Dry Tortugas

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on August 23, 2010 at 10:28 pm {2 comments}

tortugas_0054 I was fortunate enough this week to go on an overnight trip to the Dry Tortugas. What a blast! I went on Robert Trosset’s 34′ Yellowfin, along with Nate, Cory, Robert, Brad and Rob. Catherine couldn’t make it so it was me on the camera. Taking photos is more work then it looks like but I caught a few cool shots with the new camera. We dove a lot of places, big wrecks in the Gulf, Air Force relay towers, Tortugas Bank, Rebecca channel. We also dove some awesome stuff inside the Tortugas Sanctuary (without guns, of course) places like Sherwood Forrest and the windjammer wreck.

Fishing was good but the big black groupers were elusive. I shot the biggest hogfish and biggest mutton snapper I have ever shot. We got a variety of fish, and numerous lobsters. I freedove everywhere, along with Corey and Nate. Robert and Rob tank dove. The vis was tremendous pretty much the entire trip, 50+, sometimes closer to 80. I could dive down 20 feet and see bottom at the Relay towers, it was pretty amazing. The only thing that was a draw back was the lack of fish on the towers. Other then the permit and a few dinky AJs there wasn’t much on the towers that where freedivable. The tank divers were able to pull fish off the base of the towers but that was 100+ feet down. The same was kind of true on the big wreck we dove. I saw one big grouper, but he quickly scooted down to over 100 feet of water out of my range.

There were literally 100 jewfish on the big Gulf wreck.  Diving down you could count 20 in just one little section. I am not one of the “I have to be able to shoot everything I see to be happy” type of people, but there seems to be too many jewfish. 100 jewfish and one black grouper, sort looks like something’s out of balance.

We also dove something called Kingfish rock pile, which is located somewhere north of the Fort.  It was 100′ deep so it was a little deep for freediving.  Brad had equalization issues and everyone was pretty tired from the ride out so while Robert and Rob slept, myself and Brad set up a chum slick and hooked and lined yellowtals.  Corey would jump in and shoot the occasional mangrove snapper that swum up in the chum slick.  Robert’s brother had seen a large tiger shark in that area several times recently but it did not show up.  When Robert and Rob awoke they dropped down on scuba tanks and shot a large red and a close to 7 pound mangrove snapper.

tortugas_0067 Sleeping on the beach at the Tortugas was pretty great except that the wind went to 0 and it felt like trying to go to sleep in a sauna for awhile. It was so hot, sweat was just dripping off me even when I was holding still in the dark. The park rangers and FWC checked everything in our boat. So if you plan on going there, plan on having everything checked. We had a young and kind of zealous officer check our stuff, while two older officers looked on kind of indifferently. The younger guy couldn’t id half of our fish.

The wildlife on the island is interesting, rats and hermit crabs scurry around in the night. The birds also get up at first light and start making a lot of noise.

The windjammer wreck in the sanctuary is a blast to snorkel. There are huge mutton and dog snapper living on it that are practically tame. All the fish species seem much more approachable and in fact many swim right up to you. There are huge mangroves living inside the wreck, along with monster jewfish and large black grouper. The Sherwood forest was also amazing but at 70 feet was more difficult to free dive. I had a monster mangrove swim right up to the front of my camera on one dive.

The reef sharks that live around the Tortugas bank are also pretty fun. We lost a couple fish to them at first until we teamed up to fend them off. It’s pretty amazing how if you shoot a fish and let it struggle too long you will suddenly have 2-4 sharks all over you.  They move extremely fast, but seem to be very targeted on the fish, and will try to avoid getting too close to a person. When one of the sharks ate a grouper it actually drew in a large black fin tuna, but no one could get a shot on it.

Diving in Rebecca channel was also very interesting.  It was the only place we dove where the vis wasn’t good and the current  was ripping.  It made for extremely difficult freediving, but on tanks you could shoot a lot of fish. Brad, Cory and Robert did a few tank dives and each and every drop produced some decent fish.

Vis 30-60 feet

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on October 25, 2009 at 2:11 pm {no comments}

Went out spearfishing the last couple days on Friday with Luis and Catherine and on Saturday with Jason and Andy and Catherine.  On Friday we went out in front of Key West for half a day from 11:00 am-3:30 pm. Vis was pretty good topping out at around 60 feet. There were short black groupers all over the place, and some not so short. We drifted mostly in 30-60 feet of water, there was a west bound current which was very difficult to swim against. Luis shot a black grouper and I shot a mutton snapper and hogfish. We saw a big eagle ray but it was moving too fast to get any photos. Luis said he also saw a 40# kingfish but it stayed out of range.

