First Day of Grouper Season

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on May 3, 2010 at 11:48 am {2 comments}

29089_393797187161_815942161_3955120_8295129_n Went out Saturday for the opening of grouper season. The forecast was calling for southeast winds over 20 knots all day so I caught a ride on Captain Brad’s charter boat http://www.offtherockcharters.com/ . We headed west.  That big boat was plowing through the rough seas like it was nothing.

First stop was on the reef not too far out.  We passed on a few barely legal grouper. I used the dead time to get myself dialed back in with my rabitech. My new wood custom gun just doesn’t have quite enough range for these days with 60-80 foot vis. My rabitech reaches out another extra 6-7 feet and it doesn’t seem like it would make much of a difference but it does. I have found that it took me about 10 shots to get my aim back with my rabitech. Weird how my brain learns how to aim with one gun and the I have difficulty aiming another gun even though there is no conscious change made.

That first ledge didn’t really produce so off we went further west. The next rock we  jumped in on we anchored on. I usually hate anchoring and swimming if there is any more then the lightest currents, but everyone else didn’t seem to mind so I just went with it. I actually think Corey actually perfers swimming against the current, it seems like he finds current and is like “awesome, let me swim against this!”. Anyways I hung around in the chum slick with Nate popping mangroves and continuing to get my aim back. Nate shot a nice black and I did an assist poking a nurse shark away from it, and putting a kill shot in it. Paul came back with an aj, Corey returned with a mutton and a big mangrove, Brad came back with something but I didn’t see it. We anchored another spot and continued to put fish in the boat, red grouper, mangroves, Yardonys shot a big cero, but still no big blacks.

grouper-opener-003 Then we pulled anchor and did some deeper drifts, found some awesome bottom. I don’t have the numbers for it but I can find it again. The bottom went from 45 down to about 85 and was filled with nooks and crevices. Massive amount of bait, schools of lane snappers, yjs all over but no big groupers. Lots of 10# grouper but no big ones. I got a shot at big hogfish, probably around 8# ( that is big for here) but ran out of float line. I tried going back for it after clipping on an extra 50 feet of float line but couldn’t find it. Diving with 130 feet of float line kind of sucks in my opinion, I see why people get so into reels.

We found some more fishy bottom in around 60 feet and Paul shot a black and mutton, and I shot another mutton. There was a jewfish and bunch of bait, a couple other muttons circling so we dropped anchor and chummed. Well the first two tries at chumming were kind of duds but this spot went off. About 20 minutes in we had 5 black grouper, a couple red grouper, mutton snappers, a bunch of 5# mangroves, cero mackerel, kingfish, a jewfish, a thousand yellowtails, 2 two big lemon sharks and cobia under the boat. It was awesome, just dive down 50 feet look and any direction and there was something to shoot. One of the lemons went after my fins but when I stopped swimming and put the speargun in his face he backed off. Paul shot king fish and the other lemon cut it in half. Spearguns were going off in every direction. I have no idea how many fish we got at that spot but it was awesome. Someone shot through a cobia and into one of the lemon sharks. Luckily the shaft only went in a little and shark shook it off in 10 seconds. It was kind of interesting  10 seconds though watching a big lemon thrash around biting in every direction.

Next we went in a little shallower to 50 feet of water and tried the same thing but the chum ran out and the results where kind of mediocre. Then we headed in shallow trying to fill the grouper limit. We got a few more grouper and some other ajs to 35#. I just could not find a black grouper, and on the first day of the season I didn’t even shoot a black(I shot 2 reds though). This would have been more disappointing if a school of African pompano didn’t swim in front of me. I shot the second largest in the school and it went 35#, pretty sweet fish.

