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 Jul 5
Well it’s been pretty uneventful lately in terms of spearfishing. Last week Pat and Chris were here and there was some of the worst weather we have seen in a while. We went went out one half day and the vis was terrible and we got chased in after a short time by a big storm. Got a YJ and some other little stuff for dinner though. Then as soon as Pat and Chris left the weather cleared up.
It’s been kind of hard to find people to go out with recently, the combination of having time off, have some $ to pitch in on gas and the ability/desire to spearfish is proving kind of rare.
Friday we went out with Irma and Anthony who were visiting Key West. Catherine and I had been out cleaning my boat bottom on Thursday and noticed very clear water coming down Calda channel, so with the reports of green water on the Atlantic side, we headed to the gulf.
We hit some patch reefs on the edge of the gulf and the visibility was decent, probably pushing 20 feet. We dove in really shallow water like around 15 feet deep. It was fun and gave my ear a break. There were actually some decent fish on that little patch reef, a couple legal blacks both of which eluded me. There were also a number of big lane or dog snappers. They were not really big, like 20 inches long at most but were extremely spooky. It kind of made it interesting though because they kept coming out of their holes, unlike a grouper which may just hole up and you never see again. I spent quite a long time, chasing after these snapper and shooting rocks while trying to get them. Anthony shot some average mangroves and we both shot some average keys hog fish and I also shot a ciro mackerel. Nothing big but all edible. Catherine took numerous photos of the reef life.
Then we drove out to barge in the gulf, the numbers are very public and I didn’t see anything on it. Just jewfish, mangroves and cero mackerel but everything was small. It was in 30 feet of so of water, and not visible from the surface so not the best snorkeling for Irma. We then on a whim drove to Smith Shoal. The area looked like it had potential but the vis dropped down to less the ten feet, so we didn’t stay long. I shot a mutton on my first drop but didn’t see anything else.
Not a bad day on the water, saw some new things and went to some new places, plus got a week’s worth of fish.
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.
