Fished yesterday on a nice ocean. Started trolling with black barts looking for a bigger fish near the ledge and caught a 35 lb dolphin to start the day. No dolphin on ledge so worked out deeper and found a good looking weedline in 250ft with a .75 degree temp break. Caught a dolphin on lures and then put the baits out. 10 minutes later the hot reel/color of the day, little blue/white islander on a 30 got slammed. I was on the rod and thought huge dolphin at first. It ran from port side of boat to starboard side and 100 yds through weedline in a matter of seconds, quickly spooling the reel. About 500 yds away we see a massive blue marlin tail walking several times and chased him as best we could but line popped after 10 minutes. I would guesstimate 300-400 lb fish. Kept trolling that weedline all day and ended with 16 dolphin with a few small ones and a few nice ones. Heard talk on radio all day of nice weedline and fish being caught in 500 ft near 226 hole. The bite was weird and turned on more around 11-1pm rather than in the morning. At 4 people were still on the radio getting triple and quad knockdowns and i had hoped to put 30 fish in the boat but diving was part of our agenda for the day.
We pulled lines around 2 and headed back to ledge/ Royal Terrace area to pop our cherry on the deep dives off charleston. My trusty partner Wes Fairy and I. We dove air tanks and it was dark and 40 ft vis at the bottom. Big squares of reef with 4 ft channels in running btn them. Our game plan was to eat shoot 1 big fish within 10 minutes and come up. Honestly we got so narked out when we got down there that we didn’t stick to game plan well. He chased a big gag and then i sized up what i thought was a nice scamp and blasted him. I got the fish and then couldn’t find wes. I had a school of several hundred AJs circle me within a foot like a tornado and i got really disoriented and sick feeling. Still couldn’t find wes
Probably want to use trimix on a dive like that. I’d love to see some pictures from that dive. We may need to drop the gopro down on some deep ledges to check them out.
14’ Pamlico 140 Angler w/ rudder
Kayak, SCUBA, or both.
Jordan have you done any dives that deep? Im not certified for trimix and not the easiest mix to get done around here- I did a 185 dive in bahamas a month ago and was fine …but i guess diving with a group of people and 150vis always makes things easier- I still swear those AJs were trying to make me insane and drown me…haha
i own shadow divers and several other diving books on scuba and freediving
Nope and heliem isn’t cheap either so I just stick to Nitrox. You can get a decent custom blend if you know exactly how deep you will be going and it should help with getting narc’d less. It’d be a very low Nitrox since 21% is only good to 186 anyways. Gotta watch out for O2 tox since that will kill you dead.
Sounds like an awesome trip but too bad you didn’t have a dive cam rated to that depth. Mine only does 135’ but I worry past 110’.
14’ Pamlico 140 Angler w/ rudder
Kayak, SCUBA, or both.
Jordan i had a gopro mounted on my gun for the whole dive and gopro footage of the big sharks we were catching cause i jumped in the water and filmed them when they were next to the boat- i hate computers and ive had to much boat cleanup from yesterday to even look at the footage yet
Come on now…2 guys on boat with plan in case we didn’t come up anchor…deco bottle with 36 mix nitrox and T3 wireless dive computer- Scoutin ive posted on here enough for you to know that im not a novice diver, fisherman or boater
Come on now…2 guys on boat with plan in case we didn’t come up anchor…deco bottle with 36 mix nitrox and T3 wireless dive computer- Scoutin ive posted on here enough for you to know that im not a novice diver, fisherman or boater
Don’t forget to mention I also dive with a PLB in a waterproof canister and we both hit the surface with 1500 Psi left in our cylinders. The anchor line gets tied to a buoy so the guys on the boat can pick us up fast if they need to. Hardly any current where we dove. Dove with an oceanic pro plus II to monitor saturation levels. I’ve read shadow divers and have a healthy respect for those depths.
Be careful man. There are a lot of little details that can make things go bad quick deep. It’s a whole new ballgame at that depth.
Make sure you bag the deco reg for your deco bottle and turn the air off. I also mark my deco reg with a big zip tie with the tag end sticking straight up in my line of vision. I’ve accidentally put the wrong reg in when going deep but noticed it before i got too deep. It’s one of those things you think you would never do but it happens. especially when narced, and chasing fish.
Just fyi for non divers, breathing higher 02 from your decompression mix in a pony bottle too deep can kill you.
Just one of the things you don’t want to learn by trial and error.
Glad you guys made it back ok.
Rob Harding
236 Sailfish w/225 hpdi
Charleston diving http://www.charlestondiving.com (Fish not Biting? Try a fast presentation of spring steel)</font id=“green”>
Rob…i was hoping you might comment. Ive talked to you about diving deep before and i wanna explore more and check the deeper spots and i know you have more experience than anyone doing it. Its been a while since you put a report up!!
Come on now…2 guys on boat with plan in case we didn’t come up anchor…deco bottle with 36 mix nitrox and T3 wireless dive computer- Scoutin ive posted on here enough for you to know that im not a novice diver, fisherman or boater
Yes, I have read your previous posts and was surprised when I read the thread. You left out the above details.
That and your buddy Phin called me on the phone and told me to read the post. He was a bit concerned as well…
Congrats on the good day!
Set the trap boys, we going to pass through them again!!
