Snapper fest. Epic two days.

hank · 08-01-2010, 09:16 PM

It must be because it's my birthday tomorrow.
Went out to Turneffe Atholl Saturday and lucked into a spawning session of about 2000 cuberas...at least. Also had a school of 200 or so dog snappers hanging close by AND numerous muttons cruising through. Not to mention a school of about 50 nice size permit and a few big horse eye jacks.
We went back today and jumped in the same spot...no fish. I drifted about 400 yards south and lo and fricken behold...there they were again. Not near as many cuberas but more dogs with muttons still hanging around.
We each got a couple cuberas, I got a mutton and a jack.
I'll post more pics when my buddy emails them to me.
These were days we dream about as spear fishermen. Un frickn' real. We could have got so many more but....I'm just thankful to have seen this at least once in my life. We left plenty behind.

Dan · 08-01-2010, 09:22 PM

Wow! Good to know they're plentiful somewhere. Thanks for posting.

LunkerBuster · 08-01-2010, 09:57 PM

Whoa. That does sound like the stuff of dreams. Thanks for sharing

Pucho · 08-01-2010, 10:27 PM

Niiiiiice pargos

seaweed · 08-02-2010, 11:05 AM

Sweet fish. Congrats on your catch.

gerald · 08-02-2010, 11:44 AM

That's the stuff dreams are made of! Congrats on experiencing that. I'm sure shooting a few fish was just a bonus after witnessing the spawning aggregation...

Get ready for lots of PM's of people wanting to set up trips for next years spawn.

ladvr · 08-02-2010, 01:45 PM

Wow. Post up some more pics!

hank · 08-02-2010, 02:03 PM

Sunday. My buddy, "the Spaniard" got a couple nice ones.
The fish were staying on the bottom at about 50 feet near the reef drop off. We would dive down looking away, get to the bottom and slowly look up to see them circling around. At first I was hiding my gun but when I'd slowly draw it out for a shot, you could hear a "whump" sound as they spooked and would move off a bit. After that, I'd just go down with the gun extended and ready to shoot.
The dog snappers were circling above the cuberas. Jorge shot one so we could get a "grand slam". A dog, a mutton and cubera on the same day.
PS The scuba tank is for emergencies. We had a stuck anchor at 90 feet. All fish are shot free diving. It's the law here.

hank · 08-02-2010, 02:05 PM

The fish is a lot prettier than I am. We didn't get a lot of photos. What a great couple of days.

hank · 08-02-2010, 02:12 PM