I'm currently on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i, and as you can imagine, I've been snorkeling a few times. Yesterday we went to a wildlife park where someone stacked rocks into two walls to separate off a couple sections of shallow water. The larger section is about 40-50 feet across, about 7' deep in the deepest part, and home to about a couple dozen species of fish. Pretty cool. Among other things, I found a little cowfish of some type- bit of a surprise, especially considering that he was puttering around in one of the more turbulent sections. Turns out they can actually swim pretty fast when they want to get away from you.
I brought a little thing with me, intending to use it if something like a big goby was hiding in a hole. It's a piece of fishing line, about 3' long, with a little fake grub on one end and a bit of a keychain chain a few inches from that as an improvised weight. I figured I could dangle it in front of random holes and see what came out. Apparently not much was interested enough to come out with me there.
After a bit, I spotted a stripebelly puffer, a nice big one probably about 15" long.
He was down on the bottom and swimming away from me, but I wanted a better look at him, so I dangled the lure near him to see what would happen. He wasn't interested in the fake grub, but he followed the shiny around and bit the weight a couple of times.
Didn't get any bites from the other fish, but I did have a few fish come up close to get a look at the shiny thing in the water.
Greenish things are saddle wrasses. There were quite a few, all fairly large, and they weren't shy in the slightest. Didn't need bait for them, they just came up and looked at me. The guy above the puffer is a large damsel of some variety. I think it might be a blackspot sergeant. Those were shy, but this one decided to come out and look at the bait for me. The guy at the bottom of of this picture is an Australian Stripey, I believe. Only saw about 3 of these, and only when I used the bait to get them out from among the rocks. They were a little bit shy.
Another stripey, a curious goatfish, and what I think may have been a baby blacktail snapper. I'm not certain. I saw a couple of those.
In short, take shiny bait if you go diving in a place with no barracuda. It makes curious stuff come out to see what's going on. Definitely don't do this with barracuda, they might remove something.
Do those photos look red to anybody else? Photobucket might be really confused. Those are blue-and-white gloves.
I brought a little thing with me, intending to use it if something like a big goby was hiding in a hole. It's a piece of fishing line, about 3' long, with a little fake grub on one end and a bit of a keychain chain a few inches from that as an improvised weight. I figured I could dangle it in front of random holes and see what came out. Apparently not much was interested enough to come out with me there.
After a bit, I spotted a stripebelly puffer, a nice big one probably about 15" long.
He was down on the bottom and swimming away from me, but I wanted a better look at him, so I dangled the lure near him to see what would happen. He wasn't interested in the fake grub, but he followed the shiny around and bit the weight a couple of times.
Didn't get any bites from the other fish, but I did have a few fish come up close to get a look at the shiny thing in the water.
Greenish things are saddle wrasses. There were quite a few, all fairly large, and they weren't shy in the slightest. Didn't need bait for them, they just came up and looked at me. The guy above the puffer is a large damsel of some variety. I think it might be a blackspot sergeant. Those were shy, but this one decided to come out and look at the bait for me. The guy at the bottom of of this picture is an Australian Stripey, I believe. Only saw about 3 of these, and only when I used the bait to get them out from among the rocks. They were a little bit shy.
Another stripey, a curious goatfish, and what I think may have been a baby blacktail snapper. I'm not certain. I saw a couple of those.
In short, take shiny bait if you go diving in a place with no barracuda. It makes curious stuff come out to see what's going on. Definitely don't do this with barracuda, they might remove something.
Do those photos look red to anybody else? Photobucket might be really confused. Those are blue-and-white gloves.