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Then on Saturday Catherine and I went out with Jason and Andy on their boat. We ran around 20 miles west, the vis was ok out there maybe 30-35 feet of vis but milkier on the bottom. We worked a bunch of rocks and ledges with not much luck. Most of the spots we hit had produced nice fish before but they were empty yesterday, which seemed crazy looking at the shear amount of small snapper, grunts and bait fish surrounding the rocks. We picked up some stuff here and there. I got 6-7# dog snapper. Jason and Andy shot some jacks, hogfish and mangroves but nothing huge. I checked under so many ledges and holes, finding nothing, that I got to the point where I felt angry when I saw a ledge. We also ran into a sea of jelly fish for a bit and every exposed bit of of skin was covered with jellyfish stings, almost like some sort of biblical plague.

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On the way back to Key West we noticed some inshore patches were clear so we made a quick stop and in 10 minutes I shot a 12# red grouper and Andy shot a 10.5# mutton snapper: the two best fish of the day shot in 15 feet of water a stone’s throw from Key West.

Got a closed muzzle from mako for my rabitech gun. I like the open muzzle with the finned shafts, but I think for notched shafts the closed muzzle is better. Much less user error in reloading, at least for me.

Went out spearfishing the last couple days on Friday with Louis and Catherine and Saturday with Jason and Andy. On Friday we went out in front of Key West for half day from 11:00 am-3:30 pm. Vis was pretty good topping out at around 60 feet. There where short black groupers all over the place, and some not so short. We drifted mostly in 30-60 feet of water, there was a west bound current which was very difficult to swim against. Louis shot a black grouper and I shot a mutton snapper and hogfish. We saw a big eagle ray but it was moving too fast to get any photos. Louis said he also saw a 40# kingfish but it stayed out of range.
Then on Saturday Catherine and I went out with Jason and Andy on their boat. We ran around 20 miles west, the vis was ok out there maybe 30-35 feet of vis but milkier on the bottom. We worked a bunch of rocks and ledges with not much luck. Most of the spots we hit had produced nice fish before but they where empty yesterday, which seemed crazy looking at the shear amount of small snapper, grunts and bait fish surrounding the rocks. We picked up some stuff here and there I got 6-7# dog snapper. Jason and Andy shot some jacks, hogfish and mangroves but nothing huge. I checked under so many ledges and holes, finding nothing, that I got to the point where I felt angry when I saw a ledge. We also ran into a sea of jelly fish for a bit and every exposed bit of of skin was covered with jellyfish stings, almost like some sort of biblical plague.
On the way back to Key West we noticed some inshore patches where clear so we made a quick stop and in 10 minutes I shot a 12# red grouper and Andy shot a 10.5# mutton snapper the two best fish of the day shot in 15 feet of water a stone’s throw from Key West.
Got a closed muzzle from mako for my rabitech gun. I like the open muzzle with the finned shafts, but I think for notched shafts the closed muzzle is better. Much less user error in reloading at least for me.

March 17th – vis from 20-30

Filed under Spearfishing Reports by on March 18, 2009 at 2:26 pm {no comments}

We went out for a half day yesterday the vis wasn’t too hot 20-30 feet. We drifted over a wreck in around 80 feet of water and if you dove down it was just like diving into an abyss. We saw a bunch of jacks, and some small king mackerel. I shot an AJ but it tore off.

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After that we went to the bar and the vis was worse, so we came in and checked the reef. Still crap, so we decided to drift some patch reefs in 20 feet of water. Its was fun but the fish where small. We picked up red groupers, hogfish and a mutton.

We were drifting in 20 feet of water and a school of big yellow jacks with a nurse in tow swam right in front of me and I missed the biggest one. I just tried a lighter shaft on my gun because I felt kind of ridiculous shooting hogs and red grouper with a 7.5 mm shaft and a double wrap of mono. I think I should stick with the heavy shaft, I’m used to it and I wouldn’t have missed that shot.

Anyways a couple minutes after I reload, this enormous hammerhead comes swimming in and swims right at me. Shark was at least 10-12 feet long, and its head looked like it was over 2 feet across. I pointed my gun at it and kept thinking it’s going turn, it’s going turn, and at that last second it turned. I yelled to Albie and when I saw it circling back I called for the boat. Catherine and Gabbi, they found my tone of yell very amusing.

I got out but Albie wanted to film the shark, so we give the camera to him and I got back in. The shark kept circling us and swimming directly underneath us. I’m not sure what it was looking for, we hadn’t shot a fish in while at that point.

I should have swam down next to shark to show the scale better, but after its initial close pass I was too spooked. Albie shot a mutton that tore off and that might have been what drew the hammer in, I also took a shot at a mutton but missed. Damn that light shaft. Then Albie shot the cubera and we headed in. Pretty fun day for being so close to Key West and in shallow water.

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Here is the video of the shark.