# 'Chunky Love' & 'A Salt Weapon' Speared Huge Ones!!! 26.8# Snapper



## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Despite all the trash talk between us before and after spear tourneys, Sniper and his woman, (Derik and April) and myself are good friends, although competitive. We haven't had a chance to dive together in about 4 years.

Friday it came together, and we had a crew and ready. But 4am at my house, the lightening went crazy, ending in a lightening strike 15 feet from our bedroom, shattering a pine tree in our driveway, and sending 3 foot long 1 1/2" thick "toothpics" (huge pine splinters) all over up to 30' away. Jackie was in the bathroom washing her hands at the time, she screamed, I MAY have let out a yell, and Caesar and Delilah jumped straight up in the air and when I could see again after the blinding light, they had landed on the bed. Jackie comes out of the bathroom and says her hands are tingling. I told her it was just the fright, not knowing just how close the lightening had actually struck. I knew it was close...but damn! Was a few hours later when I went out that I realized she probably did get a little voltage being that close.

Anyways...Friday was a bust, and same crew couldn't make it Saturday, so Friday evening we rounded up 2 more, James21, and Jordan from ScubaShack, plus Derik, April, and myself.

I told Derik my secret squirrel unpublished numbers had been producing, so how bout we hit up some of those? He said lets do it. A Salt Weapon (Derik and Aprils boat) is an awesome ride. 28' with a generous 10' beam, and twin 4-stroke 250's And huge front under deck compartment that holds all the extra tanks, so the deck is all cleared and wide open. Sweet sweet ride.

We all got 4-5 dives in, and got limit of 10 snapper, some real nice trigger, few gray snapper, and one nice gag. Which the gag pissed me off. I shot him, with a bad shot under the dorsal fin, and I chased him around a bit, then decided to reload. At that time Derik got him  Dang it! Oh well, glad he got in the boat. Got video footage from above him of Derik nailing 2 trigger with one shot. Awesome.

Everybody did well, great sized fish, and I took mine to Gulf Breeze Bait & Tackle to weigh on there certified scales. I was guessing 21 pounds. 


*I was tickled when it weighed in at my personal best of 26.80 pounds!!! Hell yes.* So easy...a caveman can do it!:whistling:

Last year on my spots I shot my then best of 24.55, and in 2007 my personal best was 24.33. Now 27# is my new size to beat.

My trigger wasn't the biggest that day, but it still weighed in at 8.56 pounds, so I'm curious what the other guys weighed.

Was a great day, with great friends, and made a new friend, Jordan. Cool dude. Dive masters on the Y-Knot for Dave Mucci if your ever out on the "O".

Here's the pics

Half the other snapper were over 15 pounds.








Here's couple other pics from my gopro, 1st me getting a hurnia trying to lift mine for the pics, and 2nd showing the size to a few of the others.

















And here's at the scales. 26.80 pounds on the snapper, and 8.56 on the trigger


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

And here's a few underwater shots of the trigger and snapper.


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## TheRoguePirate (Nov 3, 2011)

nice job amigo!


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## marmidor (Mar 15, 2008)

HOLY CRAP! Awesome clay! I replied to your text bout a day late.


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## FenderBender (Oct 2, 2007)

Good one!!! wow, that would have been money at the tourny!


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## TURTLE (May 22, 2008)

*That is a huge Snapper and Trigger. Good job.:thumbup:*


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## aquatic argobull (Mar 2, 2009)

Nice. Hope we get a video!


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## coolbluestreak (Jun 27, 2011)

Very nice job Clay and crew!:thumbsup:
It's about time you start to dive on the weekend!


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## No Excuses (Apr 7, 2012)

Saw yall heading out of the shipyard as we were putting in, wish our dive was as productive as yours!


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## below me (Jan 13, 2012)

nice!!!


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## MillerTime (Jul 6, 2011)

Tood bad I couldn't join you guys. Only 21 more days I think.


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## coolbluestreak (Jun 27, 2011)

Yep, 21!


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Sweet going Clay!!!! Great job spearing them bigguns!!! You see my tribute pic to you the other day???? http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f54/finally-smoked-meatloaf-124157/ :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


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## TONER (Mar 25, 2008)

where are all your big spadefish ? :whistling: that is what it takes to win the guns & hoses :laughing:


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## Deeplines (Sep 28, 2007)

Derrick, I never knew that was your boat. Nice boat.

Clay good report and the roof is holding up strong. Thanks.


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## naclh2oDave (Apr 8, 2008)

Strong work you all!! That gag looks heavy, what did it weigh in at? An 8.5# trigger is a bigun, no doubt!! 
And yeah, the "A salt Weapon" is the nicest boat that I have ever been on. Dang sweet ride!


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## Team REEL TIGHT (Jun 5, 2012)

So are you the owner of the assault weapon?


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

Sweet fish Clay. Looks like everyone had an awesome day.


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Thanx guys! No, not my boat, Snipers boat. Why, did he do somethin to piss you off on the water one day?:001_huh:

Going out next 4 days, Thursday the 12th, and Fri, Sat, and Sunday to these same batch of spots. Have close to 200 of these top producing unpublished numbers. Room for 3 divers per day. Here's the link with details.

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f46/spear-20-27-snapper-thurs-fri-sat-sun-need-3-divers-124619/#post952591

Let me know!


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## sniper (Oct 3, 2007)

I don't think I pissed anyone off. I'm usually nicer on the water than on land.


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## naclh2oDave (Apr 8, 2008)

Team REEL TIGHT said:


> So are you the owner of the assault weapon?


Probably referring to me, since he posted right after mine.

But no, just friends with the yahoo who owns the boat, sometimes we dive together. We call it a Dive /Fish team but, we mostly just talk trash and eat at each others houses :thumbup:


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## Ozeanjager (Feb 2, 2008)

Good lord atsa bigun...


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## Contender (Apr 4, 2012)

Guys don't want to rain on your parade but trigger fish season closed, at least for rod and reel, last month. Might want to check that out.

Good mess of fish regardless


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## cody&ryand (Oct 3, 2007)

Open in state waters for recreation


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## Contender (Apr 4, 2012)

Roger. Wasn't sure of the circumstances. With Fed Bdy closer in Ala and the crowd that forms close in I am always fishing in Fed waters and knew it was closed there


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

What Cody said. And if someone does make a mistake on the ever changing regs and post pics of fish that they took unknowingly, I usually send a PM instead of publicly saying something to them, which gives them a chance to remove picture or post if they made an honest mistake.:thumbup:

Especially if something is still open in certain areas, and not assuming the person is going in closed areas when posting. Just food for thought, not being confrontational.


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