copps
Premium Member
Hey guys, as many of you may know some of my many passions related to this hobby involve both scuba diving and fish collecting. Combine it with my love for angels (I own over 40) and I'm in Heaven. I always tell people to get fish that excite THEM, not other people. Well, while these days it's usually the rare and unusual that excite me, I am also excited by fish that I am able to collect myself. I've posted some other threads in the past on RC"¦ like collecting the personatus angel, collecting with Julian Sprung, and others"¦ here is one collecting in Hawaii for those interested"¦
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1708758
Last month I was down in South Florida again speaking for FMAS, the Florida Marine Aquarium Society, a great and historic club now over 50 years old. The day before I spoke I met up with Eric Pederson, a friend of a few years and a legend in the Keys. Eric has been a long time collector/ wholesaler in the Keys since the 80s, and has discovered many things along the way"¦ most notably Pederson's cleaner shrimp which many of you have heard of, named after him. Eric is one of so many great guys in the business, with a treasure trove of information that could only be amassed with THOUSANDS of hours of dive time in a specific area. I love meeting up with guys like this. Eric is a hardcore fishhead and on top of the amazing diving we did I got a full day of excellent stories. I had been fish collecting in the past in Florida, but I gave Eric one request"¦ I wanted to collect my own queen angels. I had never collected in the Keys before, just further up north I'd collected blue angels (and frenches and grays), but never a queen. Queens can be seen up north, but they are found in much greater numbers out on the reefs, and further south. Eric needed to catch some angels anyway to fill an order, so it worked out perfect.
The day was excellent and ended up being a full 18 hours for me. I started at 4 am from my mother's place in Lighthouse Point, in the Fort Lauderdale area. I arrived to Eric's facility in Marathon at around 7 am, and in his truck we drove an extra hour or so to Key West. Eight hours round trip for the day but there is perhaps no more of a beautiful drive than this in the US. We launched in his boat and off we went"¦ here we are leaving the harbor"¦
Just for the boat ride alone it was worth it"¦ after a little while we passed downtown Key West"¦ with beautiful weather!
Next came Sunset Key, a developed island only accessible by boat full of cheap real estate"¦
We shot the gap between Sunset Key and Wisteria Island"¦ this little beach on Sunset Key was where the final scene of the movie "œOffice Space" was filmed"¦ when Milton was on the beach drinking margaritas"¦ If you have not seen this movie it is a must see, particularly for anyone who works in an office!
We headed out about six miles until we got decent visibility"¦ this was a clean up boat we passed on the way, still contracted for an insane amount of money per day in case oil from the Gulf rolled in"¦
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1708758
Last month I was down in South Florida again speaking for FMAS, the Florida Marine Aquarium Society, a great and historic club now over 50 years old. The day before I spoke I met up with Eric Pederson, a friend of a few years and a legend in the Keys. Eric has been a long time collector/ wholesaler in the Keys since the 80s, and has discovered many things along the way"¦ most notably Pederson's cleaner shrimp which many of you have heard of, named after him. Eric is one of so many great guys in the business, with a treasure trove of information that could only be amassed with THOUSANDS of hours of dive time in a specific area. I love meeting up with guys like this. Eric is a hardcore fishhead and on top of the amazing diving we did I got a full day of excellent stories. I had been fish collecting in the past in Florida, but I gave Eric one request"¦ I wanted to collect my own queen angels. I had never collected in the Keys before, just further up north I'd collected blue angels (and frenches and grays), but never a queen. Queens can be seen up north, but they are found in much greater numbers out on the reefs, and further south. Eric needed to catch some angels anyway to fill an order, so it worked out perfect.
The day was excellent and ended up being a full 18 hours for me. I started at 4 am from my mother's place in Lighthouse Point, in the Fort Lauderdale area. I arrived to Eric's facility in Marathon at around 7 am, and in his truck we drove an extra hour or so to Key West. Eight hours round trip for the day but there is perhaps no more of a beautiful drive than this in the US. We launched in his boat and off we went"¦ here we are leaving the harbor"¦
Just for the boat ride alone it was worth it"¦ after a little while we passed downtown Key West"¦ with beautiful weather!
Next came Sunset Key, a developed island only accessible by boat full of cheap real estate"¦
We shot the gap between Sunset Key and Wisteria Island"¦ this little beach on Sunset Key was where the final scene of the movie "œOffice Space" was filmed"¦ when Milton was on the beach drinking margaritas"¦
If you have not seen this movie it is a must see, particularly for anyone who works in an office!
We headed out about six miles until we got decent visibility"¦ this was a clean up boat we passed on the way, still contracted for an insane amount of money per day in case oil from the Gulf rolled in"¦
Here are some shots of the resulting livewell… the fish that I caught that I was keeping for myself were kept separate and are shown below. Sorry there are no underwater shots, but we had no photographer… and my hands were full enough chasing angels!
It took me a bit to get my bearings… every collector, and region really, has their ways of collecting fish. I was given just one hand net… no barrier net, and no “chase” net. The chase net is usually a net I use to show the fish… used to scare the fish into the actual collection net. Well, the chase net on these dives was my HAND… 
), but it paid off!
