Alright folks here is another report from the Destin area.
Two of my Buddies and a girlfriend all headed out this morning at 5am to look for a wreck I dove years ago and is still actively dove and fished daily. Its called the Miss Louise and shes a 90ft tug that was sank in the mid nineties as an artificial reef in 60ish feet of water. It has a 15 foot draft so I figured it was a very do able dive for me and my homies that regularly dive in 30 to 40 feet of water. I remember the tug being an awesome scuba dive and sitting perfectly upright complete with wheel house and her sides opened up so she would sink.
After some fumbling around trying to figure out my buddies gps/bottom finder we got the right coordinates and proceeded to drop our marker on what we thought was the spot in about 56 feet of water. Since I have the ability to dive the deepest it was up to me to try to find the wreck. The vis was not very good at all somewhere around 30 feet so it made hunting for the tug on the bottom very difficult. We made numerous drops of the marker and I followed the line down time after time hoping to run into the tug. After two or so hours of this kind or searching we decided to throw in the towel and admit defeat. Who would have thought that finding a 90 foot tug in almost 60 foot of water would be so hard.
Years ago when I had my own boat and my own gps/bottom finder I was able to find the tug in less than 30 minuets. On that trip I dropped anchor right on top of her in fact the anchor got hung on the wreck and I had to be freed up by some scuba divers. On that trip we were just fishing and didn't have the ability to free it up ourselves. Needless to say the dive boat was happy to free us up and send us on our way. I was very thankful that they showed up. In fact since then I buy most all my gear from their shop. So I guess its time to pull the old gps back out of the attic and rig up the mobile gps unit ive been wanting to build for my Kayak. I think it can be done. Its an awesome garmin that cost around a thousand bucks and I remember it being very easy to use and very accurate.
Back to the story. Even though we gave up on finding the Miss Louise after two hours of searching I was still very happy with my new personal best depth of 56 feet. I set a goal for myself around two months ago to be able to freedive the Miss Louise which I though was in 60 feet of water by the end of summer. After only two months ive accomplished my goal of getting deep enough I just gotta find the wreck before the end of the season so I can solidify my goal and say ive done it. While searching for the wreck today I did dive to the bottom in 56 feet of water but most drops id hang about ten feet off the bottom and cover some ground hoping to run into the tug. So id say if we would have found it I would have been able to hunt for fish and hang on the wreck.
Once we gave up on the tug we hit up a pump house near by that is in 25 feet of water and easy to spot from the surface. We all got in the water, even Johns girlfriend, to get a look around. As soon as I slip in the water I was being circled by a school of small amberjack too small to shoot. I was able to line up a shot on some spade fish and somehow managed to spear two spades with one shot. It was pretty dang funny everyone in the water was laughing pretty hard. We were all amazed at the lucky shot. My favorite thing about the pump house is that its always covered in tropicals and it didnt disappoint today.
After that spot we moved over to the west jetty to see what was there. We saw a ton of mangrove snapper and various other fishes.
The jetty was pretty bad with jellies so we motored on into the bay and headed for the Mid Bay bridge to get some sheepies. We weren't about to go home with no lunch in the boat.
So we hit a few pilings and had little to no luck only getting a couple small but legal sheepshead. Even my buddy John got one using his Hawaiian sling. He refused to use my gun while he was in the water. He was determined to get one using his own gear and methods. We must have been in the water at the wrong time because there were very few sheepies and all pretty small. So we changed our game plan and headed for the center of the mid bay bridge to see what it held. Up untill now we have been on all the pilings in shallower water just like last week but on the other end of the bridge. Either way we headed for the middle to see what was there. We were in luck and started seeing more fish. Joey was the first to find them and land a fish. I didnt see the fish he shot due to me stalking my own school of sheepies. The biggest one in the school turned its side to me but my gun was not aimed anywhere in the right direction to get a shot off, I was sure I was going to loose him in the brown murk. My gun is over 60 inches long and needs to pointed in the general direction of whatever im going to shoot to get aimed in quickly. A smaller gun would be nice at times. I got a shot off on the biggest one in the school as he was swimming down and away from me almost out of sight. It was a good distance away and a would be a long shot to hit him. But by sheer luck and a little bit of skill I nailed him in the top right of the head and out the cheek area. He put up a pretty good struggle darting down out of sight into the brown water. Once I got him up to sight range i was stoked to see that it is by far the biggest sheepie I have shot to date. So thinking im the man and have landed the biggest fish of the day I swim back over to the boat to show him off. Everyone is back on the boat and excited to see my fish. As I toss him in the I see Joeys fish and it dwarfs mine. As usual he out does me and steals my thunder ha ha ha
. We decided to call it a day with 5 fish in the boat and head home.
