Went south on the smooth ocean with my cousin David and faithful mate Timmy. Grouper trolled for first time curiousity and checking some bottom but had no strikes. Dropped on a spot in 85 ft and quickly got our limit of ARS with biggest going close to #12. Some decent c bass and many big bliners. 1 small gag as well. Dove a spot in 86ft that we marking trolling and had good bottom and life (60 ft vis) but mostly sea bass and no good gags or ARS. Made the call at 2pm to move out 10 miles to 100 ft to a spot i found trolling 2 yrs ago. Very very small, like an overturned boat hull 10’x16’. Caught the new trident trigger at 8.6lbs on first drop (til Sellsfish beats me). Pulled up several more 6-7lb triggers on a few drifts.
Then went down with the gun. Always very hard to find the spot b/c so small. As I found the spot, the biggest ray of my life swam off. Underwater hard to always judge, but pushing 12ft in diameter with about 10-12 ft tail. Unbelievable size. It was even better to turn and see my little fish haven stacked with big gags and scamps. There is a little area for fish to hide under the structure and a #250lbs goliath grouper(jewfish) had made it his home. My first encounter with a jewfish underwater and pretty awesome. I shot a 23lb gag, 3 6-8lb scamps, and 3 triggers (5-7lb) on that 20 min dive. A few other big gags there but let them live to get 30-40# for the next trip there in a year. I dive the spot 1 time each year and it is guaranteed lot of fish b/c of that always.
When i get my underwater helmet cam the video footie is going to be pretty sweet. Congrats to all reports on an awesome way to spend a sunday in novemeber. thanks
