Key West and Beyond...

[Hookin]

Some nice fish and pictures. Congrat!

[Westbury]

JP
praying for you guys in South Florida!
Stay safe and hope Irma makes a hard turn out to sea.

[dam]

Once this blows over, I hope you can get us a report on how the diving is after a big storm/hurricane and how long it takes for the fish to "recover". Best of luck and stay safe!

[Westbury]

I rode out hurricane Andrew in Miami back in '92.
We went diving in the middle keys 2 days later and IIRC, the diving was pretty good

[kathy]

Thinking of all of you keys residents right now, hope you and your family and friends are able to be somewhere safe over the next couple days.

[Donzi Paul]

Prayers for you and family Castronova that you weather the hurricane.

All the best. Don

[castronova]

Hey everyone, my family and I are in good health. My wife gave birth in Orlando as we had to evacuate due to the hospital closure. Good thing we did. The keys are in bad shape, a war zone would describe it best. When I get some time to breathe tomorrow I'll write a little more and post some photos. I appreciate all the prayers and thoughts.

[Donzi Paul]

Congregants on the baby.

Cheers, Don

[dctrjayyy]

congrats

[castronova]

Thanks again everyone.

I am just getting internet and only at work. This is the short of the story.

2 weeks ago Irma was barreling down on the east coast. It was "for sure" going up the east side of Florida. It was too close to call here for the NHC so the evacuated the Keys anyways. Mainly because it takes us so long to get out on our one road. Because of the mandatory evacuation the hospital was forced to close. I couldn't possibly type all the thought processes that went through my families minds or that brain function of what is a "conch." My wife DID NOT want to leave. The hospital closing made that a pretty easy convincing. Her dad and brother stayed, my parents stayed. They both have modern multi story homes built to 150 mph building code. Anywho... a lot of people stayed.

My wife and I went to visit a friend in St. Pete beach since the storm was headed to the east coast. Within the 7 hour drive the predicted path switched to the West coast of Florida. I am dead serious when I tell you within 6 minutes of us arriving in St. Pete beach they evacuated the area. Holy Moly.

We moved to another friends in the St. Pete area and they were going to head out too the next morning. So we then moved to a big house in Tampa where my wifes best friend was staying with family. We stayed there one night. The next morning we found out that my mother-in-law, sister and brother-in-law were evacuating and heading to Orlando. We decided it would be best to get away from anywhere that the power could be knocked out at the local hospital. So we went to meet them and drove across the state.

We arrived in Orlando mid-day. We put our stuff in the families room, showered, and got ready for dinner. The hotel has a very nice sushi restaurant and we decided we'd try and go early and get a table. We showed up and surprise to us it was somewhat empty. We got a table for all 14 of us together. We ordered some food, the service was slow. Just as some salads and apps came out I got my first beer. I poured the beer in a glass and my himachi kama arrived. I haven't had that in a long time and was so excited. My wife had went to the restroom. I saw her walking back and took a bite of the hamachi. Insane good! Went to follow it with my beer and my wife whispers, "my water just broke."

I thought this was something I would be able to prepare for. Like, it's the day, lets get ready and go to the hospital all calm and collected. Nope, fucking fire drill!!! What an absolute crazy rush of emotions and shit storm of getting our packed bags to the hospital.

To try and keep this short, our son was born the next day at 11:34am Sunday September 10th as Hurricane Irma swept over Key West and the Keys. He weighed 6 lb. 9 oz. and his name is John Solomon Castro. He is the 4th John Castro although we all have different middle names.

Had he not been born I would have been in Orlando for an extra week with my pregnant wife. Since he was born and my City was in shambles I had to opportunity to come back. It was not an easy decision but she had her sister, mom, and two teenage nieces to help. They had no problem with me leaving. For those of you who don't know I manage the City's Sewer, Stormwater, and Solid Waste operations. This includes the Wastewater Treatment Plant. My mind was torn in half with my baby sitting there but the power was gone in the entire keys and the backup generator had been taken out by the storm at the plant. I headed home on Tuesday the 12th late in the day after we were released. Today, 9/19 my wife and son will be back home with me in Key West. The City is stabilizing.

The Keys got hit very hard by this storm. We got pretty lucky in Key West, small islands just 15 to 30 miles up the chain from us got destroyed. As in, entire houses completely torn from their foundations. I lost 4 mango trees with the other 2 being torn in half. We stood one back up and we'll see if the other 2 that are hurt survive as well. One fell and took out my gutter, I lost about 40' of fencing (which was cheap and I wanted gone anyways), and probably half the shingles on my roof. All in all, I call it a win.

Here's a few pictures for making it through my story.

[kathy]

Oh my gosh, where to even begin!

