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May 24, 2008
Diving Team: Jack Penny, Michael Penny, Dennis O'Hearn, Richard and Whitney Rahall. First dive trip of 2008 for Jack, Richard, and Whitney. Traveled 160 miles round trip, burned 150 gallons fuel. Weather was great, dive conditions were good. Not a lot of boats for a holiday weekend. Must have been the price of fuel.
August 2007
April 3, 2007
Chris's
first Kingfish.
April 2007 West Palm Underwater Photos along with some great lobster pics
April 2, 2007
Brad and the boys go
grouper diving
March 27 2007
Richard Rahall. Diving with Chad Campbell after almost a year. I got to go diving with my old friends Chad Campbell, and John and Charlene Reedy. We left Clearwater boat ramp on John and Charlene's Boat and went out to the secret numbers. This was a great day and very relaxing. John and Charlene were the perfect host and hostess.
March 24 2007
Richard Rahall: Diving with Mike Penny.
Three dives, First dive 110' 2nd dive 95' and 3rd dive 90'. location: somewhere in the Gulf. Vis was top to bottom a great day for diving. John Smith and Jack Penny surface fished.
January 27 and 28, 2007.............A collection of East Coast Dive Photos from Chad Campbell.
Chad Campbell dives in
West Palm with a group of diehards.
Palm Beach on Saturday
More Palm Beach Photos..............
March 16, 2007 Will Prestero
temp on vet reef is 62. sheeps are
there, not much else.
From: steve s
Date: 16 Jan 2007
went out of Clearwater for 3 dives with Tom and D. water was top to bottom on all 3 dives, 45, 63, 64 feet. Lots of small hogs and snapper. Very few blacks. We did see the tail of a 4 foot reef shark hanging out of a 300 pound Jewfish's mouth. What a sight!!! Water was 65 degrees and crystal clear with plenty of bait and fish, just wish they were a little bigger.
Last sundayFrom: chad
Date: 11 Dec 2006
Out again on the mad fish we ran to put some of the guys on Amberjack. First stop was in 90 ft of water off Johns Pass. The vis. was nice and clear up to 60 ft and then it dropped to about 3 ft. With no vis on the bottom and 7 guys in the water a few of us returned to mid water where we could see 50 ft and started shooting small jacks and kingfish. Really neat column of fish between the kings, amberjack, cudas, permit, and sharks I dont think i have seen action like this for years. After we all got out of the water we went offshore to find more life. In 110 the fish were stacked and we had almost 50 ft of vis. all the way to the bottom. Aaron shot his biggest fish to date with a 37 lb aj and several smaller jacks were seen but none of the monsters we were looking for. Congrats Aaron on the big fish of the day. Lots and lots of mangos the reports are coming in about all of the grouper up to the north which will be our next trip out in open water besides the stone crabbing we have been doing.
From: chad
Date: 11 Dec 2006
Last week we have been doing a lot of stone crabbing. Wednesday and Thurs after I closed the shop me and a few of the guys have been crabbing around the south bridges. Lots and lots of crabs to still be caught. One night we were able to catch a few fish buy hand and also shot by pole spear a 10 lb gag. With the water temp. dropping and then heating up again the crabs will still be on the move. Vis. has been anywhere from 10-30 ft in the bay.
NOVEMBER 30, 2006
PHOTOS FROM CHADS DIVE: NO STORY
Great time
to diveNovember 26
From: chad
Thanks to John and Charlene Reedy for letting me and a few of the guys to tag along with them. Out on their bluewater we headed for 110 ft out of Johns Pass. The vis. was better than we thought it would be maybe 50 ft. The water temp was 64. The first dive was one of the best dives I've done in a long time. On the way down a big jack came into view to help me find my way to the bottom. After reaching the bottom I let the shaft fly into his head right behind the eye where he did not even flinch he just floated down to the bottom. There were several more jacks in the 20-90 lb range which the rest of the guys took their one fish also. The biggest was 94 lbs and the smallest was 25 lbs good eating size. There were also plenty of grouper running around which were kind enough to take the ride home with us. Another one of the jacks took some fast talking to so he would also enjoy the ride home. One of the divers had shot the jack which turned around and swam back into the wreck. After the fish swam into the wreck he was knifed several times to coax him on the stringer. The second dive was almost the same lots of blacks well actually they were gags and a few ajs. Had a real good time out this week hope we all can do it again soon.
