Date: 10 Jun 03
Wx: Clear, winds S 10 kts, high 80s
Seas: ~2 ft
Viz: 15 ft to 20 ft. Obvious fresh water mixing near the surface
Temp: 72 on the bottom. Two thermoclines (50ft and 20 ft)

Dive One:  Anniversary Reef.  See Dive Two.

Dive Two:  No lobsters, two short groupers, a few short triggers, one flounder, one 8 ft bull shark, several black snappers, and a few red snappers.  Shot a 22" red snapper on the first dive, and decided to dive the reef again for the black snappers.  Bull showed up 5 minutes into the second dive, so we looked for lobsters until time to leave. Went ahead and shot a 20" black snapper before heading up the rope.

Dive Three:  Frangista Barge.  A few black snappers and one flounder.  Didn't bother to pull the trigger.

 

Date: 14 Jun 03
Wx: Clear w/ a few clouds, winds S 10 kts or less, high 80s
Seas: 2-3 ft swells
Viz: 20 ft to 30 ft. Obvious fresh water mixing near the surface
Temp: 74 on the bottom. Thermocline at 40 ft

Dive One:  FWB Liberty Ship.  First trip to the FWB-LS this year. Usually not a productive dive because it is over-fished. Couldn't quite see from one side to the other (hence my 30 ft viz assessment). As usual, grey snappers were in the bow. Saw a few short grouper.

Dive Two: AJ Bimini tank turret.  Probably more fish on the turret than the LS.  Schools of red snapper, all of them short but one.  I only had two bands pulled when I took a shot at a 24" snapper.  Three bands would have stoned him, but I only gave him a headache. I shot a trigger and was stringing him when a 6 ft bull showed up and wouldn't go away.  It was time to end the dive anyway.

Dive Three: Not really a dive. Tossed the hook on the Barrel Barge, but the chain fouled in the anchor flukes. By the time we got to the bottom, we had dragged anchor maybe 500 ft. Called the dive.

Dive Four: Back on the Barrel Barge. Swam around it 3 or 4 times. Finally shot a grey snapper at the end of the dive.

 

Date: 21 Jun 03
Wx: Storm clouds in the morning off-shore, then clear, then storm clouds and rain on the coast. Winds S 10 kts or less, high 80s
Seas: 2-4 ft swells

Temp: 74 on the bottom. Thermocline at 40 ft

Dive One and Dive Two:  18s: Viz: 20 ft to 30 ft. Obvious fresh water mixing near the surface. Depth was 110. Hundreds of small triggers. Shot a couple of 14 inchers. Shot one nice grouper and picked up a few shovelnose. Grabbed a spiny for practice; even if they were in season, this one had eggs.

Dive Three: Viz: 10 feet. Depth was 78. Very small piece of the ruble pile, but covered with fish. I got another nice grouper and saw one that was at least 36 inches. Also got a couple of more trigger and a red snapper. There were flounder around, but didn't bother with them. Stupid spear tip should never have passed quality control. The barb retainer ring started jamming and finally broke completely. Had to unscrew the tip to get each fish off. Could have shot another 5 or 6 fish while I was screwing with the damn tip.

Side note: First trip in a couple of months that we didn't see a bull shark (he was probably on the rubble pile, but the viz was bad).

 

Date: 6 Jul 03
Wx: Clear, winds S 10 kts, high 80s
Seas: ~2 ft
Viz: 15 ft to 20 ft.
Temp: 76 on the bottom.

First sunny day in about two weeks.

 

Dive One:  18s at 110 ft.  No fish to shoot, and every lobster I caught had eggs. The anchor was well away from any big rocks, but it must have caught solid bottom because the shank was bent at about 80 degrees.

 

Dive Two:  We went to another part of 18s for dive two, but it was more of the same.  The anchor wouldn’t set properly with a bent shank, so it drug off the reef by the time we got down.  We finished the dive and couldn't find the anchor, so we did a free ascent and skipped the safety stop so we wouldn't drift far. We surfaced well in front of the boat, which means we were probably very near the anchor and couldn't see it.

 

Date: 27 Jul 03
Wx: Clear, Light north wind in the morning, 10 kt south wind in the afternoon, high 80s
Seas: 1 ft early, building to 2 ft
Viz: 40 ft to 50ft at 18s, 15 ft inshore.
Temp: Forgot to check, but not warm enough for a skin, yet.

Dive One:  18s (110 ft). Vis was great. Saw a couple of short red grouper a number of baby triggers, and a few flounder. Never pulled the trigger; however, slippers were in every other hole. I would work a hole while Candy looked for more.  As soon as I finished with a hole, she would point out the next spot.

 

Dive Two:  Same as Dive One.  Bagged 14 lobsters on the two dives and released another twenty that had eggs.

