Capt. Tony Blanton

Certified Marine Technician

Powerpole dealer and Outfitting specialist

SAMS SA Marine surveyor

http://powerpole.com/

Mickey

They can only eat you once...TEAM GET BENT

Other than that, I agree the gulf is a big place and if the structure is small enough, there are plenty of places that are easily reached within 20-30 minutes of each other.  Everyone should just respect one another's space.  JMHO.  Didn't mean to derail with my rant, just respect the water and give everyone a litle breathing room.

I've been on a public spot fishing and have been asked to leave so that the

charter dive boat could drop his paying customers. We were catching fish, but I

agreed.  I don't like to stop were a dive boat is allready anchored.  Now, I have also

been anchored on a public spot (only boat insight) when a private dive boat came within

10-20 ft. dropped anchor then divers right beside me.

My fishing technique is not that good, so I became a certified diver this Dec. I going down to where they are if they wont come to me.  I only hope that the fishermen will be as nice

to me as I will be to them.  I will have been on both sides and believe that just plain

common sense and a little curtisey(SP) will prevail.

I've been on a public spot fishing and have been asked to leave so that the

charter dive boat could drop his paying customers. We were catching fish, but I

agreed. 

Thats nuts..

Dylan

The best thing about diving. My girlfriend can't yell at me underwater

Diving is life, everything else is just a surface interval

Handle every situation like a dog if you can't eat it or play with it, pee on it and walk away.

I'd suggest that if your post is accurate that your first course of action should be to get your eyes checked.  I can usually tell that there are fishermen over the spot I'm heading toward miles before I get there.  If you're actually pulling up on them you've already made it pretty obvious that your intent is to trash their fishing for the sake of your own.

If I have been driving for 15+ miles to get to said spot and there is not another spot that I have to dive close by and it's big enough to anchor on the wreck and be away from the fishing boat, I dive it. 

I usually either hail them on the radio or ask them if they mind if I dive on the wreck.  I tell them that I will only be here for a max time of 30 minutes or so with only about 20-25 minutes of bottom time usually.  Most divers do not not dive the same spot twice.  I have only done it a handfull of times.  So we go down, come up and move on.  Diving public spots is just like fishing public spots.  We all have to share and be respectfull.  There is just a little bit of saftey aspect that we as divers have to take into account if a spot is being fished while we are diving.  It's not worth my safety to dive a crowded spot.  This is why I love diving in the winter.  We pretty much have the gulf to ourself.

Just ask Chris (badazzchef) what the fishing was like when divers were down and when they were up.  Him and a buddy were fishing when myself, Clay, and Josh (Flyingfishr) were down and they caught fish the entire time we were down.  We came up and they said the bite ended.

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Jon

If you're not afraid to shoot it, its not big enough!!!

I've had sometime similar to this happen to me last year...we were diving the Pete Tide.  As we were coming up the anchor line to do our safety stop I heard the sounds of boat motors.  Luckly I looked around and luckly the viz was good enough for me to see this boat sitting literaly 3-4 ft infront of the scope where our anchor line entered the water....needless to say I sat at my safety stop longer than needed to try to figure out what the he** this boat was trying to accomplish (he was going back then foward, bouncing all around).  I gave up on waiting and swam under our boat at depth to pop up behind it.  By the time I popped up I realized what was going on....the seas had gotten pretty rough and this captain (OF A DIVE CHARTER BOAT!) was tryin to get anchored up exactly where we were!!  I will admit that I was pretty upset and loudly asked him "what the he** he is doing and if he realized that our boat is sitting here!"  I kinda felt bad for his customers after doing that because I could see that they were kinda scared about their captains actions!  BUT OH WELL....luckly I came up the anchor line and realized how close he was before surfacing!

Wow. What words of wisdom. Trash there spot? If a nother fishing boat pulls up to a decent sized wreck to fish when there is already a boat fishing there...are they "trashing" the spot also? Or is it only divers that trash the spot?

By your comments, I can tell you speak from ignorance. Anyone wha has so much as put a snorkle in there mouth and went in 6 feet of water can see the fish that are attracted to the curiosity of a person in the water. Anybody who has watched any diving videos can see fish approaching of all kinds to check the divers out instead of running off. NAybody who has fished off a dive boat as mentioned earlier, has seen that spearfishing, and adding blood and death in the water exites the whole natural food chain and brings in the bigger fish.

Here is some pics from just one trip on my boat with half divers, and half fishermen on the boat. Most of the catch was from the rod&reel department instead of us divers...

About 2/3 of those are from the ladys fishing. Looks like we really scared the bite. Damn.

The same rules apply to divng or rod& reel, keep a respectable distance from ANY OTHER BOAT, regardless if it is dive or rodnreel. Super little wreck and a boats on it? move on...regardless if your diving or fishing.

Divers shouldnt go swim under a fishers boat, and fishers shouldnt drive right on top of divers when they pull up.

Isnt really an issue of spearfishing vs rodnreel, its an issue of common courtesy and keeping a respectable distance.

TONER..none of this was directed at you by the way...I know you were just askin a question to make yourself a more courteous person (I think your already a pretty nice dude!), just amazed at some stupidity.

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UNDERWATER HELMET-CAM VIDEOS SPEARFISHING, USS ORISKANY, SHARKS, AND PICS!

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TEAMCHUNKYLOVE

32' Marinette Dive Machine w/twin 318's   _{^{PFF FORUM MEMBER SINCE 1/2/06}}

~2009 "Unofficial PFF Spring Shark Tounament" Winners!~

_{^{~2007 Outcast Mega Shark Tournament "Beautiful Losers"~}}

^{~2007 "Unofficial PFF Fall Shark Tounament" Winners!~}

^{~13th Annual Orange Beach Spearfishing Tounament 4 Time Placers!~}

Dang Josh! Before I even got to your or Pierces post, I was thinkin the same damn thing! At least we had the last laugh with that clown...

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UNDERWATER HELMET-CAM VIDEOS SPEARFISHING, USS ORISKANY, SHARKS, AND PICS!

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TEAMCHUNKYLOVE

32' Marinette Dive Machine w/twin 318's   _{^{PFF FORUM MEMBER SINCE 1/2/06}}

~2009 "Unofficial PFF Spring Shark Tounament" Winners!~

_{^{~2007 Outcast Mega Shark Tournament "Beautiful Losers"~}}

^{~2007 "Unofficial PFF Fall Shark Tounament" Winners!~}

^{~13th Annual Orange Beach Spearfishing Tounament 4 Time Placers!~}