| ***DES Expedition --- Exploring with a Purpose***
In July of 1992, the Divers' Environmental Survey, a non-profit corporation
dedicated to informing the public about the state of
aquatic habitats, will be leading an expedition to the shores of the
White Sea to assess the state of the aquatic environment in this
remote area, never before open to the eyes of western
environmentalists.
The DES volunteers will be camping on the Kola
Peninsula, diving with members of "Volna," the Moscow Aeronautical
Institute Diving Club. They will observe nature --- both
above water and below. Upon their return, DES will spread the
news --- good or bad.
DES is looking for 4 people to join the group already committed to
going on this exploration.
What are the requirements for joining us?
* A desire to make a difference;
* An interest in learning about different cultures and
making friends abroad;
* A willingness to camp in the beautiful Russian white
nights.
* An ability to pay the $2500 cost of the trip, which includes
round-trip airfare from Boston and all expenses for the 10 day
stay in Russia.
Are you interested in joining us? Please do. We can make a
difference, and we will.
Send all requests for further information to Federico Genoese Zerbi,
at ddxrus::fgz or, from the internet, [email protected].
We hope to hear from you.
****Watch this space for more DES Explorations, to be announced****
************************this year.*********************************
*****************DES --- Diving with a purpose.********************
*******************************************************************
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Well we got back this past Monday after spending a week fishing the
Keys. It was great! We flew in there the Monday before last where we had a
cabin rented on Big Pine Key. It turns out the most of Big Pine is a Key
Deer Refuge and the deer were all over the place, front yards, roads, parking
lots, etc. They were not people shy at all. That same night we drove down to
Key West where at 11pm that evening we hopped on a Yankee Fleet boat for a two
day deep sea fishing excursion. That is the same Yankee Fleet that is out of
Glouscter - they go back and forth during the season. The boat does a 5 hr trip
out to the Dry Tortugas, 'bout 70 miles. It gets there by 4am and then you
start fishing for the next 32 hours straight if you want. If you want to sleep
you can but usually you are too wired to do so. I did an 18 hour stretch,
caught 4 hrs of winks and fished on through. One of our guys did the straight
32 hours - he was like a robot after that.
We were after grouper, pompano, snapper, yellow tail, kingfish,
Spanish Mackrel, etc. At first we caught mostly yellow tail in the 1-2 lb
range. There were a couple of old salts on board and they showed us that if
you want to catch the big ones is that you don't bounce your bait off the bottom
since the yellow tail are attracted to moving items. They showed us how to hold
the bait loose on the bottom since grouper don't like to see the bait move.
They just keep enough tension on the line to 'feel' the pickup. No easy task
in 3-4 ft swells. If a grouper picks it up he will run with it for about 10
feet and stop. At no time do you try set the hook. He will make a second run
with it - that's when to set. After a while we got the hang of it and it
started to pay off. I missed two nice fish at first and then landed a nice
15 lb mutton snapper. One of our guys landed this beautiful 22 lb African
Pompano - he was good eating. I think the biggest fish caught was a 42 lb
Spanish Mackrel by one of the old salts. Those guys definitely knew what they
were doing since they were pulling them up at a regular basis. Apparently they
both go out on this trip once a week and land about 400-600 lbs of fish a trip.
They have their commercial licenses and sell the fish in Key West. If any
one decides to try this trip some time, the guys name are Wolf and Chuck. Just
watch them close and you will learn a lot. One thing we also learned is not
to use dacron line. Not that it is better or worse than mono but the mates
hate the stuff when it gets tangled up with other lines. You can use it if
you want but expect a lot of grief from them and if it gets tangled they will
just cut it off.
We pulled back in to Key West Wednesday afternoon, went straight to
Big Pine to the cabin, ate, and hit the sack. Thursday morning we decided to
fish of the bridge next to our cabin, about 200 yards away. We could see the
tarpon and barracuda swimming around below us. Some were 4-5 feet long. I
never saw such big fish in such shallow water, 8 ft. We tried some shiny lures
and plugs on the barracuda but they were not interested. We decided to catch
some bait fish and use them. We caught about a 1/2 dozen pin fish and used
them. I nailed a 2 ft cuda with the pin fish. The tarpon were not interested
though. Since we didn't start fishing until 8 am we figured it was just to late
in the day. We came back that evening around 5pm, caught some more pin fish
and waited til the sun set. One of our guys nailed a 17lb tarpon around 8 pm.
