posted by admin on Oct 25

Went out spearfishing the last couple days on Friday with Luis and Catherine and on Saturday with Jason and Andy and Catherine.  On Friday we went out in front of Key West for half a day from 11:00 am-3:30 pm. Vis was pretty good topping out at around 60 feet. There were short black groupers all over the place, and some not so short. We drifted mostly in 30-60 feet of water, there was a west bound current which was very difficult to swim against. Luis shot a black grouper and I shot a mutton snapper and hogfish. We saw a big eagle ray but it was moving too fast to get any photos. Luis said he also saw a 40# kingfish but it stayed out of range.

Then on Saturday Catherine and I went out with Jason and Andy on their boat. We ran around 20 miles west, the vis was ok out there maybe 30-35 feet of vis but milkier on the bottom. We worked a bunch of rocks and ledges with not much luck. Most of the spots we hit had produced nice fish before but they were empty yesterday, which seemed crazy looking at the shear amount of small snapper, grunts and bait fish surrounding the rocks. We picked up some stuff here and there. I got 6-7# dog snapper. Jason and Andy shot some jacks, hogfish and mangroves but nothing huge. I checked under so many ledges and holes, finding nothing, that I got to the point where I felt angry when I saw a ledge. We also ran into a sea of jelly fish for a bit and every exposed bit of of skin was covered with jellyfish stings, almost like some sort of biblical plague.

On the way back to Key West we noticed some inshore patches were clear so we made a quick stop and in 10 minutes I shot a 12# red grouper and Andy shot a 10.5# mutton snapper: the two best fish of the day shot in 15 feet of water a stone’s throw from Key West.

Got a closed muzzle from mako for my rabitech gun. I like the open muzzle with the finned shafts, but I think for notched shafts the closed muzzle is better. Much less user error in reloading, at least for me.

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posted by admin on Oct 16

Went out spearfishing yesterday with Brad, Luis, Brian and Catherine. Luis had been out a couple days ago and  said the vis was better to the west so we ran west. The water on the reef was crappy, less then 20 feet of vis.   So headed out to the outer edge and found some clear water. We had clear water for about an hour. We drifted over some nice fishy rocks, marked a couple of nice ledges and saw nothing to shoot. There were a couple yellowtail boats in the area, maybe their chum slicks had drawn everything behind them?  I don’t know but we drifted rocks and ledges that had a ton of small fish on them, but nothing bigger. Then the water silted up so we started driving.

We did a couple drifts over a deep water wreck, but didn’t see anything.  I was about to drop the flashers down when noticed that the swivel on them was messed up, so I fixed it. Then I dropped the flashers in without reconnecting them to the mainline and they sailed off into the abyss. That’s like the third set of flashers lost this year.

So then we ran west, hoping if we got past the Boca Grande channel the water would clear. It didn’t, and after driving around forever, we dropped anchor on a small shallow rock pile. Brian and I shot some triggerfish and yellow jacks, Cat took some photos. The rocks had basically unlimited mangroves on them, with a big school of yellow jacks orbiting the rocks. I saw what might have been a black grouper or a large black margate disappear into a hole but that was it really.

Then we pulled anchor and drove back toward Key West. We made a couple stops along the way but the vis was still crap. For a minute there was some clear water on the bar on the way home, but it quickly silted up and a strong west bound current came with the bad vis.

Before we came home we went out to check the noaa buoy in 300 feet of water, but apparently they removed it, so we ran out there for nothing. All in the all the day was a big bust.

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posted by admin on Oct 11

Went out this past Thursday with my neighbor Luis. Catherine had to work so no pictures. We  fished the reef in front of Key West and had a pretty productive day on the water. We shot a couple big yellow jack, a cubera snapper, mutton snapper, triggerfish, cero mackerel and hogfish. The wind picked up and the vis dropped a lot in the afternoon.  Vis ranged 25-50 feet with the best vis on the outer edge of the reef.  Luis has been spearing in Key West for over 20 years and it was interesting to hear about how much fish there used to be here.

On Saturday Catherine and I went out. We brought a bunch of lobsterheads and chum and planned on chumming the outer edge of the reef.  But when we got out to the edge the waves were just a bit much. So we came back on to the reef. We burned some chum in a couple shallow spots and it really didn’t attract a lot of desirables.  Lots of triggerfish, mangrove snapper, mackerel and yellow jacks but not many grouper or mutton snapper. I have plenty of fish from Thursday and was pretty much just looking for blacks or muttons to spear. It did attract the biggest nassau grouper I have ever seen, around 15-20#.  We also attracted a bonnet head shark and some huge barracuda.

Last spot, just as the chum ran out a fat mutton cruised in.  I only had one band loaded because I was checking holes for reds and lobsters.  I dropped down and hit him right in the middle and he went nuts.  I could see the the flopper was barely held to him by a finger width piece of skin.  So I did what I always do when it looks like a fish is going to tear off, I let go of my gun. But I had forgotten since the boat was anchored and it was shallow I didn’t have my float line. So there goes my gun out into the sand behind this mutton. After a crazy swim I get a a hold of it again and after 5 minutes of coaxing I get the barely on mutton back to the rocks, hoping he will rock up so I can get a hold of him. Finally I get him wedged between rocks and I grabbed the shaft and drove it all the way through. I think I am just going to shoot muttons with two bands from now on, even if they seem close.

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