6/8
We made it through the stacked up slop that broke SkinneeJs radar mount out to 70-90 ft on Wednesday to check some spots I have fished but never dove. Took a g/f that recently got certified from Lowcountry Scuba over the weekend and a few seasoned fossil hunters searching for some old riverbed fossils etc. We dove about 10 different spots and i personally did 6 drops. Great diversity between reefs that were very close together. Lots of fish and good reef life. Some slipper lobsters in 78ft, big Red Snappers on several dives, a few nice gags, lots of sheepshead (but no bigger than 8lb), and a few areas of grunts spawning and some triggers mixed in here and there. The visibility was 50-70ft and 8degree temp change at the thermocline. My g/f got a bad earache that she couldn’t fix but other than that a very fun and successful research trip…
until the back right hub on my trailer exploded on the way home
6/9
I woke up and my buddy Mike came over and showed me how to replace a trailer hub which i had never done before. So after a trip to west marine and the gas station we had the boat in the water at 1 and headed out in search of the prized African Pompano in 95ft of water.
Michael Mattson is leaving for a few months so today was the last day for him and he was quite the MVP of the day. He got a nice mid 40s lb cobia in the first 30 minutes. The AJs were thick and he came right down in the middle of them. Then Gabe got a nice Jack Crevalle (i think). It was a sweet fish to watch underwater but apparently not as good to eat. Then Michael got a nice African and we took a lil break on the boat to regroup. Michael went back out charged up while i was still on the boat. Mike Illig fed off Michaels energy and he shot a nice African within 20 minutes leaving me dumbfounded that i hadn’t even seen one yet. I get on the boat to help Mike with the fish and next thing i know, I look over to see Michael getting