Warm weather and good vis

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on March 28, 2010 at 1:28 pm {one comment}

mutton-snapper With another stretch of nice weather (75 degrees, heat wave) we were out on the water yesterday. Catherine, Luis, and myself joined Andy, Fenway and Cally on Andy’s boat. The calm seas and reasonably clear water inspired us to drive a little bit further out. Honestly driving further out wasn’t really where it was at. The Rocks and coral heads further inshore held the best fish, areas that nine times out of ten are dirty were clear so we dove them. The real inshore stuff was deserted, other then a young turtle that hung out with us for a bit, but halfway out to the reef was great. Big rocks covered with live corals and fish.

It’s odd how much more alive the coral looks more inshore; it seems like it would be the opposite. The bar is the furthest offshore and all the coral is dead, but in the dirty water halfway to the drop-off, the coral is living it up. We shot muttons, big mangroves, yellow jacks and a hog fish here and there. I had a big king fish swim up right next to me, I didn’t have my float line on and was going to try to shoot it anyway but it spooked when I swam at it, in the ripping current.

african-pompano-spearfishing We tried the reef line  to the west and it was kind of dead.  Luis saw a cobia but it looked too short. We saw black grouper here and there, up to around 25#. A couple fish but nothing spectacular, the water did not get clearer as we went southwest.  It stayed 35-40 feet of vis from Hawks Channel to south of the bar. At one point we saw Luis’s float pointing straight up with something pulling it under.  He had shot a medium sized king fish which was going nuts on the end of the line. After that we went deeper to around 55 feet of water and saw amberjacks but passed on them. I followed two yellow jacks down a ledge when an African pompano swam in behind me, so I turned and stoned him. Pretty rare fish for the reef around here, supposed to be much more common in really deep water wrecks. He went 25 pounds.

Other  things that was interesting was a donzi boat running through our spread of divers, pretty rare down here to have someone just ignore the dive flag.

Visibility is improving

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on March 20, 2010 at 4:57 pm {3 comments}

pmike-10-006 Took advantage of the nice weather and went out yesterday with Catherine, Mike and Andy. We had calm seas and decent visibility.  I would say the clearest water we saw had around 50-55 feet of visibility. Strong current flowing to the east all day. We dove mostly in 30-55 feet of water. The fish we got was nothing spectacular: an amberjack, some yellow jacks – I got one yellow jack that was around 21-22 pounds – some mangroves, a cero mackerel , a hogfish. But we still had a great time, the air temps where kind of cold for riding around in the open boat soaking wet but it wasn’t that bad.

Andy recently got new shafts with the Tahitian flopper on them and they suck. He lost a bunch of fish including a a cobia, it was tough day for him. Some of the rocks that were covered in fish the other day were empty. Catherine was finally able to get back in the water after a dry spell. The unseasonably cold weather coupled with the spring wind, has made many days not worth going out. Catherine had a camera malfunction while swimming in the middle of a huge school of horse  eye jacks, which now has her talking about buying a real video camera for under water. We saw tons of nurse sharks laying around the bottom in the groups, large schools of rainbow runners, and huge horse eye jacks.

The big yellow jack I shot, broke my shooting line but I found his body with the shaft shortly thereafter so it worked out. I have been shooting the gun with a single wrap of mono and it is so much more enjoyable then dealing with all the extra line. I think I may just stick with the single wrap unless the vis is like 100 feet or when grouper open back up. I saw several grouper today a couple were around 25 pounds possibly more.

Took advantage of the nice weather and went out yesterday with Catherine, Mike and Andy. We had calm seas and decent visibility, I would say the clearest water we saw had around 50-55 feet of visibility. Strong current flowing to the east all day. We dove mostly in 30-55 feet of water. The fish we got was nothing spectacular, an amberjack, some yellow jacks, I got one yellow jack that was around 21-22 pounds, some mangroves, a cero mackerel , a hogfish. But we still had a great time, the air temps where kind of cold for riding around in the open boat soaking wet but it wasn’t that bad.
Andy recently got new shafts with the Tahitian flopper on them and they suck. He lost a bunch of fish including a a cobia, it was tough day for him. Some of the rocks that were covered in fish the other day where empty. Catherine was finally able to get back in the water and a dry spell. The unseasonably cold weather coupled with the spring wind, has made many days not worth going out. Catherine had a camera malfunction while swimming in the middle of a huge school of horse  eye jacks, which now has her talking about buying a real video camera for under water. We saw tons of nurse sharks laying around the bottom in the groups, large schools of rainbow runners, and huge horse eye jacks.
The big yellow jack I shot, broke my shooting line but I found his body with the shaft shortly thereafter so it worked out. I have been shooting the gun with a single wrap of mono and it is so much more enjoyable then dealing with all the extra line. I think I may just stick with the single wrap unless the vis is like 100 feet or when grouper open back up. I saw several grouper today a couple were around 25 pounds possibly more.

Half Day, Nice Permit

Filed under Spearfishing Gear, Spearfishing Photos by on March 18, 2010 at 1:56 pm {no comments}

permit-spearfishing Well we finally got a little break in the weather and and was able to go out for a half day. The rain finally stopped around 1pm and we where headed out by 2pm. Kind of awesome to have a boat in a slip in Key West. The relatively short drive to the fishing grounds means you can hit the water at a moment’s notice and still have decent time. I went on Andy’s boat along with Luis and Cal. We headed out to areas where we saw the cobia the other day. Kind of a long run for a half day, but we all had been dying to get back out to that area to see if the cobia were still there.

