Calm Seas and green water

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on January 6, 2011 at 5:16 pm {one comment}

20110105_reef-shark-day_3798 Well finally we got some good weather on the days which Catherine has off.  The first day Lou and Rafi came out with Catherine and I, the seas where calm but very dirty. When we first got out there there was maybe 15-20 feet of vis, which is bad for here. I often talk to people who dive other places and they think that is good vis, but we are kind of spoiled. The thing is the reef creates a ton of structure and although the fish concentrate in different areas, they don’t concentrate like they do in the gulf. They also don’t swim to you like the fish do in the northeast, at least most don’t.

We headed out and drove around in the green water for a little bit.  After a while we stopped burning gas and just jumped in on some shallow rocks, in around 20 feet of water. After a little while of swimming and seeing groupers which we are not allowed to take, we decided to just blast the hell out of the dozens of Spanish mackerel that were swimming around us.  It was actually a pretty awesome time. Shooting as fast as you can reload is a lot of fun. Sure the Spanish macs are usually only a couple pounds, and probably one of the least prestigious fish you can shoot but what other fish is available that you can just go nuts and shoot one after another of.  We shot and shot, missing , hitting, cutting up the real little ones to draw in the bigger ones. I saw one kingfish that came in on the commotion, but my gun wasn’t loaded so I got to watch him just swim away.  I shot a bonita which was a first for me.  Rafi got a photo, which hopefully he will send to me.

We moved around a bit but could not find fish, I shot a couple snapper and hog for Rafi.  Really amazing change since Christmas, when we were diving in 70 feet of vis shooting Blacks and big Yellowjacks.

20110105_reef-shark-day_3785 Then yesterday Catherine and I went out. We hoped to dive some shallow inshore patches but the water looked like greenish milk. We drove and drove, the water looked terrible. Finally we found a section of clear water about a quarter mile long on the drop off. It was the strangest thing: it was clear like 30-40 feet of vis, but if you went a very short distance east or west it turned to milk water.  I jumped in with Catherine driving and was immediately surrounded by yellow jacks.  I lined up and shot two at the same time. Both jacks were around 15 pounds each and the second one came off. I don’t think the spear had enough force to shoot through two fish that size. The next pass the bigger jacks stayed away but I shot through two smaller jacks at the same time. The two I shot were maybe 6-7# each.  Soon there was I think a lemon shark following me, then it left. Then there were no fish anywhere for awhile, and then a pod of dolphins showed up. I had Cat give me the camera.  The porpoises did not come as close as the first pass but I got a couple photos. Then we moved because the fish seem to disappear when the porpoises are around.

Next I let Catherine drift with the camera while I ran the boat. She has been trying to fight the ocean and make it through the winter wearing only a 3mm wetsuit, and she has been failing miserably. She is usually shivering and in the boat before even half the day is done. Finally today she wore the 5mm  and she was able to stay in the water all day. She got photos of bar jacks , barracudas, other fish. Then after we figured the current was light so anchored very shallow and swam together. It was fun to snorkel in the shallows.  I shot another yellow jack and had a couple reef sharks come in and then back off. One of the reefies was small but the other was very big for a reef shark and he looked bigger then me. I figured being the only person with the a gun, we should probably stick closer to the boat in case they got very fired up. On the way to the boat I shot another bar jack and the sharks appeared again. I wasn’t sure if they were the same sharks or what. Once I got the fish under control and in the boat, I just said screw it and threw the bonita from the other day in.  It seemed like sharks came from all directions, I counted 5 in all. The really big one didn’t show but another bigger one did, and bunch of little ones. The big ones seem much more scared of people then the little ones. After a little bit Catherine had taken so many bursts of raw  images with the camera that the battery died, so we left.

Slow Fishing

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

pa201723_0329 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.

Cold Water, Cobias and Sharks

Filed under Spearfishing Photos, Spearfishing Reports by on March 9, 2010 at 2:22 pm {3 comments}

cobia-day-042 Finally after weeks of terrible weather and water conditions we got a break and got to go out in the boat. Andy, Lou, Catherine and I headed out yesterday on Andy’s boat. We had uncertain conditions, so we hoped for the best. When we hit the reef edge we were pleasantly surprised with 25-30 feet of visibility on the main reef. We checked the bar but the vis seemed actually worse out there. When I jumped in, the water was cold, not sure how cold but too cold to be wearing a 3mm wetsuit in my opinion.  The first couple spots we hit kind of sucked, little mangroves, the occasional forbidden grouper, a couple of ceros, really not much in the way of fish.

Because of the weak vis we headed in a bit shallower, 25-35 feet of water and hit some big rock piles. When Luis and I first hit the water and cleared the first rock, I saw two cobia laying on the sand and yelled to him.  I got over top of one of them and waited for him to get over the other before I took my shot. Right before we dove down a big nurse shark swam through and spooked both of them.  Luis hit his mid water and took off in one direction.  I hit mine with a gut shot and it took off in the other.  After a few feet it tore off but the fish kept swimming along the rocks so I followed it, reloaded and shot it again.  This time it took off in the other direction pulling me with it.  Andy had dropped some flashers in and my float line quickly found them and tangled in them.  While I was cruising along , there were nurse sharks all over.  Then I started seeing other types of sharks mid water column, first a couple big reef sharks and then a bull shark, then a bigger bull shark, all swirling around me.  I then realized that the sharks were going after the flashers, and tried to untangle them.  I called for the boat but they were tied up with the other cobia.  I got the flashers untangled and the sharks backed away.

cobia-day-111 The next drift brought more cobia, and more sharks.  Andy shot a nice yellow jack and the sharks turned on like you hit a switch.  They went from drive bys to 5 sharks attacking the yellow jack at once.  After that the sharks would not let you shoot fish: they ate whatever you shot.  Andy shot another big yellow jack and the sharks ate it and took his shaft.  One bull got so aggressive that Lou poked him in the face with a spear.  On the next drift the same bull charged me and at the last second backed off.  I’m pretty sure my gun would have blow him away if needed but still, after that we dove kind of back to back, and the sharks didn’t seem to want to get near us when we were in a group.

The rocks we were diving were covered with fish.  In addition to the sharks and cobia, there where big schools of barracuda, some of the fish weighting 30-40 pounds, groups of big permit, and big schools of jack crevelles.  Even a big jewfish came out to see what the commotion was about, and nurse sharks everywhere.  In some spots there would be 3 or 4 nurse sharks just laying around next to each other almost in a pile.  After the action cooled down, we all realized that we were cold and headed in.

Page 1 of 212»