FH-7 & MP234 Cutoffs - May 23, 2013© Photos Posted by Mark Miller © Hi-Res Source
This was a combination fishing/diving charter. On board we had David Fyke of Greenville, MS and TD Huckabee of Hurley that were fishing. Omar Vasquez of Gulfport and Todd Cospelich of Wiggins were diving and fishing. My usual deckhand Paul (18) had Graduation Practice and couldn't make the trip, even after a call to his principal, Boyd West. Todd was using dual side saddle tanks, one hundred cubic feet with air and an 80 cubic foot with 50% Nitrox. Check out the pic of this rig, it was quite interesting. You get the deeper benefits of air and the decompression advantages of Nitrox. Anyway, we started near FH-7 which appeared to have been pressured since the action was down, but we dove the Rig there near the Jumbo Barge and picked up a couple shovelnose lobster and a couple lionfish. The rig also hosted a stud of a cobia that eluded us. The visibility was somewhat poor and the current was pushing strong to the south on top, but strong to the north below 10 feet and held out pretty much all the way down. It also got colder at depth. We left there and headed to the MP243 cutoffs hitting a couple buoys along the way. This northern Cutoff that we hit comes up from about 200 feet to about 116 feet. Fish were abundant including lionfish although Todd only captured 3 more here due to the shortness of the dive due to the depth. We caught some AJs and some small Cobia which were the first experience for David Fyke. We also stopped to check a couple Red Snapper spots to come back to on opening day, June 1. Omar brought his famous shrimp cevicie which helped capped our fun filled slick day on the water that encompassed 150 nautical miles, 16 hours, and 83.6 gallons of fuel.
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