While sitting in class and day dreaming about shooting fish, my phone buzzes with a text from my dad saying “Top to bottom viz back home”, so I call my dive buddy and good friend Alex Spring and we make the trip back home to Tarpon Springs. The next day we pack up the car and leave Boca Raton and FAU for the weekend to head back to a more familiar place for me. Growing up free diving the waters off Tarpon Springs made me familiar with the many fish and bad visibility. Alex grew up diving the waters off Fort Lauderdalele, which is crystal clear, blue water, but with not as many fish. The goal for this trip was to only shoot trophy fish, so that’s what we did.
The next day, with the boat loaded, coolers filled with ice and dive gear stowed, we ran out to some of our favorite ledges. We started by chumming and fishing the spot to draw the fish out from the rocks. After chum- ming for a while, we put on our dive gear and slipped into the water. I turned to Alex and told her to make the first drop down. I explain how the grouper will all be out of their holes and will be very spooky, so be ready to take a quick shot. As predicted, the spot was loaded. Keeper sized grouper all over the place. I patiently waited, hoping Alex is able to line up and shoot her first gag. After about 20 minutes of diving, Alex came up from a dive screaming for a second shot. She had rocked up a nice gag, so I dove down and saw a huge head emerge out a hole and I placed a kill shot. The gag was a monster and also her first “West Coast” gag weighing 10 pounds. We snapped a few pictures and continued to dive the spot a little longer, hoping to see another big gag within shooting range. Seeing Alex get her first big gag out the way, it was time for me to put a fish in the cooler. My favorite fish to shoot back at home are big hogfish. On one of my dives, I landed right on top of a big hogfish but he spooked and swam up current. Keeping calm, I patiently waited and swam softly up current hoping I would find him. Sure enough, after about a minute, I spotted eyes on a big male hogfish and landed a great shot, pinning the fish to the bottom. As we rode to the next spot, Alex was tell- ing me about her first dive out or Tarpon Springs. She said, “I’ve seen more grouper in this one spot than I have seen my whole life”. This was coming from a girl who has speared in the Bahamas, the east coast of Florida and the keys.
We dove on a few more ledges off Tarpon Springs, picking up a few more hogs and smaller gags. We decided to make a move to some shallow spots that hold some big fish and a lot of them. This particular spot is a small ledge where the sand meets the rocks. As we jump in, the current was moving fast, but the spot was fishy. Alex had another gag rocked up and was about to take the shot, but couldn’t make out which pair of eyes belonged to the keeper she saw swim in, so she poked her spear in and 5 undersized gags swam out along with the keeper she saw. It was what else swam out that left us scratching our heads and caused nightmares for the following weeks. About a 40-pound cubera snapper came darting out from under the 3-foot ledge and disappeared into the dis- tance. In the blink of an eye, a fish that would have made this great trip a legendary one, was gone. We didn’t let that stop us. Minutes after, we had 3 cobia swim up behind a stingray. I instructed my 12-year-old cousin take a shot at one of them with his 8-foot pole-spear, but it sadly tore him off.
On the last few dives, we made some drifts over some long rocky areas to pick up a few more hog snappers and maybe a big grouper or two. On our first drift, I personally saw approximately 200 undersized gag grouper in a 300-yard long rocky area. It was insane. The floor seemed to be covered with grouper. It made me very happy to see the popula- tion so thick, but what made me even happier was seeing Alex shoot a fat hog snapper on her last dive of the day. All and all, the spontaneous trip home turned out to be great day on the water, with plenty of big fish. Celebrating long-time friend Brandon Vinklers’ 18th birthday that night put the icing on the cake to a great trip back home.
To follow our fishing adventures, follow us on Instagram!
Alex Spring: @alex_spring21 and CJ Peppe: @cjpeppe
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