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.

Too many jacks

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on February 16, 2010 at 2:40 pm {5 comments}

amberjack3 Catherine, Andy, Cally, Fenway and I went out yesterday. Even though the winds have been blowing every which direction we found visibility up 70 feet at at high tide. The calm winds and clear water were quite a relief after being stuck in the house for a week or so. The only downside was it was around 58 degrees in the morning , which is pretty cold weather for going swimming.

We started our day free diving the Vandenburg. In addition to the hundreds of barracuda schooling on it there was a good number of amberjack. I shot one of the Ajs about 50 feet down and had it run right down the to the deck of the wreck. This was kind of a reminder of why I need to get a bigger float.  I am not sure I would have been able to stop an Aj over 40 pounds from running to the bottom with my gun. Luckily this one stopped at the deck which is around 70 feet down and I was able to horse him to the surface. I should have weighed him to see if he beat last week’s 37# aj but I forgot.

Then we moved west, checked another wreck but it was covered with cold milk water, once you got about 50 feet down. Then we checked some rocky areas on the bar but found nothing too exciting. Some triggerfish, mangroves a few cero mackerel. I took one triggerfish for some white meat and moved on. Then we checked some shallow stuff, nothing really except freezing cold water.

super-aj-176 Then we went back deep and hit the mother lode of trash fish.  On top of rocks in 50-60 feet of water there was boiling water from huge schools of bar jacks, and under the bar jacks there were hundreds of yellow jacks from 8-15 pounds. I have never seen that many yellow jacks, at least not that size. To top that off under the yellow jacks there were amber jacks from 20-60 pounds.  We shot too many fish. We shot our limit of amberjack, Andy shot one that was 50-60# and it broke his line and took off with a shaft. Every yellow jack we shot would be swarmed by his buddies and the amberjack too, it was pretty ridiculous actually. We had a huge black grouper come out and try to eat one of the yellow jacks, like he was a jewfish.  Fired up nurse sharks were chasing our fish up to the surface in 55 feet of water. I can’t believe with all the blood and commotion more sharks didn’t show up.  I also shot a rainbow runner, I don’t know if it’s a big one or what, but it’s the biggest one I have ever seen.

After that it started to get dark, so we headed in, finally a day on the water after all those windy days. Any want any smoked jack, let me know.

Mackerel Everywhere

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on February 4, 2010 at 6:20 pm {2 comments}

amberjack-spearfishing Went out  yesterday and the day before, and on Tuesday Luis and I went out. Originally Luis had a doctor’s appointment, but the 6 knot winds and potential for shooting wahoo caused him to reschedule it. When he arrived in the morning he said “have plenty of time for doctor appointments when I am dead”.  We headed out west and found clear water but no sun. The water vis was very good like 60-70 feet but it lacked the crystal clear gulfstream blue quality that was apparent every other time we have seen wahoo. This was kind of disappointing and we didn’t see any all day. We drifted all day in water 50-240 feet deep. The first half of the day we passed on reef fish but when afternoon hit we just started shooting stuff.

The amount of fish we saw was pretty incredible, although most were not considered “quality fish”. Drifting in from the drop-off in waters 70-90 feet we would be greeted by huge schools of triggerfish, spade fish and King Mackerel.  All these fish would come in mass at the flashers we were using. I saw one school of king fish that must have had 50 fish in it, and on another drift a few miles away Luis saw a school of kingfish that had hundreds in it. We shot four king fish.  The school of mackerel had relatively small fish in the 7-10 pound range.  I also shot a 37# pound Amberjack (gutted), not really a big amberjack but a decent one for freediving in the Keys, and the largest I have shot so far. Luis had brought out a big riffe bluewater gun, rigged to kill something massive. Although we saw nothing massive tested it out on the king fish and he was happy how well it performed.

One of highlights of the day was Luis saw a group of cubera snapper in the water column in around 80 feet of water. He didn’t get one but it was pretty cool to see regardless.

The next day I went out with Andy and Brian from West Palm Beach. Brian is captain of the USA spearfishing team and an instructor for a free diving class. We dove some reef and wrecks in front of Key West. It was a half day and it was dark but the vis was still good so it was a good time. We didn’t shoot anything that exciting. I got a small cubera and Brian also shot a cubera but some sharks came and ate it. We shot some yellow jacks, and snapper.

Probably the most interesting thing we saw was massive amounts of black grouper on the reef. I guess I shouldn’t say massive after seeing videos of some of the spawning gags up north, but a lot of black grouper compared to what I have ever seen diving so far. One ledge had one fish that was pushing 35 pounds and 3 other fish all in the 10-15 pound range next to it. It just hung out and looked at me, I could have shot it 3 times. Seemed like everywhere we dove there was a black grouper looking at us.

Went out  yesterday and the day before, on Tuesday Luis and I went out. Originally Luis had a doctor appointment, but the 6 knot winds and potential for shooting wahoo caused him to reschedule it. When he arrived in the morning he said “have plenty of time for doctor appointments when I am dead. We headed out west and found clear water but no sun. The water vis was very good like 60-70 feet but it lacked the crystal clear gulfstream blue quality, that was apparent every other time we have seen wahoo. This was kind of disappointing and we didn’t see any all day. We drifted all day in water 240-50 feet deep. The first half of the day we passed on reef fish but when afternoon hit we just started shooting stuff.
The amount of fish we saw was pretty incredible, although most where not considered “quality fish”. Drifting in from the drop off in waters 70-90 feet we would be greeted by huge schools of triggerfish, spade fish and King Mackerel.  All these fish would come in mass at the flashers we were using. I saw one school of king fish that must have 50 fish in it, and on another drift a few miles away Luis saw a school of kingfish that had hundreds in it. We shot four king fish, the school of mackerel had relatively small fish in the 7-10 pound range.  I also shot a 37# pound Amberjack(gutted), not really a big amberjack but a decent one for freediving in the keys, and the largest I have shot so far. Luis had brought out a big riffe bluewater gun, rigged to kill something massive. Although we saw nothing massive he was happy how it performed well , and tested it out on the king fish.
One of highlights of the day was Luis saw a group of cubera snapper in the water column in around 80 feet of water. He didn’t get one but it was pretty cool to see regardless.
The next day I went out with Andy and Brian from west palm beach. Brian is captain of the usa spearfishing team and an instructor for a free diving class. We dove some reef and wrecks in front of Key West. It was a half day and it was dark but the vis was still good so it was a good time. We didn’t shoot anything that exciting. I got a small cubera and Brian also shot a cubera but some sharks came and ate it. We shot some yellow jacks, and snapper.
Probably the most interesting thing we saw was massive amounts of black grouper on the reef. I guess I shouldn’t say massive after seeing videos of some of the spawning gags up north, but a lot of black grouper compared to what I have ever seen diving so far. One ledge had one fish that was pushing 35 pounds and 3 other fish all in the 10-15 pound range next to it. It just hung out and looked at me, I could have shot it 3 times. Seemed like everywhere we dove there was a black grouper looking at us.
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