A little video from our trip to NJ, filmed on the shrewsbury rocks off of Sea Bright
Good vis is back
Back in Key West, just got home and I talked to our friend Jason, he was shooting a tournament and didn’t have a boat for the second day. At first I wasn’t going to go but Catherine convinced me and what the heck calm seas. People had said the visibility was bad but it wasn’t where we were. We had over 50 feet pretty much the whole time. We went out to the bar to try and shoot some jacks or a mackerel. The mangroves were spawning which is pretty cool. I don’t like to eat them, so it’s more of just a scenic thing.
Our first drop Jason picked up a 15# king fish and then a horse eye jack. A bit later I hit a 20# king fish. Both were in around 50 feet of water, Jason’s was mid column and mine was about 10 feet off the bottom. It was a short day and we came in around 2 pm.
Jason got his fish for the tournament and actually got third place. It was a really small tournament and free diving only. I think I would have entered it if I wasn’t away for one of the days it took place.
Also kneeled on fire coral which went right through my lyrca suit, like it wasn’t there.
New Jersey Spearfishing
Was visiting family in NY this past week and took a little trip to New Jersey to do some spearfishing. We headed to Seabrite which is near Sandy Hook, and went out with captain Albie aboard the charter boat “the long shot”. We headed out in the morning and had great weather, calm seas and mostly sunny. The sheer numbers of people harvesting various sea life down there is pretty amazing, for a Tuesday. There were party boats, charter boats, sportfishers, dozens of clam boats and perhaps lobster/crab boats, the area was bustling with life. We rounded the end of Sandy hook and headed back south to an area called shrewsbury rocks.
When we got there I couldn’t help but feel a bit skeptical: the surface water was brown. When I jumped in Albie pointed to some bunker breaking on the surface near the boat. I swam towards it but stopped once I realized I couldn’t see the end of the 80cm gun I was carrying. I actually couldn’t see my fins. The surface vis was probably around 3 maybe 4 feet. I tipped up and swam to the bottom gun pointed out in front of me, Once I was down 15-20 feet, I could see hundreds of star fish on the bottom. In the bottom the vis opened up to around 10-15 feet. I hit bottom and the bottom was covered with some type of green growth, that reminded me of some type of pine moss. The bottom was green and covered with small fish. Short black sea bass and short black fish surrounded me.
After a few dives I shot my first fish, a triggerfish. Shortly after that we were surrounded by triggerfish. The 80cm gun was almost too much, I had a double wrap of mono on it, which was too much. So I grabbed Albie’s polespear from the boat. I need to use a pole spear because I am headed to the Bahamas shortly. After a short period of learning I started just plugging triggerfish after triggerfish. The three prongs on the pole spear seem to just stick to triggers, and I don’t think one fish I shot pulled off. At one point some bluefish were swimming with the triggers and I tried to pole spear one but ended up a bit short.
On the boat Gabi and Catherine were catching triggers, black sea bass and Dogfish on hook and line. Catherine jumped in with her 3mm but it was too cold for her. There were so many triggers around us at one point Pat shot two triggers at one time. You would hit bottom and look up and there would be a wall of triggerfish. I also pole speared a Black fish, and Pat collected a few other black fish. The black fish are spawning and you are only allowed one per person on the boat. There are no regulations on triggerfish in Jersey waters.
Half Day – Conditions kind of Suck
Went out spearfishing for a half day on Tuesday with Catherine and Brian and it kind of sucked. We drove out past Sand Key and the water looked like green milk, we drove past western dry rocks and it didn’t get any better. so we went out deeper. There was blue water once you got out to 150-180 feet, we drove around for awhile out to 500 feet of water and didn’t see any signs of life. We checked the noaa buoy and there was some bait on it but that was all, current was around 5 knots. We came in to like 8 feet of water and checked some spots to see if the lobsters where there, there was some but we didn’t see any massive quantities. We shot a trigger and a yellow jack for dinner and came in. Vis was 15 feet or so.
Gulfside patches
Well it’s been pretty uneventful lately in terms of spearfishing. Last week Pat and Chris were here and there was some of the worst weather we have seen in a while. We went went out one half day and the vis was terrible and we got chased in after a short time by a big storm. Got a YJ and some other little stuff for dinner though. Then as soon as Pat and Chris left the weather cleared up.
It’s been kind of hard to find people to go out with recently, the combination of having time off, have some $ to pitch in on gas and the ability/desire to spearfish is proving kind of rare.
Friday we went out with Irma and Anthony who were visiting Key West. Catherine and I had been out cleaning my boat bottom on Thursday and noticed very clear water coming down Calda channel, so with the reports of green water on the Atlantic side, we headed to the gulf.
We hit some patch reefs on the edge of the gulf and the visibility was decent, probably pushing 20 feet. We dove in really shallow water like around 15 feet deep. It was fun and gave my ear a break. There were actually some decent fish on that little patch reef, a couple legal blacks both of which eluded me. There were also a number of big lane or dog snappers. They were not really big, like 20 inches long at most but were extremely spooky. It kind of made it interesting though because they kept coming out of their holes, unlike a grouper which may just hole up and you never see again. I spent quite a long time, chasing after these snapper and shooting rocks while trying to get them. Anthony shot some average mangroves and we both shot some average keys hog fish and I also shot a ciro mackerel. Nothing big but all edible. Catherine took numerous photos of the reef life.
Then we drove out to barge in the gulf, the numbers are very public and I didn’t see anything on it. Just jewfish, mangroves and cero mackerel but everything was small. It was in 30 feet of so of water, and not visible from the surface so not the best snorkeling for Irma. We then on a whim drove to Smith Shoal. The area looked like it had potential but the vis dropped down to less the ten feet, so we didn’t stay long. I shot a mutton on my first drop but didn’t see anything else.
Not a bad day on the water, saw some new things and went to some new places, plus got a week’s worth of fish.
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