Bouncer’s Dusky Takes Top Honors at the Bonfire Tournament L-R: Ned Stone (Outpost), Rick Benitez, Capt. Bouncer Smith, Victor Escobar, Billy Springer (Click image to enlarge.) Bimini Beach …
Bimini Road Named#1 Underwater Travel Experience By AOL
13 Oct 20105:33 PM
Are the rock formations off the coast of Bimini really part of the Lost City of Atlantis? No one knows for sure, but the dive site is so unique & the mystery so compelling that AOL recently named the Bimini Road as the #1 Underwater Travel Experience. Dive it now with Neal Watson’s Dive Bimini, a Guy Harvey Outpost Dive Center and draw your own conclusions!
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![](mailto:?subject=Bimini Road Named#1 Underwater Travel Experience By AOL&body=<a href="http://www.biggameclubbimini.com/diving.htm"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-146" title="Dive Bimini" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/divebiminilogo.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="173" /></a>
Are the rock formations off the coast of <a title="Official Bimini web site" href="http://www.bahamas.com/out-islands/bimini" target="_blank">Bimini</a> really part of the <a title="Wikipedia entry for Atlantis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis" target="_blank">Lost City of Atlantis</a>? No one knows for sure, but the dive site is so unique & the mystery so compelling that <a title="AOL web site" href="http://www.aol.com" target="_blank">AOL</a> recently named the <a title="Wikipedia entry for the Bimini Road" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimini_Road" target="_blank">Bimini Road</a> as the <a title="AOL's List of the Top Ten Underwater Travel Experiences" href="http://news.travel.aol.com/2010/08/05/top-10-underwater-travel-experiences/" target="_blank">#1 Underwater Travel Experience</a>. Dive it now with <a title="Neal Watson's Dive Bimini web site" href="http://www.biggameclubbimini.com/diving.htm" target="_blank">Neal Watson's Dive Bimini, a Guy Harvey Outpost Dive Center</a> and draw your own conclusions! https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/bimini-road-named1-underwater-travel-experience-by-aol/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Bimini Beach Bash, Bonfire Tournament Results&body=
Bouncer's Dusky Takes Top Honors at the Bonfire Tournament
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/dsc1953-team-bouncer-horiz.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2087" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/dsc1953-team-bouncer-horiz.jpg?w=300" alt="Bouncer's Dusky Takes Top Honors at the Bonfire Tournament! (Click image to enlarge.)" /></a>L-R: Ned Stone (Outpost), Rick Benitez, Capt. Bouncer Smith, Victor Escobar, Billy Springer (Click image to enlarge.)Bimini Beach Bash, Bonfire & Tournament Results
Bonfire Tournament Winner: Bouncer’s Dusky
Bonfire Runner-Up: White Pearl
Bonfire 3rd Place: Pisces
Top Angler, Victor Escobar, Bouncer’s Dusky
2nd Place Angler William Senne, White Pearl
3rd Place Angler, Chad Conner, White Pearl
Top Lady Angler, Irynne Mackay, Pisces
2nd Place Lady Angler, Margie McGough, Pisces
3rd Place Lady Angler, Danielle Keyser, White Pearl
Top Junior Angler (11-16) Devin Dellacava, Offshore Express
Top Small Fry Angler (10 and under) Bryanna Dellacava, Offshore Express
Top Reef Team: Bouncer’s Dusky
Top Offshore Team: Bouncer’s Dusky
Top Billfish Team: Tiboron
Largest Mackerel (Wahoo, Kingfish, etc): Brown’s Dusky
Largest Dolphin: White Pearl
Largest Tuna: Tito’s Vodka
Top Captain: Bouncer Smith
Bent Shaft Award (Hard Luck Trophy): White Pearl for a broken rod and lost fish that could have moved them within striking distance of Bouncer’s Dusky.
Most Unusual Catch: Bobby Little, Burning Marlin!