From:
tyler l
November 15,2006
went out fishing/spearfishing hit the first spot and dropped down are lines me and Aaron desided after the 2 keepers came up we wanted to dive that spot so we dropped down in about 60ft very long break running north to south shot about 2 grouper a mango snapper and some hogs on the way up my dad and a friend were letting go a 7 foot nurs shark we start hit another spot in about 45 foot wear a boat was couldn't find the boat but it we were on nice bottom so we just started hitting fish happy to say there was a lot of fish in 45ft of water all grouper just under size that we saw but a lot of good sided hogs and trigger we ended up shooting 6 hogs and 6 trigger and one grouper all keepers in 45 FOOT it makes me happy that the bottom is coming back from red tide and fish are moving back in.
From: Steve S aka Dirty
Well Tom and I were at it again today. Decided to start at 50 feet, we didn't have the viz we had yesterday, but it was still a respectable 25 feet on our first dive. We made 3 dives, 50 30 and 28 feet. Our viz dropped to 12 feet in the shallower stuff. We ended up with 2 blacks and got our limits of hogs. Looks like we might have got our last dives in before the big blow hits tomorrow. Might try king fishing in the morning if it's not blowing yet.
From: Steve S aka
Dirty
Went out with Tom out to 55 feet out of clearwater. Water was top to bottom. We were able to get 2 dives in. First one produced 2 blacks and a handfull of mangos. Second dive we were able to get 1 more black and several more mangos and hogs. The water was 72 and the seas were mild. Other than the cold morning air, it couldn't have been a better day.
October 21 and 22 Master Dive watch video here
From: chad
Our day started out a
little ruff. After meeting at the dock a 6 am the crew of steve rob jimmy brian
and myself loaded the boat up to venture offshore. One of the motors on the cat
would not go into gear because of the shift shaft on it. We had to pull the boat
out and work on it before we could get started. After we worked on the shaft we
were able to leave the dock at 11:30 for a 40 mile journey. First stop was in 60
ft of water off of tarpon springs. The vis was incredible top to bottom. The
temp was 76 and plenty of fish. It is always nice to see the fish meet you half
way down. The first dive produced 12 grouper between steve jimmy and me and that
was all we had time to shoot. The next stop with rob jimmy and brian produced a
few more grouper. A few more stops produced several hogfish and the rest of our
blacks to limit out on the grouper species. All in all a great day on the water
with the guys and great vis and fish to boot.
SUNDAY
Well I went back at it again with 4 more guys sunday. Starting our day off at 6 we headed out of clearwater pass towards tarpon springs again. Mike sqoushi steve aaron and myself loaded the boat and took off. First stop was not as clean as the day before. Water temp was still 76 but vis had gone down to 15 ft. The first stop only produced a few hogs and blacks. The second dive was a little more productive in that we were able to shoot over 20 hogfish and several blacks and one shark. The shark however was only given a headach due to my ppd not going off. Trying to move to our third spot the stearing cable broke so we dove a spot right next to the shark dive number we had just dove so we could limit out on hogfish and get a few more blacks. Congradulations to sqoushi on shooting his very first fish ever caught or shot. We had to turn the boat toward home at 12:30 because we had to hand steer the boat all the way back and wanted to make sure we got home at a decent hour.