Dive Three:  Stopped at AJ Reef for the third dive (85 ft). Thought there might be some black snapper in the cracks, but all I saw besides bait fish was a lonely red snapper which went in the cooler.

Dive Four:  Still had daylight, so we did a fourth dive on a small piece of rubble.  I've had good luck on small stuff because it is probably not fished much.  Candy shot a gag, but it didn't penetrate and he holed up.  The bottom is more silt than sand so the gag stirred up a "cloak of invisibility" under the concrete.  I shined my flashlight around until I could barely make out a tail, aimed about 20 inches north, and fired into the silt out.  Would have stoned a 24" gag, but this guy was almost 30", so I got him through the gills

 

Date: 31 Jul 03
Wx: Mostly sunny, south wind, high 80s
Seas: 2 ft or less
Viz: 40 ft to 50ft at 18s, 30 ft inshore.
Temp: Forgot to check, still not warm enough for a skin.

Dive One:  18s. Nice viz, but no fish. Only saw 4 slippers, and they all had eggs.

Dive Two:  Same.

Drove over some numbers I had for Barns #4 and Bill's Reef - didn't see any bottom structure, and didn't want to do a search pattern. I think these sites are LORAN conversions from the "Team Livewire" list.

Stopped by the Liberty Ship.  A dive boat was on it, and they said there were two big bulls swimming around.  I don't mind bulls when I'm sight-seeing, but we've been accosted too many times when shooting fish, so we moved on.

Dive Three:  Reefex tank. Vis was really good for inshore. Shot a gag on the interior of the tank and the spear embedded in something behind the fish.  Had to go in the tank to work the spear free. Not really recommended, but I had plenty of air and Candy was keeping an eye on me. Tons of juvenile triggers and red snapper.  Lots of bait fish and short groupers. And I nearly forgot . . . an eight foot nurse shark.

Got back to port under really ugly skies, but the rain held off until we got the gear into the rinse buckets.

 

Date: 3 Aug 03
Wx: Mostly sunny, south wind, high 80s
Seas: 2 ft or less
Viz: 0 ft to 30 ft depending on site.
Temp: 76F on average

Decided to take a heading of 240 out of the pass. I had some old numbers I have been meaning to investigate for over a year.

Dive One: Reefex Tank – viz 20 ft. Usual queen angels, bait fish, and small grouper. We dove this tank to see if a big grouper was still in residence (he wasn’t). Shot two triggers.

Tried to find four spots. I’m not even sure what kind of structure these guys are suppose to be (small boat wrecks? Boxcars?). The names I have are “Sweet Spot”, “M118”, “Lucky 4” and “Murphy”. I couldn’t find anything, so I’m assuming one or more of the hurricanes moved them.

Dive Two: Butthead Tug – viz 0 – 10 ft. Finally found some structure. Found a Danforth anchor (almost new) that’s just the right size for my boat. After bending my anchor shank a couple of weeks ago, having a spare on-board makes a lot of sense. The bottom was pure silt. Took a couple of flounder then called the dive when the viz went to zero.

Looked for some more unnamed wrecks (or junk) and a place called Watt’s Ledge. Still no luck.

Dive Three:  Wreck named “Awesome” by the guy who gave me the number – viz 20 ft. Looks like a piece of tug sitting at about 45 degrees at 120 ft. It’s on a slope, so when the boat is off the wreck, the bottom machine might read 90 ft even though the wreck is a lot deeper. I think we only had 18 minutes on the bottom and got pretty close to our NDL. Enough time to shoot a grouper, however. The grouper went through a hatch that was too small for me and wedged my shaft, but I found another entry and got him out.

Dive Four: Liberty Ship – viz 30 ft. Saw 3 large grouper but they moved onto the sand and wouldn’t let me get close. Gigged a bunch of nice flounder. Spent the safety stop surrounded by a school of barracuda. A couple of them were pretty close to 6 ft long.

 

Date: 10 Aug 03
Wx: Clear, winds SW 5 kts early, 15+ kts later (I don't care what the 42039 buoy says), temp: high 80s
Seas: Flat in the morning to ~3 ft in the afternoon
Viz: 15 ft to 20 ft.
Temp: 76 average on the bottom.

Dive One: Air Force Barge. Short grouper, a few red snapper, and a 5 ft Jew Fish. Didn't shoot any of them.

Dive Two: Broken bottom. Took a head-on shot at a grouper, but he pulled off and holed up. Never got another shot at him. Large bull visited. School of large cravelle showed up while I was messing with a trigger. They left before I could reload.

Dive Three: Frangista culverts. Large nurse shark, small grouper. Got a large flounder and a trigger. Another smaller bull showed up.

Dive Four: Bridge rubble. Tons of baitfish. One more flounder. Pretty fished out site.

Saw some turtles and a bull shark on the surface. Fairly rough ride when headed into the southwest wind. Four and five footers in the pass.

