Trip Report Big Bang Open 2018

[jfjf]

We did the 2018 Big Bang Open Tournament last weekend, diving both Friday and Saturday.

Found super cold water (low or very low) 50's in deep water - which pushed all the fish in. Temps in 80-90 feet
were low to mid 60's or so, and visibility varied from around 20 to 60 feet depending on the tide, the current
and the upwelling locations. One dive reminded me of a really nice day in New Jersey with cool, green water!

The conditions were actually pretty good for us in Palm Beach because of the fish being driven inshore.
None of us could find a decent grouper. 15 inch hogs were plentiful, but I couldn't find a legal one.
Nor could I find two triggers or Porgie large enough for the tournament.

Got some decent video of my son and I taking forever to land a few decent sized AJ's. Normally I would deliver a second shaft and provide assistance with a large fish (especially on wrecks where large bullsharks are known to hang out), but we try hard to do things unassisted for the tournament - and try to follow the rules as best we can.

We gave it a good effort, but our scores were less than half the winners numbers.

I won a great dive trip voucher from Aqua Hunter Charters in WPB (Thanks Todd) and nice pair of MAKO Fins. My son won a MAKO gun and some booties and gloves. The tournament weigh in was well run and efficient and the buffet lunch was great.

Tony did a great job and has a pretty amazing prize table each year.

Video is probably way too long, but what the hell


https://youtu.be/GSvp12grRoo

YouTube

[Aqua dog]

first time i did the BBO.I did get all my species with a score of 92.Think i ended up 6th or so overall.The tourney was a good time with some great prizes.Especially 1st overall.(Chip Garber congrats)I keep looking on here for tony to post up the results and all the pictures on the BBO tournament section