THE REEDYS DIVE BOTH SATURDAY AND SUNDAY AS WELL OCTOBER 21 AND 22
SATURDAY OCT 21
Headed out of JP Sunday morning and went about 50 miles NW. Checked out some "new" areas and were able to find some decent structure on 1 out of 13 spots - not very good odds, but we are trying to find new places, so we are putting the time in. Max depth was 115', the water was clear and we could make out the ledge at about 65' from the bottom. This ledge has deep pockets and under cuts - there were some very nice snapper but a line gun was needed due to the shape of the ledge. There was a big nurse shark and a jewfish along the ledge as well. John got some snappers but those bigger ones were wiley and wise. After leaving this spot, we tried about 8 or 9 more locations with no luck finding anything decent on the bottom machine. In the distance as we were running, there was a big object floating. It was a piece of metal with foam backing and it had some type of fan on it. Looks like it came off a commercial boat. As we get closer, I spot mahi-mahi below it! We have learned that we can't really fit in a day of diving and fishing, so we don't bring any rods with us on a diving day....I have a feeling that will be changing! So, we scramble and see what we can do - I offer to hand line for some to see what happens. Grab about a 30' length of 30# line, tie a jig on it, and John one ups me and uses the dock line hook with the telescopic pole. He creates a "Redneck Fly Rod" and has at it. I had to rush for the camera - this was too good to pass up. Just when I get set to take some pics, he is hollering from the bow "I got one, I got one!" Flying in from the great blue sky comes a mahi mahi that lands on the rear deck. After a few more jigs getting hit and a change to a small diamond jig after they lost interest in the artificial jig, the mahi mahi completely lost interest and that was the end of the redneck fly rod. What a day - it was beautiful, the viz was good, and who would have guessed we would come home with a mahi mahi in the cooler?
SUNDAY OCT 22
Started out a little later Saturday morning after John got home from work. First dive in 77' WSW out of JP - it was crap! Couldn't hardly see your hand in front of your face. There were spider web like algae strands the whole way down the water column and on the bottom as well. Once we were just about belly down on the bottom, we could see along the ledge, but we used our lights quite a bit to really be able to see anything. John took 3 hogs. We tried to dive the area by Indian Rocks reef where the rubble from the John's Pass bridge was dumped, but there were 3-4 boat trolling the area, so we moved on. Went back out a little way and tried a rock pile in about 50' - viz was even worse -- we didn't think that was possible! John was about 12-14' away from me and I couldn't even find him! We hit bottom and basically came right back up. There was no point in staying down - couldn't see anything, even with our lights!
October 15, 2006
Chad takes out over 20 guys and 1 girl to stone crab as the season opened on October 15,2006 at 12:01AM. Amazing, the boat came back to the dock!!
Steve Stubbs and Dad
October 10, 2006
Tuesday, October 10th: Chad, Rich, Ron Howard, Roy and Jeff dive the middlegrounds
Sunday, October 8th
Rich and Mike dive somewhere in the Gulf while Jack, John, and Erik surface fish.
Rich and Mike were diving at 170 feet on the first dive and 147 feet on the second dive.
SOMEWHERE IN THE GULF RISING UP FROM 170FEET:
Sunday, October 1st
Charlene and John Reedy
Here
are some shots from Sunday’s dives. John got a pretty nice slipper lobster!
They didn’t do anything fantastic on fish, but we all sure had a great time!!
From: Steve S aka Dirty
Date: 24 Sep 2006
Went west out of Clearwater for a short day of diving. First and only dive was in 65 feet. Fished it first to pull up a lot of grunts and shorts. Figured papa had to be down there. While suiting up, our topside guy pulls in two 4 foot sharks. Eager to get in the water with them we jumped in. Good thing viz was only 6-8 feet so we couldn't see em'! Lots of small hogs and decent snapper. Ended up with 1 hog and a handfull of snapper. With the viz lousy we fished the rest of the day. Mostly pulled up short red and gag groupers and grunts. Ended the day with a nice flat ride in. Hopefully the water temp will start to dip and clean the water up.
