Started out the day on the troll on the flat ocean and the bite was pretty soft. Ended up with 11-12 dolphin with the biggest being 39lbs-8oz on our digital scale. Thought he would have been a few pounds heavier, but a pretty fish, no doubt.
Then, headed in to the shallows and strapped some tanks on our back. The first dive down was to 107’ where we were greeted by a boat load of red snappers. Saw several in the 12-15# range and a couple of them that were probably pushing 18-20#. It’s really amazing how many of these endangered species we are seeing. We ended up getting a pair of gags on that dive.
Dive #2, moved in to 90’ of water, and first fish that we see is a 15# red snapper. Saw at least a dozen more keepers on that structure and it’s not a place that I really even remember seeing that many of them in the past. We got 2 nice hogs off of that spot with the largest hog probably coming in around the 17# mark. Also, got zipped by a 6-7’ long sandbar shark that wanted to see where all of the commotion was coming from. Also felt something tug on my neck. Grabbed it and pulled it off my neck only to realize it was braided fishing line! I looked down and saw two hooks closing in fast. Made a ninja move and the hooks missed my face by a foot or so. Could have been much worse!
Third dive of the day was a ledge in 80’. There was a healthy school of gags there, several sting rays, and also, some more keeper size endangered red snapper. I’ve actually never seen even juvenile red snapper on this spot before and there were serveral nice keepers here.