First congratulations, amidst everything, on the new baby and keeping your family safe.
What a crazy crazy story. I feel like when your kiddo is old enough, he will ask you to tell that story again and again. I am glad you all are back safe on your island now and can rebuild and introduce the little guy to his home.

My heart is broken for the middle keys. I lived for a while on Geiger Key and had friends up on Cudjoe and Big Pine. There are so many sweet old houses and tropical, overgrown neighborhoods back on those islands. And also so many homes that are very fragile - trailers and trailer parks. I imagine not much of that made it through.

I am guessing as a boater you will have to take some serious precautions as well, to avoid sunken / floating debris and boats?!

My grandpa's house and farm in Homestead got thrashed by Andrew in 92 and the hardest part for me was seeing all the massive, old tropical trees - mango, avocado, Royal palms - broken, wind-burned and stripped of leaves. Your eyes acclimate to seeing the trees and all the greenery in a tropical place, and without it, it's a different place entirely, and it took years for things to grow back.

Best of luck with everything - if you have any specific local organizations that accept donations, will you let us know here? It would be nice to donate to a local cause esp. if it helps Key West and the Keys bounce back. Are there volunteer organizations that clear the water of debris? That must be quite an effort.

ps. My mom went into labor with my sister in the middle of the old 7-Mile Bridge - stuck heading to Homestead in some really bad close-US1-in-both-directions accident traffic - my sister had to be born up in Baptist Hospital in Miami. While it's been years since I lived in Key West, I hear you about the Conch mindset. I am glad you all made it to a good hospital to have the kiddo safe and sound.

Kathy

[dam]

Holy crap, dude. I was reading this like a suspense novel. Glad you guys had a relatively smooth event. Congrats on the boy, too, JP! Dude's poised to brave any sea, any weather, any time!

If you have time, can you post more pictures of the aftermath. I'm curious about how the "sanctuary" towns handle the masses who had to evacuate. Do they have enough infrastructures? What about your boat?

PS: What's a conch mindset?

[Trace]

Havn't seen this until now. What a story. Glad everything is working out for you and new family JP.
Congratulations on your new boy. It's a life change but a great ride.
Love to hear an update on how things are going and also need the story on Conch mindset.

[castronova]

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies. I haven't sat at my computer in many weeks so I didn't see most of this. Sorry for taking so long to reply.

Personally my mess is cleaned up. I need some stumps gone but thats it. I need a completely new roof that will be around $20k. I will also need over 100' of new fences (or more) and some concrete work done (walk way to the house, curb retaining wall in the front yard). I don't have a speck of shade in the yard anymore so we'll need all new trees and theyll probably need many years to grow back but thats ok. We just met with adjusters on Tuesday (took them forever as they are swamped). Seems like they agree with the damage, now it's just about them recognizing the incredibly high construction costs down here with the added demand on top of that now. Unfortunately our windstorm deductible is $14,700. So if they agree to the estimates we may just have enough to fix the roof. The fence I will have to put up myself a section at a time as well as forming and pouring concrete. All stuff I can do it will just take time.

I don't really know of any local organizations off the top of my head but I can find out. Even local stuff like that always makes me weary of where money may be going. I have a friend that I've known my whole life that lost everything. I know someone else who is doing a little fundraiser for them too. He played baseball with me since I was 6 and he has 2 8 year old twins. Their house is mostly gone, the foundation has been undermines over 15' from the water side now. All of there belongings are toast. He has the same boat as me, lost the t-top, sides are beat the hell, most of the cowlings and mid-cowlings have been broken to pieces. All his rods and reels were completely submerged in salt water for 2 weeks until he could get back. Those are the stories that make me not even worry about what I have going on.

The City itself did great (Key West proper). It is completely clean and we are gearing up for Fantasy Fest. Our yearly parade on the bar strip that usually attracts 50 - 80k people for an entire week of festivities. It's insane. I don't have any photos right now of what the City looked like but I'll look. I can probably find some drone footage of up the keys. They took the bad side of a Cat 4, a lot peoples houses are completely gone.

The Conch mindset... prideful, stubborn, deeply rooted. Although there is not a lot of us left the locals here are families that came from the Bahamas or elsewhere in the late 1800's early 1900's. Most of us are multi generation. I'm 3rd generation but I have a lot of friends that are 6 or even 7 generation Conchs. They have been here on this little island for 100 years. They have had properties passed down, and down again. They are not going to leave it all behind to go to the dreaded mainland for a storm. As with any strong stance it's always admirable but sometimes can get you in trouble. For decades now though the roots of this town have proved mother nature to be just something we deal with. I would have stayed too honestly. But I think we are smart enough now that if we have Cat 5 coming you need to get your family to safety. Its a small town attitude that has been strengthened for a century of longer. Thats as best as I can describe it.

