Fish Pics from Costa

[RamFan503]

@RamFan503

That's crazy Stu. I'm saying it was a sturgeon... lol

I've got a wooden sign that I had made. It looks like a hotel sign and it has a big fish on it. Across the top it reads - Fish Tales Inn. Along the bottom - Fish stories swapped here. The later it gets, the bigger the fish.

Good stuff Stu. I've actually eaten sturgeon from Michigan or Minnesota. That shyte was tasty as hell. You gotta go get one of those 1500 pounders... Holy Smokes.

Unfortunately they have to be between 42 and 54" in order to keep them. Those big ones are just for pictures anymore. Love seeing them though. They're like living dinosaurs of the water.

 

[Username]

What's the craziest/most exotic thing you've caught, or seen caught? Like a giant sting ray, a rare fish, a big ass shark, blue whale, mermaid, sea monster, polar bear, ect.

 

[LesBaker]

What's the craziest/most exotic thing you've caught, or seen caught? Like a giant sting ray, a rare fish, a big ass shark, blue whale, mermaid, sea monster, polar bear, ect.

I've bagged some unicorns since living in Florida.

 

[Thordaddy]

Some awesome pics there man.
The fish all look very surprised to be there

Glad you are back and enjoyed the trip, you are lucky to have a mate who gets off on the same things you do.
Happy Aniv.

 

[RamzFanz]

Picture 1: The fish matches your shorts. :cheese:

Picture 2: There's a fish in the picture? :nau:

Picture 3: The expression on the fish's face is going to be on McCown's face Sunday when he turns and sees Quinn comin' at him. :bigup:

 

[Selassie I]

Unfortunately they have to be between 42 and 54" in order to keep them. Those big ones are just for pictures anymore. Love seeing them though. They're like living dinosaurs of the water.

That makes sense. I've heard about how they are somewhat endangered. They really are like dinosaurs.

We have some fish here with slot limits too. Snook are one of the species... they figured out that the bigger ones are the females and needed protection. They didn't always have a slot on them because you could keep one per day that was "over" the limit. I was lucky to catch one years ago that was over and had her mounted,,, she still looking good hanging on the wall in my office. It's cool having that mount since you can't keep them that big anymore.

 

[Selassie I]

What's the craziest/most exotic thing you've caught, or seen caught? Like a giant sting ray, a rare fish, a big ass shark, blue whale, mermaid, sea monster, polar bear, ect.

Man that's a tough one for me to narrow down. I have been fishing hardcore since I was a little shit living in Hawaii and my Grandfather had a sport fishing boat here in FL when I was a teen. Fishing/diving is the only thing I'm addicted to as much as the Rams.

I've caught a bunch of crazy shit... 400lb Jewfish when I was 15yrs old, caught many big sharks over 500lbs, got a 92lb wahoo that is mounted on my office wall and a 44lb snook hangs up there too. I almost had the world record (line class) for a wahoo , he was 42lbs and I only used 12lb test line (long story)... missed the record by ounces, but it is still the Bahamian record. Those are some of the cool ones.

I'll tell you a fucking weird fish tale. I saw a guy and his wife on a small boat (like an 18ft center console) "catch" something in a way I couldn't believe. They had a big fucking whale (not sure what kind is was, but it's the big ones that come up and down the beaches on the east coast here) get somehow snagged on their anchor, and the fucking thing was dragging them and their boat straight out to sea. The depth of the water out of the Daytona Beach area where this happened is only like 60 feet,,, and it's only 60 feet deep for like 35 miles out. So lucky for them the whale wasn't going to drag their boat under,,, they had way more than 60' of anchor line. Anyway, these poor two were fucking screaming and clueless as to what to do. They were being pulled at a fairly good pace because the whale was freaking out. It took them being dragged for probably 5 miles before they finally realized they just needed to untie their line. That was wild to watch.

You're gonna have to come fishing with me if you what to hear any really good fish stories. I got em.

 

[LesBaker]

Picture 1: The fish matches your shorts. :cheese:

Picture 2: There's a fish in the picture? :nau:

Picture 3: The expression on the fish's face is going to be on McCown's face Sunday when he turns and sees Quinn comin' at him. :bigup:

About picture two.

Not only is she pretty she is smart and has a very vibrant personality. I met HS and her when they were over here hanging with friends. Great people, and we had a great time even though I drank a little too much and suffered the next day lol.

