe the hype. There is vis as long as you know where to go, and there was a distinct demarcation line. Dive on the "good" side and you had 10'-30' (albeit horrible for the MG) of shootable vis. Dive on the "bad" side, and it was like being in a particulate snowstorm. We would be lucky to have 5' vis once you descended through the crystal clear water on top and descended into the final 20'-30' below the thermocline. This should make for a very interesting SBO. Water temps are still in the high 60's which is still pretty cold for this time of year. We couldn't complain about the seas though. FLAT CALM throughout the trip until we were literally picking up the jug to head for the beach on the last day when the wind and seas picked up.


Slay Report
Note to self: It is never advisable to go freediving without a weight belt and snorkel immediately after a tank dive just because you are two jacks short of a boat limit, and you have a school of them merrily swimming off the stern 30' below. If you do, you will invariably see a nice 30ish# class fish right at the point when you need to surface for air. The fish will begin to swim away instinctively causing you to chase after it. You will then shoot the amberjack with your single wrap mono line gun (double note to self: do not shoot fish while freediving with single wrap mono line gun) performing a classic "freediver shot" (full window body shot). The amberjack after experiencing the indignity of having a 60" shaft of stainless protruding from its viscera will commence thrashing about wildly, and sounding for the bottom like a German U-boat under a depth charge barrage. Your progress to the surface will abruptly stop as if your head had struck an invisible ceiling. You will begin an apneatic tug-of-war while cartoon stars and cuckoo birds orbit your head, kicking and dog paddling to the surface like a poodle that has been thrown into the pool. Seconds before letting go of your gun you will actually make it up tasting sweet surface air, and yell at Jimmy Z standing on the dive platform to grab the motherf*cking gun from your hands. End note to self.

That's right, the trip started with a littered deck of amberjack on the first dive along with the usual inshore denizens. Spearing in the MG the following day produced a slow but steady pick influenced greatly by the tempermental vis, and the absolute lack of bait fish which should have been all over the ledges right now. We picked up our red snapper very quickly hook and lining the second night, and left them chewing with this being the first trip under the new draconian limits. Tally_Luke and Spearboard Paul then proceeded to bolt on some nitrox, and commenced the nocturnal slingfest. More slaying ensued the following day topping the box off with a few nice hogs, lots of scamp, red groupers, and a some gags. Hopefully we'll get the guys back out soon when conditions are not as challenging, and they actually get the full panorama of the awesome structure in the Middle Grounds. I'm down in the basement for the next week and a half to prepare myself mentally, physically, and spirtually for the upcoming Spearboard Open. Prepare myself that is for the balls to the walls steelslinging.......and the beer funnels. Standing by.
 

AJ Suarez
 

Coming from a strict fundamental religious background I could not let this male and female hogfish fornicate before me on the ledge. It was the will of God that my freeshaft cleansed their sin of adultery

No I'm not going to let them get me Lord
Not going to let them get the MIDNIGHT DIVERS!

(That's lyrics to an Allman Brothers song if you have just read this and are scratching your head)

Tally_Luke and Spearboard Paul hulked the f*ck up, and did a night dive on a wreck in 120 fsw during the sharkiest time of the year in the Gulf. One hundred bonus man points!

 

Testimonial

Now he tells me it is the sharkiest time of the year in the grounds...

Well I will tell you guys I had a blast this weekend on the JR2, the crew was great and discussing politics with Jim was a continual source of fun for all. I got the chance to eat all sorts of weird things; Jolly Fish Dip, Jolly Dogs and Jolly Balls...do I really want to even know what was in those meatballs AJ?

I did indeed enjoy myself, I got the fish I was after...snapper, scamp and a nice hog (plus the bonus grouper and AJs) and I got to see some really nice structure despite the spotty vis. The vis was weird, on our night dive it was crystal clear top to bottom, in some of the rock structure it looked like you were swimming through whale snot (or worse). Most of the vis was in the 20-30 foot range which made for good shooting if not perfect recreational diving.

I will also attest to what AJ said about the snapper...We could have loaded the boat on hook and line that night, we finally stopped because we could not catch anything but a red snapper. When Paul and I dropped down the jug on that spot we went right through for all intents and purposes a "bait ball" of red snapper all up in the water column. Once I hit the ground I had a very very hard time not plugging a couple more. But I made myself shoot grouper...until I was about out of air then Paul and I headed for the boat.

All told I think I had about 6-8 mangos, 4 ARS, 2 red grouper, 5 or 6 gags, 3 scamps and the one nice hog (I missed chances to shoot a couple more in the vis...including the nice one AJ got..I am still pissed I let him get away, but AJ slammed him so all is well). I had more chances to shoot mangos and gags but honestly I was there to shoot hogs, scamp and red snapper first so I passed up a few smaller legal gags and mangos.

Anyway AJ and Jim were a great crew, I highly recommend these guys to anyone wanting to get a trip out. The other paying "crew" were great to be around and it was good to meet some of the folks from the board and make some connections, hopefully we can all get together for other dives and trips.


Luke