I got lucky with my boat. I remember the new marina just outside Key West (stock island) has a new 150 mph barn built. So I called a few days ahead thinking they may be full with their dry rack tenants. Well the lady let me reserve a spot over the phone. When I told my best brother-in-law and best friend the next morning the first called and got in and the second called and it was full. They charged $500 for the storm which ended up being a few weeks because of evacuations and damage to their fire system. But it was the easiest $500 I have ever spent. My boat looked like new when I got it out. They had no damage inside. People I know who tied there boats down were stained yellow from trees and were filled 12" or more with leaves, lost canvas tops, etc.

[dam]

Thanks for the explanation, JP. Glad to hear your property is in relative good shape. I would've felt like I won the lottery with that $500 investment. Fuck yeah!

[castronova]

I'm telling you, it was easy money to spend. Thanks again.

I got out last Monday for the first time since the storm. I heard near Key West was absolute shit. I also heard west quite a ways was somewhat clear although not that good. So, per usual, I planned on going as far as needed. Started at Tail End which is about 42 miles from Key West and went maybe another 6 miles further. The absolute best viz we saw was around 12 - 15'. But it was not green viz where you can see shadows or anything behind that. It was white out viz with mixed sand. It was so milky and glary it started to give you a head ache. We ended up with a black grouper and yellowjack but gave up as it was not fun and those fish were pure luck. We decided to fish and caught 15 or so nice yellowtail snapper and went to the sand bar to drink beers.

It looks like we may have it just starting to clear up now. I hope something changes because the first Wahoo full moon is next weekend and I'm beyond do for a nice fish and some clear water.

[Trace]

Glad things are working out for you JP. You go through something like this and you realize how blessed you are
that your family and friends are okay.

[castronova]

Glad things are working out for you JP. You go through something like this and you realize how blessed you are
that your family and friends are okay.

Thank you. You are right about that. We'll all have our houses back to normal in due time. Just glad we're all here in the end.

[castronova]

Well, wahoo spearing is one of my all time favorites. The past 3 years I've been busy with the tournament and also with life so I have not shot that many wahoo at home because I have not been able to get out. I promised myself this year if all was good with my new fam that I would do whatever it takes, take days off work, whatever... to get out when the conditions were good and the fish were here.

That is exactly what happened. Last weekend was the first weather window in some time and the blue water pushed in hard. Sunday was flat calm and I decided I'd go about mid week. Jumped in early AM to see the ocean floor crystal clear... at 110'. In a matter of 30 minutes or so we have the first fish come into the flashers. The kid with me dove on it but it came in too quick and he couldn't get down too it. I had just shot a small mackerel to test the new Sea Sniper, and told him the wahoo would come in seconds before that fish showed. I started to reload the gun when a school of 40 plus fish show up. Patrick dives and is in the center of all the fish but misses high over the top of one. A few fish scatter and the school slowly swims. I swim with them after seeing a very big fish closest to me, about 40' away. I get the tip on finally and slowly follow them and try to calmly make ground. I get about 15' from the biggest fish and quickly duck and fire. Solid rear half shot.

The fish drops down slowly and starts shaking its head. I thought for sure I broke it's spine. It wasn't even swimming. And then it realized what happened and takes off ripping, the float comes flying by my head. The 12 L Rob Allen hard float gets sunk to about 60' deep and is smoking bubbles and out of site in seconds. I couldn't find the fish. I get in the boat and get the other diver. We finally see the float come up about 200' away. Then it goes down again and comes up another 50' from there. I drop in on it and the fish is vertical now which means its very low on energy. I keep telling Patrick its a big fish to shoot it again no matter what. I got it up to about 50' and Patrick secures the fish with another shot.

When I got the fish up I knew it was pretty big. Until I had to help the driver lift it in the boat though, and it hit the deck, did I realize what a slob it was. A true log. We get back in and redrift. Within minutes another school of 40 - 50 nice sized fish show up. Unfortunately Patrick misses again. I stayed with the school and tried to get him to reload and catch up but it didn't happen.

I finally let him borrow the sea sniper because he was frustrated. He had shot high 3 times at this point. He hit a small fish with the Sea Sniper and we finally secured him a 18-ish pound wahoo. I shot the fish again because the shot was low. We were surrounded by wahoo. I gave him the second shot gun and took my slip tip out in the water and grabbed my Sea Sniper off his arm. There were two nice fish close to us. I swam with the wahoo as I was one of them, staying with the school. All the while i reloaded the 4 band Sea Sniper. I got the school to turn and I dove, closest to the 2 biggest fish I took the sure shot and stoned a 45 pounder.

In all we saw hundreds of fish over the day and left the bluewater with 4 wahoo at around 12:00. I went into the reef and the viz was over 100' in 50' of water. I shot a small but legal black grouper and was just exhausted from chasing wahoo all morning. I decided we had way too much fish and although they were there we shouldn't be greedy. I headed to the house.