From: Charlene
Date: 22 Sep 2006
Four of us headed out on the Bluewater for some diving on Sunday 9/16. Did a wreck in about 105' - smaller to moderate size snapper, small AJ's, and a resident jewfish. Could tell the wreck was there at about 60', but actual vis was about 10'. Moved to the pipeline in about 110' and tried a new section. There were no rock piles along this section, so it was limited to small fish - not too much life. Learned that if the rounded hump is fairly narrow on the bottom finder, there aren't rocks and debris around that area of the pipeline! Vis here was about 10-15' as well. It was a nice day and we all enjoyed it.
September 17, 2006
Can you see all that blood on his hand: CLICK HERE to view the story
From: Gray Decker
Date: 21 Sep 2006
Hey everyone, What a crazy adventure that day was! First off thank you to everyone on the boat, especially Johnny, through out the whole ordeal he made sure everything was ok. He was there when it happened, and boy did it happen quick! It was a total fluke. First how I caught the king fish! Ski's poll was sitting there with a Rapala shiny lure on it. I figured I would try to catch a barracuda with it. Johnny re-tied the lure for me so it wouldn't come off, and I started tossing it a little bit, and with nothing hitting, I just caste it out and let it sit there and put the pole back in the holder. I was not thinking I was going to catch anything. All the sudden the drag went nuts, well with nothing else to do I lowered the drag and was having a great time fighting this fish thinking it was a cuda! I wasn't really in a hurry to get it in so I was just playing with it until it got to the boat. Once Johnny saw it was a king we gaffed it and brought it in, Gear was covering the fish box so we threw into the back of the boat. Now I have handled kings before and know how dangerous they are. I didn't try to grab by it's mouth or anything. I pulled the tail and went to save the B.C. my complete reg set from close to it's mouth and WHAM it head snapped up and caught me right above the web of my hand!!! Just like that blood went from one side of the boat to the other!! I didn't even feel anything! I thought the fish was bleeding that bad. But no such luck for me!!! I am so THANKFUL to everyone involved!, and especially to Steve Garcia who was the SAR swimmer that dropped down from the helicopter! Let me tell you what, that little basket is the scariest part of the entire ordeal! Being pulled up in that basket to a whirling helo made me think I was not going to die from a little fish bite, I was going to fall out of the basket and hit the water from 60 feet up! Once in it was a quick ride to Tampa General and right into Major med room. I was lucky the doctor said! The fish hit me long ways in between my thumb and first finger. It sliced the vein going into my hand "I do not know the name of it, I just knew it didn't stop bleeding the whole time" and sliced the muscle straight down the middle. Doc said if it went side ways instead of long ways I would have sliced the muscle in half then movement in my hand would have been severely affected. I was also thankful that I was able to be air lifted in. Without it he said the consequences would have been severe. We had to use two tourniquets to slow the bleeding. Without the tourniquets I would have bled to much on the two hour boat ride, with the tourniquets on too tight for the entire ride the doc said I would have most likely lost at least my hand because the blood was cut off to it. The cut is smaller than you would think it's about an inch and a half long, but it went all the way to the bone and right through the vein and the muscle. Once I got to the hospital the Vascular surgeon took care of the vein and then a Navy Seal pushed all the muscle back where it belonged and stitched me up. What a scary ordeal! Thank you again to everyone involved! The outcome would have been 100 times worse if I wasn't in such good hands. Also thank you to everyone that was on the radio offering help when we were waiting on Coast Guard. I love where we all live and I am so thankful everyone is so caring and willing to help a stranger in distress! I TRULY THANK ALL OF YOU!!! About the price of the helicopter ride, thank goodness it was free! Since it was Coast Guard, taxes took care of it. After the hundred dollar co-pay at the hospital I was good to go!