 

Date: 17 Aug 03
Wx: Cloudy, winds SW 10 kts, temp: high 80s
Seas: 1 and 2 ft
Viz: 15 ft to 20 ft.
Temp: 78 on the bottom.

Had a problem with the starter motor at the marina, then again in the bayou when I stopped to mess with the carburetor, and again after the first dive.

Big storm to the southeast as we headed out the pass, so we headed west. Watched the storm hit Destin and waited until we were sure of the direction before diving. Dove a tank. Saw some flounder, grouper, and small triggers. Nothing big enough to bring home.

Decided not to take a chance with the motor not starting again, so we headed in.

 

Date: 17 Oct 03
Wx: Cloudy turning Sunny, winds NNE 10 kts, temp: Low 54 – Hi 80
Seas: 3+ ft offshore, inshore calmer
Viz: 20 ft.
Temp: Reverse Thermocline 73 on top, 78 on the bottom.

Finally got the boat back in the water. Replaced the engine and rebuilt the transmission. $4400.

Dive One: Left the marina at 0630. Saw a dead sea turtle near the rubble pile. Someone had spray-painted his back with OSHA orange. Wind was suppose to shift from N to S, but it stayed out of the north for a long time. As a result, 18s was a little rough. Got one lobster.

Dive Two: Instead of hitting 18s again, we headed to an inshore reef and calmer seas. We picked up a medium black snapper and a big sheepshead.

Dive Three: Hit the flounder motherload on the Franjista Culverts. Could have gigged our limit, but ran out of NDL. Got 16 flounder. Saw about a six foot barracuda, the biggest I have seen in this area. Thought about testing my homemade powerhead on him, but he didn’t get close enough.

 

Date: 18 Oct 03
Wx: Sunny, winds NNE 15 kts, temp: Low 60 – Hi 80
Seas: 3+ ft offshore, inshore calmer
Viz: 20 ft.
Temp: Reverse Thermocline 73 on top, 78 on the bottom.

Left the marina around 0900. I didn’t want to go offshore because the north wind was pretty strong. Inshore, fishing boats were on damn near every site we tried.

Dive One: Finally pulled up on a reefex tank as another dive boat was pulling off. They said it held some amberjack, so we went down. Didn’t see any AJs, but Candy spied a big red snapper hiding inside the tank. She knew her gun didn’t have the power to stone him, so she called me over. I stoned it, but it got stuck in some structure in the tank. Took about 5 minutes to work him free. Weighed over 11 lbs and was 28 inches.

Dive Two: Got a good return on an object identified as a storage tank. It was smaller than I thought (smaller than a culvert), and it didn’t hold many fish.

Dive Three: Thought I was dropping on the rubble with fake kelp, but I dropped on a school of fish (the fake kelp can look like fish). The rubble was probably within 50 feet, but we couldn’t see it and the anchor was dragging, so we called the dive. This was my first sand dive.

 

Date: 21 Oct 03
Wx: Cloudy turning Sunny, winds NW 10 kts, temp: Low 62 – Hi 80
Seas: 3+ ft offshore, inshore calmer
Viz: 20 ft.
Temp: Reverse Thermocline 73 on top, 78 on the bottom.

Left the marina at 0745. Navy wave model said the wind would be out of the north and then the east. The winds really started out of the NW and shifted from the west.

Dive One: Dove what some people call Triplets. I’m not sure because there is so much broken bottom in the area. No fish.

Dive Two: Dropped on the kelp bed rubble again and got it right this time. Earlier this year I got a 28 in and a 31 in grouper on this small piece of rubble that is probably not fished much (‘cause it’s small). Now the sand has covered it to the point that it doesn’t hold fish like it use to. Too bad.

Dive Three and Four: Broken bottom (caves) in 92 fsw. Nice double ledge with about 6 ft relief. Once again Candy found a grouper and called me over. Could only see him head-on, but I took the shot anyway. Turned out to be 23 inches. Also got one nice slipper. We decided to dive the site again to look for more lobster. This time I found a ledge that held several black snapper, but they were in a spear-trapping hole and I didn’t have enough bottom time to try and work a spear free. Didn’t shoot any more fish or find any more lobsters.

Wind was howling out of the west by the time we surfaced and seas were running 4 feet. Got back to the marina by 1600.

 

Date: 2 Nov 03
Wx: Sunny, winds ENE 10-15 kts, temp: Low 60 – Hi 80
Seas: 3+ ft offshore
Viz: 20 ft.
Temp: 73 on the bottom.

Left the marina at 0900. Not bad in the bay, but winds were causing whitecaps in the Gulf. Decided to use the 7/5 suit with a 5/3 hooded vest, and used 18 lbs. Never got cold.

Dive One:  Fishing boats were on the Frangista, so we headed to some broken bottom. Vis was 50ft in the top half of the column, but dropped to 20 ft or less near the bottom. Picked up two slippers and a red grouper.

