Well the winds finally laid down enough for us to give it another shot. We've been dealing with 3-5' seas inside the reef for 4 days now and when we haven't been getting the crap beat out of us by the seas, we've been pretty much bored to death. You can only make ice trips so many times before it becomes old hat. So even though we got a late start we head out to see if we can find some clean water. The seas didn't seem to be much more than 2-3' so we figured it was now or never. Our first stop, #58 (Ole Reliable). We arrive to a view we haven't become accustomed to over the past few days... the bottom.

We jumped in the water surprised to find that the clarity was actually just as good as we were seeing from above the surface. We were in 22' of water and the fish were clearly visible from the surface. This was a wonderful change from yesterday when I jumped in a spot in 47' of water and my partner lost sight of me when I dove only 30' (and I still couldn't even make out the bottom). There were 4 divers on the boat today, so I tried to pick out my 5 mangoes quickly so the 4th could get a chance in the water before the fish got scarce (I also knew he was anxious because he had a new Riffe MetalTech he wanted to break in).

So I shot my 5 and jumped back in the boat giving him a chance to get his before we moved on. The seas were still in that 2-3' range but we didn't care because compared to the last few days, it was a real godsend. We spent about another 45 minutes there before we decided we wanted to move on. We had talked about trying to hit the Thunderbolt wreck if the seas were managable. So even though we only had 11 fish in the cooler we took off because we didn't have exact numbers for the Thunderbolt and thought it might take us a while to find it. Little did we know...

We got some approximate numbers from my friend's gps and headed out. The seas started to get a little rougher as we neared our destination because the water was getting considerably deeper. The Thunderbolt sits in about 120' of water with the wheel house sitting at about 75'. We pulled into the area confident that we would be able to use the depth finder to find the wreck even if we only had an approximate location. There were a couple of other boats fishing the area so we knew we were close. We scoured the area for the next hour during which we even dropped some lines (yes, unbelievably enough we resorted to rod-n-reel). We finally tired of searching for the wreck, picked up our lines and started heading back home.

On the way, we stopped at one of our newer spots "The Craneboom" that we found only a few weeks ago. This is the same spot where my partner had lost sight of me at only 30'. Two of us jumped in to find the area was pretty silty and the bottom was not visible from the surface. But I knew this was probably the last chance to jump in today so I wanted to work it anyway. I dropped to the bottom to find the viz was about 20'  so the bottom started to become recognizable about half way down. On my first drop I spotted a decent mangrove, but some water had leaked in my mask and when I equalized it blew into my eyes so I was back on my way to the surface before I could take the shot on the fish.

I dropped a few more times alternating with my brother in law and kept encouraged by the viz on the bottom. On one drop I actually saw a cloud of dust that is very typical of a grouper taking off scared so I persevered. Unfortunately, my labor was unproductive as I wasn't able to spot any other fish that were worth shooting and my friends were ready to head back so I unloaded and boarded the boat to head home.

We stopped at #58 on the way home just to see if we could limit out but the water had gotten considerably dirtier with the outgoing tide. I ended up shooting 2 more and my brother in law 1 for a grand total of 14 fish. Not exactly a banner day but after sitting around doing next to nothing for the past 2 days, it seemed like a victory to me!

We've had some evening thunderstorms rolling through for the past 2 days. Yesterday's was so bad, we ended up ordering chinese (yes, I am ashamed) because this weather was not conducive to outdoor cooking. Today's rolled through just as I was finishing up frying the fish and everyone was able to find enough shelter to sit together and enjoy a meal together which was nice for a change. Maybe tomorrow has more good fishing in store for us...