From: Steve S. Dirty
Date: 17 Sep 2006
Went out with the Dave's (Airplane & Drugstore), Julie and Tom. Started in 73ft in to 66ft. Viz was shootable 15-18 ft. I few fish were around. We got a nice black, a scamp, a red grouper and a hand full of tasty hogs and mangos. Overall and excellent day on the water except for the rough seas, at least it laid down a little for the ride back in.
September 11, 2006
Jim gets his niece Kayleigh ready for scuba lessons. Remember scuba diving isn't just for the adult kids!!
September 10, 2006 Weekly Update: view now
September
9, 2006
Somewhere In The Gulf
From: chad
Date: 07 Sep 2006
Well I'm finally back from the keys. The storms this year just would not leave us alone. Day 1 produced about 30 bugs on two tanks and lots of gas due to Will and I trying to dodge storms. The second day started off being slick calm so we decided to make the long run to the lobster grounds. After spending a 25 min under water and gathering 37 bugs I felt a tug on the line and decided to come up. When I reached the surface there was two water spouts coming right at the boat with clouds so dark around them it looked like night time. So we decided to make a run trying to avoid the storm that was approaching. After reaching the channels just outside key west we sat there for 2 hours waiting for the lightning and storms to move off of the main island. The water seemed to change everywhere we ran. Out in deep water you could not see your hand in front of your face and in the mid range water it was almost top to bottom. The closer we got to the main key the water got cloudy again. Just a different type of year. It was still a good trip with a few fish that we shot and the hand full of bugs.
August 28, 2006
Marc Manz
shares his photos of the St Pete Open
Go to the tournament link to view many more great photos from Marc
From: Sonny Collova
Date: 24 Aug 2006
Sat 8/19/2006 My brother who would only be in town for a day wanted to go out and shoot some fish. So I went to Suncoast Dive Shop and got everything we needed and was ready to go. The weather looked gloomy and Steve was running way late. We did manage to get out about 20 miles west of Anclote in 35-40 ft by about 5 pm the seas were flat and Steve was able to shoot several fish on his first dive. He went down for another on the same spot and managed a couple more coming up just as the set.
August 20, 2006
Here are a few photos, go to the tournament link to see more photos.
St Pete Open
Chad Campbell, Owner of Suncoast Dive Center holds one of his boats winning groupers.
This weighed in at 66.08 pounds
From: chad
Date: 25 Aug 2006
Had a great time this year again aboard the Rebel Sea with the boys. After the captains meeting the crew loaded up at bay pines marina and headed out. The usual suspects were on the boat Mark, Mitch, Bill, Tony, Tom (marks son, and myself. The first dive Mitch, Tony, and Bill were getting in the water at 7 am to kick off the tourney. This dive produced a carbo that was about 50 lbs. Next stop was Mark and Me which produced a 30 lb carbo and 2 bugs up to 4 lbs. Our next dive was a spot I have dove in the winter time with Mark and Mitch. This spot has always produced big fish and in the winter time it produces a lot of quality fish. So being that all three of us knew that and it left mark and myself drawling straws to see who got to go with the others on this dive because we just knew they would need help:). Well mark won and with everyone dropping into the blue it would only be a matter of minutes before we had a big fish on the boat. Mark was the first to surface with a 49lb pond carbo and several others in the 30 lb class followed by Mitch with a 50 lb fish and more 30 ponders. Next was Tony out and away from the rest of the crew who handed me his gun at 30 ft while he was still coming up. There was only one problem he had no shafts in his gun. Knowing Tony we were all waiting on the story. He never missed a beat as his head came out of the water he started yelling he lost both of the shafts to a big carbo. Well Bill and I looked at each other and said time to clean up dive team As mess. Team B went into action as we descended on the spot a big carbo came out to see what type of visitors he needed to entertain. Of course he went back into the hole and as we descended I stuck the gun into the hole and found the carbo that was just outside and pulled the trigger and the shaft found its mark as the fish turned white another grouper came and laid right next to that one which was shot also and he just laid there. So with two big blacks on the stringer it was time to head to the top. With my hand clamping down on the inside of the blacks throat we came up to our long safety stop at which time one of the fish came back alive and proceeded to kick my butt. Luckily I got him under control and took my hand out from his gills and let the free divers Mitch and Tony take the fish from us. Back on the boat we were glad to have several fish over 50 lbs to take back to the dock. Our next two dives produced a hogfish several more blacks up to 40 lbs and a few snapper. The hogfish snapper and a few blacks were added by tom which won the junior division only by a couple of pounds. Great time thank you all for your support on the tournament and supporting the dive shop.
