Struck gold on my first dive of 2013 at the Bridge. Actually, a jackknife fish is gold and black. Having dived the Bridge hundreds of times, this is the first time I have seen a jackknife fish there. It was on one of the artificial reef piles only three or four piles from the easternmost pile. The jackknife is in the drum family and is a cousin to spotted drums (I have never seen one at the Bridge), highhats (they are plentiful at the bridge), and cubbyu (at the Bridge, but not in numbers close to the highhats). Several years ago there was a pair of jackknife adults on the Spadefish Point site off of Jupiter. I could take people to see them and did so for six months or more. Then one day there was only one. Finally, after only a few weeks neither one could be found at that site. Months later with two other divers trying to get to a reef area from a wreck, while traveling over a sandy (desert) area, there was a small piece of junk around which there were two jackknife fishes! I could not believe it. Of course it was one of those places that I knew I would never find again. Oh well. Last year in a deep crevise on the Scarface site off of Jupiter I saw a jackknife while I was pointing out a goliath grouper to divers. I had a pretty good idea of where it was, but I have not relocated the fish. So it has been quite a dry spell since I have seen a jackknife in our neighborhood, but today was the day! I believe they are the most spectacular of the drum family by far. I get pretty excited about spotted drums, especially juveniles, but a jackknife to me is the holy grail of drums. In short, I had a great dive. The water temperature was seventy-seven; I was very comfortable in my five millimeter suit with hooded vest for my two hour, two minute dive. Vis was about twenty feet. There was also a searobin and a batfish that would have clinched the photo spot for the report except that they lost out to the JACKKNIFE!!! I know my dear friend Mike Phelan is smiling. Get in the water, Ham
