Guests
Speargun, McJaret, Gillfish, Chum Bucket, and Bginn. Thanks to Gillfish for bringing some steaks which were grilled on the ride back, to Speargun for his successful first time attempt at smoking amberjack which kept us knee deep in fish dip all weekend, and to everyone on the boat for devouring the multiple rolls of blackfin tuna sushi like a pack of triggerfish on a chum block of cut squid that I wrapped up Friday night .

Sea Conditions
Chum Bucket called me Thursday asking for words of encouragement after reading Spearboard, and I promised him that King Neptune would give us vis to make up for his group's previous two blowouts. I was sweating bullets until the first minute of my first dive on Friday when I layed out a gag.
I'd like to make an announcement: There was visiblity in the Gulf this weekend!

Off the Hatch is was a very workable 10' vis. Saturday, the area of the MG we worked started out with 10'-15' vis getting progressively better to 30' by days end, and stayed that way through Sunday. There was a very weird foamy rip line that snaked for miles on the surface we drove through Sunday that the Holy Spear-it had reported to us on the VHF. Everything on the one side of the rip had crap visibility, but on ours the steelslinging was on like Donkey-Kong. I think Speargun took some pics of this phenomena, and hopefully will post them here.

The ledges had a "dusted up" appearance with all the settled hurricane detritus so good buoyancy skills were needed to keep from getting silted out. A strong mid-water current was present during most of the trip with bottom temps below it near 80*. The seas were no factor (for once) on our trip. Except for a brief period on Saturday where it breezed up to 2'-3' , we had Capt Morgan "rum dilly-yum" drinking weather the entire weekend (after diving of course )

Slay Report
This wasn't looking good. I'm standing on the platform of the JR2 Saturday morning looking at the milky, almost fluorescent green water of the MG, and thinking about the amount of sweat that will be pouring off my body in the July sun if we have to to turn this into a hook and line trip. Despite shooting fish the day prior off the Hatch, and absolutely tearing up the mangos at night, it was not a proposition I was estatic about. I'm a steelslinger first, and a perch jerker a far second.

Jimmy Z cuts the engines as the jug drifts by the starboard side, and into the water we go. I have to get right on the jug to see the line, and I begin my descent flipping my view every couple of seconds from the line to the depth reading on my computers. Ten feet, twenty, forty, sixty, vis not looking good. Great, my head it going impact the ledge before I see it. Seventy, eighty feet. Wait a second! I can make out the dark shapes of the limerock below, and the contours of the bottom. Ninety feet. A nice gag appears at the jug weight looking at me with that "redneck dirt farmer that has just seen a UFO" look. Just as its brain registers my bubble blowing sargassum head as a mortal threat, and begins to turn into the haze, a shaft launches from my Rhino gun rolling his ass dead to rights. Will there be underwater slaying on this trip? In the immortal words of Lynyrd Skynyrd, " You Got That Right!"

We had left the day before on Friday amid a summer thunderstorm, and dove en route to the MG. Cheers arose as Chum Bucket came up from the first dive with fish reporting 10' vis, and we proceeded with everyone getting two drops until we stopped at a red snapper spot east of the MG. After putting a few scaleys on the boats, we dragged the hook to the MG, and dropped it on our mango spot for the night. The bite started late, but ended ferociously as we were able to net some of the many live squid and sardines that were attracted to the lights which produced monster hits within seconds of being sent to the bottom.

Despite the 10'-30' vis which is horrendous for the MG, we took what we could get, and were happy with it. Plenty of big red grouper, a good amount of gags for dead of summer, and a dive or two with some amberjack rodeo action. Hogs were scarce on this trip as we were remiss to head down to the area where they are at this time of the year due to the poor vis reports we were getting from the Holy Spearit. Saturday night and Sunday were a repeat of the prior twenty four hours, and we turned the bow NE to the Hatch Sunday afternoon after the last tank was emptied with steaks on the grill, and pineapple Capt Morgan and cokes in the glasses. Another summer thunderstorm at the dock bookended our adventure, and despite being sopping wet, I could only smile at the pile of fish laying on the deck. We had done what was said could not be done this weekend. "Spearfishing Impossible", did it, done it, have the t-shirt. Standing by.....


Slaytistics
Mango Snapper=104
Red Grouper=28
Gag Grouper=25
Red Snapper=18
Amberjack=8
Hogfish=9

AJ Suarez