Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota)

[japppo]

Originally Posted by grey2112

So, having been skunked yesterday and things still not looking good for offshore today, I decided to take the wife's boat (17 foot Key West) with my good buddy Matt (executive chef of the Ceviche restaurants and Roccoco Steakhouse) along with a new friend I met on here, Jarno, from Finland (visiting Florida with his family) - both are free divers.

I told them we'd have crappy viz and cold water, and wind and waves, but they were undeterred. So we hit the pilings along Gandy and Howard Frankland, and the artificial reefs (barges, rubble, etc.) nearby both.

Jarno got a nice 18" Sherpa and a 14" as well, his first ever Florida fish he's speared. Viz, as expected, was very bad and water temps around 68.

Matt, on his last dive, got buzzed by a school of Black Drum and NAILED one in the skull, stoning it. He was 23 pounds and over 33 inches long.

Went back to Matt's restaurant and made up some ceviche with the sherpa, and Matt had his cooks deep fry the head and carcass of the drum after he filleted it - and damn did it taste GOOD! I've never had black drum before - I was impressed.

Had some amazing tapas from the restaurant and everyone had a good time - I told Jarno he needs to come visit in summer, this winter low viz/high winds/waves diving sucks - LOL.

Big thanks to Eric for taking me out there. Tampa Bay visibility was just like the Baltic Sea, green and murky as shit. But the fish were there... Here's some footage from Eric's camera and speargun that he generously loaned me. I missed quite a few fish but that video is not worth sharing on this forum.

YouTube

[cldomson1]

Any temp reports off Anclote? Hunting for the endangered AJ tomorrow.
Thanks
C

[grwilson]

I had 67 at the surface on Saturday.

[aquajon]

We r going tomorrow. Will post up

[redrumintl]

Hey we have a few divers in the St. Pete area who are currently without a boat and would love to get out and shoot some promo video for red rum as well as some fish! let us know!

[Basskrieg]

Originally Posted by R.Boonfield

Thanks. Is there a way to access the actual historical buoy measurement data instead of going off of the predictions?

Windfinder allows this I know, it only goes back so far though (for free that is) and then you have to pay them for older date ranges.

https://www.windfinder.com/contact/weatherdata.htm

[aquajon]

Went out today tuesday march 21 or so
Off hernando 64 degf on the bottom. Almost
Top to bottom viz. but hazy 20-30' on the bottom
In the 60' deep range

[jbsrq]

Looking forward to seeing some reports/pictures of big AJ's for those of us stuck behind a desk this week.

[cldomson1]

Got 4 AJ yesterday to close the season. Should have enough for a few batches of dip now. Sorry, no pics.

Water surface temp 40 miles off Anclote was 64-65 degrees. Glad I brought my 5mm.

Vis was a hazy blue top to bottom. I could see the top of the wreck, but not the sand from the surface. It's was the same in 50'. It dropped to 15' vis in 30fsw.

Was hoping for some Cobia but no joy. We found hogs and mango and sheeps. ARS were as thick as ever on the wrecks and the normal wreck mangos were scarce. And gags were thick in 30 fsw.

Here's my best shot of the day: I was spotting my brother on the deep wreck. He goes down past the vis to the bottom and I hear his gun fire. I'm expecting him to come right back up thru the haze layer. No sign of him. I'm waiting...and waiting... then I see him coming up behind me 30 seconds later WITHOUT his GUN!
He pops up looking a little stunned and says he had to let his gun go. He shot an AJ and said his reel locked up. He tried for 30 seconds to figure it out and finally let go. That's the lesson. IF YOU DIVE WITH A REEL, BE PREPARED TO LET YOUR GUN GO. It's only money, not worth your life.
So he's bummed. I watch him for 20 seconds and say, "I'll do a drop and look for your AJ" almost sarcastically.
So I do a drop to maybe 50 feet down, and I see tons of AJs. Then I look out into the sand off the wreck and I see an AJ circling on the bottom with a gun trailing 20' above him. I know I can't get to the bottom, so I swim over and shoot 20' thru the bands at the front of the floating gun and head up. Luckily my shaft toggles on the wishbone and I feel resistance. I hit the surface and pull it up slowly. Then the AJ on the other end starts fighting.
So I call John over to get a shot in this AJ, but he has an AJ he's fighting too! He hands his gun off to Mike and grabs another gun out of the boat. I hold the AJ at 40' and he goes down and stones it. I then pull up the whole mess and throw everything(3 guns, 3 shafts, and an AJ) in the boat.
$700 Hatch gun recovered!!!

C

[Contender36]

Good outcome(not for aj), great story.

[charlie sleepin]

That's awesome Charlie!
You and your brother will be re-living this story for decades to come.

(Kind of reminds me of the Cameron Kirkonnell and Steve Bennett story.)

[grwilson]

Looks like a good weather week. Anyone have any recent vis reports off Clearwater?

[jbsrq]

So not a dive report but did get on the water yesterday. Wasn't able to dive as originally planned thanks to dive buddies backing out last minute. Ended up taking out a non diver friend for a hook and line mission off Sarasota. Got a late start, about 11:00am and ran out to 45'. Water looked awesome! Based on the anchor line probably at least 30' of vis. Managed a cobia and a couple of kings. The king run is on. We could see schools of 30+ fish cruising up our chum line and we were able to pitch free lined cigar minnows at them. Was wishing I was diving and could get a shot at one of the larger fish but oh well, next time.

[jstiver09]

Originally Posted by jbsrq

So not a dive report but did get on the water yesterday. Wasn't able to dive as originally planned thanks to dive buddies backing out last minute. Ended up taking out a non diver friend for a hook and line mission off Sarasota. Got a late start, about 11:00am and ran out to 45'. Water looked awesome! Based on the anchor line probably at least 30' of vis. Managed a cobia and a couple of kings. The king run is on. We could see schools of 30+ fish cruising up our chum line and we were able to pitch free lined cigar minnows at them. Was wishing I was diving and could get a shot at one of the larger fish but oh well, next time.

You could've called me

[jbsrq]

Originally Posted by jstiver09

You could've called me

We need to get out and kill some fish!