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We're All Going To Fish
Hell, But At Least It Won't Be Fiery. JR 2
Guests
Sarasota's Team Deep Penetration never disappoints. TDP members Carl
(Gillfish) and the Original Gangsta' Siesta Key steelslinger Mary Martel
along with their buddies Ryan, Martin, and Capt. Ron Gauthier. Thanks to
Marty, Carl, and Capt Ron for bringing pork ribs, elk/vension stew, and
some kicking chili that had them lined up on the gunnnel the next
morning . My GI tract was overjoyed that it did not have to digest Jolly
Dogs!
Sea Conditions
6-8.........millimeters. Who dialed up these weather conditions?
Retention pond seas start to finish with clear skies and air temps warm
enough that I never reached for my TruWest parka once. Water temps
59*-61* with shitty 5'-10' vis in 40ish fsw and opening up to a very
clean 30'-40' in 65-90 fsw.
Slay Report
If this had been a commercial trip we would have been reaching for
the EPIRB because we would have sunk the boat with fish. Holy shit! Boat
limits of gags, hogs, and jacks by our first dive of the second day
leaving us to hunt mangos only for the rest of the trip. Ended up
topping the box with nearly the 140 snapper boat limit for epic
production in 36 hours. No need to call the taxidermist.......there
weren't really any trophies shot, but needless to say that Team Deep
Penetration, and their families, and their neighbors, AND their
co-workers will be be eating seafood this Christmas.
These boys aren't scared of a little partying either. Damn, it looked
like backstage at a Motley Crue concert circa 1989 on the ride in minus
all the groupie sluts of course.
Red Snapper
OK, I have to vent a little here. It is not hyperbole for me to say
that EVERY spot we dove was COVERED in red snapper. I'm not talking
about 16"-18" chickens either. I'm talking about 8-15 pounders by the
hundreds on EVERY spot! On one spot that Marty and I dove in just 80 fsw
I nearly hyperventilated when I saw not one but perhaps a dozen monster
sow snapper in the 25#-30# and bigger range just lazily swimming around.
A few of the guys that fished the first night and the following morning
were barely able to hoist up a handful of fish between the army of red
snapper stacked throughout the water column.
The fact that the NMFS last year imposed more restritive bag limits and
reduced the season to mere weeks while failing to acknowledge the
absolute atomic bomb population explosion of red snapper in the NE Gulf
highlights their complete and abject failure to manage this fishery in a
viable fashion.
Let's see if we're living right to actually pull off two trips in a row
for next weekend's Farewell Grouper Limit Tour. Standing by.....
We picked up a drifter on the
dock. Went by the name of Scallywag. He didn't talk much, but damn could
he shoot fish. Maybe it's the Kudana Double Barrel. Check out these bad
ass guns at
Why Scallywag? Why?!
You know that's just going to get all the spearority cyber-yentas fully
cranked up again......
Capt Ron Gauthier with
a nice gag. Capt Ron is the host of the Ocean Explorer TV show whose new
season starts this spring on FSN and Sun Sports. Check it out on
www.ocean-explorer.com
This is how Carl rolls. You got that right. C'monnnn..........
Ryan experienced a
Hatch epiphany.
Day two shooting. Marty
and Carl doing the mango tango.
After running our dive
profiles through V-Planner we realized that we were in dire need of deco
fluid.
Things got a little tense
when some of divers started showing symptoms of nitrogen induced
sobriety. That's when we had to call DAN on the satellite phone to
re-double our decompression efforts. Scallywag was in a bad way. The
only way we saved him was through the controversial Table 6 high
pressure double funnel protocol. Notice the haze on the pictures
caused by spilled deco fluid on the camera lens.
__________________
The Iron never lies to you. The Iron will always kick you the real deal.
It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go, but 200
pounds is always 200 pounds.
-Henry Rollins
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