Dive Two:  Frangista was open on the way back in so we hit the culverts. Flounder have thinned out, and I didn’t’ bother with several legal but short ones. We picked up 5 flounder (one was a 20 inch fatty).

Wind slacked a little after the first dive, and we road 3 ft east rollers back to the pass. The days are getting short and the marina is closing at 5:00 pm, so we only did two dives.

 

Date: 11 Nov 03
Wx: Cloudy then Sunny, winds E 5-15 kts, temp: Low 65 – Hi 75
Seas: 4+ ft in the morning, subsiding in the afternoon
Viz: 15 to 50 ft.
Temp: 73 on the bottom.

Left the marina at 0900. Not bad in the bay. Forecast called for ENE winds (which is usually not too bad because of the shape of the coast east of Destin), but the wind and swell were dead out of the east. With no land for protection, even the inshore swells were getting over 4 feet (and they were really close together, making for a rough ride). We couldn’t make better that 10 kts. Used the 7/5 suit with a 5/3 hooded vest, and used 18 lbs. Never got cold.

Dive One: By the time we dropped on the Franjista, the wind had dropped from 15 kts to 10 kts. Vis was 50ft in the top half of the column, but dropped to about 20 ft. Picked up two larger flounder, and left many small but legal ones behind.

Dive Two: Wind and swell continued to subside. Dropped on a ledge I refer to as the caves, but it is probably one of the 4 Anchors reefs. Tried to corner a big black snapper three times during the dive, but he has a cave that takes him completely out of sight. The vis was over 40 to 50 feet and it was nice just to see so much of the reef at one time. Lots of nice tropicals.

Dive Three: Dove what I think is called Anchor Rock. It has a huge mushroom anchor wedged under a ledge. It is only a mile from 4 Anchors, but the vis dropped to less than 20 feet. Candy and I got separated. She found a grouper under a ledge and shot him, but he pulled off. By the time I found her, the grouper had caused a silt out and we never saw him again.

Heading in, the wind had subsided to less than 5 kts and the swell was down to 2 feet and glassy. Made it back to the marina by 4:50, but they were already closed.

 

Date: 15 Nov 03
Wx: Sunny, temp: Low 65 – Hi 75
Viz: 50 ft.
Temp: 68.

Went to Vortex Springs for the DUI Dog Days. Candy wanted to try some drysuits, and I wanted to go to the drysuit repair seminar. DUI had a pretty smooth operation, and they spent plenty of time getting us outfitted. Dick Long (DUI owner/president) worked with Candy and me. I only tried one suit (TLS350) because I wanted to do the seminar, but Candy got to try two suits (TLS350 and CF200), and she tried the weight harness.

The repair seminar was really one-on-one training because it was just me and a friend sitting with Faith Ortins (vice-president) and doing a hands-on neck seal replacement. Anyone who has used contact cement is halfway to being an expert. DUI does use a couple of simple "jigs" though, so I'm glad I got to do it once. We also got to see the new Zip Seals (which are very cool, but expensive).

Very pleasant way to spend the day.

 

Date: 22 Nov 03
Wx: Sunny, winds ENE 10+ kts, temp: Low 54 – Hi 75
Seas: 2+ ft in the morning, subsiding in the afternoon
Viz: 15 to 20 ft.
Temp: 73 on the bottom.

Left the marina at 0700. Winds were stronger than forecast. Bay was pretty flat overall, but a little choppy. The Navy Wave Model called for flat seas, but the Gulf was running about two feet. Still wearing the 7/5 suit with a 5/3 hooded vest, and 18 lbs.

Dive One: Went to 18s hoping for some lobster. I Shot a red grouper, and Candy got a nice “fat” 20 inch flounder. Those were the only legal eatin’ fish we saw. No lobster.

Dive Two: Wind and swells were still pretty strong out of the ENE, so I put the bow into the wind which gave me a heading toward the Janet and LCM-8. Couldn’t make better than 10 kts without getting wet and beat up. There were 3 fishing boats in the area, but 2 of them left before we got there, and the other was on the Janet, so we dropped on the LCM. Shot a nice 32 inch grouper as soon as we hit the bottom, but didn’t see another legal fish for the rest of the dive.

Dive Three: We headed to the Franjista culverts and pulled up on Glen “Gulfdiver”. After saying howdy, we decided to use our surface interval to get a little closer to the pass. I thought my Man overboard (MOB) position was still set for some rocks south of the pass, but I was wrong. We dropped on some low relief (which I expected) and started to follow the reef to the right (expecting to see the relief increase). Next thing I know, I’m looking at the mushroom anchor on anchor rock. I must have hit MOB last week. No fish and bad viz.

Wind and swell had died by 1430, so we were able to make 20 kts on the way home.