When we hit the rocks we were excited to be able to see bottom; there was 30 or so feet of visibility. Pretty much all this past week the snorkel boats had been reporting that visibility was less then 20 feet, some days less then 10 feet. No cobia at all. We did run into the usual reef species: yellow jacks, mangroves, triggerfish, amberjack and I shot a big permit. I usually don’t take permit, in my opinion they are not that great to eat and although they are legal to spear in federal waters, I just don’t really want the hassle of explaining that to the FWC. This one was big though and I couldn’t resist. I am going to try smoking some of the meat and see how that is.

Everyone had gear break or lost. Luis broke a fin right off the bat, Riffe fins, his Riffes broke exactly like my Riffes did before. Cal had his shooting line break and lost a shaft to a yellow jack. I hit Luis’s float line with the engine and broke it. Myself and Andy were freezing, Cal was warm in his 5mm suit. I keep saying I am going to buy a 5mm suit, but then I tell myself it’s about to get warm and then it doesn’t get warm.

Cal had a reef shark attack his float and try to take some snapper from him.

Well we finally got a little break in the weather and and was able to go out for a half day. The rain finally stopped around 1pm and we where headed out by 2pm. Kind of awesome to have a boat in a slip in Key West. The relatively short drive to the fishing grounds means you can hit the water at a moments notice and still have decent time. I went on Andy’s boat along with Luis and Cal. We headed out to areas where we saw the cobia the other day. Kind of a long run for a half day, but we all had been dying to get back out to that area to see the cobia were still there.
When we hit the rocks we where excited to able to see bottom, there was 30 or so feet of visibility. Pretty much all week this past week the snorkel boats had been reporting that visibility was less then 20 feet, some days less then 10 feet. No cobia at all. We did run into the usual reef species yellow jacks, mangroves, triggerfish, amberjack and I shot a big permit. I usually don’t take permit, in my opinion they are not that great to eat and I although they are legal to spear in federal waters, I just don’t really want the hassle of explaining that to the FWC. This one was big though and I couldn’t resist. I am going to try smoking some of the meat and see how that is.
Everyone had gear break or lost. Luis broke a fin right of the bat, riffe fins, his riffe’s broke exactly like my riffes did before. Cal had his shooting line break and lost a shaft to a yellow jack. I hit Luis’s float line with the engine and broke it. Myself and Andy were freezing, Cal was warm in his 5mm suit. I keep saying I am going to buy a 5mm suit, but then I tell myself its about to get warm and then it doesn’t get warm.
Cal had a reef shark attack his float and try to take some snapper from him.

Cold Water, Cobias and Sharks

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on March 9, 2010 at 2:22 pm {3 comments}

cobia-day-042 Finally after weeks of terrible weather and water conditions we got a break and got to go out in the boat. Andy, Lou, Catherine and I headed out yesterday on Andy’s boat. We had uncertain conditions, so we hoped for the best. When we hit the reef edge we were pleasantly surprised with 25-30 feet of visibility on the main reef. We checked the bar but the vis seemed actually worse out there. When I jumped in, the water was cold, not sure how cold but too cold to be wearing a 3mm wetsuit in my opinion.  The first couple spots we hit kind of sucked, little mangroves, the occasional forbidden grouper, a couple of ceros, really not much in the way of fish.

Because of the weak vis we headed in a bit shallower, 25-35 feet of water and hit some big rock piles. When Luis and I first hit the water and cleared the first rock, I saw two cobia laying on the sand and yelled to him.  I got over top of one of them and waited for him to get over the other before I took my shot. Right before we dove down a big nurse shark swam through and spooked both of them.  Luis hit his mid water and took off in one direction.  I hit mine with a gut shot and it took off in the other.  After a few feet it tore off but the fish kept swimming along the rocks so I followed it, reloaded and shot it again.  This time it took off in the other direction pulling me with it.  Andy had dropped some flashers in and my float line quickly found them and tangled in them.  While I was cruising along , there were nurse sharks all over.  Then I started seeing other types of sharks mid water column, first a couple big reef sharks and then a bull shark, then a bigger bull shark, all swirling around me.  I then realized that the sharks were going after the flashers, and tried to untangle them.  I called for the boat but they were tied up with the other cobia.  I got the flashers untangled and the sharks backed away.

cobia-day-111 The next drift brought more cobia, and more sharks.  Andy shot a nice yellow jack and the sharks turned on like you hit a switch.  They went from drive bys to 5 sharks attacking the yellow jack at once.  After that the sharks would not let you shoot fish: they ate whatever you shot.  Andy shot another big yellow jack and the sharks ate it and took his shaft.  One bull got so aggressive that Lou poked him in the face with a spear.  On the next drift the same bull charged me and at the last second backed off.  I’m pretty sure my gun would have blow him away if needed but still, after that we dove kind of back to back, and the sharks didn’t seem to want to get near us when we were in a group.

The rocks we were diving were covered with fish.  In addition to the sharks and cobia, there where big schools of barracuda, some of the fish weighting 30-40 pounds, groups of big permit, and big schools of jack crevelles.  Even a big jewfish came out to see what the commotion was about, and nurse sharks everywhere.  In some spots there would be 3 or 4 nurse sharks just laying around next to each other almost in a pile.  After the action cooled down, we all realized that we were cold and headed in.