# opening day on the holy spirit



## seanmclemore (Aug 20, 2008)

CAPTIAN PAUL REDMAN was the driver yesterday on the boat holy spirit. those of you who know meknow if there is a big fish to see i'm going to see it. i had to have the wife drive me cause i had a good buzz going, but this is the biggest grouper i've ever put my hands on. keving trusler shot it on a pretty shallow spot. big rich with report on this dive


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## Orion45 (Jun 26, 2008)

Great grouper. Paul will put you on some big fish.


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## FenderBender (Oct 2, 2007)

What a slob. What did he weigh?


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## seanmclemore (Aug 20, 2008)

well i figured big rich would fill in the details. i wasn't on the trip with these guys i went on my boat yesterday, what i know is that the grouper was 47.7 lb and was shot in less than or right around 100' of water WHICH IS NUTS. i would shit if i saw this fish in 100'....shit then shoot of course. any how, they had one hell of a haul. limit of snapper, rich got a nice cubera in the 15lb range and a few nice grouper in the15-20lb range. who can resist getting a pic with a fish that big. rich didn't get any pics of it so he asked me to post it and he would fill in.

thats all i know....bastards....cant wait to get out with captain paul again. its always rediculous like this.

cheers


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## Florabama (Oct 19, 2007)

Ok, here's the report. 

Kevin and I started talking about going shooting on opening day a while back. We put together the trip and talked to Paul, and since hedidn't have a charter going, graciously agreed to come drive the boat for us. He brought his son Zack and their friend Tim who were hook and line fishing while we dove. 

Kevin and I, and his friend George were diving,while Zackand George's son, Jess, and Timbo fished. We rotated divers at each spot hitting small coups and pyramids. The first diver in the water was George who came up with a nice stringer of decentsnapper and trigger. 

George couldn't stop talking about how many fish he saw-- and missed -- and tried to talk us into making all our dives on the first stop. The fishermenhad put a couple of nice snapper in the boat, so we were well on our way to our limit of 14 reds. 

I rolled on the next spotwhich looked like asmall rebar reef. The water was the most beautiful I've seen it in a long time -- crystal clear -- and almost flat calm, but a fair surface current that dissapated after about 20 feet.The little rebar pyramidwas loaded with legal snapper, some marginal triggerand one or two big boys. As I was dropping down a big snappercame swimming up to meet me, then seeing I wasn't food, turned to swim away. I got "buck-fever" at the thoughtof myfirst big snapper of the season and promptlyshot a hole in thewater while the big snapper swam away. I reloaded and proceed on down to the reef. I saw a nice fish inside the pyramid and shot through the rebar. At first, I thought it was a red snapper but it turned out to be a nice cuberra in the ten pound range which was great for our aggergate bag limit. I poked a trigger with the pole spear, and headed up. On the way up I got to see a red snapper caught and fought from the fish's perspective which was pretty cool. Someone on the boat hooked a snapperand with the clear water, I got to watch the wholedrama as the fish ran up to the baitand grabbed it then fought all the way up. 

Kevin rolled next on what turned out to be one the most memorable dives of his life. Kevin described the wreck as a "concrete truck tank." I never got around to asking him anymore about the spot because the only thing we talked about the rest of the day was his giant grouper. 

I'll tell it the best I can, but maybe we can get Kevin tocome on andfill in the blanks orcorrect anything I've got wrong. Anyway, the way I remember Kevin describing it, was that the wreck was loaded with nice fish. None of us wanted to shoot marginal fish, so Kevin looked around for something very big. As he was poking around the big grouperstuck his head out of a hole to see what was invadinghis territory. Kevin said he could hardly see the fishbecause his mask was flooding as he was looking down, but he could tell it was bigand promptly shot the big boy right through the top of its head. The big 3/8" shaft on Kev'sJBL Magnumput a 38 calibur hole through the big groupers brain and it rolled over dead.

I would have probably gotten bent trying to bring the fish to the surface to show everyone -- but not Kevin.He strung the giant gouper and started dragging it around looking for more. That's when he saw a red snapper in the 25 pound class. Kevin shot the snapperand was ready to come up and take bragging rights for-- not just the day -- but forever -- when the big snapper broke the SPRING STEEL SPEAR TIPCLEAN IN HALF and swam up into the wreck out of reach. 

I'm not sure which emotion Kevin was feeling the most.At first, I couldn't tell if Kevin was more mad about losing the snapper and breaking his spear tip or happy about bringing the giant grouper to the surface, but I know he was pumped up.When Kev came up, he was a good hundred yards from the boat having gotten caught in the currentwith the big fish, and I wasn't sure what in the world he had but I could tell it was very big. 

It took two of us to pull the monster over the gunnel and the big fish took up the whole 120 quart ice chest. I knew Sean had been out all day but I called him on the way in and told him he had to come see this fish. Sean brought a scale and the fish weighed out at47. 7 lbs. I know they come bigger, but it is the biggest grouper I've ever seen up close and personal.

Kevin got a new spear tip on hisshaft and we made several more dives -- adding more snapper, twomore nice gags, severalbig triggers-- to our already incredible take. We saw Dalton's boat on the way in and pulled up to him to show off the big grouper. 

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Congratulations to Kevin on thegrouper of a lifetime.


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

Nice grouper


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## HateCheese (Oct 2, 2007)

Awesome grouper. That there is a hoss. Just knew you guys were going to clean up in a big way on opener. Congrats on a great day out and nice re-telling of the story. Sucks about the spear tip and big snapper getting away, but it isn't too bad of a dive if you come up with a monster like that!! :bowdown


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## FelixH (Sep 28, 2007)

Nice Grouper!!


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Sweet job gus! Kevin called me this morning exited as a 4th grader kissing his first girl! Said he absolutely stoned it! Sweeeeet!

Cant wait to get back out again


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## SheYakFishr (Oct 1, 2007)

All I can say is.... DANGGGGGGGGGGGG!!! :bowdown :clap :letsdrink


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## GrouperNinja (Oct 30, 2007)

Nice Gag. We should have trade ice for that not snapper!


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## dkdiver (Oct 15, 2007)

> *GrouperNinja (6/2/2009)*Nice Gag. We should have trade ice for that not snapper!




Yeah, what he said! All of that ice I gave you guys was needed on the next bounce! It was good to see Kevin's knees buckle when we were waiting for the phone to power up to take a pic. Beautiful! What a great day on the water!


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## Florabama (Oct 19, 2007)

Thanks for the ice, DK. At the time, it didn't look like y'all were gonna need itfor anything. oke


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## Rich Lacour (Sep 9, 2008)

That is a sweet grouper man...congrats!


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