Well I went on a "play trip" for a change last week. On monday we had a half day charter so when we got back we decided to go offshore. By the time we had everyone rounded up and the boat reloaded it was 4:00 in the afternoon.
The grill was on the boat so we said what the hell....we have no trip tommorrow, lets go stay the night at the island and go offshore in the morning. When we made it to Horn Island it was unusually calm so we vetoed the barbeque and continued south. Shortly after dark we came to a jack-up rig known as the Mr. Gus. Our destination was a rig to the east of here but we could not see it(turns out it was not light up for some reason???) But we made our way to another rig to the south.
Time to fish! Well this particular rig was swarming with sharks on this night. We caught silky's, sand sharks, bulls, and something about 7+ ft that broke a rod. Enough for the night. Good thing we brought the filet mignon!
At daybreak we started scanning the horizon for our initial target and low and behold, there it was. The 175-A. We were tied up by 6:45 and had our first AJ on the hook by 6:50. I handled the gaffing duties as I was planning. You see, I had brought my freedive gear...
After everyone caught their fish and released another, I got the tools together. No wetsuit today boys, the water was a balmy 82. I decided to use a single float/breakaway setup and hopped in. Everyone had asked me a million questions about freedive spearing the day before and I think they were more excited than I was. The women on board were sure some unseen monster was gong to eat me while I floated around in the chum slick. The men could not fathom getting in the water with no tanks.
Breathing up in the chumslick the water was a dirty green...about 10ft of vis. I made my first dive and found a reverse thermocline at 30ft where the warm water opened up to about 25 ft of vis. Oh yeah I almost forgot...as soon as I got in the "cleaner" water I saw amberjack's...hundreds of them. They all looked about the same so I picked what I thought was the biggest and let him have it...a perfect kill shot right through the spine. Not a quiver or shake. I hit the surface and everyone looked concerned..."Whats wrong Mike?" apparently they were timing me and I had been down a whopping 18 sec! "Well pull this fish into the boat and I will tell you the story"
Shortly thereafter the winds picked up and the one foot seas went to a steady 4-6 with an occassional 8 thrown in for good measure and we wisely decided to made the long 60 mi treck home....
The grill was on the boat so we said what the hell....we have no trip tommorrow, lets go stay the night at the island and go offshore in the morning. When we made it to Horn Island it was unusually calm so we vetoed the barbeque and continued south. Shortly after dark we came to a jack-up rig known as the Mr. Gus. Our destination was a rig to the east of here but we could not see it(turns out it was not light up for some reason???) But we made our way to another rig to the south.
Time to fish! Well this particular rig was swarming with sharks on this night. We caught silky's, sand sharks, bulls, and something about 7+ ft that broke a rod. Enough for the night. Good thing we brought the filet mignon!
At daybreak we started scanning the horizon for our initial target and low and behold, there it was. The 175-A. We were tied up by 6:45 and had our first AJ on the hook by 6:50. I handled the gaffing duties as I was planning. You see, I had brought my freedive gear...
After everyone caught their fish and released another, I got the tools together. No wetsuit today boys, the water was a balmy 82. I decided to use a single float/breakaway setup and hopped in. Everyone had asked me a million questions about freedive spearing the day before and I think they were more excited than I was. The women on board were sure some unseen monster was gong to eat me while I floated around in the chum slick. The men could not fathom getting in the water with no tanks.
Breathing up in the chumslick the water was a dirty green...about 10ft of vis. I made my first dive and found a reverse thermocline at 30ft where the warm water opened up to about 25 ft of vis. Oh yeah I almost forgot...as soon as I got in the "cleaner" water I saw amberjack's...hundreds of them. They all looked about the same so I picked what I thought was the biggest and let him have it...a perfect kill shot right through the spine. Not a quiver or shake. I hit the surface and everyone looked concerned..."Whats wrong Mike?" apparently they were timing me and I had been down a whopping 18 sec! "Well pull this fish into the boat and I will tell you the story"
Shortly thereafter the winds picked up and the one foot seas went to a steady 4-6 with an occassional 8 thrown in for good measure and we wisely decided to made the long 60 mi treck home....
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