Guests
Kitefisherman, zds3488, CamTpa, and Ron Aipperspach (aka-The Sprocket Man) who is probably the biggest lurker on SB!! Crew consisted of Freeshaft and myself.

Sea Conditions
Pick your poison. Your choice of Bahamas blue vis, and ledges covered with gumbo (different algae species than inshore, but just as nasty), or 5'-10' vis murk layers from the surface down to 60 fsw with a 10 degree thermocline just below. Add the ripping currents of a new moon, and you have some challenging steelslinging conditions. The seas were flat calm start to finish though.


Crouching Mango, Hidden Cuda
Left the dock Friday afternoon, and steamed directly to the MG whereupon a fair mango bite was conducted. With one less man on this trip we divided into two teams instead of the usual three which allowed for quicker rotations. We needed it because many of the areas that were loaded with fish just a few weeks earlier showed blank on the depth recorder. Kite, Sprocket, and myself dove the MG Barge on Sat afternoon which was loaded with gags who vamoosed in the structure after the first couple of volleys took down their brethren. We finished the dive picking out the biggest amberjacks which were awarded a ride to the surface world.

Barracuda you ask? Here goes. Saturday night we got into a full blown summer mango bite with all those putting their time on the rail getting plenty of big grovers. It was late, and only Sprocket, Freeshaft, and myself were left standing. Sprocket, fishing on the port stern corner, started reeling up another grover when halfway up it got hit by a cuda. This bastard had already chomped on several fish earlier, but this time his luck ran out, and got snagged up in the double hooks. So we have Sprocket fighting the cuda on the port stern corner, Freeshaft watching a few feet behind, and myself standing between the fishbox and the cabin door with a front row view of the bizarre action that seemed to have taken place in Matrix "bullet-time" seconds later. The cuda launches out of the water, and with jaws audibly clacking, makes a trajectory right at Freeshaft's face. Freeshaft ducks just enough so that the cuda misses so close that the top of his hair was lifted up by the fish. It continued it's arc by clearing the gunrack on the starboard side, and lands in the water 10' away. The JR2 has a 16' beam which made the jump 25'+ long, and 6'-8' high. Amazingly, Sprocket had whipped his pole back like a fly rod which prevented the line from snapping, and still had the fish on after the jump. A few minutes later, the fish was landed, and rest assured that Freeshaft carefully revived and released the cuda much like the starched Columbia shirt guys do on the ESPN2 Sat morning fishing shows. If you believe that then I've got a Groundskeeper charter I'm putting together.......

Sunday's diving continued with more of the same. Certainly not a record breaking trip, but as usual we ended up with some nice fish in the box. CamTpa got his personal record hog, and is excited to return with his son once the Winter Steinhatchee trip schedule is released. Kitefisherman was top dog this weekend perservering with nice stringers on every dive. I hope the streak continues for you next weekend in the Southern Open! Headed back to the Hatch Sunday afternoon in retention pond seas dining on fresh sushi rolls, seviche, smoked amberjack dip, and mojo roasted pork sandwiches. Freeshaft's pork butt is the bomb! Standing by.

Pics to be posted by Kitefisherman later today. The wife absconded the digital this weekend so thanks to Kite for being fill-in trip photographer.

Slaytistics
Note that we had six divers as opposed to the usual seven
Grovers-100
Grouper-18
Hogfish-19
Amberjack-12
Cuda- 1 Severely maimed. Possible hate-crime currently under investigation .

AJ Suarez