Another nice Bahamas trip

[frogman]

We went for a four day trip to the Berry Island chain north of Andros in the Bahamas. The weather was rather rough but we managed some nice fish, lobster and conch. I shot this 10 lb hogfish in 57 fsw using a hawaiian sling. He took off and holed up but I was able to find it before the reef sharks that were cruising the area

 

[frogman]

I also got my PB (deepest fish) on sling: This nice yellowfin grouper. Isn't he beautiful? Found him in some patch reefs at 65 fsw and took some effort to get but it was worth it.

 

[frogman]

This is the beach at Great Harbor Cay. Makes you want to go there, right?

 

[Rolando]

Speafishing in Paradise! Doesn't get much better does it? Congrats on the catch

 

[cdavis]

Hi frogman,

Paradise it is. Looks like a great trip, but give us some details, what vis, where in the Berry's, did you try the dropoffs west of Chub or the big reef north of Great Stirrup, where did you anchor for the night, sharks, did you get socked with all that sw rainy slop? Details man, details, we're dying.

Connor

 

[Murat]

nice looking fishes

 

[Murat]

nice looking fishes

 

[frogman]

details

We made the crossing on Thursday and stopped on a reef 10 miles before Great Harbor Cay. We got some tails, conch and hogs for dinner. We stayed at the marina condos in Great Harbor. Of course, as soon as we got to port, it started to rain and squall like crazy. This continued on Friday and finally we made it out at 2 pm when a clear sky finally appeared. We dove the area North of the Stirrups (where the big cruise ships anchor to give the passengers a "tropical island experience"). The current was strong and even though you could see the bottom, there were a lot of jellyfish and debris in the water. One of the guys had a hogfish stolen by a barracuda. Afterwards, we dragged behing the boat in the Bank but couldn't find any lobster "honeyholes". The lobster boats from Abaco and Spanish Wells were there. On Saturday the weather was a little better but still windy. Visibility was still crap (15-20 feet). We dove the area around Little Stirrup again and that's were I got the big hog. There were three caribbean reefsharks in the area but they didn't seem aggressive. My best dive was on the way back on Sunday. The weather finally cleared up and we were making the trip back on a flat ocean with clear skies. We stopped again 10-15 miles west of Great Harbor and dove on some patch reefs at 65. That's were I got the two yellowfin grouper. The viz was amazing. I got the first smaller one after I saw him go in a hole. I followed him, saw his head and threw the shaft right through. The second one was a bit harder: I had to follow him from the surface from reef to reef (it was that clear) and made a couple drops on top of him. My shot slid off the back on his head at the neck twice. On my third dive, I found him stunned on his side on the sand. Game over. We had a good time!

 

[cdavis]

Thanks for the details. I'm dry until Labor Day and a good trip report helps the itch. Thanks again.

Connor

P.S. I posted the above once and it never showed up in the thread. Anybody know what happened?

 

[Deepdown]

Nice report Angelos.

Good job on those deep yellowfins, I know how hard it is to dive deep with a sling. Looking forward to the next report.

Dive safe,

Gerald