August 16,
2006
By: Rich Rahall
Today I went out somewhere in the Gulf with Jack Penny, Michael Penny, and George Clinton. Vis was good and today I was able to hang onto all my equipment. I was able to photo dolphins, sea turtles, and yes a 30 pound Grouper!! My largest fish to spear to date. We are getting ready for the St Pete Open with Norma Lee and Whitney diving in the junior division. Make sure to come by the weigh-in on Saturday Night to see what we bring in and how the girls did. Michael and George brought up some good fish as well. Jack is still unable to dive but caught some nice fish on the hook. Check out these photos!!
August
15, 2006
By: Kim Rahall
Sonny Collova does his final check dive for certification with Chad in New Port Richey. Rich tags along for some speardiving. Rich spent a lot of money today.....He lost a speargun AND a powerhead. Can you believe it????
AUGUST 13: CLICK HERE TO VIEW WEEKLY UPDATE BY RICHARD RAHALL
From: Norma Lee Rahall
Dr. Penny, my dad, myself, Michael Penny and Whitney left the dock a little after 7 this morning to head out about 30 miles. Dr. Penny’s boat was faster, cooler, and just all around amazing compared to “the Barge”. This being my first time on the boat I was pretty impressed. At our first dive stop Michael and my dad went down while Whitney and I stayed topside and helped Dr. Penny surface fish. For the next few dive stops Michael and my dad switched off on the dives, with Whitney and I jumping in the water to snorkel above them. At the fourth dive stop Whitney and I finally got to suit up and get in the water to do some shooting. After getting some help from Michael to set up all my gear…(it was been over a year since I last went diving) we headed down. I dove with Michael and Whitney dove with my dad. The focus of this dive, according to my father, was “shoot anything that moves”, that way Whitney and I would be prepared for the St. Pete Open next weekend. The depth was about 70 feet and the visibility was good. Michael helped me spot fish and was there to cock and load the spear gun because I can’t. Instead of shooting anything on that dive he let me play around and look for anything to practice shooting at. I ended up shooting 5 fish one of which was a good size grouper. Michael took one more dive before we turned to head in. The day was perfect for a dive trip. The weather was nice and the water was warm and Dr. Penny and Michael were helpful. Dr. Penny took us to some amazing dive spots, and took real good care of us. While out with the Penny’s today I learned about jugging, and a little bit about surface fishing. That in itself was pretty cool. I had a great time and can’t wait till next week when we head out again on Penny Wise with Dr. Penny and Michael for the St. Pete Open.
: THE
RAHALLS PREPARE FOR THE ST PETE OPENFrom: Whitney Rahall
Date: 12 Aug 2006
Today was a great day to go spearfishing. There was great visibility we went out 27-30 miles off shore. They water was crystal clear and there were a lot of nice fish. My sister Norma Lee and I went out for a refresher course before the St. Pete Open tournament this weekend. We went with Dr.Penny and his son Michael Penny on their Contender fishing boat. I only went on one dive but I did go snorkeling for a little bit with my sister. Michael and My dad shot some really nice groupers. We left at 7 a.m. this morning and my dad and Michael caught fish before 9 a.m.
