Water is getting clear again

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on June 16, 2010 at 2:29 am {4 comments}

gulf-cobia-cal-095 Went out with Cal and Catherine the other day. We decided to go out to the gulf due to everyone saying how clear it was. First spot we checked was inshore and it was crystal clear for that area. The water was shallow and warm, and not a lot of big fish. We got some triggers, sheepshead, mangroves, a couple hogfish and a small dog snapper. Nothing big but the rocks where alive with bait and fish. Catherine took a lot of photos. After that we went out into the gulf, to a sunken barge. The vis was not as good out there but there was more fish.

First drop down Cal shot a baby cobia without a float line, which he purposely tangled in the anchor line to make sure he didn’t lose his gun. I shot it again before it tore off. Then Cal shot a permit, I would say that permit is quickly replacing amberjack as the number one fish people shoot and then do not want when we get back to the dock. I dove on the barge repeatedly but only saw jewfish and hundreds of Spanish mackerel.

After that my boat wouldn’t start, but then did after some monkeying around with it. Since I really did not want to get sea towed in from far out, I ran home. It was a short day but pretty fun anyway.

ja-and-son-011 Then Yesterday Catherine and I went out for a half day with Jason and his son. We left the dock around 2 and came back around 6. We went in front of Key West and finally the water was clear, after weeks of being dirty. Catherine was wearing Jason’s dive watch and was excited to be able to see how deep she was actually diving.

Jason and his son shot a bunch hogfish, red grouper and yellow jacks. Jason finally shot two fish with his double gun. Jason builds spearguns and built a gun that shoots two shafts and has a double trigger. He seems to think it the greatest thing ever. I think it looks like a royal pain in the ass. With the number of times I have seen him have issues with it, it really doesn’t interest me. I get frustrated enough reloading simple guns sometimes. The gun might work ok with freeshafts on scuba or something, but I really don’t think it’s suitable to freedive with. I know in theory it sounds great but I like to keep things simple.

I shot a big mangrove off the towers on the vandenburg and also got a red grouper on patch coral on the reef. I had 6 foot long reef shark come up and hang out with me on the vandenburg. I really should have taken a photo. Not sure what I was thinking. He came right up on my fins and then went to see if my float was something to eat.

You could probably have shot a similar mangrove on the reef, or even on an inshore patch in 10 feet of water, but would that have been as much fun as diving 50 feet or so and shooting him off the tower of a wreck, in 60-70 foot vis? For me it wouldn’t have been.  Some people say that they don’t care the conditions as long as they are shooting a lot of fish, but that doesn’t really scale out for me. Yeah, I like to shoot fish but honestly I would prefer shooting less fish in deeper clear water then shooting a bunch of little fish in shallow dirty water.

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.

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.

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