Wreck Diving off of Barnegat's secret spots 10/20/10

Jeremiah, Anthony, and I went a few miles offshore today on Anthony's boat, which is a 22' dual console, from his house in Waretown. His friend & neighbor, Rob, came along to bubble watch and keep an eye on the boat as we went under. We motored out of the lagoon and into the bay, which was flat as a pancake. We then his the open ocean and were happily surprised by the conditions. I'd call this "Lake Atlantic". Not a wave or ripple to be seen.

We went to a spot so secret that Rob actually deleted the numbers from Anthony's GPS once we were on the wreck. He calls it "El Buggo" since it usually delivers high numbers of lobsters. It is an unknown & unnamed wooden wreck with a few feet of relief from the sides and not much else. The ribbing makes for ideal conditions for lobsters to hide, sort of a lobster condo. The three of us hit the water and found zero current, zero surge, and about 25' visibility. The bottom temp was comfortable 63 degrees. We spent a good amount of time hunting and found a bunch of lobsters, but most were eggers and didn't make it back with us. The "Bender" tickle stick proved successful and once again, Jeremiah was the bravest of us when it came to reaching into the unknown to see what he could see. I was lucky enough to spear a Trigger fish, which I've never seen here before but heard they taste great. It turns out that Anthony hit this fish a few minutes earlier, but he wasn't able to get him to his bag. He was hunkered down under some wooden ribbing and I hit him with a front shot with the paralyzer tip. Our total runtime on this dive was 50 minutes and then it was time to move on to another wreck.

We moved to a railroad barge in 60' of water that was intact and upright. After a totally flat surface interval, we heard what we thought was thunder, but it was most likely the Air Force doing bombing training missions about 15 miles away. Before we hit the water, Rob said that this wreck is known for lost anchors, and if we come across one, it would be nice to bring one up. We hit the water and found about 10' visibility. A huge tog was swimming in one of the holes but he was too smart and too fast for me. I did manage to spear one decent sized black fish, and so did Anthony. No bugs were brought up. Jeremiah found a large danforth 43 pound anchor and about 25' of chain. Using my lift bag and reel, we managed to bring it to the surface as a gift to Rob. We had a 43 minute dive, 63 degrees bottom temp and about 10' visibility.