August 12 Photos and Video
From: Steve S aka Dirty
Date: 08 Aug 2006
One of my long time college buddies, Tim Costelow, his wife Tonya was in town with one of her girlfriends, Beth, for the weekend. I talked to them on Saturday and they wanted to know what was going on around here for fun. I mentioned scalloping and they were in. So we meet the ol' man(my dad, Larry)up at Macrae's in Homosassa Springs. We ventured out to 5 - 7 feet and the girls were instant pros. They had their limit by noon and even shot a few snapper. The water was gin clear south of the channel where we got the majority of our scallops. They were mixed size, but most went on the large size. Here's a few pics with Tonya and Beth holding their prized tasty catch.
August 6, 2006
Richard Rahall: The weekly wrap up: View Now
August
6, 2006
We would love to go diving !!! Any guys our age interested in going?? Remember we SPEAR FISH TOOOOOO!!
From: Charlene
Date: 07 Aug 2006
A little bumpy on the
way out Sunday morning, but it was still a nice day. The afternoon was calmer.
Went to 65' out of John's Pass and worked a ledge - John got a few decent hogs.
Went to another ledge in 57' and I had a very curious trigger come spend time
with me. I finally acknowledged him and he became somewhat aggressive - I felt
him bumping my hoses and then he was coming up close to my mask, etc. The final
straw was when he BIT me on the wrist! I had a lobster bag with me in case we
found any on opening day and I almost got the trigger in the bag...Then, about
10 minutes later, I happen to look back over my shoulder and along comes a nice
size turtle!! There were about 2 dozen bait fish swimming with him - I dropped
to the bottom and kept still and the turtle very gracefully came right in close
to me, circled around me - not in a hurry, and then slowly swam off!! I thought
for sure it would head in the opposite direction when it saw me. It was an
awesome experience!!!! I was also thinking that after the trigger bite, a bite
from a sea turtle could really be a bad situation...Viz was about 40' when we
were in 65' and it was about 25' when we were in 57'. No keeper size grouper
were seen.
August 6, 2006
From: chad
Well another great day on the water Saturday. Took the mad fish for a run offshore to do a little spearfishing with greg, brian, steve, mike, tyler and myself. First stop was one I use to dive with my dad all of the time when I was 10 years old. A wreck in 60 ft of water the vis. was almost top to bottom and very little current. Lots of mangos, a few blacks and one nice cobia. Steve found the fish laying on the bottom right next to a jewfish. Steve said that after he took his first shot he had to adjust because the metal gun he was using did not even hit the target when he pulled the trigger. So he reloaded his second shaft and chased the fish adjusting his next shot when that shaft hit the fish turned ghost white a perfect kill shot behind the head into the spine. That was the highlight of the day besides about 5 blacks and about a dozen snapper.Felt good to get back into the water again and squeeze the trigger with alot of good company. Thanks guys for the great time!!!!
August 5, 2006
By: Rich Rahall
A great day to be on the water, clear skies, smooth seas, and good vis. Left Tierra Verde at 9:00am aboard Neil Franckle's Seavee "Singled Out". Traveled 40 miles into the Gulf. First drop was on the rock piles plenty of fish, a five foot nurse shark, second drop the pipe, third drop a ledge which would qualify under the new name barely legal. A lot of hogs, grouper, and snapper. Fourth drop a ledge much of the same. On board was Neil and Charles Franckle, Mike Rieth, and Rich Rahall.