Went out Saturday for the opening of grouper season. The forecast was calling for southeast winds over 20 knots all day so I caught a ride on Captain Brad’s charter boat http://www.offtherockcharters.com/ . We headed west.  That big boat was plowing through the rough seas like it was nothing.
First stop was on the reef not too far out.  We passed on a few barely legal grouper. I used the dead time to get myself dialed back in with my rabitech. My new wood custom gun just doesn’t have quite enough range for these days with 60-80 foot vis. My rabitech reaches out another extra 6-7 feet and it doesn’t seem like it would make much of a difference but it does. I have found that it took me about 10 shots to get my aim back with my rabitech. Weird how my brain learns how to aim with one gun and the I have difficulty aiming another gun even though there is no conscious change made.
That first ledge didn’t really produce so off we went further west. The next rock we  jumped in on we anchored on. I usually hate anchoring and swimming if there is any more then the lightest currents, but everyone else didn’t seem to mind so I just went with it. I actually think Corey actually perfers swimming against the current, it seems like he finds current and is like “awesome, let me swim against this!”. Anyways I hung around in the chum slick with Nate popping mangroves and continuing to get my aim back. Nate shot a nice black and I did an assist poking a nurse shark away from it, and putting a kill shot in it. Paul came back with an aj, Corey returned with a mutton and a big mangrove, Brad came back with something but I didn’t see it. We anchored another spot and continued to put fish in the boat, red grouper, mangroves, Yardonys shot a big cero, but still no big blacks.
Then we pulled anchor and did some deeper drifts, found some awesome bottom. I don’t have the numbers for it but I can find it again. The bottom went from 45 down to about 85 and was filled with nooks and crevices. Massive amount of bait, schools of lane snappers, yjs all over but no big groupers. Lots of 10# grouper but no big ones. I got a shot at big hogfish, probably around 8# ( that is big for here) but ran out of float line. I tried going back for it after clipping on an extra 50 feet of float line but couldn’t find it. Diving with 130 feet of float line kind of sucks in my opinion, I see why people get so into reels.
We found some more fishy bottom in around 60 feet and Paul shot a black and mutton, and I shot another mutton. There was a jewfish and bunch of bait, a couple other muttons circling so we dropped anchor and chummed. Well the first two tries at chumming were kind of duds but this spot went off. About 20 minutes in we had 5 black grouper, a couple red grouper, mutton snappers, a bunch of 5# mangroves, cero mackerel, kingfish, a jewfish, a thousand yellowtails, 2 two big lemon sharks and cobia under the boat. It was awesome, just dive down 50 feet look and any direction and there was something to shoot. One of the lemons went after my fins but when I stopped swimming and put the speargun in his face he backed off. Paul shot king fish and the other lemon cut it in half. Spearguns were going off in every direction. I have no idea how many fish we got at that spot but it was awesome. Someone shot through a cobia and into one of the lemon sharks. Luckily the shaft only went in a little and shark shook it off in 10 seconds. It was kind of interesting  10 seconds though watching a big lemon thrash around biting in every direction.
Next we went in a little shallower to 50 feet of water and tried the same thing but the chum ran out and the results where kind of mediocre. Then we headed in shallow trying to fill the grouper limit. We got a few more grouper and some other ajs to 35#. I just could not find a black grouper, and on the first day of the season I didn’t even shoot a black(I shot 2 reds though). This would have been more disappointing if a school of African pompano didn’t swim in front of me. I shot the second largest in the school and it went 35#, pretty sweet fish.

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.

Back in the Water

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on January 1, 2010 at 3:27 pm {no comments}

pomp 002 Well finally back in the water, it’s been a while since I had a report. The cut on my hand got infected and had me out of the water for a bit. No diving and no lifting weights really sucks. Not much to do on this island that interests me outside of the water.  Chasing tourist girls would be fun but since I have a girlfriend that is eliminated too. Went out about a week ago with Luis, and the vis was terrible, like less then 20 feet most of the day, maybe less then 15 in some spots. Luis shot an AJ for the smoker but no pictures or anything.

Went out yesterday with Jason, Matt, Nate and Jason JR. We ran way east to see if we could find some clearer water. We found some ok vis, after a while, maybe 30 feet or so. We shot a bunch of reef fish, cero mackerel, hogfish, mangroves (Matt shot a big mangrove), mutton snappers, I got one Black grouper, which was pretty cool because it was the last day of grouper season. Highlight of the day was Jason and I shot some African Pompano. It’s kind of nice when you go east of Key West since the federal waters are closer to shore then they are in front of Key West. So before people send emails telling me I can’t shoot APs, you should know you can spear APs and Permit in federal waters. Those APs really put up a fight and I had to recover mine somewhat from an excited reef shark. When push came to shove the shark backed off.

I’m freezing out there, my oceanos wetsuit lets water run through it like a sieve, it didn’t really fit that great from jump. Not sure why, I measured twice and emailed the builder to get more details on the measurements. The first suit he sent me was so far off in measurements I actually had to ship it back to get another one. I want to be happy with the oceanos wetsuit so bad. I mean it’s a custom suit for less then an off the rack price. Everyone else in the world seems to get one that fits perfect right off the bat, but yet after two tries my suit does not fit. The first suit he sent was over 10-15 centimeters smaller then some of  the measurements I sent him. It was so tight in the chest and stomach, it was hard to breath up in. The beaver tail was also like a thong. Before he sent the next one I added a lot to the length measurements to try to avoid the thong again, and when it came it was like wearing a thong, again. I had to send the top out to seatux to increase the length of the beavertail just to make the top wearable. Sucks, I am going to have to replace the top, in order to be warm enough. I guess on the positive the pants fit perfect. I don’t get it, does a different person do the pants then the tops?