Big fish went 73#. It's the only one I weighed.





I decided to take Wed. off since it was flat calm and have a 5 day weekend. Again, we had 120' of vis. I got to the popular spot and there were so many boats it was unreal. At least a dozen boats spearing for wahoo. A bunch of the other guys posted photos that the fish had showed. I had no interest in dealing with it. I went east and found clear water about 10 miles away. The morning was slow but we ended up seeing about 8 fish. I shot one 20 something pound fish. Saw some big blackfin tunas and amberjacks but that was it.

I really wasn't going to go again but my buddy Trea Reagen text me and is so stoked on wahoo that it's unreal. My wife was working Friday so I decided to go. We took his 23' Formula but it was pretty rough out. I didn't eat breakfast and was puking in on the surface with just coffee in my stomach. I drove for a little while and they were having trouble missing about 5 fish combined. So I got in. I ate a little while driving so I felt better. A school of about 20 fish came in and I dropped and held. Let the school come to me and shot a nice 35# fish. We ended up getting 2 more and calling it a day around 1:00. We saw many schools of fish again.



In the 7 or so years I've been doing blue water here I've seen this about 3 times where we get the bluewater rush in close, the wind die, and the fish show in massive numbers. It's something pretty incredible to see. Being surrounded by wahoo swimming in every direction is something you never forget. I went 6 - 6 with the new Sea Sniper 67. What an incredibly fun gun to shoot. I am amazed at how accurate it is.

[Bill McIntyre]

Damn! I'm looking for cheap tickets.

[dam]

Damn! I'm looking for cheap tickets.

You and I both! That sounds incredible! The quality of fish and diving condition you're in is the stuff dreams are made of. So jealous!

I also like the bit about you having to show up a bunch of your buddies, though. Nothing beats that. As a fellow elite spear pro, I know just how you feel. .

[Bill McIntyre]

I also like the bit about you having to show up a bunch of your buddies, though. Nothing beats that. As a fellow elite spear pro, I know just how you feel. .

[castronova]

Haha, I wasn't really trying to show anyone up. Once you've shot quite a few wahoo you get much better at relaxing. Most the guys I take I swear they act like the fish is going to swim away at 50mph and they'll never get a chance again for the rest of their life. What do they do? Chase and shoot way too early. Even with a 100 fish in view.

I think the key is just to look as stupid and bored as the wahoo do.

[kathy]

Awesome wheel-barrow photo.

[John Hughes]

Looks like the new gun is working out JP

thanks for the report. That 73 lbr is a slob!

[castronova]

Looks like a full year since I've been on the forum to post. Wow.

I have been super busy. 1 year old keeps us all pretty busy and certainly changes your life. On top of that I have still been rebuilding from the storm but also started some new construction on the yard and have started my landscape from scratch. I have probably dove 10 times or so this year. No where near as much as before but I have also started playing a lot of golf since its 1/4 mile from my house and I can be home by 10:30am from a full round without any preparations the day before. It's something I also love and gives me an escape and competition I need. That being said... when the wahoo show up, all bets are off.

The water has finally cleared up, gulf stream pushed in, water dropped below 80*.

I took off Tuesday to take an early look before the full moon. 90' of vis, strong east current. Couldn't have been better conditions. Looked into the blue for over 2 hours and didn't see a single fish. I was shocked to be honest. Went into the reef and shot a nice fat 25# black grouper. Great ending to the day with some out of towners. Not what I wanted to show them but the fish gods like to make you pay for wahoo. They don't come easy.

One of my good buddy's and "wahoo buddy's" text on Wed. and invited my with him on Friday. Day of the full moon. We pushed off at 6am to go down his super long canal. Took off at first light. Within 30 minutes of getting in the water we had our first school come in. One of the guys shot a nice 25# fish and we were on the board. I took aim at 2 fish right off the slip-tip over the next couple hours, but didn't pull the trigger. All the fish were on the small side, under 30# with bigger fish in the distance. I waited for the larger fish to come in but never got a shot on them. The boat pulled 2 fish and we were all happy just the same.

I decided I'd push my luck with the Wifey and go again Sunday on my boat. Told her I would be home by noon and told the divers as well. They agreed. We pushed off my lift at 6am which meant riding out in the dark. We got in the water with just enough light to see the bottom in 110'. Unreal visibility. About 30 minutes in again and a school of 20+ fish swim in from the east, sun behind them. This is the picture in my head I see when I think about wahoo. They come on up current, partially concealed by the sun. They glow gold and golden blue down the sides. It's something nearly impossible to explain. I need to get a photo of this and get Amadeo to paint it.

