Hello all SEAHUNTERS!
I finally had a day to do a little
personal hunting. We left the inlet at
sun up, and headed toward the wreck called Little Steevie. The depth was
97ft to the sand and there were signs of life on the color scope. I geared up
and gave the dive briefing to my buddy who is a new seahunter. We had no
idea what to expect for conditions, so I decided to carry the 60 AB Biller
freeshaft and hope for the best. The vis was around 40ft, and I sighted a
nice grouper destined for the cooler. After I collected him and reloaded, I
looked up to see a school of red snapper coming down from above. I took the
largest one, which was about 15lbs, and put him on the stringer. As quick as
I reloaded, there was another grouper looking right at me about 15ft off the
structure and he became one more on the stringer. I reloaded once more to
shoot a big flounder and add him to my collection. As I was reloading, a
school of at least 12 cobia came calling with a stingray bigger than my
car. I couldn't get the gun reloaded quick enough, and before I knew it, they
were
gone. Bummer. After a three-minute stop, I surfaced with a smile.
Dive two was on a ledge I dive often, and
I put three bugs in the bag. It
looked picked over pretty good, and I thank the Deland Boys for that. Those
guys are good hunters and they hit that ledge pretty hard. The vis was down
to thirty feet.
Dive three was on a little ledge I call
the Promised Land. I saw an octopus
with a head the size of Tony's. The vis was around 8 to 10 and dark. I have
never seen as many amberjack in one place in my entire life. I collected
another red snapper, this one bigger than the first. I was lucky to have had
such a broadside shot, even though I was reluctant to shoot with a
freeshaft. Fortunately, the fish quivered and fell to the sand graveyard dead
because the shaft cut
the spine. I ran the ledge out to the end and called it a good day.
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