Winter weather is the best!

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on December 20, 2010 at 1:48 pm {one comment}

Well again the weather and Catherine’s work schedule don’t mesh, woke up yesterday and the wind was blowing 7 knots. NOAA had predicted 15-20 knots all weekend, and here it is blowing less then ten. I was kind of skeptical because of the west wind yesterday, which usually makes the vis shot. After a little debate, I headed out around 10 with Lou.  We headed due south out of Key West and found clear blue water pushed all the way into Hawk’s channel. Freaking awesome. The lack of current allowed us to throw the hook on one of the huge coral/rock formations and both jumped in.

Immediately we were surrounded by yellow jacks.  I shot one one big one right off the bat and Lou shot a curious grouper that came in to see what was wrong with the jack. I threw the jack in the boat and then shot a mutton snapper that came in to eat the guts from the jack, and then shot a dog snapper that came in to eat the guts of the mutton.  After that we moved to the next rock and kind of repeated the action: shoot a big jack, let it run around on the bottom until a grouper comes to see what it is doing, then on to the next rock. The third rock was swarming with cero mackerel and I got a massive jellyfish sting all over my face. At the fourth rock, the vis had silted up and we headed out to find clearer water.

We hit some shallow live bottom spots but the muttons just were not there, and shooting hogfish sucks so we left to go deeper. We anchored in 50 feet of water, taking advantage of the lack of current and clear water. We cut up a big barracuda and then waited for the fireworks to begin. It took a minute but then the fish showed. First came the sharks, then the fish.  First we had a couple nurses, then a big lemon and a black tip showed up. Lou shot a 10# cubera, but other then some nassaus nothing else had showed.  Then we shot and cut up a couple ceros and chubs to get the chum going more. I shot a 20# king fish which was going nuts with the lemon shark hot on its trail.  Rather then pull the fish and shark to me I opted for jumping in the boat and then gaffing the fish.  Lou made fun of me for not wanting to mess with the big lemon. Then Lou shot a black, then I shot a nice black but it went under a rock and tangled my line about 50 feet down. I called to Lou to grab his tank and go down and get the fish quick because the sharks were on it immediately. One of the nurses got a hold of the fish and ruined one fillet but the rest was saved.  Another kingfish came through bigger then the last one and I missed him. Then the chum ran out and it was getting late and the wind was picking up so we headed in.

Getting Cold

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on December 18, 2010 at 4:28 pm {one comment}

20101211_snappershogs_2834 Haven’t been posting reports on here recently because the days when Catherine have off have not all corresponded to days where she could go out in the boat. I am more into posting photos on here then writing stuff. I have gone out a couple times and did pretty well but nothing outstanding. I am not as into taking pictures of fish out of the water as I used to be. Only if the fish is big does it seem to warrant taking a photo out of the water and nothing I have shot recently has been big, whereas a photo of a barely legal red about to be shot under water is worth taking.

The water has cooled and fish are everywhere.  The couple times I have been out we shot our limit of black grouper, sometimes our limit of reds as well.  All the grouper have been less than 20#, so nothing that special. The water has cooled to the low 70s and all my old  spots are covered with fish. Big rocks that had nothing in the summer, have schools of yellow jacks, yellow tails, and black grouper on them now. It has been very interesting to me paying attention to the fish and bait movements due to temperature changes.   The wind and vis have been the biggest obstacles to getting fish, because it seems like every rock on the reef has fish on it.

I saw the biggest kingfish ever the other day.  I had just jumped in and my gun was not even loaded. The thing looked like a log in the water, like it had reached a certain length and just started growing thicker.  Nurse sharks are clumping up all over reef, perhaps it is mating time for them. Also turtles seem very inquisitive, possibly mating time for them as well.

During the recent cold snap, I switched to diving in the 5mm farmer johns under my 3mm top. So much warmer but such a pain in the ass to dive in. Wearing all that weight takes some getting used to. I don’t really feel comfortable diving past 50 feet because the wetsuit compresses so much that I start sinking like a stone. I also feel like I am spooking fish more.  It seems like I splash more diving even though  I think I am weighted properly. On the plus side I dive right in on that inshore 68 degree water and feel great.  Once the air warms up a bit I am going to switch back to the 3mm pants.

