Tim Metcalf and I took his brand new Pathfinder 22 ft boat with its super quiet, smooth 4 cycle 250 HP Yamaha engine out for a day of diving on Thursday, April 25. We initially headed out towards a ledge that is 29 miles off Honeymoon Island but the SE breeze was too strong and at 16 miles out decided to look for ledges to dive on in 45 ft of water that were nearby at that point. We spotted three boats fishing close together, one anchored, the others trolling. After multiple passes with Tim's fish finder we determined there was a truly huge school of bait but it was so dense we couldn't really see any bottom structure. Tim marked the spot on his nav system and we headed on to another area with known ledges.
Our first dive was made on "Masthead Ledge", it is a very long, beautiful ledge that we dived four years ago on my last visit. The ledge lies in 52 - 58 ft of water. Water temp was 72 degrees but we both had light wetsuits that were fine to keep us comfortable. Water visibility was at least 40 ft vertically, more like 30 - 35 ft horizontal at the bottom, beautiful for the Gulf and exactly what you hope for this time of year before the regular rains begin and wash the nutrients from everyone's lawn fertilizers into the Gulf.
Below are several pictures from our dive on Masthead Ledge, if you'd like to see more go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/93nANoL2Y7SmnAFj9
Tim starts his descent at the beginning of our dive in the Gulf's beautiful, clear, bluish April water.
The beautiful ledge had lots of juvenile Hogfish, some Porgy, quite a few Grunts, Mangrove Snapper, and a few shy (thanks to spearfishing during open season) Gag grouper. I didn't see a single Red Grouper, I'd normally expect to see several, I suspect they've been killed off by last year's terrible red tide, a natural phenomenon made far far more frequent and far far worse thanks to nutrient run off, especially from poisoned Lake Okeechobee, poisoned by the Sugar Cane Industry which is a co-owner of the state's Republican Politicians (along with the fossil fuel industry and the NRA).
I was delighted to encounter a pair of French Angels!
A Sheepshead, aka "Convict Fish". I used to spear lots of these inshore around pilings and jetties back in the day, they're delicious. Not real easy to catch on hook and line, they are great bait stealers.
Tim swims along the impressive (for the Gulf coast) ledge, we went half a tank in one direction and didn't get to its end, that is enormous length for a ledge here. It had great undercuts, years ago it would have been full of big Gag Grouper....The reef was also much much quieter than normal. Normally you can hear a Gulf ledge even if you can't yet see it, because of all the invertebrate and fish racket. I suspect that its relative silence is also testimony to mass death from last year's extensive, long lasting, Red Tide. Thanks again Sugar Cane Industry, utterly corrupt Republican pro pollution, anti environment politicians and the Fox faux News zombies that foolishly continue to support the destructive utterly corrupt Republican Party. We need a sugar tax to help pay for health care as well as a substantial carbon tax that grows annually, fully rebated to taxpayers, to end the fossil fuel age before it dooms global civilization. Whew, ok, now I'll stop on the politics....
Butterfly fish, I'm a bit rusty on the species....
One of the too few shy juvenile Gag Grouper I saw.
I almost got a decent photo of a shy juvenile Blue Angelfish...
I'm pleased with this shot of a Lizardfish that I took just as he moved due to my too close approach. He was about 9 or 10 inches long.
Another Lizardfish waits in ambush.
As I took this picture of a Key West Grunt I noticed his neighbor to the right...
A Toadfish, with a face only a mother could love...maybe.
A nearly adult Hogfish. Used to spear these, they are as delicious as they are beautiful, so you don't see many large ones anymore.
Triggerfish, a great bait stealer if you're trying to fish on the ledge.
Tim with some juvenile Amberjacks, common on large offshore ledges like this one.
Back to the boat and on to our next dive.
We headed back to the site Tim had marked earlier for our second dive. There was only one boat still on the site when we got there. We circled through the huge school of bait, which at times extended from the surface to the bottom 45 ft down, trying to spot what the structure was that was attracting the fish and fishermen. We decided to anchor and explore the site even though we hadn't spotted any structure. As Tim said "frequently big schools of bait like this are found over wrecks". So we decided we had to check it out. Well, we found what turned out to be a wrecked shrimpboat. Below are some photos from this fun dive, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xKhJU6DeW68nBVZu7
The school of baitfish, made up of multiple species, including sardines, started at our boat and extended clear to the bottom.
First we went to our anchor and found it well planted in the sand, at first all we could see were baitfish but as we swam in the direction they were densest we started to make out a dark shape behind them. It's fun when you don't know what you'll find, one of the best things about diving.
The wreckage came into sight, we immediately spotted a shiny new large Danforth anchor, at right of picture, an unfortunate fishermen had lost in the wreck along with a beautiful long chain and rope.
Tim got to work disconnecting the shackle from the anchor so we could separately bring it up. In all my nearly 52 (next week) years of diving, I've only used by dive knife a few times. I had removed mine just before this dive because the one I brought on this trip was big and cumbersome as was the fashion 51 years ago when I bought it...We eventually were able to break the monofilament line wrapped around the anchor line so that we raised it and the long heavy chain, too...
Five of the largest Snook I've ever seen were on the wreck. They were shy so this is my best shot of three of them. Four feet or so long!
We heard the Goliath Groupers (formerly given the politically incorrect common name of Spotted Jewfish) before we saw them. The largest of the three was maybe 300 lbs, the smallest perhaps 150 or so. They love wrecks. They are protected so their numbers have been growing....I speared one in 11th grade, about 130 lbs, delicious...Glad I'm now a photographer, couldn't imagine killing such a magnificent animal.
All that is left of the Shrimpboat's wooden hull is the keel and part of the bottom in the sand. The extensive masts/outriggers are made of steel, as are the engines and holding tanks.
The Goliath Grouper were curious and kept circling by to see what we were up to on their wreck. They would take on a lighter color when over the sand, darker when near the wreck.
Tim and a large friend. Tim's much closer to the camera than the fish...
Batfish guarding the end of the lost anchor's line. I had to unwind the monofilament fishing line from the anchor line since I'd inconveniently left my dive knife on the boat. Tim's recovering the anchor in the background. It's good to have a BC with extra lift, I needed it to bring up the heavy, long chain far enough to reach the boat with the rope...
Goliath Grouper are huge and they look even bigger underwater.
I followed the dangling chain from our recovered anchor and rope to go back up to the boat at the end of a really fun, great, dive.
