Orange Beach Weekend - August 2009© Photos by Mark Miller © Hi-Res Source
This was a Scout Trip to Orange Beach due to restrictive Red Snapper regulations and poor bottom conditions off Mississippi. Indeed the Trip showed that Diving Conditions at the bottom are much better off Orange Beach. While many Red Snapper were present, we did not catch much either due to them just being turned off or us just hitting public spots. On our 4-Day Weekend, we first made a night dive on the Liberty Ship Allen. This was Paul and Luke's first night dive. They were initially apprehensive, but I think they really enjoyed it. They saw about 2 dozen flounder which prompted Paul to buy a Pole Spear for our night dive the next night on the 3 Mile Barge. He got 2 flounder on that dive and missed 2 others. The next day we dove the 3 Mile Barge both during the day and at night. Rough conditions kept us from venturing out further this day. The 3rd day we made a trip out to the Oriskany Air Craft Carrier and brought along Mollie and Keith McQueen. Visibility was great. Following that we hit the Tenneco Submerged Rig, the 3-Deck Barge, and unsuccessfully tried to find the Dutch Banks. Ben caught a nice AJ on the Big O (on his first drop) and I speared a nice AJ on the Tenneco. The 3-Deck Barge was very small, but had some great life on it and was a very enjoyable dive. The next day we hit some spots around 15 miles out that included the Rubble Pile "Atlantis", some Army Tanks (89 & 90), and a Barge. It was a great weekend of diving that encompassed 5 Trips and 93.4 Gallons of Fuel.
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