Patch Reef |

Slow Fishing

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

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.

From the Blue water to the Patch reefs

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by admin on January 9, 2010 at 3:47 pm {one comment}

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.

Gulfside patches

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by admin on July 5, 2009 at 1:39 pm {no comments}

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.