posted by admin on May 7

Our friend Albie was visiting this week from NJ and we went out for a half day and then a full day. The first day we went out in the afternoon, the wind was blowing like crazy but it was supposed to die down, Catherine made the mistake of coming with us. The winds did not die for awhile and the seas where rough but the visibility was good so it was ok. Albie and Luis went with me along with Catherine and me. Due to the high winds we just went out in front of Key West. As expected the ledges that were filled with grouper last week where barren. It took a little bit of looking around before we found some fish, and then it was on. Albie shot a nice mutton and Lou picked up a black. I shot some big mangroves. I messed up the sear on my railgun gun and the line release has been giving me issues, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t want to. After we that spot we hit one of the public wrecks but the current was too much. There was a scuba boat about to drop on it, I tried getting down to the deck but swimming in current ate up all my time, and I gave up. There was a ton of permit mating over top the wreck and some spade fish under them. It was fun to see the fish but after a minute we were out of there.

We hit another spot that was dead, then on to another. I missed a really nice cobia that was sleeping on the bottom. I don’t know how I missed him I was right down on him. Albie got a triggerfish and Lou got a couple more large mangrove snapper. I shot a black grouper, not a big one. I also shot him in the tail so albie had to put a safety shot in him. The only thing that was kind of noteworthy about the fish, is the amount of current I had to swim against to get him. He wasn’t super deep or anything, 60 feet down but man the current was ripping, I was kind of amazed I was able to do it, honestly. After that we checked the vandenburg and there was nothing visible on it. Some small amberjacks, and the usual school of cudas. After that we headed in.

The next day we got on Andy and Jason’s boat and went out. Catherine had to work so it was Albie, Luis and I along with Andy and Jason. We headed out west and ended up out past Marquesas Rock. We hit a lot of big ledges in that vicinity and didn’t get a lot of fish. The big black grouper that were there  before had all disappeared. In their place there were a few commercial spearfishing boats, I don’t see commercial boats diving very often, and this was the first time I saw 3 in one day. I kind of think a lot of the big, well known ledges out there where the first spots that where cleaned out. Maybe it was just the warmer water, who knows. We got some nice fish, a black grouper here, a red grouper there, keys sized hogs and small muttons but nothing major. I shot a big mangrove it might have beat the last big one I got but didn’t have a scale. Maybe I should get a new scale.

We drifted for awhile trying to find where I saw the lane snappers were spawning, and the huge hog fish from the other day but couldn’t find it. I am going to go back and put more time in looking for it on my boat. The next spot we hit was covered with fish.  Albie shot a black, then Jason shot a black, I missed a black – they were all over. After the first drift we shot some ajs and barracuda and chopped them up for chum. We anchored up current from where the fish were and just start chopping up mass fish and chumming like crazy. Behind the boat became a feeding frenzy, 2 big lemon sharks and 5 reef sharks were zipping around fighting over pieces of fish on the bottom. A huge jewfish came out and tried to push up on the sharks. Yellow jacks and Amber jacks swimming around all over. It was great, in time red groupers and some short blacks showed up. We were having a blast watching the sharks and shooting fish. Then  I turned around and 4-5 huge fish were swimming up to me. For a second my brain didn’t recognize what they were, not king fish or barracuda. I yelled “wahoo” in case there was anyone else in their path, and shot the one the closest to me. I broke his spine and he was done. First wahoo and a pretty good sized one at that.

Next we checked jewfish rock and there was one black on it but he got away. There was bunch of Ajs and big cero mackerel circling it but I wasn’t really hungry for smoked fish so I passed.

I finally got a new mask that works, a couple weeks ago someone who will remain nameless threw my cressi occhio over board. I was able to try three replacement masks, the spetton(looks the same as the omer bandit) and the mares liquid skin, both fit me terrible. I also used an atomic frameless for a bit, that mask fit great but was too high volume for diving past 40-45 feet in my opinion, it would take way too much to clear the mask and it would suck my eyes out. I was about to order a new cressi but I tried Catherine’s omer aries 39. Wow, that mask fits great and it has the bigger lens like the cressi occhio. It’s a breeze to clear the mask and it seems to never leak, once in awhile my cressi ochio would leak, usually when I was 60 or more feet down. It’s a bad time to leak, it ruins the whole dive, so perhaps I am fortunate the occhio was lost.

posted by admin on Aug 24

Went out Friday with Brad, Brian and Catherine, stayed pretty close to Key West. My boat is really dragging I have to clean the bottom this week. We just hit some spots around western dry rocks and didn’t have particularly good luck. We saw a lot of mangrove snappers but not a lot of fish. Saw a couple spooky black groupers but not much else. Brian shot a trigger fish and spade fish( he had never eaten one). I shot a hog and a bar jack. Pretty slow day. Vis was good, water was warm. Brad did the best with two muttons and a hog.

