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.
posted by admin on May 12
The weather has been amazing, the winds of Spring have died down at least till this weekend. Cal, Brad and I decided to take the day and run offshore in search of Mahi Mahi. We took his boat and had decent luck about 20 miles out in 800 feet of water. We didn’t find any big dolphin but we found a bunch of schoolies. I had never speared a dolphin so it was all a treat for me.
It was pretty amazing seeing 50+ small dolphin swim right up to you. I had my big speargun which actually kind of sucked for this type of spearing. Its seems like the dolphin are either right in your face or taking off. The length of my gun was a big detriment, as was the double wraps of mono. Next time I am going to bring Catherine’s 80cm gun. Of course this will probably be when a big wahoo swims by.
Afterward we came and looked for some fish on the reef we didn’t find much but it was a treat drifting in such calm water.