Anyways, I dive down and upside I'm looking at my dive buddy trying to get his attention. He finally sees me and I point backwards and he sees the fish. I turn around and shoot a decent fish that takes off. Trea stays near as the school stays with the wounded fish. About 30 seconds later he picks out a nice model and spines it about 40' from me. My fish was probably in the 30-35# range and his we weighed, 39.8#. Nice fish.

Our drive G gets in with me and Trea takes the wheel. After about 40 minutes another school shows. I see 2 nice fish, 1' from the surface swim right up to G. There are countless wahoo behind. He takes aim and misses from 8' or so. Heartbreaking and I have no clue how. I swim over as the fish are very calm and I'm looking at 40 -50 wahoo. Looking and waiting to see if there are any really big fish. After about 30 seconds all the fish look very similar with one that looks a little thicker. I dive down and he's in range with about 4 others. I shoot center center and he takes off. I thought it was probably a high 30# fish. As he pulls me with the float I am going through a school of wahoo over 100 strong. They are in every direction for well over 100 yards of this fishes run. I'm trying to get the boat to get G in front of me. By the time he reloads and gets ahead they are swimming away too strong. He doesn't get another shot.

I landed my last fish at 8:40 am. I changed and drove the boat while they drifted another 1:30 or so. We never saw another fish. It just shut down. It was calm enough I got to run home at 38 mph and make it back before 11am. To my surprise we also weighed my fish and it came it at 47#. It made me a little prouder but we were definitely happy we had enough to feed our families and friends and had a great time.

[Bill McIntyre]

Good to hear from you again. I can't open the pics. Without pics it didn't happen.

[castronova]

Thanks Bill. Try again with the photos. Google plus did something last year that has made it impossible to share. I tried google photos.

[Bill McIntyre]

Thanks Bill. Try again with the photos. Google plus did something last year that has made it impossible to share. I tried google photos.

OK, now I'm really jealous.

[BigJim]

Awesome!!!



Such beautiful fish, and great description of the dive....stoked for you!!



Sincerely,

Jim

[castronova]

I appreciate it Jim.

It feels good to be back in the loop a little bit. I seem to have gotten inspired again. Now I need to go out and get some depth and time back. I actually jumped right back into 80' or so relatively quickly but I'm spent after not so many dives. Time to get in shape.

[chris oak]

So Rad JP, I figured you'd be busy with the kid. My dive time has shortened considerably, before I'd bail out after work almost every day. Now it's like "babe, can you pick him up at school today?" . All worth it though, someday hopefully he'll be there swimming right next to you shooting hoos.

Nice fish, sounds like an epic day for sure.

[dam]

Glad to hear from you, JP! Your kid looks like he's doubting the size of your weehoo.

That magical scene you're talking about, I've seen it! Their ethereal presence back lit by the golden rays. Everything just sort of quiets down as if to pay respect to their arrival. It's unreal! This moment is also the complete opposite of the scene you get when that 100 strong school explodes into pandemonium. Ffffuuuuuuuu

[dam]

Google photos is great, but it changed something in the back, too. It now generates the image based on your screen's resolutions. To get full size images, you have to modify the image's URL. The key is at the end where it lists the width and height. For example:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OFMZW ... hTGyA0iHH=w442-h626-no

You want to change the bolded part to "s0". I think that tells google not to resize the image. So your image URL becomes:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OFMZW ... hTGyA0iHH=s0-no

The result will be:


It's a lot more work, but in the name of image quality!

[castronova]

Thanks guys.

Oak, you're right about that. I have been busy with him (and just not leaving my wife alone so often) and also a lot of construction on my house/yard. Trying to stay balanced.

I appreciate the photo info Dam.

Hopefully the next full moon has some calm sees. Since the thanksgiving wahoo weekend the wind has been a solid 15 - 25 knots. These fish grab your soul like no other.

[castronova]

Well hell, the time came again for the moon to full up and a winter front came through. We thought for sure we were f'kd. I had NOAA wind warnings coming in for work. 30 - 40 knots sustained Thursday and Friday, gusts to 60 knots in the squall line. It blew like mad and only just slowed down on Saturday. The waves were spraying across all 4 lanes of the Blvd. on the south side of the island. The water was milk as far out as you can see.

Sunday showed a drop in the wind for just a few hours. We had reports of terrible vis all the way out to 200'. Once again my buddy Trae pushes it to the fucking limit trying to get hoo's. I cancelled everyone on my boat for the Sunday plan. I have 2 brother/sister in law in town with 3 kids next door. Getting everything ready for my son for Christmas. The excuses piled up. Trae had his boat at my house. Late Saturday night his 3rd diver cancelled. Him and his buddy Chip would be a 2 man boat, diving 1 at a time. Chip had drove down 8 hours for this shot. I pulled my man pants on told my wife, count me out in the morn, I'm joining Trae on his boat.

