083101
Labor Day Weekend
We left the cape heading out to dive the Empire, a ship that was hit by a German U-Boat in WWII. We arrived and there was nobody else in sight. After marking the wreck Andy and I suited up for the trip to the bottom. I was diving with a gun in hopes of finding something for the table. When the wreck came into view I was completely surrounded by amberjack swimming circles, some clockwise and others anticlockwise. Mixed in were grouper and snapper of assorted sizes. When I arrived at the top of the boiler, the baitfish were so thick I couldn't see my hands. And then a school of jacks would open a lane through the bait and I could see where I was.
I made my way to the sand to the east of the ship and swam along the hull. I shot a flounder and watched Andy pull a slipper from the twisted metal. Two top prizes for the seahunters looking for something really good to eat. I decided to work towards the top of the ship and play around. From my left I saw a shadow, and turned to see what I thought was the biggest cobia I had ever seen. When it came into better view and turned sideways I realized it wasn't a cobia, rather it was a shark. Looked to be around 10' (3m) in length. The shark swam in a straight line towards me, and I know I was smelling good with a fat flounder hanging from my hip stringer. But this was my flounder, not his. I turned my spear gun around to hit the shark with the butt end but the shark turned away before it was close enough. Coming from the same direction was two more identical in size. As quick as they came, they went. Way too cool, and I didn't cheat like those guys in S FL who chum wild sharks. This was a natural encounter and I was thrilled to have seen it.
After diving the ship we headed to the beach with trolling rods. After a couple bonito we crossed something on the bottom. After marking the spot we headed to the bottom to find red snapper, red grouper, gag grouper everywhere. We put a few in the cooler for dinner. It was a long day so we headed to home.
Day two -
We were awake by 5AM, and heading to the reef by 6. Nobody was near, and we suited up for the trip to the bottom. We were surrounded by jacks and cudas almost instantly. On the bottom we were lucky to find plenty for the cooler. It was nice to see the jewfish on the reef (it will always be jewfish to me). We finished the dive and geared up for the next. It was a similar reef, with similar fish. On this dive we actually saw a large permit. We can't shoot permit can we? We didn't. I did manage to shoot a nice cobia on the way down, and it pulled me to the bottom in a hurry. Then it pulled me up, then in circles. It was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. When I finally strung him up, I then bagged a nice gag. Two more nice gags on the third dive made a nice stringer for a east coast diver on the left coast.
Yo soy el grande pistolero.
The Moose
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
