What a pretty day on the water today. Teamed up with my father, sellsfish, Edisto Fisher, and Under Contract to chase some of the apparently elusive gag grouper. Went to a nice little bream bed full of them. Under Contract and I wanted to do some “raping and pillaging” as the jealous rod and reelers call it, but my father, sellsfish and EF were determined to take the fun out of our diving adventures. 8 fat daddy gags were taken on Rod and Reel before I could get into my spandex suit. That left one a piece to shoot for UC and myself. Murphy’s law would hold and we landed on a bed of them. They were all over and many in the 18-20# range. I’m talking real 18-20, not internet 18-20’s… Anyway, I got my one gag and decided to hunt for something else. Popped a decent red snapper and a scamp.
Moved to another spot a little later and marked a few fish on the bottom. Started to suit up as quickly as we could, but it wasn’t fast enough. sellsfish brought up a bruiser gag from the bottom and slammed him on the deck. Then the red snapper came flying over the rail one by one. There were blood and guts everywhere. It was armageddon.
Anyway, we popped back over the side for our second dive of the day with 0 gags left to shoot. Decided to take out our frustration on something else. Only problem was that about another 50 legal gags were looking at us with their pectorals in the shape of a middle finger. It was torture. We were also surrounded by 100+ red snapper, but most were right on the line. UC got a legal red snapper and I stoned a scamp and picked up an 8# lobster and a 6# lobster.
The Rod and Reelers put on a clinic today with my old man leading the pack.
Rod and Reel
9 fat gagasarus rexes
1 scamp daddy
5-6 kept red snapper (12+ released)
Various other fish
Diving
1 gag
2 scamps
2 Red snapper
2 lobster
Oh well, we will get those ■■■■ rod and reel rapers and pillagers next time. Just wasn’t a divers day today!!!
Jason-I think you said in another post "no pictures then it never happened " nice report.It sound like that crew would be hard to beat in the bottom fishing thing.
28.5sportcraft twin evinrude 150 ocean pros (Deceased may she rest in peace)
What a great day!! Had a blast, both on the surface and down under with skinnee. Visability was excellent, current was light and the temp was a balmy 64 I beleive.
Rod and reel action was nonstop. I think the only 2 short grouper that came over the rail were caught by me on a sabiki rig while bringing up bait.
Thanks for a wonderful crew and an unforgetable day on the water (and under). Here are a few pics(not very good but you get the idea). I am sure there will be better ones to come.
Yes, it’s really ashame that the guys from MRFS wouldn’t dive with us yesterday. We saw more gags and red snapper than black sea bass, trigger fish or any other species. With gags, the average size of them was pretty nice with over half of them being in the 15-18# range and MOST of them being legal size. As far as the red snapper, we didn’t see as many big ones, but it’s pretty apparent that the CURRENT regulations have been working for some time. I’ve seen hundreds of snapper on the past few dives right at that 19" line. Most of these will be legal next year!!! I think that it was natureboy who said that the current regulations were good enough and that they just needed time to work. I didn’t see anything yesterday that would make you think otherwise.