We load up at 6am and push off the dock. Get 5 houses down the canal and the motor shuts off. Trae has a 23 Formula with a single 300 Suzuki. One of the baddest smaller center consoles I've ever been on. We check all the fuses and breakers. Chip paddles us back to my house with the cleaning brush .

We hit my dock. I tell Trae before we launch my boat off the lift to just tighten everything. The battery terminals were tight. There was a single post bus that connected all the negatives. He put the socket on it and it was loose. He tightened it down and boom, ignition. Everything back on.

We ran out west to the wahoo grounds. It's about a 23 mile run from my house. One of my good buddy's was there before us. Looking down we could tell the water sucked. He had his guy dressed and jumped in. Told us the vis was 25' maybe. Not good. I decided we run back east. After checking the sub wreck in 220' and the vis being no better we took off. I stopped at 3 different spots about 5 or 6 miles of jumps and the vis got no better. After we are basically back off of Key West the vis starts turning blue out of nowhere. We hit the end of the outside reef where I have seen wahoo before.

I jump in with Trae. No one wanted to get in. It was 65* air and that with the wind is damn near arctic for us. But I was dressed because if I was gonna be there I was gonna kill something. We jump in to a particle free crystal 70' of vis.

I tell these guys all the time. If we are targeting wahoo, stop diving all the time. About 5 minutes in and Trae already gets bored. Does a dive down to about 70'. Thats fine if you see snapper or grouper in the chum, or big kings. He was just bored. I'm looking down at him looking down at the bottom. I look up and here come 8 wahoo. hahaha. I remember thinking, this is so great. They would have came in right on his side but he was down. He was fucked. I dive down and let them come into me. The smallest is the closest so I look right past him. The next fish is pretty nice, the rest broke the other way. I waited to long now they're going away. Trae looks up and spooks them so they turn back. Perfect angle but long shot, right through the high back, doesn't go all the way through. I'm on.

This things take a few really big runs. I didn't hurt him and knew I needed to be smart so I let him go. After about 10 minutes I have him in my hands. The success was mine and it was about 8:15. I was ready for a beer. I was freezing.

Trae and Chip get in and I take over driving. After the next 1 or 2 hours (I can't remember) they don't see any more wahoo but keep saying there are big kings. King Mackerel are awesome fish to shoot, just not as good to eat. But much harder to find a big fish. I finally convince Trae if they are big to shoot. So he does, and brings in a 44# king which is a freaking awesome fish to shoot.

After he lands his fish I get excited for a king and jump in. I'm hovering over another big fish as it eats chum. This time though his fish brought in about 5 big bull sharks that have us surrounded. So I thought this is NOT a good idea, and I pulled the trigger. LOL. The funny stops there. The fish dove but I was making ground no problem. But I started to get some line around my leg and that was enough for me. I let the fish go to get immediately unwrapped. The fish dove into the depths and got sharked instantly. My favorite Sea Sniper slip-tip did not make it back up. That was a $100 shot. Oh well, I made the choice.

After that the wind started to howl a few hours earlier than expected. We decided we were ready to head home and just be happy the plan worked out. Sorry for the long story but these two fish don't make it seem to great unless you know how it went down. Wahoo went 38# and King Fish at 44#.




Trae with my fish, haha

[Trace]

Great story's as usual JP. Would love to get out your way one day. Keep them coming.
Cute chubby cheek boy you have, my wife is googoo eyes over him.
Trace

[BigJim]

Great write up and pics JP!!

This is my favorite part:

The success was mine and it was about 8:15. I was ready for a beer.

Happy New Year!!



Sincerely,

Jim

[castronova]

Not very often do we get flat calm weather in January. It's usually just calm enough to run 20 miles or so for wahoo. The cold front that came through Saturday left behind it a 18 hour break in the wind and the forecast was dead on. We decided to make a run west. With grouper and hogfish being closed I have a big area about 50 miles west that holds plenty mutton snappers. It's usually screaming current and crappy vis but the fish are plentiful.

The plan was to look for cobia first in the shallows, run for the muttons on the Atlantic then fish for grouper in the federal gulf. Everything went as planned. We shot a 40# cobia that wouldn't eat live bait on the first spot. Caught a 25# cobia on the next spot hook and line. Got to my mutton numbers and dove down, 5 nice snapper on a rock pile the size of a few small filing cabinets in the middle of sand in the middle of nowhere. I ended up shooting a few large grey snapper as well and we went into federal gulf waters for grouper which is the only area in the Keys grouper aren't closed. We ran about 130 miles this trip.

Not a ton of exciting photos but enough to keep the thread going.