Sportsmanship Award: Pilot Rob Lowe
For more details about the <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/newsletter/beach-bash-bonfire-tournament/index.html">Bimini Beach Bash, Bonfire & Tournament</a>
For more information about the <a href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/destinations/bahamas/bimini-bahamas.html">Bimini Sands Resort & Marina</a>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/GuyHarveyOutpost">To follow Guy Harvey Outpost on Facebook</a> https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/bimini-beach-bash-bonfire-tournament-results/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Guy Harvey Outpost Offering Front Row Seat to Florida Keys Coral Spawning&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/noaa.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2860 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/noaa.jpg?w=300" alt="NOAA" width="300" height="225" /></a>It looks like a brilliant fireworks display, except it's underwater. In the middle of the night several days after the August 29 full moon, boulder corals all along the Florida Keys reef tract get together to do the wild thing. And you are invited to watch.
These simultaneous acts of coral sex make for spectacular viewing. Millions of tiny white bb's erupt from the polyps of large mounds of coral, scattering bundles of eggs and sperm into the water. Many are immediately consumed by marauding schools of shiny silver pilchards-- hence the fireworks effect. And the swarming pilchards attract larger predators such as barracuda and tarpon to the fray. The lucky coral gametes that manage to survive the fish fest fertilize one another to create larvae which eventually settle to the bottom to form new coral reefs.
For a front-row seat on the nights of Sept. 3 and 4, make a reservation with Captain Slate's Scuba Adventures Dive Center in Tavernier (305-451-3020). The crew will escort you to one of several reefs about 25 feet deep where you have the greatest chance of watching coral reproduce.
However, it's never a sure thing where Mother Nature is involved; the annual spawning is triggered by various cues that are not well understood such as lunar cycle, water temperature and tides. But the good news is that scientists correctly forecast that staghorn coral would spawn the first week of August-- and they did on Aug. 5 in the Coral Restoration Foundation's nursery off the Upper Keys. Scientists and dive operators are hopeful that the larger mountainous species such as brain and star corals -- which put on a much better show than the staghorn--should do the deed as predicted just before Labor Day Weekend.
If you don't want to stay up for the late-night coral viewing party, you can hunt lobsters in daytime from one of Captain Slate's boats. Florida's regular lobster harvest season, which opened Aug. 6 and runs through March 31, allows divers and snorkelers to take six per person per day. Slate's crews will take you to the patch reefs that hold the big ones. You need a Florida saltwater fishing license with a lobster endorsement which can be purchased online at MyFWC.com or at county tax collectors' offices and some retail outlets.
Get busy; spots are filling quickly. For more information, contact GHO Reservations at 800.513.5257, or sales@guyharveyoutpost.com. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/guy-harvey-outpost-offering-front-row-seat-to-florida-keys-coral-spawning/){kind=link}
 Bait Box for Sailfish&body=<img class=" size-medium wp-image-3352 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1916104_202726822733_7371996_n.jpg?w=300" alt="1916104_202726822733_7371996_n" width="300" height="200" />By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost Staff Writer
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
Miami-based charter fishing captain extraordinaire Ray Rosher -- a Guy Harvey Outpost Outfitter--didn't reach the top of the industry by following the leads of others. Rosher-- whose teams have won top honors in just about every billfish tournament circuit from South Florida to the Bahamas, to the Caribbean and beyond--is an innovator who's not afraid to try something unorthodox to reign atop the fleet.
"Don't be afraid to try new techniques," he advised. "I've had more success doing things a little unconventional."
With sailfish season hitting its stride along the Florida east coast and Keys, captains and anglers might want to consider changing things up from their usual practices.
For example, Rosher says, many fishermen believe that the only consistent method of catching and releasing sailfish between Miami and Jupiter is to drift waters with a drastic color change-- usually 80 to 200 feet deep-- using live bait on kites-- typically goggle eyes (big-eye scad); threadfin herring; or sardines.
But Rosher said winning tournaments in the Pacific waters of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico taught him a thing or two about the effectiveness of dead-baiting.
Trolling a dead bally hoo on a spinning outfit behind a Mylar dredge, Rosher has enjoyed days of multiple hook-ups amid a fleet of live-baiters off Miami.
"That stuff about 'they won't eat dead bait when there's live bait around' is baloney," he said. "Don't get pigeonholed thinking you have to catch sailfish in Miami on a live bait."
Referring to his dredge/dead bait set-up, Rosher said, "I don't care what [sailfish] think it is when they're five feet away. It's too late; he's got a bait swimming by him and he eats it."
