Great December Weather

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on December 28, 2010 at 1:01 pm {2 comments}

Went out yesterday with Lou, Juan, and Rafi.  Conditions were excellent, vis was 50 plus most of the day and the trash talk in Spanish was very plentiful. It was another day where I really wish Catherine had been there for photos.  We started by doing some drifts on the reef line, on one of the first drifts we came up on a rock covered in bait with a school of yellow jacks just going nuts around mid water column. On the top of the water two huge sailfish were working the bait. The sailfish swam right up to me and popped up their sails to corral the bait some more. I called to the boat for the camera but by the time it got there the sailfish were gone. Awesome sight, the Yellow jacks working with the sails to get the bait fish.  We popped a couple of the yellow jacks and moved on.

We checked one of the wrecks that had some big fish on it the other day. There were some fish, but not many really. The water was warmer, 72 degrees up from the 68 degrees and there were some fish but nothing major. I cut up a cero mackerel and had a school of amberjack surround me eating the pieces.  I shot one and Lou shot one, one to smoke and the other to use as chum. I followed a little black down onto the sand by the wreck but ran out of breath before I could get him. Lou strapped on a tank and went down and shot him. Since the bubbles from the scuba tanks seem to drive a lot of the fish away I grabbed the camera and took a couple photos.

After that we went back to the reef line. I jumped in on an area that was loaded with little fish. I didn’t see anything big but then Juan and Rafi dropped a bunch of amberjack chunks up current from me and everything started to go nuts. First fish I saw was a 3-4# mangrove which I shot and put on my float line. Then after 10 minutes, a nice black came in on the chunks.  I got down to within range but at the last second the fish started to to take off. I shot him anyway and let go of the gun for fear of him tearing the shaft out.  He ran around a hundred feet and then rocked up. Almost immediately there was a nurse shark trying to go in the hole.  I called for the boat and for Lou to get in with the tank before the nurse ate my fish. The rock wasn’t that deep, around 50 feet , with some work I probably would have gotten the fish out. But with the shark, better to just get the fish. As Lou was getting in, the nurse suddenly changed targets and grabbed the mangrove on my float line and would not let go. For like 5 minutes I had the tug of war with the shark, my gun lodged in a hole attached to a grouper and the nurse attached to my float line rolling around and going nuts. Finally the nurse let go after Lou poked him repeatedly and Lou was able to recover the grouper.

Then we went in to some live bottom to look for some reds and muttons. The water suddenly silted up and the temperature dropped but we did not really find that many fish. It was getting late at this point and we called it a day.  I brought the camera out even though it didn’t spend much time in the water. I am going to try to bring it more.

Clear Water not a lot of fish

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on April 12, 2010 at 1:26 pm {no comments}

cobia-short-day-095 Finally we got some good weather after a almost two weeks of 20 knot winds. On Friday Cat, Jason, Andy, one of Jason’s friends and I went out. We knew the vis was really bad in front of Key West so we headed out to the Gulf side to check it out. The vis sucked out there as well. We checked the patches at the end of Calda Channel and the Jetties in the northwest channel but it was pretty dirty. Then Fenway injured himself in the boat and we had to take him and Andy in to the vet. Fenway recovered quickly and was back to attacking other dogs and chasing pelicans by that afternoon, even with a slight limp.

After that we headed out to the Atlantic and into the green water. After driving for awhile we found a stretch of the bar that was blue and we drifted it for awhile. It was really fun but didn’t really produce a lot if fish. Jason took an Aj and that was about it. The clear water and school of permit, rainbow runners, and bar jacks made it fun though. I chased around some nice dog snappers in a cave about 50 feet down, but with the current my bottom time was pretty limited and I couldn’t get them. Next we headed west, and once we got past Boca Grande channel the water cleared. We went in to the reef and worked a big ledge. Jason got a yellow jack and I shot a 30# cobia. The water was clear but the fish were kind of scarce. There were black groupers all over but not a lot of other fish. I saw maybe one yellow jack all day, no big mangroves or muttons.

clear-no-fish-055 The next day Catherine, Luis and I headed out again.  Instead of messing around we headed straight west and got crystal clear water off the bat. The first big rock we dove was covered with black grouper spawning. I assume they are spawning by their strange unspooky behavior and grouping together. They really behave like different fish when they are grouped up. Hanging around the same spot, sometimes even swimming toward you in a group. Other then the black grouper there wasn’t much else on the rocks: tiny mangroves,  lanes, and big yellow tail. Since our time was limited we didn’t want to run further west so we went south to the deeper water. We didn’t really see much there, great vis not a lot fish. We saw permit, amberjacks, big black grouper but everything else was small or not really shootable. I did actually see a couple of muttons, but in the strong current it was very hard to get a shot on them. I think maybe I should switch back to the shaft with the double wrap for these conditions.

Final day Andy, Brian Lee, Brian’s girlfriend, Luis and I went out in Andy’s boat. We went way west exploring some new stuff. The vis was great again, but again the fish were kind of scarce. We picked up some hogs, several muttons, Brian got kingfish and smaller cubera, some other stuff but nothing huge. Luis and Brian saw a huge mutton but they weren’t able to get it. I had a sail fish and lemon shark suddenly appear out of nowhere and swim in circles around me. Pretty awesome, would have been great if Cat had been there with her camera. Black and Red grouper were all over, some quite large. I really haven’t minded the grouper ban because there had always been a bunch of other stuff to chase after but these last couple trips black grouper have been sometimes the only fish we are seeing in some spots. That is kind of frustrating.

When we left at the end of the day a cold front moved in and we had to ride home in 30 knot winds. It sucked but other then that it was a good day.

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.
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