The Tampa Bay Times
The big blow last week from Hurricane Sally stirred up the visibility in the Gulf of Mexico. This week our divers ventured out for a day and reported only five feet of visibility in depths out to 70 ‘. The water well mixed with sand, silt and sediment in the water will soon settle and hopefully clearer water will follow. The bottom temperatures are still very warm. Cooler water will liven up the fish offshore but as for now divers are still getting fair numbers of gag groupers and hogfish in depths out to 80’. The bottom temperatures out in the Florida Middle Grounds are a warm 85 degrees. There were no thermoclines to be found on any of our dives to 130’. Gag groupers were on most of the dive sites in the Grounds and we found more hogfish in the northern areas of the Grounds. In the southern area of the Grounds our divers ran into some small groups of mutton snappers and large groups of amberjacks. The amberjacks were all up and down in the water column. On almost every dive, Amberjacks greeted the divers under the boat and followed them to the bottom. The higher relief ledges were holding many amberjacks. Some of the larger amberjacks were in the 50 to 60 pound range, but most were just legal size. Lobster season is in full swing and a few lobsters over 5 pounds were caught in the southern end of the Grounds.
- Jay Mastry - March 26, 2024
- Captains Corner, Gorta - March 23, 2024
- Dave Zalewski - March 12, 2024