 

[Selassie I]

About picture two.

Not only is she pretty she is smart and has a very vibrant personality. I met HS and her when they were over here hanging with friends. Great people, and we had a great time even though I drank a little too much and suffered the next day lol.

You weren't the only one who drank way too much that night,,, we were way ahead of you, and continued way too long after. Good times that night Les. It was very cool meeting you too,,, got to do it again. The sights of what was happening in my friend's pool late that night still dance through my head though,,, I love Naples.

 

[RamFan503]

I caught a half a tuna once. One hell of a fight until a shark decided to eat half of it. Also had a salmon killed by a seal while I was fighting it. Put a big gash in the side.

We used to catch what we called shovel nose sharks (apparently actually a ray) in the back bays down in California. Brought one of them home and put it in the bath tub until I could deal with it. My wife came home and I heard her shreak. Not really a scream. More of an OMFG thing. I thought I knew what she was shreaking at until I wient ito the bathroom as saw that the "shark" had given birth to about 40 little 4" mini-sharks. Pretty wild.

 

[Selassie I]

I caught a half a tuna once. One hell of a fight until a shark decided to eat half of it. Also had a salmon killed by a seal while I was fighting it. Put a big gash in the side.

We used to catch what we called shovel nose sharks (apparently actually a ray) in the back bays down in California. Brought one of them home and put it in the bath tub until I could deal with it. My wife came home and I heard her shreak. Not really a scream. More of an OMFG thing. I thought I knew what she was shreaking at until I wient ito the bathroom as saw that the "shark" had given birth to about 40 little 4" mini-sharks. Pretty wild.

Holy shark pups Batman! No wonder she freaked... hahahahahahahahaha

Sharks and I go waaayyyyyyy back. I could go on forever about them. Eating half, if not all of the yellow fin tuna on the line is something we just automatically assume is likely anymore. We actually yell at whoever is reeling one in that the "Fucking Shark Is Gonna Eat It,,, You Better Reeeeeelllll Faster,,, COME ON!!!" I had a shark bite my heel while diving for bugs because of my friend throwing speared fish all around me unbeknownst to me. Have had to watch , in horror , as a 10' bull shark took a big snapper basically right out of my hands like I was hand feeding it. Those fuckers.

I bet those seals are pesky sum-bitches. I can tell that they are smart. Can't blame them for trying I guess.

 

[RamFan503]

Holy shark pups Batman! No wonder she freaked... hahahahahahahahaha

Sharks and I go waaayyyyyyy back. I could go on forever about them. Eating half, if not all of the yellow fin tuna on the line is something we just automatically assume is likely anymore. We actually yell at whoever is reeling one in that the "freaking Shark Is Gonna Eat It,,, You Better Reeeeeelllll Faster,,, COME ON!!!" I had a shark bite my heel while diving for bugs because of my friend throwing speared fish all around me unbeknownst to me. Have had to watch , in horror , as a 10' bull shark took a big snapper basically right out of my hands like I was hand feeding it. Those fuckers.

I bet those seals are pesky sum-bitches. I can tell that they are smart. Can't blame them for trying I guess.

Ha! Yeah and the little fuckers were alive and swimming.

I guess the tuna thing happens quite often. The guy I was with thought nothing of it besides being pissed at the shark. I hadn't had it happen before so I thought it was hysterical. I've dived with the things a couple times as you can see by my avatar (I took that pic). Once was with a group where we had to lock arms while some douche in a mesh suit fed them - BORING. The other time was when I took the pics and we were in the same spot but just swimming freely with them. THAT was way more fun. I realize Black Tips aren't very aggressive but when they are swimming toward you, they simply look like FUCKING SHARKS! Think I'd wanna pass on having one eat out of my hand.

We used to catch a lot of leopard sharks while surf fishing. I always thought they were cool.

When I was a little kid, we were down in Mexico and for some reason the Hammerheads were beaching themselves all around this island we had boated out to. I was around five I think. I found a little tide pool with a baby (about 4 footer) Hammerhead and proceeded to play in the water with it. Apparently my mom wasn't real keen on it cuz she had my dad come and yank me out of the water. I thought it was cool. Didn't know how aggressive they can be nor that the little guy could easily take a pretty good bite out of my scrawny little ass. All I know is grabbing it by the tail seemed like a good idea and was WAY more fun than walking along the shore collecting shells.