July 30,2006
Story By: Matt
Taillon
Hi all I went
diving for the first time in 2 1/2 years last Sunday, (this dive trip started
July 4Th weekend ..... I went to get my tanks filled and wouldn't you know it
one of my new tanks (less than 20 dives on each) was out of hydro and the other
was out of VIS..well I definitely was not going to go out diving with only one
tank so I left one of them at the dive shop for hydro got the other one
inspected and filled and went home kind of bummed out no diving this weekend or
next (hydro Thurs to Thurs) July 13 picked up second tank and thought I was all
set to go... weight a minute I have to work this weekend oh well I'm definitely
ready to go diving next weekend ( 7/23-24)I'll just make some calls and get 3
more divers together and .....every one I know that dives is busy ...oh well I
really didn't want to go that badly I'll just go to bush gardens with the kids
instead, maybe next weekend.....lets see ..got tanks, there are my fins, BC and
wet suit in the closet, spear gun in the shed, that's where my mask was hiding,
under the the wet suit in the bottom of the dive bag where's my reg's and
computer? oh there it is ..lets see boats all set, got 3 other divers one's a
Captain and one is a dive master and one has a big new truck to tow my boat to
and from the ramp (life is good...8:45 am Sunday hook up the boat 9:45 boat full
of gas and in the water (seas 2foot or less temp 87 deg. sun shining )out to MAD
Reef by 10:30 (30 foot dive sounds like a good dive to shake down the gear and
get the cob webs out of my dive skills) well I will take the second dive it will
give me a little longer to remember how all this stuff goes together (lol) well
45 min later the first 2 divers come up and its finally my turn ...air on gear
on fins on mask on over the side just like a pro lets check the computer (its
flashing 12 pm, 1 foot depth, 1 psi air well either I'm on my last breath or the
battery's are dead ) my dive buddy had the same computer and he assured me it
was the latter .....well OK lets dive and I'll stay within reach of his octo and
we will come up early (weird feeling being at 30 feet with 1 psi for 30 min) vis
was about 20 feet, well I remembered how to equalize and my buoyancy skills were
still with me but it feels like I forgot to do something?? wait a min (after
flooding my mask 4 or 5 times because it keeps fogging up )sea gold on the mask
that's what I forgot well at least I can still clear my mask ....saw a few fish
but left my spear gun top side, probably a good thing (lol) you cant shoot what
you cant see (mask still fogging) well 30 min we we go up (still 1 psi left)
(really 1500 psi) cool dive, no problems with dive skills 101 )next dive 7.5
miles away at the army tanks, approx 40 foot dive 5 army tanks complete with gun
turrets. well this time with spear gun in hand down we go, vis about 10-15 feet,
it only took about 5 min to lose my dive buddy (one min search then surface)
well we both hit the surface about 20 feet away from each other and about a min
apart, back down we go and finish the dive (35 min total ) I got off only one
shot a hit but the tip on the spear malfunctioned and it went into the fish hit
the structure and bounced back out of the fish( red snapper) well there will be
a happy barracuda ....back to the surface and to the boat all in all a perfect
day .......the reason I tell you all this story is to let you know this stuff
happens and still we dive, because once we do its in our blood, don't let a long
break from diving get any longer, get your gear together and get wet (even if it
takes 30 days from plan to dive) I'll post details of my next dive and it won't
be 2 1/2 years from now
.... till next time be safe and get wet ...
From: Charlene & John
Date: 31 Jul 2006
Headed out Sunday from John's Pass to Treasure Island II but there was someone fishing it so we went a few more miles out to the pipeline. First dive in 102' - could see bottom during the descent at about 65'!! Lots of life to include seeing 2 octopus, a large nurse shark, starfish, big school of mangos, etc., with a few tempting size fish, but John didn't take them. Moved back in to a nice ledge in about 65' - as soon as John hit bottom he got a nice hog. Also shot a 26" red grouper. I found a larger red grouper, but John was in the opposite direction, so that one gets to live a little longer (hopefully). Third dive was along same ledge, we just let out some anchor rope and moved back about 50'. John shot 2 more hogs. The water was bright clean blue up top. The first dive (102') there was sediment in the water from the bottom up about 10-15' - almost like someone had stirred up the bottom a little before you got there. In the 65' water, there was a little more sediment in the top 25', but from there down, it was clear. Even in 65', the water was still that nice clean blue. It was a great day on the water!
&nb
