Well, here's a quick little report from last Friday. Dave Eggleton and I played hooky from work and took his boat to a couple little shipwrecks past the Chesapeake Light Tower, within 5 miles or so of there. One was the Ricks in 70ft and the other was the Gulf Hustler in 60ft.
We went to the Gulf Hustler first and anchored up on our first try. We anchored up so efficiently we later couldn't get the wreck anchor out and lost it since I couldn't see well enough to cut it out. It was just a home-made rebar wreck anchor luckily.
There was 40ft of visibility on top and below 35-40ft it got hazy and green. I am familiar with this wreck so I dove down to the bottom hopinh to sneak up on a big tautog. I was a bit off the wreck but I could make out a dark shadow and started directing myself towards it until a big shark's tale came into view. SAND TIGER right in my face 4ft away, 10 footer! It's a really small wreck and in 5-10ft of vis I don't like being so close to any shark, even a gentle giant like a Sand Tiger so since there were only Spadefish and very small AJ's we decided to take a boat ride out to somewhere else. We headed to one mysterious wreck we couldn't find...and then went to another called the Ricks we did find. The water was 80 degrees on top and blue and green as far as VA waters go with a nice 40-50ft of visibility, below the thermocline at 50ft it went down to 20-25ft or so and the temp's were in the high 60's. Optimal VA conditions. The tautogs were all but a few 4-5 pounders and one really big one had seen his share of spearguns so he didn't want to engage in foreplay. Party pooper, I had a 7mm shaft sharp and ready for him too but had just shot a flounder when he popped out of the wreck for a quick look. I was under the washout of the shipwreck in the sand bowl, which by the way is a very broken up trawler only about 80-100ft long, in the eerie but refreshing green clear water, when I started counting big flounder left and right! But before I could concentrate on the flounder underneath me I saw a nice black sea bass about 4lbs which is big for the species. I shot him and came up to the surface and told Dave who was busy trying to stalk a few 30lb amberjacks about what I saw down there. He decided to leave the hunt for the AJ's and the two of us started doing some buddy diving.
Dave had never been to 60ft before and I watched him carefully as he decended. The first few times he didn't see the wreck but then on his third dive he came to the surface and was really excited about what he saw. It's really pretty down there with all the small black sea bass swimming around. I went back down and started shooting a few flounder, I ended up shooting 4 by all 23-26" and lost two others when the barb got sand stuck in between the barb and the shaft wouldn't open back up and I pulled the shaft strait back out of the fish. I know which barb if better for these, the loe profile Omer barbs or my 4 point but didn't have one. We were both using single band 100's.
While I was diving and concentrating on the flounder David spotted the three amberjacks again and dove down for a shot. He got about 30ft and chased them a bit and then stopped, the fish swam back towards him and he shot it nicely in the head. A brief tussle ensued and I figured I'd put another shot in him to make Dave's life easier. We got the fish on the boat, looked at the sea bass and flounder and took a few nice pictures of Dave's fish and called it a day. Flat calm seas and diving on the wrecks off Va Beach freediving is something only a few of us lucky ones get to enjoy since the conditions are rarely so nice.
Mark Laboccetta
We went to the Gulf Hustler first and anchored up on our first try. We anchored up so efficiently we later couldn't get the wreck anchor out and lost it since I couldn't see well enough to cut it out. It was just a home-made rebar wreck anchor luckily.
There was 40ft of visibility on top and below 35-40ft it got hazy and green. I am familiar with this wreck so I dove down to the bottom hopinh to sneak up on a big tautog. I was a bit off the wreck but I could make out a dark shadow and started directing myself towards it until a big shark's tale came into view. SAND TIGER right in my face 4ft away, 10 footer! It's a really small wreck and in 5-10ft of vis I don't like being so close to any shark, even a gentle giant like a Sand Tiger so since there were only Spadefish and very small AJ's we decided to take a boat ride out to somewhere else. We headed to one mysterious wreck we couldn't find...and then went to another called the Ricks we did find. The water was 80 degrees on top and blue and green as far as VA waters go with a nice 40-50ft of visibility, below the thermocline at 50ft it went down to 20-25ft or so and the temp's were in the high 60's. Optimal VA conditions. The tautogs were all but a few 4-5 pounders and one really big one had seen his share of spearguns so he didn't want to engage in foreplay. Party pooper, I had a 7mm shaft sharp and ready for him too but had just shot a flounder when he popped out of the wreck for a quick look. I was under the washout of the shipwreck in the sand bowl, which by the way is a very broken up trawler only about 80-100ft long, in the eerie but refreshing green clear water, when I started counting big flounder left and right! But before I could concentrate on the flounder underneath me I saw a nice black sea bass about 4lbs which is big for the species. I shot him and came up to the surface and told Dave who was busy trying to stalk a few 30lb amberjacks about what I saw down there. He decided to leave the hunt for the AJ's and the two of us started doing some buddy diving.
Dave had never been to 60ft before and I watched him carefully as he decended. The first few times he didn't see the wreck but then on his third dive he came to the surface and was really excited about what he saw. It's really pretty down there with all the small black sea bass swimming around. I went back down and started shooting a few flounder, I ended up shooting 4 by all 23-26" and lost two others when the barb got sand stuck in between the barb and the shaft wouldn't open back up and I pulled the shaft strait back out of the fish. I know which barb if better for these, the loe profile Omer barbs or my 4 point but didn't have one. We were both using single band 100's.
While I was diving and concentrating on the flounder David spotted the three amberjacks again and dove down for a shot. He got about 30ft and chased them a bit and then stopped, the fish swam back towards him and he shot it nicely in the head. A brief tussle ensued and I figured I'd put another shot in him to make Dave's life easier. We got the fish on the boat, looked at the sea bass and flounder and took a few nice pictures of Dave's fish and called it a day. Flat calm seas and diving on the wrecks off Va Beach freediving is something only a few of us lucky ones get to enjoy since the conditions are rarely so nice.
Mark Laboccetta
