Doldrums of summer

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on June 10, 2010 at 12:40 pm {one comment}

two-for-one-097 Went out diving the past couple days with a few people. All and all we just really haven’t been doing that great on fish recently.   The water has been warm although kind of dirty. Went out with Jason, Andy, Eddie and Catherine one day. We tried to go west but the water got real dirty. We dove the bar for a bit but the fish just didn’t really seem to be there. We got some yellow jacks, Andy shot a grouper. Eddy had to save my yellow jack from a couple of big nurse sharks that were trying to eat it. The goat fish seem to be spawning again, mangroves are starting to stack up in large numbers on the reef.

Fishing was kind of slow, but it was an ok day anyway. I shot two yellow jacks at the same time by accident which was pretty sweet. Catherine got to spend some time in the shallows taking photos of hogfish. Andy has been obsessed with diving in the shallows lately. I don’t really like it, there are tons of fish but they tend to be small and the water is dirty.

two-for-one-148 The next day I went out with a boat load of people , Andy, Kevin from Hawaii, Romaine from France, and Josh and Brian from West Palm. We hit the wrecks out in front of Key West and did some diving along the reef line. The wrecks were pretty much deserted: the amberjacks have pretty much moved out, it seems.  Vis was 30-50 feet so it was decent. All the new guys who came were excellent divers and could dive much deeper then I am used to diving. I tried following Romaine down to video tape him shooting something off the deck of a wreck at around 75 feet and quickly realized he can hold his breath much longer then I can.

We had a lot of fun with some reef sharks that were very interested in our catch. One bumped into Andy while he was gutting a mackerel out. We shot a lot of fish but nothing out of the ordinary. Big mangroves were all over.  I saw one that had to be over 10# which is large for here but could not get him. Grouper were scarce. I only saw two legal fish all day both of which bolted when they saw me. I think the whole boat only shot a couple grouper. We shot yellow jacks , margates, mangrove snapper, cero mackerel, permit, mutton snapper, and grouper.

Fishing just seems kind of slow lately, although I had one friend say they crushed them in gulf but then another said they went to the gulf and there was a ton of algae and it sucked.

Dirty water

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on May 30, 2010 at 2:20 pm {no comments}

cal-grouper-001 Well the visibility has been terrible even though there is almost no winds. There has been a strong southbound current covering everything south and west of Key West. Vis has been less the 15 feet at some spots, less the 25 at others. Not really that fun to dive in once you have become used to clear water. squid-003 Went out earlier in the week with Cal and Luis and didn’t really catch much. Cal put on a tank and shot a grouper and a mutton, Lou and I shot a couple small fish but nothing to brag about. We drove around all over from the Sambos to Western Dry Rocks and the vis was terrible everywhere.

Then yesterday I went out with Jason, Andy and one of Andy’s friends from the fire department. We went east and found some clear water. We did OK on fish, I got a black grouper and a mutton. Everyone else got red groupers and muttons. It was ok, maybe 35 feet of vis. I also shot a large squid. Which I was pretty excited about. Andy’s friend shot all his fish with a Hawaiian sling. We also found some clear water in really shallow and inshore. Like 20 foot of vis in 10-15 feet of water. We picked up some hogs in the shallows and called it a day.

The mutton spawn is happening right now and we were hoping to dive it, but with less the 20 foot of vis deep diving hasn’t been that appealing. The bad visibility extended out to at least 240 feet of water and probably much further.

Evil Week – slow fishing

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on May 22, 2010 at 3:17 pm {no comments}

evil-week-end-058 Well finally the winds died back down and I was able to go out on the water. Catherine, Luis and I went out the past couple days.  Catherine finally had a day off when the wind wasn’t howling so she was able to come too. The first day we went out in front of Key West and I had one of those days where everything seems to go wrong. Gear malfunctions, backup gear malfunctioning, stormy weather, dirty water, too many other boats, problems equalizing, everything seem to be off. We still had a pretty good day though, Luis shot a 14# mutton. I dove some new spots which is always good. We had to be in early to get Cat to work.

One thing I thought was interesting is we went to dive a real public wreck and just as we got there a scuba boat got there. I was able to do two quick dives before the scuba divers got down to it. When I first dove there were permit, bar jacks, big schools of yellowtail all over it. As soon as the scuba tanks hit the water the place turned into a ghost town. It’s amazing how much the bubbles repel the fish.

evil-week-end-168 The next day we went out, I resolved all my gear issues, and headed west so no issues with crowds but really could not find fish. We  picked up some little snapper, and Luis shot a big cero mackerel. I shot a little permit, I usually skip on the permit but it was a slow day so he got it. Vis was less then 30 feet and green, in the shallows the 18-20 knot winds kept us from going deep. We worked a whole bunch of areas which normally are pretty good and they were empty. The most telling sign was the lack of yellowtails. I think yellowtails might be spawning now, so they have moved, but I am not sure.

I had a good day even if the fishing was slow.  Catherine was able to practice diving, and I got all my gear kinks out. I have had some really excellent catches the past month or so, not every day can be awesome.

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