The captain points out that live baiting for sailfish generally works well between Jupiter and Miami because of steeper, narrower bottom contours that funnel the fish through predictable corridors as they feed into the northbound Gulf Stream current. In the Stuart-Fort Pierce area, he said, trolling dead baits is preferable because the gradually-sloping bottom necessitates covering lots of ground to locate fish.
In the Keys where waters tend to be clearer and calmer and currents less consistent, fishermen look for showers of bally hoo being harassed by sailfish near shallow reefs such as Conch Reef and American Shoal.
"Fish that might be out in 100 feet of water come into the reef to feed," Rosher said.
The 2015-16 sailfish season has been a roller coaster ride so far, ranging from days where it's difficult to get a bite to double-digit releases. The onset of cold fronts to the north usually propels pods of sailfish south.
And if this year is anything like past sailfish seasons, Rosher predicts a consistent push of fish into South Florida and the Keys well into May.
BOOK YOUR OWN SAILFISH CHARTERS with Guy Harvey Outpost Outfitter Capt. Ray Rosher by calling GHO Reservations at 800.513.5257, or email sales@guyharveyoutpost.com.
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Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling, camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/thinking-outside-the-live-bait-box-for-sailfish-2/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=The Edible Sinking Christmas Tree&body=<img class=" size-medium wp-image-3198 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/xmastree.jpg?w=225" alt="Xmastree" width="225" height="300" />By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost staff writer
scocking@guyharveyoutpost.com
Back in the mid 1980s--nobody really remembers exactly when--members of the South Florida Dive Club were gathered around the Christmas Tree at their annual Yuletide party when someone wondered aloud what to do with the tree afterward.
"We were imbibing," admits past president Joe Smariga of Fort Lauderdale.
But the question persisted after everyone had sobered up and "a bunch of us got together the next Saturday and sank it," Smariga said.
The inaugural sinking didn't go too well; the dive boat they used had to pull the tree down to the bottom. But thus began an annual holiday tradition that was repeated again last Saturday when the club deployed a live spruce to the deck of the Merci Jesus-- a shipwreck that sits 70 feet deep off Fort Lauderdale.
"We look forward to it. Fish love it," Smariga said.
Fourteen club members chartered the Fort Lauderdale dive boat Sea Experience to transport tree and divers to the artificial reef site. Christmas music played over the boat's sound system as the group donned scuba gear accented with Santa caps and Christmas-themed boxer shorts .
Smariga and club member Eric Rohde had placed the tree in a 120-pound concrete base rigged with two lift bags to control its descent. First off the boat, they took about five minutes to get the tree to the bottom. Then the rest of the group followed carrying bags of edible decorations-- frozen pilchards; radishes; carrots; sliced sweet potatoes; and a head of lettuce to crown the tree.
Club members shot stills and video of their friends who were decorating; a few curious fish hovered in the background watching the process. When all the garnishes were in place, the divers moved back to watch how the local residents would receive their gifts.
It didn't take long. A gang of grunts quickly swarmed the tree, snapping at a shiny garland of pilchards and fighting each other for the fishy tinsel. A couple of small grouper drifted in, scaring off some of the smaller grunts and making off with the bait fish bits. They were joined by a couple of small hogfish and mangrove snapper.
When the pilchards were gone, tussles erupted over the vegetable ornaments with fish chasing each other around in a rugby-like scrum.
In the midst of the commotion, a three-foot spotted moray eel appeared on deck flexing its jaws and looking confused. It slithered between a diver's feet and circled the base of the tree. It made a circular ascent through the branches almost to the top, then descended and swam away without eating anything.
Divers looked at each other and shrugged.
As the divers' air supply dwindled, they made a slow ascent back to the dive boat, leaving the tree at the disposal of the fish.
The needles would be gone in a few weeks, and after a year or so, only the concrete base would remain-- sitting next to the remnant of a long-gone tree of a Christmas past.
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Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling camping, sailing and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit.
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Share your photos, videos and experiences with Guy Harvey Outpost by hash tagging #OutpostAttitude to all of your social media posts.
https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/the-edible-sinking-christmas-tree/){kind=link}
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