On Sunday Catherine and I went out with Jason and Andy, on their boat along with Jason’s son. We went a bit west but the lousy vis we hit once we got past Boca Grande made us turn back. Would it have cleared up past the Marquesas keys? Maybe but it was definitely clear east of Boca Grande so we headed back. We shot a bunch of fish, yellow jacks, bar jacks, hogfish, mutton snapper and one black grouper (it was so small I had to squeeze the tail to make it legal). Conditions were great: good vis up to about 60 feet, a bit of current but manageable. We had some drama when I shot a yellow jack and it looked like it was hanging on by a thread so I called for some one to shoot it again. Andy swam down and took a shot missed and got the shaft stuck in rock, this wouldn’t have been a big deal if there wasn’t a ripping current so he was stuck dealing with that. I had Jason throw me a gun and I swam down to shoot the fish again and at the last minute the fish ran more up current so I took a desperation shot which hit but then tore out. I had let go of my float line and had to swim like crazy to get it back. After all the excitement the fish just kind of died and I was able to just slowly pull him in.

Andy saw a tiger shark, but it was too far away for Catherine to get a photo, I was in the boat at the time. I also saw a huge black grouper, cruising on the bottom in 55 feet of water. A really beautiful fish, it swam with the current for bit but took off as soon as I tried to get a little closer.

posted by admin on May 27

Went out to see the Vandenberg sink with Catherine on Wednesday, it was ok but due to us being on the windward side of the ship, the smoke from the explosions blocked most of the sinking. Also a a-hole driving a sebego parasail boat had to quick move 50 feet forward and get right in front of us as it went down. Like being 50 feet closer really improved the view. I also had a guy almost drive his catamaran into my boat, he was talking to his wife and fiddling with something totally not paying attention to where his boat was going. I guess technically he was coming from the starboard side which would possible give him the right of way, but he was running pretty much along side of me, and if I didn’t suddenly stop and swerve to the side we would have collided. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that a big percentage of boaters are totally idiots and should be avoided as much as possible. Which is part of the beauty of living in the Key West. Drive a few miles west and there is next to no boats, and most you see are professional fisherman, who aren’t just out messing around.

After the sinking Catherine and I went a few miles west and did a drift. There where perfect conditions 60+ feet of visibility and next to no current. We dropped anchor in 50 feet of water and put a block of chum out. Its very rare that conditions are good for chumming. There has to be next to no current for it to be enjoyable to me. Immediately schools of speedos and bar jacks where all around us. There was also a large mutton snapper who took off as soon as I got half way to the bottom. I shot some ciro mackerel and jacks and cut them up and let them sit on the bottom. The big mutton came back and again took off when I started to dive. A few short grouper showed up and more cero mackerel. An amberjack around 25# showed up and I shot him. Most Amberjacks I have shot in the vitals and really didn’t put up much of a fight. This one I hit high in the back and fought like crazy. I was enjoying the fight until a big lemon shark came in, then I got in the boat and pulled the jack out. It was taking forever to fight him in the water and shark would have probably eaten him.

After gutting and bleeding the AJ, the shark was kind of fired up, but since it was staying on the bottom we kept fishing. I saw nice black grouper but lost sight of him. So shot a bar jack and let him run around on my shooting line, immediately the grouper appeared but so did the lemon shark. I was the only one with a gun so the live chumming was kind of pointless. The shark grabbed the jack and a barracuda hit the crimp in my shooting line and cut the line. So then I had to swim down and find my shaft, re-rig my gun and again have no idea where the grouper went.

We played hide and seek with the grouper for awhile longer and then called it a day. Kind of slow day but a good time and an amberjack for the smoker.

I went back the next day to the same spot and took this 21# black off it, not sure if it’s the same one but pretty good either way.

posted by admin on May 23

Catherine, Cal, Mike and I went out spearfishing yesterday and found conditions ranging from awesome to terrible. We ran out in front of Key West and found crappy water past the edge of the reef, so we headed west and were able to find some OK water. You could make out bottom in 50 feet. Cal and Mike shot some triggerfish.

Since it seemed to get better going west we ran another 4 or 5 miles west.  I was in an area where I had no spots but seeing that the water was crystal clear and there seemed to be some relief I jumped in to check it out. We were in 60 to 70 feet of water but it looked like 50. There was around 100 feet of visibility. Mid column I saw what I thought was a nice yellow jack, but upon closer inspection saw it was huge mutton snapper. I quickly had Cal throw me my gun, I dove down where I last saw him but didn’t see him. Then a few minutes later I saw what I thought was him and a second snapper. I dove and the smaller of the pair came to check me out but swam directly under me. I tried to get down to his level and so I wouldn’t have to shoot straight down on him, but ran out of breath and blew the shot. We drifted around for awhile in that area, there were tons of triggers.  I got a another shot on a smaller mutton in 75fsw but blew the shot again. I think I need more practice diving in order to hunt that deep. Sure I can swim down, turn around and come back but what good is that?

We then ran another 4 or 5 miles and hit some shallower stuff in 40-60 feet of water. I tried to find some new spots but really didn’t find much. Good bottom but no really impressive relief. Then this wall of crappy water moved out and ruined everything. So we ran back east, we found a little area where the water was ok, you just had to dive down 10 feet or so for it to clear up. We worked that area for awhile.  Mike got a large mangrove. We tried coming back east a bit more but the water got worse, so we called it day and headed in.

Here are some pics from a week or two ago.  I have found an issue of what to do with the pics. I can make a monthly gallery which no one ends up seeing, or I can embed them in a post. Of course then I have pics like these where we were just going to get shark bait.