Seals are real pests. Fun watching them from the table of a restaurant but... I can't count the number of salmon I catch with big scars on them. It also pisses me off when I'm out there marking a bunch of fish and a seal head pops up right next to my boat. Might as well just pull up the lines and move on.

 

[Selassie I]

Ha! Yeah and the little fuckers were alive and swimming.

I guess the tuna thing happens quite often. The guy I was with thought nothing of it besides being pissed at the shark. I hadn't had it happen before so I thought it was hysterical. I've dived with the things a couple times as you can see by my avatar (I took that pic). Once was with a group where we had to lock arms while some douche in a mesh suit fed them - BORING. The other time was when I took the pics and we were in the same spot but just swimming freely with them. THAT was way more fun. I realize Black Tips aren't very aggressive but when they are swimming toward you, they simply look like freaking SHARKS! Think I'd wanna pass on having one eat out of my hand.

We used to catch a lot of leopard sharks while surf fishing. I always thought they were cool.

When I was a little kid, we were down in Mexico and for some reason the Hammerheads were beaching themselves all around this island we had boated out to. I was around five I think. I found a little tide pool with a baby (about 4 footer) Hammerhead and proceeded to play in the water with it. Apparently my mom wasn't real keen on it cuz she had my dad come and yank me out of the water. I thought it was cool. Didn't know how aggressive they can be nor that the little guy could easily take a pretty good bite out of my scrawny little ass. All I know is grabbing it by the tail seemed like a good idea and was WAY more fun than walking along the shore collecting shells.

Seals are real pests. Fun watching them from the table of a restaurant but... I can't count the number of salmon I catch with big scars on them. It also pisses me off when I'm out there marking a bunch of fish and a seal head pops up right next to my boat. Might as well just pull up the lines and move on.

I remember us talking about your shark encounters and your avatar years back. That type of diving trip is something to see. The sharks are conditioned in those situations. Before 3 hurricanes destroyed basically everything on my favorite island in the Bahamas (Walker's Cay), they used to do a daily shark rodeo. They would drop a frozen block of fish parts down in about 45 feet and the divers would be positioned in a semi-circle around it sitting on the sand. They have nothing on that awesome island anymore except for a tiny airport. The sharks are all still there though. They'll steal fish right off of the tip of your spear.

When spearing fish there we have to make sure that someone is running the boat (no anchoring) so that when you come up with a fish, the boat comes to you as quickly as possible in order to get the fish and it's blood trail out of the water fast. We also make sure not to hold the speared fish against our bodies... we hold them as far away from ourselves as possible to avoid having a shark miss the fish and accidentally hit us.

That time I had to hand feed my snapper to a big bull was not something I meant to do, or would ever want to do again. It happened when I first started going over to the Bahamas and my buddy and I thought we could break a few rules... like using tanks and spearing fish. You can't use air over there and spear something,,, you have to free dive if you want to kill anything unless you are a Bahamian citizen. Anyway, we anchored the boat on the front side of a big reef that was only about 3 feet deep or so on the top of it. The reefs there are like submerged islands. On the back side of this reef it dropped off very deep. We put on our tanks and swam across the reef and dropped down the back side. I speared the fat snapper and proceeded to try and swim back to the boat along the top of the reef. The tide was ripping out at a very strong rate so I couldn't just swim it,,, I had to actually stand up on the reef and walk my way back. It was at least 40 yards to the boat and I couldn't get there fast. My brother-in-law was snorkeling across the top of the reef near me and I noticed that he was acting very strange and spinning in circles while thrusting his pole spear. He was trying to keep the big bull shark away from him because it was coming at him aggressively and obviously looking for the fish I has on my spear. He yelled over to me and I then realized that I had a problem... the problem got bigger when I saw how big and aggressive this bull was, and I was having a very hard time getting the spear out of the snapper because of the spring out barbs that are supposed to keep the fish on the spear. It was a miracle that I was able to get the spear out just as the shark came up to get it. He was going to get a big bite of something if it wasn't the fish he was smelling. Insane.

That was the last time that I ever speared anything there while using the aid of air. Lesson learned and burned into memory.

 

[RamFan503]

I remember us talking about your shark encounters and your avatar years back. That type of diving trip is something to see. The sharks are conditioned in those situations. Before 3 hurricanes destroyed basically everything on my favorite island in the Bahamas (Walker's Cay), they used to do a daily shark rodeo. They would drop a frozen block of fish parts down in about 45 feet and the divers would be positioned in a semi-circle around it sitting on the sand. They have nothing on that awesome island anymore except for a tiny airport. The sharks are all still there though. They'll steal fish right off of the tip of your spear.

