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Sea Stories

Burt Blank said:
I got 45% of his asking price, all the equipment, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher and oven are all 1 years old Bosch. I offered him 500 Euro cash he accepted. Get over here you are welcome to stay, all it will cost you is your cooking abilities.
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Blimey you have done well! That is a lovely kitchen and, well, that view.... I am so f*cking jealous!
 
There are some new folks here. I have a buddy who is into UW cinametography. He has done several shoots for Discovery's "Shark Week". He has also won an Oscar for his participation in the 2009 documentary "The Cove". This might give you some idea of how the Japanese "fish".

The Cove (film) - Wikipedia
 
Big lobster. I was on a shallow dive (30') and spotted a huge bug back in a hole. I knew I couldn't fit with my gear on, so I took off my BCD (tank with regulator attached) and shoved it in ahead of me (still had the second stage of the regulator in my mouth) and squeezed myself in. It took me awhile too get far enough back to grab the lobster. Just as I grabbed the lobster from the base of the antenna, my dive buddy was pulling me out by my legs. She was worried that something might have happened to me. The lobster was bucking hard by flipping it's tail. How I managed to get my gear back on while holding that bug, I can't remember. That bug weighed 11 pounds and made a great lobster salad. My dive buddy, Debbie ended up marrying the captain I mentioned in a previous story. The one that fell off the boat while it was on autopilot.
 
"Tidy Bowl"

I worked with a part-time instructor at "Diver's Unlimited", Rick Burni. His full time job was with the City of Hollywood, FL. One of his jobs was to inspect an offshore outlet for treated sewage. He referred to it as the "Tidy Bowl" and called himself "The Tidy Bowl Man". I would take him there often on an afternoon trip. Some of the paying customers wondered why I dropped just him off. Once they knew why, they gave him a wide berth after he got back on the boat.
 
Never ending shovel nose lobster. Karen and I made a night dive on a reef area I would never go to on a day dive. After hitting the bottom, I noticed a shovel nose lobster climbing down the 10' "wall" to the sandy bottom. After bagging it, we noticed another one climbing down the "wall" in the same spot. We stayed in the same spot and they just kept climbing down the "wall". We must have caught 10 before quitting. These are some of the sweetest tasting of all the lobster in our area. They are not regulated except for females wit eggs.
 
I was floating in the azure waters of the Mediterranean on the coast of an Italian, sea side village called Terrachina...I had just moved to Italy and was mezmorised and enomored with the beauty and culture...as I swayed and bobbled in the water, gazing upon the stunning landscape I was emmediately brought back to reality by the horrifying sight of a big turd floating about 6 inches away from my face....The romance was never the same after that...:eek:
 
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Rocklobster said:
I was floating in the azure waters of the Mediterranean on the coast of an Italian, sea side village called Terrachina...I had just moved to Italy and was mezmorised and enomored with the beauty and culture...as I swayed and bobbled in the water, gazing upon the stunning landscape I was emmediately brought back to reality by the horrifying sight of a big turd floating about 6 inches away from my face....The romance was never the same after that...:eek:
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Gosh, some fishes do such unexpected embarrassing things 😂
 
Wow, what an entertaining thread!
Craig, Morningglory, sadly Jamaica is much the same as it was described in Craig's previous story. Kingston Harbor is a bit cleaner... until it rains, then all the garbage washes out of the gullies and into the harbor. On the bright side, they have finally stopped pumping raw sewage into it (circa a few years ago).
Growing up there, I never knew what a fishing license was nor did we have size limits. Lobsters now have a closed season, but the damage has been done by generations of ignorance and disregard for reef-life. I know I have had a sheltered life, fishing with my dad since a very young age on his 25ft boat, but he did at least instill in me a respect for the ocean and the values of selective harvesting.
 
Fast forward a few decades from my father-led nautical lessons and I ended up living in Miami and started fishing again once I graduated from grad school. It was like starting over from scratch: getting fishing license, learning limits, buying wrong fishing gear, and searching for jetties/piers/partyboats to fish from.
The life-altering thing that happened to me was when I got introduced to kayak fishing. All of a sudden the mangroves opened up to me, and I was also able to go beyond casting distance from the fishing piers and beaches. I fell into a good group of people that fished together and I have been all over the coast in my little 13ft piece of plastic. I've also been able to catch a variety of fish that I didn't think possible: Snapper, Jacks of all types, Mackerel, Kingfish, Mahi, and Blackfin Tuna! Fishing from Kayak also requires you to be keenly aware of your surroundings and the weather, so when I'm out there, I feel more engaged and I know its cheesy but "one-with-nature" comes to mind often.
 
A few pictures from a few years back:
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Excellent! Have you ever targeted red fish or snook in the mangroves? I believe both are "slot fish", meaning there is a minimum and maximum size limit.
 
CraigC said:
Excellent! Have you ever targeted red fish or snook in the mangroves? I believe both are "slot fish", meaning there is a minimum and maximum size limit.
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Yes, but I have had very limited luck with either. Come to think of it, I have only caught them while on trips to Everglades National Park (Flamingo), and it has always been catch & release. One time I hooked a snook while fishing the mouth of an inlet, and thought my lure had gotten caught on a submerged log... then the log decided to move and take half my spool before my knot pulled :banghead:
 
Snook and Tarpon can be caught in freshwater here. I've caught both as a teen.
 
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