Ralph & Aarron Ilgner - July 18, 2009

© Photos by Mark Miller ©    Hi-Res Source
This was a Diving Charter by Ralph Ilgner of Lenoir City, Tennessee for his 15 year old son Aarron. Aarron was recently certified and this was his first Open Water Dive in the Gulf of Mexico. We started on an Oil Rig at the south end of FH-13. Water visibility was fair with about 20-30 feet at the surface and 50-60 feet in the mid-water. The bottom 15 feet was near zero as usual. Aaron did well on the Rig so we did our next dive on the Linda Susan, a 155' River Tug Boat intentionally sunk as an artificial reef. Ralph and Aarron seemed to enjoy catching some small sharks as they not common in Tennessee. As we got ready to leave that rig, our decent anchor hung the wreck, so I traded my Video Gear in for a spear gun as I went down to retrieve it. I came back with 2 Red Snapper and a Grouper. From there, we went to some Rubble to catch a few white trout and then on to another Rig to finish out our air. I took a few pics of some folks from Ocean Springs that shared the Rig with us. We hit 4 shrimp boats after that, but had no luck with them. The weather started out questionable, but turned out real nice and made for a great day on the water. Total trip encompassed 67.7 miles, 10.5 hours, and 36.6 gallons ($90) of fuel.

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