It took two of us to pull him up the bridge, unhook him and release him back.
Around 10pm, pitch black, something started to rip my line out. All I could
do was hold on to the rod with my feet braced up against the bridge. I'm using
50lb test with a 100lb mono leader with the drag set around 30 lbs. This thing
is burning it off like I wasn't even there. Eventually he gave a real powerful
surge and the line just snapped. Beats me what it was but I know it was big
and fast. Great to hold on to. Around 11pm I got another line ripper but this
one takes it straight out about 50 yards then turns around heading back to the
bridge, wraps my line around a pylon and says good evening to me.
Friday a couple of us decide to take it easy since we are going on
a charted tarpon run that night. My friend and I decided to get our souvenir
shopping over with for the wives and kids, one guy wants us to drop him off at
the a bridge on Rt 1, and the other guy decides to sleep since he bridge fished
most of the night. We drop the guy off and come back about 2 hrs later. He
is fishing the flats in about 2 ft of water and he says he sees the cuda running
all around him. He hasn't got a hit yet after 2 hrs though and he is using
everything from live bait to the kitchen sink. He throws on a 4" silver spoon,
makes a cast and hits into one. Its about a 3 1/2 - 4 ft cuda and it makes this
beautiful leap out of the water about 15 ft in front of the guy and cuts the
line like paper. The guy had such a big grin on his face you could of tied
it into a knot behind his head.
About 4pm we hook up with the skipper of the ONPOINT II for the tarpon
run. We go out to one of the more popular tarpon bridges and fish from there.
We used spinning gear with a live 9" mullet on a float. We could see the
tarpon running back in forth beneath us in the water but no takers. We watch
another charter about 100 yds away hook and tag about a 130 - 150 lb tarpon.
Beautiful fish. My friend hooks into a nice one later but it spits the hook
out on the first run. About 7:30 pm we are watching the other charter hook into
another tarpon. As the fish gets about 20 ft from the boat the skipper starts
yelling out to cut the line. I mean he is screaming at the top of his lungs to
have the line cut. All of a sudden the tarpon is lifted out of the water by
a mako shark, thrashed around a couple of times, pulled under never to be seen
again. After about 5 minutes we were able to pull our jaws up off the deck and
say to one another over and over "Did you see that! Did you see that!". The
rest of the evening was uneventful and the skipper pulled in around 9pm.
I read in the Florida Saltwater Magazine a couple of days later about this same
shark that hangs around this area waiting for tarpon to get hooked up so he can
have an easy kill. They estimate his length around 14 feet and they call him
Butch. I would call him the Terminator.
Saturday we rent a 18 footer and decide to fish the reefs about 3-5
miles out. That turned out to be uneventful, mostly small stuff. We decide to
troll back in and we hook into a jack. Got it to about 10 feet to the boat and
he gets off. Nice fighting fish. We missed a couple of more and we then
decide to go over to the same bridge we fished the night before for tarpon.
Since we needed some live bait we started fishing for pinfish and mullet.
We start landing these 10" snappers on light tackle instead. We decided to
just do this and spend a couple of hours at it. Every once in a while we would
hook into a 14 - 16 incher and have a blast trying to play them in. Real tough
fighting fish, they get tougher as they get near the top also. We were using
8lb test with a 15lb mono leader. Even still, every once in a while they would
cut through that as well. We mostly caught them off of shrimp and squid.
We finished off the evening by fishing with the boat near the bridge near the
camp. No luck.
Sunday we decide to just take it easy and go over to the flats to
where the guy caught the cuda during the week. Mostly used our 8 to 10 foot
rods with spinners and lures. Action was slow most of the day so a couple of
the guys went snorkeling with rented gear ($7 a day). They had a great time.
My friend and I just decided to sit on the beach, drink beer and cast out every
once in a while. Nice way to end the week.
Monday - flew back. Blah!
I know this note is kind of long but it is tough to cram a whole week
of fishing into a couple of lines. If anyone is interested in more details,
like cost, were to rent charters, cabins, boats, etc., send me a note and I will
try to get the info to you. We are probably going next year so if anyone else
is interested let me know. My node is LEDS::VESESKIS.
Ken
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