Slow Fishing

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on October 22, 2010 at 12:22 pm {one comment}

pa201723_0329 Wind finally let up for a few days and was able to get diving. Went out two days this week with Andy, Brian, and on one day Chris went with us. Catherine’s work schedule doesn’t seem to mesh well with the occasional days of low wind. Hopefully she will make it out this next week.

The first day we went out it seemed like I couldn’t miss. I shot 3 groupers, the largest being around 15#.  I also shot a bunch of large bar jacks, not the biggest fish but a blast to shoot. Andy and Brian both seemed to have an off day but still pulled some fish. We moved around a bit but found most fish inside the reef.  The bar is a ghost town, nothing on it.

The next day with Chris joining us we ran further west out to Coal Bin rock and to tell the the truth it wasn’t worth the gas. The big ledges and rocks out there held nothing. Jewfish rock didn’t even have any jacks or anything on it. Checking my records from last year, the conditions were similar out there on the reef line. At the end of last October and the beginning of November last year, I saw a similar situation. No matter how far you ran west the reef line was just not holding the fish. All the fish seem to be inside the reef line on the patchier more live bottom. Some people like to always dive the patches because they always hold fish (although sometimes, just small ones), but (at least in my opinion) sometimes the big structures on the edge of the drop off holds sometimes bigger grouper and big jacks, and right now it is definitely NOT that time. Brian got the best fish that day with a large 18# yellow jack and 15# back grouper.

We went out to check a couple of the wahoo spots but the dirty water and west bound current made me think they would not be there. Every time I have seen wahoo it’s been in good vis with an east bound current. I don’t really know if there is an exact science to that but I will ask around.

We had ok luck chumming on a shallow patch reef.  Got a few fish but watching the nurse sharks and short grouper go nuts over pieces of cero mackerel was really fun. I shot some pics and video but nothing that amazing came in.  Vis ranged from a hazy 50 feet on the bar to about 25 on the patch reefs.

Catherine , Andy, Chris and I also did a half day inshore, which turned out to be really fun. The wind was blowing over 20 knots but we dove the shallow inshore reefs so it was ok. The stuff we dove was around 10-20 feet deep and had a wide array of coral and small fish. We shot some hogfish and a few snapper, we also caught some lobster. I actually saw a couple 10# cuberas or mangroves up in the shallows but they were very wary of people and I was unable to get one of them. Catherine had a ball photographing coral and sea cucumbers.  We saw a small shark and about a million tropical fish.

Wind finally let up for a few days and was able to get diving. Went out two days this week with Andy, Brian, and on one day Chris. Catherine’s work schedule doesn’t seem to mesh well with the occasional days of low wind. Hopefully she will make it out this next week.
The first day we went out it seemed like I couldn’t miss I shot 3 groupers the largest being around 15#, I also shot a bunch of large bar jacks, not the biggest fish but a blast to shoot. Andy and Brian seem to have an off day but still pulled some fish. We moved around a bit but found most fish inside the reef, the bar is a ghost town, nothing on it.
The next day with Chris joining us we ran further west out to Coal Bin rock and to tell the the truth it wasn’t worth the gas. The big ledges and rocks out there held nothing. Jewfish rock didn’t even have any jacks or anything on it. Checking my records from last year, the conditions where similar out there on the reef line. At the end of last October and the beginning of November last year, I saw similar situation. No matter how far you ran west the reef line was just not holding the fish. All the fish seem to be inside the reef line on the patchier more live bottom. Some people like to always dive the patches because they always hold fish(although sometimes, just small ones), but (at least in my opinion) sometimes the big structure on drop off holds sometimes bigger grouper and big jacks, and right now it is definitely NOT that time. Brian got the best fish that day with a large 18# yellow jack and 15# back grouper.
We went out to check a couple of the wahoo spots but the dirty water and west bound current made me think they would be there. Every time I have seen wahoo its been in good vis with an east bound current. I don’t really know if there is an science to that but I will ask around.
We had ok luck chumming on a shallow patch reef, got a few fish but watching the nurse sharks and short grouper go nuts over pieces of cero mackerel was really fun. I shot some pics and video but nothing that amazing came in.
Page 2 of 11«12345»10...Last »