Free Koozies & Stickers!!

[WestEndAngler]

Post up a fishing photo, a catch, something cool that happened or that you saw while fishing. Post as many as you want!

Thread will close tomorrow at Noon (CST)

We need a new photo of the week... I've seen a lot of reports lately but no pictures!

The winner will get there photo they submitted as the photo of the week and receive 2 free koozies and 2 club stickers for Free! No shipping charges!

So post up guys!! Let's see your favorite fishing photos!

[Tiny]

justa buncha pics...

[FP10]

I never got mine from the rockets contest.

[WestEndAngler]

I never got mine from the rockets contest.

I PM'd you... What do I owe you? Did you ever send me your address? I do believe I shot you a PM...

[Primer]

Here's some.

[Primer]

One more.

[WestEndAngler]

So far I'm thinking its a toss up between that WAHOOOOOOOO and the 7" Shrimp

[fishnlab]

.

[lurefisher]

Heres a couple 007 and sneekypete with one of those matty girls.

[lurefisher]

Ok i forgot to attach.

[2112]

Not my biggest fishys but my favorite picture of myself.

[mikey01]

here is a few cool ones

[Milkjug]

Very nice fish guys, and I love the dental work on that sheepie

I'll share a story and pic.

This was a while back on my first rig-spearfishing trip. We had just tied up to the first oil rig and I had dropped down and was hunting around.

I was using a brand-spanking new speargun, and had it rigged up "riding-rig" style. What this means is that the spear shaft isn't attached to the gun. It's attached to the steel cable as normal, but then tied to 10' or so of rope instead of the muzzle of the gun. The idea being that if you bite off more than you can chew and a strong fish is pulling you into the abyss, you can jettison the spearshaft and rope, saving your gun. You can also tie a feisty fish off to a rig leg, and get away while it beats itself up.

Well after missing a shot or two at a few fish, I see a shooter-sized mangrove, maybe 20" or so long. I line up the shot and take it. Very pleased to see the fish impaled and kicking around in circles. Swim up to it and grab the shaft, then think "where's my gun". As ya'll can remember, the gun isn't actually attached to the shaft/rope, and in the excitement, I had let go of the gun in favor of the spear, and it had floated up and away Red with shame, I returned to the boat and handed up my mangrove and shaft sans gun. Capt. says "hey, at least you shot a fish". "Yeah, especially if that fish can be sold for $270", I thought to myself. I grab the "back-up" speargun, a short JBL gun, and drop back down. Despite the downgrade in firepower, I managed to pin a school of mangroves against a rig leg, and pick off one of the stragglers. Reload and start swimming around more. I look to the side and a good sized AJ is coming towards me. I remember lining up the shot and taking it. I watch in horror as the shaft strikes the fish, then immediately falls out. This normally equals lost fish, as they will thrash hard and be in the next county in no time. Instead, the AJ starts quivering and rolls over! Perfect stone shot! The tip had barely gone in 1", not even close to sinking the barbs! Perfect shot right where the spine meets the skull. Once I got my hands on the AJ, I realized that it was actually a pretty nice sized one. Since they have been known to "come back to life" after being stoned, I immediately bear-hugged my catch and surfaced.

At this point, I'm pretty stoked despite the loss of a new gun. We do some hook/line fishing during our surface interval and the guys bring up a few snaps and an african pompano (very cool fish, BTW). One of the guys commented that he saw my gun down there, which I was kind of incredulous about. Sure enough, next dive, he comes to me with my lost gun! It turns out, as it was floating up, it had brushed up against a cross-beam, and one of the elastics had caught a barnacle! How F'in lucky is that? Those who have seen rigs know that there are a fair amount of crossbeams, but they don't come anywhere near covering up the inside of the rig. On top of that, it managed to hit it just right to snag a powerband. Boggles my mind.

Anyways, that's one of my cooler fishing experiences. First rig dive, first amberjack, got ridiculously lucky twice, and got the biggest fish by far of the group

[lurefisher]

Nice Jug!

[Walker]

I was out fishing with my wife (Nancy) and a friend (Alex) on Anegada one afternoon a few years ago. We were fishing from shore, casting soft plastics for hind (small grouper).

Something caught Alex's eye. He said "Walker - over there - a shark!"

I took a look. Something came out of the water - but it was not a shark's fin. It was a flipper.

I said "Alex, that ain't a shark. That's a sea lion!"

Sure as heck - about 50 yards away, the head of a sea lion popped out of the water. Uhhhh..... sea lion? This is the Caribbean! There aren't any sea lions down here! But this definitely WAS a sea lion. The only other place I had ever seen them was on the Pacific coast.

Nancy - the quick thinker - started clapping her hands together and making "ARF! ARF" sea lion sounds. The sea lion responded by swimming toward us. We are now looking at each other and saying "What the ...???"

We had caught a few hind, which were in a bucket. Nancy grabbed one out of the bucket and tossed it out. That brought the sea lion in within a few yards of us. It quickly grabbed the hind. You could hear the crunching of the bones as it chewed down on it and quickly swallowed it. Then it sat there, head out of the water, looking at us as if to say "More!".

I grabbed a hind and tossed it out. The sea lion caught it in its mouth.

OK - this are telling ourselves that this is getting too weird, it couldn't be happening, and no one is going to believe us when we tell them. Then, Nancy (the quick thinker) says "Walker - your camera is in the truck!".

I ran and grabbed the camera....



We spent the next 15 minutes or so watching and feeding the sea lion. It became somewhat playful, and would reward us for tossing fish by rolling or swimming backward. I think the water was too shallow for it to jump (only a few feet deep).



We ran out of fish, but by then, the lion was literally right at our feet.



When we left, the sea lion was still hanging around.

When we got back to our bar hangout and told others about it, we were rewarded with "Ya been out in da sun too lahng". But I had the photos!

We watched for the sea lion to appear again over the next few days, but it apparently moved on.

Word quickly spread, and the C&F (BVI Conservation and Fisheries - the game wardens) called. They were very interested, as a sea lion had never been seen in the BVI. The newspaper also called, and Alex told them the story. I emailed them a couple of pictures.

A couple of days later, Shannon Gore (a C&F officer) came over on the ferry to Anegada and interviewed me. She brought another C&F officer that went walking down to where we saw the sea lion to look for it. I knew he was not going to see anything. Keep in mind that West Indian men have huge egos.

When he returned, he proudly said that he had spotted the sea lion. I asked him where he saw it. He said "I saw it up in the bush." We looked at each other and rolled our eyes. He didn't even know that a sea lion was a sea creature!

Shannon had made some calls and found out that a sea lion had indeed escaped from a marine park in the Dominican Republic about a week earlier. The Domincan Republic is about 300 miles to the west of Anegada. Now we understood why the animal responded to us in such a friendly manner.



Alex featured himself in the story. Remember what I said about West Indian men and egos.

The sea lion was captured a few weeks later in Antigua (about 200 miles to the southeast).

People still talk about the sea lion on Anegada.