Jack DeVilliers and myself met Russ Karnap this morning in beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama where he had camped overnight on his 2002 Road trip. Russ is from Chatham, New Jersey. It's a warm spring day with morning fog.
We promptly took Russ on the grand tour of some of our gas rigs for a day of diving along our southern coast in Jack's 17' boat. The seas were calm and there was a gentle south wind.
The fog stayed in close as we navigated out past Fort Morgan making the top water structures barely visible. We hit the first rig southeast of the fort. The fish were abundant and the conditions were good. Visibility was at least 40 feet and there was very little current.
Russ caught on to the rig diving fairly easy. On my first dive to the bottom, I come face to face with a grouper. In my haste, I rushed my shot and ended up spearing a sheepshead that swam in front of my target at the last second. "I can't believe this", I thought as I surfaced. Once at the surface, I see Russ getting ready to make a dive. I get his attention and direct him to where I last saw the grouper. A minute later, he comes swimming up with the grouper on his spear. "Way to go", I exclaimed. We continued to dive into the vast sea life on this spot. We saw hundreds of sheepshead, spadefish, bluefish, spanish and king mackerel, jack crevalle, mangrove, black and red snapper.
We moved on to another rig and it was the same thing. Again, hundreds of sheepshead everywhere we went. Some would go over 10 pounds and Russ put a couple of those on the boat. I see a stray pompano and add him to our chest. I later dived down to the bottom and plucked a good sized flounder out of the sand. Looks like Russ is having a good time so we continue to dive more rigs. Jack adds another trophy sheepshead to the collection.
The next spot proved to be productive with black snapper and we see some undersized amberjack and more crevalle. I dive down to see Russ has nailed a fine black snapper. I look to see where he was and spot its twin promptly adding another to the now filling up ice chest.
Russ and I continued to dive as Jack takes a break in the boat. Soon Jack is back in the water and we take some pictures. We were all having a blast just diving and goofing around. We all took turns playing with my Bonica Snapper underwater camera. Why is it that the fish seem to know when you not armed? Oh well, take a picture, throw camera back in boat, get spear gun and visa versa.
On our last spot, I dive down and take a shot on a large snapper. It quivers as my spear hits the spine. No sooner than this happens, my spear pulls loose. I dive down to grab it... bad idea, it starts swimming in circles. I look up and see Russ at the surface and signal for him to put another shot into it which he promptly does. It was the biggest of the day.
Having had enough, I climb aboard and converse with Jack while we watched our guest dive for another 30 minutes or so. Russ now content, climbs aboard and we make an easy ride back to the dock where we cleaned the fish for Russ to take with him.
Back at the campground we hang around while Russ gathers up his gear and pack it in for the next leg of his journey to Venice, Louisiana. The famous "no see ums" aka biting gnats, try to eat us alive as we wait. Everyone is slapping at their legs and necks to no avail. The "no see ums" always win. Before long the travel trailer is road ready and we are in the wind.
Russ follows us out of
town where we pull over at a local
seafood
restaurant called "The Fish Camp" on Highway 59. We all order fresh
seafood dinners and talk about the days events, swapped dive stories
and
promising to do it again next year.
We give Russ the
"Stickmen" stamp of approval while wishing him
a safe journey and clear bountiful waters.
Best of luck and happy hunting
wherever you go!