After playing phone tag with everyone all week, we finally decide to go out of Murrells Inlet for the weekend. The boat is fueled, iced, loaded and departs from the dock at about 6:15am. The first spot we stop at is a wreck and we figured that it is going to hold grouper on the deeper 120 - 140 range. The crew for Sat was 3 divers, 2 fishers. Since I am stuck with boat duties,(one of the divers) Mike and Chris dive first and I will follow up solo. The boys are down for a look see and upon surfacing, I don't see full stringers. Now, I know something is up cause these boys usually do quite well. As they are handing me their guns, I notice no shafts. Apparently, at the thermo around 55', african pompano where circling them, all in the 20 - 25lb range. They are unloading on them but the fish are swimming away with their shafts. As they get in the boat, I say "well I hate you guys are done for the day, unless you want to discuss speargun rentals since I have two on the boat. Well, as you can imagine, both smiles and middle fingers were mood for the next few minutes. I back dove where they had, looking for the pompano, but never had one come by. Moved from there to some live bottom where Mike stuck 2 flounder and both guys worked on the gags and reds 10-25lbs. Although they said there was plenty of good fish down there, I decided to move since these two shooting machines spilled quite a bit of blood. While heading to another spot of live bottom, I see a nice jump on the sounder. After marking and circling, I tell the guys I have found pay-dirt and am going to dive here. I slide down the anchor rope with a welcoming party waiting on me. As I am stringing up the 20lb gag I am watching other scamps and gags swimming around me. Now I am sucking down the air trying to reload and chase a few big boys that were a little shy, shot a nice red grouper, and figured that I would stay next to the anchor for the guys in the boat. When I get up, I tell them that the ledge is stacked, they ought to consider diving it since I stayed around the anchor rope give or take 30yrds. They agree to this, and bring up some nice gags, reds, and scamps themselves. Meanwhile, the fishers in the boat have only caught grouper and NO trash fish at this last stop. They did land a 40 - 45 AJ on hook and line that kept them busy for a bit. At this point, we are all happy and the fish box is over flowing. We go to move and the anchor won't break free, I gear up, bounce down to unhook the anchor, welcome wagon is still there and I nailed a 25lb scamp (weighed) at the anchor. Run him to the top, then shoot his big gag brother who runs under a ledge, bends my shaft, and rips the flopper OFF the shaft.(wong shaft) I'm almost out of air, pull anchor, and pop up.
Day 2 we start about the same time, run out to some live bottom and set up. Today the crew is 3 divers, one fisher. No shortage of guns on the boat today. I would say probably 6-8 of them for three divers. We start off Chris solo, Mike and I are buddies today. The first spot was alittle slow for all of us, shot a few and decide to cover more ground with drift dives. Chris grabbed a spiney on the first one also. At this point, I head to another spot about 12 miles away. Chris gets the go ahead for splash and is off on his drift dive. I can tell that he is chasing fish. Sure enough, he pops up with a stringer full and tells Mike and I that we should drift also. We gear up, drop and shoot a few nice gags and reds. I grab a pig of a lobster 10 - 11 lbs and bag him. We're back on the boat, Chris is ready. I drop him on some fresh marks really close by and he is running his standard "mad man pattern, cover the entire sea floor in 40 minutes.(wish I had gills like him) After about 25 minutes or so, his gun hits the surface. Now everyone on the boat is trying to figure out what the deal is. We can see he is hanging and OK, but this is not like him to let the gun go. We grab it, throw it in the cabin, and "obviously" play stupid. When he pops the top, yells "tell me you got my gun", I say " your what? Dude, tell me you didn't loose your gun, are you sure that it floats?" Well he was trying to hold on to 6 slipper lobsters and one spiney and the boy didn't have a bag with him!!! He climbs aboard, we splash, before I make it through the thermo, I here Mike slingin' steel. He is already stringing a 25lb gag. At this point, I am trophy hunting due to hurting my ribs on day one. I don't want to load my gun again. Mike has his gun set on fully automatic and I know that the boat will have meat. Low and behold, torwards the end of my last dive, here comes my fish, a hogfish cruising the ledge. I know that he is worth pulling the trigger. I hit him hard but he still wants to dance. At the boat, I pass him up and everyone smiles. Out of 2 days of diving, he is our only hog and a dandy. Mike gutted all of the fish on the way in. Weighted the hog (gutted) 22 - 22 1/2.
Full fish boxes, good company, nobody saw a shark of any kind in two days, and the weather was puuuurrrfect. What more could you ask for.
Day 2 we start about the same time, run out to some live bottom and set up. Today the crew is 3 divers, one fisher. No shortage of guns on the boat today. I would say probably 6-8 of them for three divers. We start off Chris solo, Mike and I are buddies today. The first spot was alittle slow for all of us, shot a few and decide to cover more ground with drift dives. Chris grabbed a spiney on the first one also. At this point, I head to another spot about 12 miles away. Chris gets the go ahead for splash and is off on his drift dive. I can tell that he is chasing fish. Sure enough, he pops up with a stringer full and tells Mike and I that we should drift also. We gear up, drop and shoot a few nice gags and reds. I grab a pig of a lobster 10 - 11 lbs and bag him. We're back on the boat, Chris is ready. I drop him on some fresh marks really close by and he is running his standard "mad man pattern, cover the entire sea floor in 40 minutes.(wish I had gills like him) After about 25 minutes or so, his gun hits the surface. Now everyone on the boat is trying to figure out what the deal is. We can see he is hanging and OK, but this is not like him to let the gun go. We grab it, throw it in the cabin, and "obviously" play stupid. When he pops the top, yells "tell me you got my gun", I say " your what? Dude, tell me you didn't loose your gun, are you sure that it floats?" Well he was trying to hold on to 6 slipper lobsters and one spiney and the boy didn't have a bag with him!!! He climbs aboard, we splash, before I make it through the thermo, I here Mike slingin' steel. He is already stringing a 25lb gag. At this point, I am trophy hunting due to hurting my ribs on day one. I don't want to load my gun again. Mike has his gun set on fully automatic and I know that the boat will have meat. Low and behold, torwards the end of my last dive, here comes my fish, a hogfish cruising the ledge. I know that he is worth pulling the trigger. I hit him hard but he still wants to dance. At the boat, I pass him up and everyone smiles. Out of 2 days of diving, he is our only hog and a dandy. Mike gutted all of the fish on the way in. Weighted the hog (gutted) 22 - 22 1/2.
Full fish boxes, good company, nobody saw a shark of any kind in two days, and the weather was puuuurrrfect. What more could you ask for.
