Florida & Georgia - 7/4 more gags..

The weather held nicely throughout the week and we decided to go spearfishing. Same routine as usual, up at 4am and at the ramp by 5:30. Headed straight to go sabiki up some bait for our back up plan. Went straight for a private wreck in a 100' of water, the visibility was about 20 feet. First dive down, we spear a nice cobia and a gag off the bat. Shortly after there was another cobia, my buddy went to take the shot but his cable broke from a fray.. We start swimming around looking for the wreck but no luck in finding it. We head back up, do our safety stops, etc, to find we drifted about a quarter of a mile away. So we begin to swim, about 20 minutes later we hit the deck. We drop back in for a second dive, and we were on the wreck immediately, GOLIATHS EVERYWHERE. on a 40' wreck there was at least 30 of them and a few that were about 400lbs at 6-7feet long. We managed to get 2 more gags, and we speared a total of 8 mango's between the three of us. Once of out the water we stowed away diving gear for 3 people, 6 tanks and everything fit underneath my storage compartments. We headed to a ledge which produced some very nice gags on sunday and ended the day with 10 gags (5 man limit) and 5 red groupers, 8 mangos and a nice cobia.

We even had some very excited visitors join us for a party. ;cool;

Hope to head out this sunday as the weather for saturday isn't looking so great.

Tight lines! ---Chris

We start swimming around looking for the wreck but no luck in finding it. We head back up, do our safety stops, etc, to find we drifted about a quarter of a mile away. So we begin to swim, about 20 minutes later we hit the deck.

Great job on the fish, our vis off Clearwater hasn't cleared up enough after the storms for spearing. But please tell me that you didn't anchor the boat and all of you went diving at the same time?? If that wasn't the case, why did you have to swim for 20 minutes to get back to the boat instead of them coming and picking you up?

The first dive we were anchored two guys stayed aboard, one knew how to run the boat, but no idea on how to use an anchor ball. We told them to stay put and we'd get there eventually. second dive, we let them just drift around.

I was disappointed with the lack of gags on the wreck, but it is what it is. Thats why we have ledges! :thumbsup:

Good call on letting them drift......I have picked up too many people who dove from anchored boats and couldn't make it back.

You can thank the rare, endangered, never seen shy Goliath Groupers for the lack of life on the wrecks.

No green boogers huh? I've been worried about it settling in with the rain and all. Did you stop at the 240 on the way home? If so, how was the vis there?

Haven't dove the 240 ever, but i doubt the visibility was better than 20 feet. Plus its way further south and out of my way..

They should open up a goliath season, one fish per boat with a $100 tag. Id sure as hell get one.
We had some decent fish on hook and line, not an AJ, definitely a grouper but 10 seconds later it was swallowed by a goliath.

Yeah, they are all over south. Sometimes Edison is so covered with them, it's a miracle that anything could live on it. The 240 west produce some nice red grouper and a lot of snapper.

I have some great offshore numbers, but I would personally love to dive in 50-60 feet, since we have some nice hogfish in our area. 100' of water is deep. Im not the biggest fan of such deep dives but i manage.

The ledges would work well for you then. Lots of reds there this time of the year.

I know some guys who are close with charter captains, i Just need to take some of those guys out maybe giving me a spot or two. I don't spend time close to shore really often, plus the visilibity is bad.

great weather, good spearfishing and good hook and line fishing i really think it does not get any better than that! good job guys

ps the goliath are out of hand ever were!