GoodToGo

Early spring weather continues to be mild but breezy. Finally on Friday Mar. 17 the wind abated and the seas calmed. Ian had convinced me, the night before, to delay the departure on my trip to GA so we could get in a couple of dives. Mike, Ian and I departed about 7am and found the going easy and the water looked clear even in the low light of morning. We opted for T-14 for the first dive. Set-up was easy with very little wind or current so we opted to anchor stern-to and were soon in the water. The vis was pretty good considering the recent sea conditions, 20-30'. Water temp is rising a little, I saw 64, but not warm enough yet to bring a lot of bait or new fish. There were a few small jacks, a school of spades, and some sheepsheads chasing each other around. I took a look around for grouper and, finding none, decided to take some of the sheepshead. I shot a couple of nice ones and then went out to the rubble on the N side of the bridge just to have a look. While out there I saw some shadowy movement at the limit of my vision that looked like the familiar aura of a wary shark. I tried a burst of speed to get closer for ID, but the shadow faded. I decided to go back to the bridge. I guess the bloody trail of my stringer of sheepshead was more than the sharks could resist, not that they would want to resist! There were two pretty big pointy ones that came in on me and had me hiding like a little girl behind the girders. Ian wasn't far down the way with a couple of fish on his stringer so I made my way down to him. I got close enough for him to hear me at about the same time the sharks arrived. He was able to make a threatening move on them before they could strip his fish. We decided to leave the site to these new hunters and made our way up the anchor line to the boat. The sharks were still interested in our fish and, to discourage them we both shot a shark in an attempt to run them off. They weren't much deterred; the blunt tip with the point removed didn't seem to sting them much. Mike was already aboard and helped us get our fish in quickly. As Ian climbed the ladder they were still close underneath.




On deck we immediately got into action to try and catch one. Mike got his grouper/shark rig ready while I chunked hunks of bonita overboard to keep their interest. Ian went below to prepare the bang stick. Mike dropped the bait down about 15' and had barely gotten the rod in the holder when the shark took the bait. At first there wasn't much to do but hang on. We were set back far enough from the bridge that it wasn't likely to break us off with a wrap there. The only concern was that the mono leader would wear through on the rough skin before we could get the beast along side. I had the fun of being the rod man. Ian helped me keep the line clear as the shark made passes across the stern with one close call on the anchor line. Mike stood ready with the bang stick. After about 30 min, either from boredom or fatigue, the shark allowed itself to be brought alongside. Mike took one practice toss with the Dirty Harry pole and on the next pass got a direct hit amidships. At that point all action ceased, the shark was then just dead weight on the line. We later found that the 44mag had severed her spine. Ian fashioned a loop from the dockline and we soon had the fish through the transom door and quivering on the deck.



Our next dive was on the Bart. Hydrospace arrived with the cattle boat just before we got in the water. It caused quite a stir on their decks when they spotted the shark on our deck. Ian told them we were going back down for another one just as we rolled in.

Back at the dock, Ian took on the challange of filleting out a 7' fish and he did quite a nice job. I did the skinning part and the meat looked quite good. I have since cooked some up and can report that it is good eating. No stong taste and the texture was fine grained and firm.

Good news, bad news on this female. She did have 7 pups. They appeared to be almost full term with no yolk sac remaining and they were squirming pretty good when Ian brought them out. We released them at the cleaning station. They all began swimming, sort of. They were pretty erratic but seemed to gain a little stability in the 15 min or so that we watched them. Maybe the mate will be waiting on us next trip to T-14... I hope so.

Finally a break in the wind, so Mike and I made a dive trip. We left the dock about 7:30 as the cool of the morning was burning off. We made a straight shot to Stage I on a 1-2' chop so it didn't take too long. The water looked pretty good after we crossed the tide line about 5mi out. I let Mike jig for a jack a couple of passes while I figured the drift, no luck so we anchored to see what lay below. The vis was very good, 40-50' slight current, still a lot of http://www.siphonophores.org/. I re-learned last trip to watch out for the stringey stingey critters after getting my lips lit up with their pepper. Mike and I did the usual split in opposite directions to survey the massive site of pipes and cables. Even though the vis was good there wasn't much to see in the way of big fish. I had covered about half the site without seeing any legal grouper or AJs so I dropped down on what looked to be a nice anchor someone had left for me on the bottom. On the way down I spotted another anchor. My commotion of collecting up the first anchor and rhode and hauling it to the top of the pipes attracted the attention of a curious grouper that must have been earlier hiding. It acted pretty nervous when I started to drift down to its level but it wasnt't nervous enough and I got in range, made the shot, and took it up to my anchor pile at the top. As I strung it up I considered sending it up with the anchors on the lift bag but thought better of that. We haven't seen many sharks lately but a nice fresh grouper just might have been the needed attractant.


Mike and my Anchors














Next dive on T-7 was the beginning of my equipment malfunctions. Shortly after arriving at the top of the bridge I saw a nice grouper cautiosly coming out to investigate my presence. I was able to get close enough for a good shot but I wasn't able to keep the fish away from the bridge. When it went under the bridge it wrapped on a piece of steel and broke free. Loading my gun I discovered it hadn't just pulled loose, it had broken the cable. Now with no speartip I returned to the surface for some repairs. I took a spinner tip out of the gunbox and screwed it on and went back down to see if I could find the wounded fish. I searched and saw some fleeting shadows under the bridge, but nothing I could identify as my fish. Heading back to the top of the bridge a nice AJ passed under me so I shot it. I hit it pretty well, in the top and out the gill plate, but didn't connect with anything vital. It was pulling hard to wrap on the bridge but I was able to guide it up and get myself on the anchor line. I started pulling the fish to me and it came loose and swam away. When I was reloading I discovered the problem, the shaft had pulled out of the spinner tip. I haven't had a spearpoint failure in more than a year and now I have had two on consecutive dives.

My next rig was a slip tip. I didn't like it very much but it was what I had at the time. I dove the F106s and found some nice grouper on the sand. They immediately headed for the airplane and went under the wings. It wasn't long before one got curious and came out to see me. I shot it, it ran, the tip came out. Damn. I reloaded and didn't have to wait long until a really nice black snapper came out for a look.. I shot it, it ran, the tip came out. Actually more happened than the tip coming out. The tip cable had looped around one of the arms of my muzzle, so when I shot the cable broke but not before ripping off the arm of the muzzle. I'm glad my bad luck in three's was just spear tips. I took myself to the surface and went home to do some equipment repair. I'm going back tomorrow for a rematch.