It was a fun day on the water for everyone heres a couple pics of the big ones. The smaller fish in Joeys right hand is around 14 inches it adds scale.
And heres my fish. Notice no holes, the shot went in the top of the head and out the other cheek.
Thanks for reading!!!!
Two of my Buddies and a girlfriend all headed out this morning at 5am to look for a wreck I dove years ago and is still actively dove and fished daily. Its called the Miss Louise and shes a 90ft tug that was sank in the mid nineties as an artificial reef in 60ish feet of water. It has a 15 foot draft so I figured it was a very do able dive for me and my homies that regularly dive in 30 to 40 feet of water. I remember the tug being an awesome scuba dive and sitting perfectly upright complete with wheel house and her sides opened up so she would sink.
After some fumbling around trying to figure out my buddies gps/bottom finder we got the right coordinates and proceeded to drop our marker on what we thought was the spot in about 56 feet of water. Since I have the ability to dive the deepest it was up to me to try to find the wreck. The vis was not very good at all somewhere around 30 feet so it made hunting for the tug on the bottom very difficult. We made numerous drops of the marker and I followed the line down time after time hoping to run into the tug. After two or so hours of this kind or searching we decided to throw in the towel and admit defeat. Who would have thought that finding a 90 foot tug in almost 60 foot of water would be so hard.
Years ago when I had my own boat and my own gps/bottom finder I was able to find the tug in less than 30 minuets. On that trip I dropped anchor right on top of her in fact the anchor got hung on the wreck and I had to be freed up by some scuba divers. On that trip we were just fishing and didn't have the ability to free it up ourselves. Needless to say the dive boat was happy to free us up and send us on our way. I was very thankful that they showed up. In fact since then I buy most all my gear from their shop. So I guess its time to pull the old gps back out of the attic and rig up the mobile gps unit ive been wanting to build for my Kayak. I think it can be done. Its an awesome garmin that cost around a thousand bucks and I remember it being very easy to use and very accurate.
Back to the story. Even though we gave up on finding the Miss Louise after two hours of searching I was still very happy with my new personal best depth of 56 feet. I set a goal for myself around two months ago to be able to freedive the Miss Louise which I though was in 60 feet of water by the end of summer. After only two months ive accomplished my goal of getting deep enough I just gotta find the wreck before the end of the season so I can solidify my goal and say ive done it. While searching for the wreck today I did dive to the bottom in 56 feet of water but most drops id hang about ten feet off the bottom and cover some ground hoping to run into the tug. So id say if we would have found it I would have been able to hunt for fish and hang on the wreck.
Once we gave up on the tug we hit up a pump house near by that is in 25 feet of water and easy to spot from the surface. We all got in the water, even Johns girlfriend, to get a look around. As soon as I slip in the water I was being circled by a school of small amberjack too small to shoot. I was able to line up a shot on some spade fish and somehow managed to spear two spades with one shot. It was pretty dang funny everyone in the water was laughing pretty hard. We were all amazed at the lucky shot. My favorite thing about the pump house is that its always covered in tropicals and it didnt disappoint today.
After that spot we moved over to the west jetty to see what was there. We saw a ton of mangrove snapper and various other fishes.
The jetty was pretty bad with jellies so we motored on into the bay and headed for the Mid Bay bridge to get some sheepies. We weren't about to go home with no lunch in the boat.
It was a fun day on the water for everyone heres a couple pics of the big ones. The smaller fish in Joeys right hand is around 14 inches it adds scale.
And heres my fish. Notice no holes, the shot went in the top of the head and out the other cheek.
Thanks for reading!!!!
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