Getting Cold

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on December 18, 2010 at 4:28 pm {one comment}

20101211_snappershogs_2834 Haven’t been posting reports on here recently because the days when Catherine have off have not all corresponded to days where she could go out in the boat. I am more into posting photos on here then writing stuff. I have gone out a couple times and did pretty well but nothing outstanding. I am not as into taking pictures of fish out of the water as I used to be. Only if the fish is big does it seem to warrant taking a photo out of the water and nothing I have shot recently has been big, whereas a photo of a barely legal red about to be shot under water is worth taking.

The water has cooled and fish are everywhere.  The couple times I have been out we shot our limit of black grouper, sometimes our limit of reds as well.  All the grouper have been less than 20#, so nothing that special. The water has cooled to the low 70s and all my old  spots are covered with fish. Big rocks that had nothing in the summer, have schools of yellow jacks, yellow tails, and black grouper on them now. It has been very interesting to me paying attention to the fish and bait movements due to temperature changes.   The wind and vis have been the biggest obstacles to getting fish, because it seems like every rock on the reef has fish on it.

I saw the biggest kingfish ever the other day.  I had just jumped in and my gun was not even loaded. The thing looked like a log in the water, like it had reached a certain length and just started growing thicker.  Nurse sharks are clumping up all over reef, perhaps it is mating time for them. Also turtles seem very inquisitive, possibly mating time for them as well.

During the recent cold snap, I switched to diving in the 5mm farmer johns under my 3mm top. So much warmer but such a pain in the ass to dive in. Wearing all that weight takes some getting used to. I don’t really feel comfortable diving past 50 feet because the wetsuit compresses so much that I start sinking like a stone. I also feel like I am spooking fish more.  It seems like I splash more diving even though  I think I am weighted properly. On the plus side I dive right in on that inshore 68 degree water and feel great.  Once the air warms up a bit I am going to switch back to the 3mm pants.

Conch Garden and the Drop off

Filed under Spearfishing Gear, Spearfishing Photos by on November 14, 2010 at 12:21 pm {no comments}

20101111_eastern-dry-rocks_2096 Some decent weather and decent fish this week. Went out Wednesday with Catherine and Andy, and visibility was pretty good. We dove a lot of shallower stuff due to the ripping current. Mutton snappers are here again, we shot 4 or 5 of them. Andy had the biggest one which was probably around 8 pounds. I shot a couple reds and also a few hogfish. Couldn’t really find the black groupers. I was starting to feel like I was getting good there for a bit getting a black every trip for a while, but now it’s been a few times out and I haven’t gotten any. We did some drifts in a grass area I call the conch gardens- there are conchs every where. There are also lots of hogfish and the occasional mutton snapper. I cut up up a small cero mackerel and we watched a jewfish and nurse shark argue over who gets it. We finished up on the bar where Andy shot a big mangrove maybe 5 pounds and both grabbed a trigger fish.

The next day Lou, Catherine and I went out and we did great. Well Lou did great.  Pretty much for every fish I shot he shot one of the same species twice as big. We did some shallow stuff for a bit. There were groupers in shallow water but they were very spooky. We also ran into a nice school of yellow jacks.  We both popped a nice one but staying with the theme of the day Lou’s fish was bigger.  Catherine followed us on some drifts, I shot a small grouper, small mutton, decent hog. Then Lou did a drift and shot a fat grouper and big mutton.  We finished the day by going out to the deeper water and we found some stuff. I could not believe how awesome the stuff I found on the drop off was, less then a half mile from spots I have dove a dozens times. A ledge starting at 70 feet quickly coming up to 50 feet with swiss cheese bottom and tons of fish. I was off my game a bit and blew shots on two nice groupers in a short period of time. Lou and I both shot dog snappers, he got another nice mutton and I shot a big yellow jack all in the space of 30 minutes, it was great. After that with the winds picking up and the day getting late we headed in.

