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Scubadiver turns freediver!

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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sturgeon

Well-Known Member
Feb 1, 2002
392
94
118
We had another good day again in West Palm Beach this past Sunday. But as with my last post, it’s not the fish I got that made it so special (although I did get the 2nd biggest grouper I’ve ever shot in Florida) but rather the fish my friends got. One milestone of the day was that Angelos (AKA Frogman of DeeperBlue fame) shot a nice mutton snapper at the deepest depth he’s ever shot a fish at before. But the biggest highlight of the day was having my SCUBA diving buddy Jim Fyfe outshoot all of us. Jim also shot a fish the deepest he’s ever shot a fish before (on a small wreck in 90 feet, the same place Angelos shot his mutton) but unfortunately ended up losing it to a big jewfish (as I did earlier in the day with a nice cobia and to add insult to injury the jewfish also turned my shaft into a pretzel). Jim took a shot from above on a nice 20 lb cubera snapper and because the profile of the wreck was so small, Jim had to be at least at 80 feet when he pulled the trigger (it was 91 feet in the sand). Jim ended up with 2 groupers (one was a big 12 lb red which is very rare in our neck of the woods), a nice amberjack and 3 snappers, Angelos’ catch consisted of 3-4 snappers and a porgy, and I had 1 nice grouper (27.5 lbs) and a snapper. Jim’s been working hard training with me at the pool for awhile now and it looks like it’s finally starting to pay off for him. It was a pleasure to see him be top shooter of the day for once and to see him shoot a fish so deep. One more converted over from the dark side, only a million or so left to go!

Scott
 

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I had a great day diving! The water was clear and the current was minimal for most of the day. It is pretty cool to be able to make out the silhouette of a wreck at 90. Scott, you forgot to mention that I had a gag grouper taken off the spear from a jewfish when he went under a wreck. It was pretty cool diving the deeper stuff. Look forward doing it again soon.

Angelos
 
Angelos,

You're right, I did forget about that. Wow, I think between the 3 of us, the fish we lost to Jewfish (30 lb cobia, nice gag grouper, and a 20 lb cubera snapper) was almost as good of a catch as the catch we ended up with. It's pretty amazing to see 15-20 monster sized jewfish (up to 400 lbs) swarming over one small little barge. Unfortunately, I think our fish shot to fish put on the boat ratio will continue to get larger as the Jewfish population continues to grow. Not sure what can be done about it though. I'd hate to see a season put back on them and have them wiped out as before. They are truly a magnificent fish, I’m just not too fond of them when they’re stealing a nice fish off the end of my spear.

Scott
 
NMFS is exploring a possible lottery tag system on them. I agree with you about an open season being devestating but you cant keep them totally off limits forever...its been like 16 years now. I think a lottery similar to alligator would help keep them in check. There are places on the west coast of Florida(many places!) you cant even think about hunting anymore because of all the big GG. Imagine how many gags, blacks, muttons, ect 10 300# GG must eat to survive....

Oh yeah, nice fish :)
 
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