When spearing fish there we have to make sure that someone is running the boat (no anchoring) so that when you come up with a fish, the boat comes to you as quickly as possible in order to get the fish and it's blood trail out of the water fast. We also make sure not to hold the speared fish against our bodies... we hold them as far away from ourselves as possible to avoid having a shark miss the fish and accidentally hit us.

That time I had to hand feed my snapper to a big bull was not something I meant to do, or would ever want to do again. It happened when I first started going over to the Bahamas and my buddy and I thought we could break a few rules... like using tanks and spearing fish. You can't use air over there and spear something,,, you have to free dive if you want to kill anything unless you are a Bahamian citizen. Anyway, we anchored the boat on the front side of a big reef that was only about 3 feet deep or so on the top of it. The reefs there are like submerged islands. On the back side of this reef it dropped off very deep. We put on our tanks and swam across the reef and dropped down the back side. I speared the fat snapper and proceeded to try and swim back to the boat along the top of the reef. The tide was ripping out at a very strong rate so I couldn't just swim it,,, I had to actually stand up on the reef and walk my way back. It was at least 40 yards to the boat and I couldn't get there fast. My brother-in-law was snorkeling across the top of the reef near me and I noticed that he was acting very strange and spinning in circles while thrusting his pole spear. He was trying to keep the big bull shark away from him because it was coming at him aggressively and obviously looking for the fish I has on my spear. He yelled over to me and I then realized that I had a problem... the problem got bigger when I saw how big and aggressive this bull was, and I was having a very hard time getting the spear out of the snapper because of the spring out barbs that are supposed to keep the fish on the spear. It was a miracle that I was able to get the spear out just as the shark came up to get it. He was going to get a big bite of something if it wasn't the fish he was smelling. Insane.

That was the last time that I ever speared anything there while using the aid of air. Lesson learned and burned into memory.

Yikes! Good stuff to think about. I am planning on doing a few jetty dives out here and if the salmon are in, often times the sharks are too. Think maybe I'll go for scallops instead if the salmon are running.

 

[fearsomefour]

Sweet. I love fishing but I suck at it. Probably because I have no idea what Im doing. Havent been in the ocean in forever but would love to give it a go again soon. Congrats on a cool trip…..and 10 years.

 

[RamFan503]

Update. We just had a Great White attack another surfer at the beach just north of Newport. I have to find the pics I took of the last attack victim's surf board. Seriously rethinking the whole spear fishing dive.

 

[Selassie I]

Sweet. I love fishing but I suck at it. Probably because I have no idea what Im doing. Havent been in the ocean in forever but would love to give it a go again soon. Congrats on a cool trip…..and 10 years.

Muchas Gracias fearsomefour.

You just need more practice,,, and to drink more while you're doing it. Your skill set increases with every sip in my experience. :heh:

 

[Selassie I]

Update. We just had a Great White attack another surfer at the beach just north of Newport. I have to find the pics I took of the last attack victim's surf board. Seriously rethinking the whole spear fishing dive.

Yeah Stu,,, I would take a pass on diving up there where you live. Just knowing there are White Sharks in the area is too much.

The beach we have basically always gone to since we were young is New Smyrna Beach. It has the largest number of shark attacks on humans in the world every year. The attacks almost never result in a person dying though. We'll be there on the intercoastal basically all this week. The sharks don't worry us,,, but that's because there are no White Sharks. That takes it to a whole new level when they are involved.

There are a few other sharks that scare the shit out of me... already talked about bulls (they are fucking nasty), but the oceanic white tip is another one that you just don't want to see when you're in the water. They will just come up and take a bite of anything to see if they want to eat the rest of it. I have had one try and take a bite out of our boat and motors. They have no fear of anything.

But none of them hold a candle to those White Sharks Stu... You crazy YO!!!

 

[RamFan503]

Check this shit out. This is the surfboard of a friend of ours Jonny. He was surfing the jetty break in Newport a couple years ago. Dude didn't get a scratch. Think he was lucky?

 

[fearsomefour]

HOLY F!! Grew up by the ocean in SLO, would go surf during the day and swim at night when I was a kid. That is scary. Glad your friend is ok….except for having to buy a new wetsuit.