On another note, I found my 8 year old Aeris F10 on Saturday after it being lost for 5 months or so. It was almost strange knowing my dive times and depths. Hopefully it keeps on ticking.

[castronova]

The wahoo season continues...

We had a one day break in the usual wind with a front with 20-30 mph winds on the way which would blow out the next week. I had to take a few hours off from work just to get out after lunch. Got to the usual grounds around 1PM. We had 80-90' vis but a strong reverse current. I was not all that optimistic but had been thinking about going after them for a few days. Instead of the usual "not feeling it" I get with wahoo and move in to the reef I decided to stay dedicated.

I had my usual boat partner John who has never shot a wahoo and another friend of mine, Willie, who does a lot of fishing but only a little diving and has never shot a wahoo either. In not too much time Willie was freezing and could hardly move. Not that our water is that cold but all he had was a thin 1 piece over a thick rash guard. He barely lasted an hour. I stayed in and John jumped in with me. We kept doing drifts over the corner and chumming. There were kingfish coming in and out the whole day but nothing big.

At 3pm I was about at my end. I wanted at least a reef fish for dinner. I told the guys at 3:30pm we move to the reef to give 30 min for a snapper, etc. I asked Willie to drop us shallower the next drift. We dropped it at 95' with the current ever so slightly pushing us inward. We were on the corner and you can see the bottom clear as day in 85-90'. Time slipped by and at about 3:40pm John starts yelling at me "Right next to your head, right next to your head." In the boredom we had been watching a school of 12 - 15 muttons eating the chum. None were very big so I kept looking down for a nicer one to show up to drop down and punch out for dinner. With my focus astray a 40# wahoo came up and was sitting next to my fins, presumably looking down at the muttons too helping us pick one out.

I had to turn from looking at John about 200* to find this fish off to my back corner right next to me. When I locked on him he turned slowly away. I still had a shot but was in the wave action (Beginner rule #1, never shoot from the surface). So I dive about 10' and have an upward shot.... my slip-tip is hanging off the gun

I've been here before and fumble-f&%$ed the thing for so long trying to hurry I missed a huge school. So I stayed down pulled the gun tip to me and very slowly put the tip back on and secured the spectra. Probably took 5 seconds and I look up and by staying calm I'll be dammed the wahoo was still just sitting there moving at a slight angle away but nearly square. At this point I had about a 13' shot with the 67 SSPC which has so far meant a sealed deal. Thats how this story ends.

His spine was broke and within a minute we had a boat full of cheers and beers. We decided we got what we needed and went home. Fish went 36#'s and we all feasted mighty fine over the weekend. The hits just keep on coming this winter. It seems the fish gods reward patience.

[Bill McIntyre]

I'm so damn jealous. Throw me in that cold water.

[castronova]

I'm so damn jealous. Throw me in that cold water.

I know it's sounds ridiculous in this Cali based forum but at least it's in the Florida section. We do get cold just sitting there waiting for fish to swim in, not diving much.

I actually have an open cell 3.5mm, a lined 3mm, open cell 2mm, and lined 1.5mm and a full lycra just for home. I'll wear a full suit all the way into summer, maybe switching in half the lycra when it gets 84-85. When we're in the water from 8am until sun down in the summer I'll burn too many calories without a suit even when the water is in the 80's. I actually dive my best when I'm working hard and just slightly sweating. If you are always trying to wear the least just to not freeze your muscles will not work like you warmed up for any other physical activity. You will just be burning calories and pumping blood to stay warm. Not good. I try to think of it as any other physical sport, you need to be warmed up.

I know thats not what you meant Bill, just wanted to make that point that I feel gets missed a lot. Everyone tries to get away with the least possible wetsuit... then they jump into the water with a 5 band 70" gun to shoot 25" YT

[castronova]

As the wahoo season starts coming to an end we get ever more excited when we get a chance to get out. This weekend was a day off the new moon which can be as good as the full moon for aggregating fish. Another flat calm winter weather window would certainly stack the bar, and it did. There were at least 7 center consoles on the last half mile of reef edge. The good thing is everyone knows everyone else so getting in line at 150 yard increments has become common. No one seems to get annoyed.

We were the first boat there. I would guess we were dressed and in the water around 7:40am. Doubtful we could see very well if we would have got in earlier anyways. It was a pretty slow first drift that took us further north than expected and onto the reef. We set up again before any other boats entered the zone. Within 20 minutes a group of 7 or 8 nice fish showed. They came from deep up to the flashers. I dove down and had to somewhat chase and level off with the biggest of the school. The top down shot was closer but I hate taking it. Luckily the fish never ran hard and turned broad side for me in curiosity. Center shot had him in the boat about 5 minutes later. G was in the water with me, he said they scattered and he didn't get a shot. My turn to drive.

