posted by admin on Mar 9

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.

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.

posted by admin on Jan 10

Watch the video

Some video from the past couple months, also uploader a much larger version of the video here, I suggest right clicking it and saving it to your hard drive to watch it.

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posted by admin on Jan 9

Went out yesterday with Catherine, Luis, and Andy, and had the best day we have had in a while. We tried to go out early this week but got frozen out, and had to come in. This time we headed back out with more winter clothing and a new wetsuit top for me. It was still cold but it was calm and sunny, and that made all the difference.

First spot we hit we looked for wahoo.  The water wasn’t that clear so I didn’t have high hopes on seeing any. We drifted for a couple of hours, and I shot a schoolie dolphin and we saw some sharks. We decided to hit the reef and run east to see if the water was  clearer.   First drift on the reef I picked up a black and we also got some hogfish and a mutton snapper.   I know the grouper ban is in effect for federal waters but you can still take groupers in state waters until the 20th. The next spot we went to check was a cave that holds groupers like 75% of the time but before we got to it we ran into a school of yellow jacks.  I shot a 15# one.  After I gutted the jack,  I see what looks like a small shark swimming right at me. I waited wondering what its deal was, and then I realized it was a cobia.  I dove down and shot it with one band from about 3 inches away, and it went nuts. Andy had to come and put another shot in it to keep it from ripping itself off the spear. First Cobia on a spear for me, he weighted 22# gutted.

We headed to humps to see if we could pick up some more grouper. They were covered with fish but there was a ripping current and cold milky water. I saw a nice black grouper and Andy saw a nice cubera but neither of us got either fish. We headed out to the bar next but the water was milky enough to make it hard to spot fish from the surface, so we headed in shallower.

On the reef line, Luis and I ran into a school of cero mackerel and took a few for the smoker, they were all over. You could probably throw a block of chum in at that spot and fill the boat with mackerel, if you wanted to.   It was getting late so we decided to check some patch reefs on the way home.   We jumped in on one reef in about 15-20 feet of water and in about 20 minutes, Luis had shot two grouper and I shot a 6# & 11# mutton. I bent my shaft at some point and missed two stupid easy shots on two other grouper. I changed out my shaft, and followed around another grouper for a minute. There was pretty much unlimited keys sized hogfish, but we didn’t bother with them. It was getting late, and as much as it would have been fun to keep hitting patch reefs, we had a ton of fish so we headed in.

posted by admin on Jan 1

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?