Guests
Speargun,Topshotta, Ron Aipperspach (The Sprocket Man), Bob Sauls, and JR2 newcomer JD Odom. Sprocket's girlfriend Shannon came along to hook and line fish, and help celebrate his birthday which was capped off by him blowing out the candle on his jolly dog.

Sea Conditions
Flat calm except for a stretch on Saturday night and Sunday morning when it blew up to 2'-3'. The majority of the weekend was overcast and cooler than normal with rain bands coming in and out all day Saturday and Sunday. Vis in the MG was top to bottom vertically, and a very clean, bright 50'-70' horizontally. Currents were moderate, and the water temps ranged from 79*-82*.

Slay Report
Serendipity was with us this weekend as we found and verified TWO new wrecks loaded with grouper on the very last weekend before the NMFS, bootlicking lackeys of the longliners, impose their tyrannical new grouper restrictions on the citizens of Florida. We left Friday, and headed to a remote area east of the MG where on the last dive trip prior we had run over what had appeared to be a rock pile on the way back that Sunday afternoon. We had hook and lined the spot for a few minutes with several people getting instantly railed and broken off. Arriving at the spot, the depth recorder displayed a masssive Ed Sulivan (a really big show) as it did a couple weeks back. Jimmy Z and Speargun drop ascending 30 minutes later reporting that it was a very badly broken up wreck loaded with gags and red snapper. JD and myself took the cue to backdive, and were going down the jugline minutes later. The wreck was around 40' with debris scattered to one side surrounded by sand. We were both able to get nice stringers despite being pestered by the three massive jewfsih residing there. We are told that jewfish only eat other fish opportunistically, and mainly feed on crustaceans. Where in the hell are all the crabs and lobster on a small wreck surrounded by sand to feed 1000# net pounds of jewfish on a daily basis? The remaining divers did a dive on a nearby ledge that Jimmy Z had traded for, and absolutely waylaid the grouper as well.

Later that evening we were en route full steam to the MG when another massive show appears on the screen. Jimmy Z nearly went into cardiac arrest yelling at me to hit the MOB. We spun the boat back into our wake, and dropped anchor on the liveliest spot. What proceeded was one of the most epic hook and line bites of the year as gags and red snapper threw themselves on our hooks, and the back deck became a five hour session of chaos, break-offs, gaffing, yells, grunts, and a carefully choreographed dance of fighting fish while avoiding getting your feet finned by all the fish on deck, or tangled up with the person fishing next to you.

Lots were drawn the following morning with JD, Topshotta, and myself getting first crack with the speargun. We dropped down to sandy, scattered hard bottom that was swarming with baitfish, gags, mangos, and red snappers. OK, not the most picturesque dive, but I'll work with it. After shooting a few nice fish, I spotted a beefy red snapper swimming 10' of the bottom. I waited as long as could, and let loose a shot from my SS Rhino that t-boned the beast through the shoulder. It swam off, and as I gave chase, it led me directly to the reason why all these fish were here, the wreck of a 30' flat bottomed boat resting upside down with debris all around it. The other two guys had found it a couple minutes prior, and all of us went into full slay mode, filling our HOD's until we went into deco. Two backdives later, and the rest of the crew were still pulling good fish off the the wreck.

We FINALLY made it into the MG Saturday around lunchtime, and at this point the we were basically on a hog, mango, and amberjack hunt with the fish box nearly full containing our limits of gags and red snappers. U/W conditions for the rest of the weeeked were beautiful, and although the alpha male brownsnouters were not to be found we plugged the box with some nice female hogs, big mangos, and some obligatory rodeo donkeys.

En route to our last round of dives on Sunday we started smelling a funky intermittent burning smell. It became more frequent as time progressed, and then we noticed white exhaust smoke bellowing out. Engine inspection showed that we had burned a hole the starboard engine exhaust which meant it was time to start heading back to shore on the port engine. After the letting the engine cool, we wrapped the breach with duct and aluminum tape which allowed us to restart the motor taking us to a non planing 11 knot cruise speed in order to not push it. IMO, going to such a remote area as the MG, and putting divers in the water requires a vessel with twin engines as contingency for case and point issues like this.

We were back at the dock only a couple of hours later than normal, and we proceeded to commence what every diver knows in their heart is the most fun part of the trip- unloading heavy tanks and gear, getting slimed up by fish, and smelling like pure, unadulterated ass .

Slaytistics
Slaytistics are no more. Though our trip results were very impressive, I will never again publicly post any data that inevitably will be used by those whose agenda it is to take away our right to fish. In other words, I am not going to put bullets in the gun that CrabTrap and his cronies plan to shoot me with. I encourage all others to do the same, and support the FRA's boycott of any MRFSS boat ramp recreational surveys. Standing by.....

AJ Suarez