Trae got in with G and we set up again. Now the traffic was heavy so we just stayed away. It was 30 or 40 minutes of silence. Finally I started to see some marks on the Simrad but deeper than usual for wahoo. But with the last school coming from deep I boated up to the guys and told Trae to dive down and check below the flashers. He dives and 30 seconds later I see his float take off across the surface. He shot a very nice fish out of a pair. When he held it's head out of the water I knew it was a very nice fish. Went around 55# and we were beyond satisfied at this point. It was probably 9am.

I was just stoked to get back in the water. I was burning up in the suit with it being a hot day with not a hint of wind. About 30 minutes in I see G dive down and see the wahoo he was trying to persuade and it was a big fish! He goes down to it and keeps trying to get a shot off but the fish kept going further away out of range. I was above him so I throw a flasher about 20' passed him. He was running out of air and just as he comes up the fish comes back to the flasher. I felt terrible but right then I could tell this was going to be my fish. As he pops up I dive down and this fish is coming straight at me. We meet near the flasher and it turns broad side no further than 12' from me. When I extend the Sea Sniper that I had tucked it becomes a 7' shot.

This fish was big and took my Rob Allen 12L hard float down 30-40' and was off out of view. Swimming as fast as I could I see the float not making progress coming up and thought the worst. Then I see he's went under a lobster trap rope and he can't run! I tried to get the float under it but couldn't sink it. Finally I dove down and grabbed the trap rope and swam it to the surface and it released the float set-up. At this point the fish was wrecked from all the pressure I just hoped it would hold. I pulled it straight up from the bottom I could see the huge tear but it turned and the toggle was good. With 10 cudas circling I got it in my hands unscathed. What a day we've had and it's 9:30am. I throw him on the deck after some photos and realize how hefty he is. Definitely a good keys wahoo.

Per usual we tried for another hour or two but it shut down. Even with it flat calm and 80'+ vis everywhere even inside the reef we decided we have enough fish and rather drink beer. We head in around 11:30 with another successful wahoo trip in the books. I finally got my camera set-up again so we got a few underwater shots. The fish went something like 44, 55, 65-70. My scale was not working. Not that it matters.

[Bill McIntyre]

Wow! I'm living vicariously through you. Our winters are never great, but the storms just keep coming lately.

[dam]

Beasts! That was a great report leaving me with lots of questions. So are you a full moon preferable or an any moon kinda guy? How big is the reef? Is there any kind of reef diving there? Or is it kind of a big shelf where most if not all of the diving is pelagic? I've had one or two wahoos run across the dive marker rope and every time, my heart just sank. You must've been stressed to shit especially on a big fish. Good diving, JP!

PS: Nice to know you're a poacher just like the rest of us!

[dam]

You got that right, Bill! Shitty winter, gotta live vicariously through someone.

[castronova]

Beasts! That was a great report leaving me with lots of questions. So are you a full moon preferable or an any moon kinda guy? How big is the reef? Is there any kind of reef diving there? Or is it kind of a big shelf where most if not all of the diving is pelagic? I've had one or two wahoos run across the dive marker rope and every time, my heart just sank. You must've been stressed to shit especially on a big fish. Good diving, JP!

PS: Nice to know you're a poacher just like the rest of us!

Full Moon or New Moon, or I'm not wasting my time drifting through nothing. It's the edge of the reef, drops from 90 to 110' in less than 40'. The reef is down the whole keys so it's real long. There are usually plenty of king mackerel eating the chum and at the flashers. Mutton snapper will come up and we've got some nice ones and there is also usually schools of yellowtail snapper eating too. A great white circled the guys about 400' from us yesterday. That is not very common though.

I've had them run by lobster trap rope before and they just go around but the current was so strong the line was at a 45* angle or more so he couldn't get around because the float was stuck on it like 15' below the surface. I thought my bungee was gonna be destroyed from all the crap growing on the rope too. Bungee was fine though.

[dam]

Ah, so it's sort of like a continental shelf then? Similar to the one off North Carolina (I haven't been there either, but in my head, it's like a shelf that spans the whole state). I've heard of a 17 mile reef down in Baja that is choked full of grouper and pargos. It sits far enough out where it gets visited by pelagics once in a while, too. Your own "reef" just reaffirms that I need to be there THERE, diving!

[castronova]

I wrote 1,000 word story from yesterdays trip that some how the forum deleted when I went to post it. I'm so fucking pissed. Oh well. I took the day off. I shot a 73# wahoo. Thats all you get now. Enjoy.

[dam]

oh fuck! That thing looks monstrous! Dude, sucks about the forum deleting your post. It could've been a timeout issue. If you have written up something long, make sure to copy it before submitting. But... if I have to take a guess, you probably shot it over the shoulder of your buddy again, right?