Seas: 1-2 feet
Winds: 5-10 NE
Temp: 77 F
Viz: 50-60 feet
I had been watching the forecast for the past week to see if today would be the day that I get to jump back in the water for the first time since Labor Day. Last week, it was blowing a solid 30mph all over South Florida so I was a little concerned. I was hoping it would die down early and long enough to let the water clean up and get a shot at some dive time. After watching the forecast winds decrease every day over the past 3-4 days, when I saw 5-10mph NE winds forecast last night, I decided it would be the day. This day did not disappoint from a weather perspective. The winds were next to nil and the water was at most a light chop. I wouldn't even classify it as 1 foot, except it was a little choppier in some areas depending on the depth, so I upgraded the Seas for the purpose of accuracy.

The day started out with a nice leisurely drive down to Key Largo to borrow a friend's boat for the day. I got there around 9:30a and started unloading and loading all my stuff into the boat. A couple of mental checklists later and the boat was in the water and I was on my way. I had marked a spot back in March (the last time I borrowed his boat) and was anxious to see if it was holding fish this time of year because it wasn't in March. When I found this reef I couldn't believe that all I had run into was a couple of Cero Mackerels because this was such a perfect area to hold fish. There is vegetation, plenty of relief and plenty of spacious nooks for my quarry to hide in (hopefully not too well). I got to the reef around 10:30, but had to take some calls before I was able to gear up and get in. The water was not too cold, but I decided to stay warm and use my wetsuit.

I will say this, it is not good practice to go spearfishing solo (as I did today). There are a number of things you have to keep track of in addition to the fish and your breath when you do, not the least of which is your proximity to the boat, the time of the tide and your exhaustion level. It wouldn't take much to get separated from the boat and have the tide keep you from getting back to it. It is dangerous and I don't recommend anyone attempt this. You know the drill, "Do as I say, not as I do..." Enough with the disclaimer, on with the blog!

Within my first hour on the spot, I had bagged 3 nice Mangoes and 2 very nice sized Margates and I was feeling pretty good (about the catch). I had been in the water for a while, so I was getting a little tired and slack wasn't until 12:55p (according to the charts), so I took a little break and called a few friends to make them envious of the fact that I was there and they weren't (that really was fun). At about 12:45, I jumped back in...

The water had gotten a little dirtier, but I could still see the bottom so I wasn't too discouraged. I had been a little disappointed that I had not spotted any grouper on this reef (other than a 50-60lb Goliath I followed around a little bit). The tide had slacked up considerably so I ventured a little farther from the boat to see if I could find some more species of fish to shoot. I kept seeing decent Mangoes, but I was a man on a mission, I wanted to find a Grouper. A little more perseverance and a few hundred strokes and I was rewarded by sighting 2 Black Groupers, both of which I thought were legal. I quickly sized them up against each other and followed the larger of the two until she holed up.

With my first descent, I go to peek into the hole and I'm greeted by a Mutton Snapper. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I lined him up and before you could say "Cheese" I had a legal Mutton carefully nested in my wetsuit. The Grouper didn't get spooked so I breathed up at the surface and descended again. This time I was greeted at the entrance to the hole by a curious Nurse Shark that had picked up on the commotion with the Mutton. I would not be swayed. The Nurse kept circling back around so I had to be careful, but I was able to find the Grouper in the hole and get a shot in her. Before I could pull the fish out of the hole, the Nurse came up on my right side, no more than 6 feet away. Needless to say, I surfaced. Since I couldn't retrieve the fish or my shaft, I opened the drag on my reel and swam back to the boat to get a second gun.

I swam back to the spot, to find that the Nurse had wrangled my fish off my shaft and out of the hole and proceeded to eat half of my prize! I considered taking what was left of the fish from the Nurse (she had only eaten the head) when a Bull Shark in the 8-9 foot range approached very excitedly. The shark swam on through, so I hoped it would not return soon to give me time to retrieve at least my gear from the hole it was stuck in (I obviously decided to not try and retrieve the fish), but before I could do so, it came back again. Maybe it was my fight or flight instinct, but it looked even a little bigger this time around. Once again brains won out over balls and while my head was on a swivel while doing so, I pulled in as much line as I could and cut it so I could head back to the boat and back home. I lost my gear (at least it wasn't the gun too), but as my nephew said when I told him the story, "On the upside, you have all your limbs". What can I say, he is a college student :).