Some decent weather and decent fish this week. Went out Wednesday with Catherine and Andy, and visibility was pretty good. We dove a lot of shallower stuff due to the ripping current. Mutton snappers are here again, we shot 4 or 5 of them. Andy had the biggest one which was probably around 8 pounds. I shot a couple reds and also a few hogfish. Couldn’t really find the black groupers. I was starting to feel like I was getting good there for a bit getting a black every trip for a while, but now it’s been a few times out and I haven’t gotten any. We did some drifts in a grass area I call the conch gardens- there are conchs every where. There are also lots of hogfish and the occasional mutton snapper. I cut up up a small cero mackerel and we watched a jewfish and nurse shark argue over who gets it. We finished up on the bar where Andy shot a big mangrove maybe 5 pounds and both grabbed a trigger fish.
The next day Lou, Catherine and I went out and we did great. Well Lou did great.  Pretty much for every fish I shot he shot one of the same species twice as big. We did some shallow stuff for a bit. There were groupers in shallow water but they were very spooky. We also ran into a nice school of yellow jacks.  We both popped a nice one but staying with the theme of the day Lou’s fish was bigger.  Catherine followed us on some drifts, I shot a small grouper, small mutton, decent hog. Then Lou did a drift and shot a fat grouper and big mutton.  We finished the day by going out to the deeper water and we found some stuff. I could not believe how awesome the stuff I found on the drop off was, less then a half mile from spots I have dove a dozens times. A ledge starting at 70 feet quickly coming up to 50 feet with swiss cheese bottom and tons of fish. I was off my game a bit and blew shots on two nice groupers in a short period of time. Lou and I both shot dog snappers, he got another nice mutton and I shot a big yellow jack all in the space of 30 minutes, it was great. After that with the winds picking up and the day getting late we headed in.

Water is getting clear again

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on June 16, 2010 at 2:29 am {4 comments}

gulf-cobia-cal-095 Went out with Cal and Catherine the other day. We decided to go out to the gulf due to everyone saying how clear it was. First spot we checked was inshore and it was crystal clear for that area. The water was shallow and warm, and not a lot of big fish. We got some triggers, sheepshead, mangroves, a couple hogfish and a small dog snapper. Nothing big but the rocks where alive with bait and fish. Catherine took a lot of photos. After that we went out into the gulf, to a sunken barge. The vis was not as good out there but there was more fish.

First drop down Cal shot a baby cobia without a float line, which he purposely tangled in the anchor line to make sure he didn’t lose his gun. I shot it again before it tore off. Then Cal shot a permit, I would say that permit is quickly replacing amberjack as the number one fish people shoot and then do not want when we get back to the dock. I dove on the barge repeatedly but only saw jewfish and hundreds of Spanish mackerel.

After that my boat wouldn’t start, but then did after some monkeying around with it. Since I really did not want to get sea towed in from far out, I ran home. It was a short day but pretty fun anyway.

ja-and-son-011 Then Yesterday Catherine and I went out for a half day with Jason and his son. We left the dock around 2 and came back around 6. We went in front of Key West and finally the water was clear, after weeks of being dirty. Catherine was wearing Jason’s dive watch and was excited to be able to see how deep she was actually diving.

Jason and his son shot a bunch hogfish, red grouper and yellow jacks. Jason finally shot two fish with his double gun. Jason builds spearguns and built a gun that shoots two shafts and has a double trigger. He seems to think it the greatest thing ever. I think it looks like a royal pain in the ass. With the number of times I have seen him have issues with it, it really doesn’t interest me. I get frustrated enough reloading simple guns sometimes. The gun might work ok with freeshafts on scuba or something, but I really don’t think it’s suitable to freedive with. I know in theory it sounds great but I like to keep things simple.

I shot a big mangrove off the towers on the vandenburg and also got a red grouper on patch coral on the reef. I had 6 foot long reef shark come up and hang out with me on the vandenburg. I really should have taken a photo. Not sure what I was thinking. He came right up on my fins and then went to see if my float was something to eat.

You could probably have shot a similar mangrove on the reef, or even on an inshore patch in 10 feet of water, but would that have been as much fun as diving 50 feet or so and shooting him off the tower of a wreck, in 60-70 foot vis? For me it wouldn’t have been.  Some people say that they don’t care the conditions as long as they are shooting a lot of fish, but that doesn’t really scale out for me. Yeah, I like to shoot fish but honestly I would prefer shooting less fish in deeper clear water then shooting a bunch of little fish in shallow dirty water.

Page 1 of 3123»