We close out the morning (which is now the afternoon) dive with a shallow dive around the 7 mile bridge to pick up some hogfish just for good measure before heading back in around 2:30 in the afternoon. After a snack and a few drinks we decide we would...
but worth it in the end as the fish seemed to be a respectable 14-16lb specimen. The day proceeded slowly with a couple of hogfish and snappers being bagged (not by me) as we worked the heavy seas for hours all the while looking for more grouper. It...
we figured time was short and we wouldn't waste it for wanting. After a quick decision to stay close in search of some hogfish, mangroves and more lobster and forego the reef, we were off. This week we thought we might have a little better viz because...
to see if we could land black grouper I had seen on my last visit there. The good news is they were able to land about 6 hogfish, a mutton and a red grouper within a relatively short period of time. The bad news is that by the time I jumped in the tide...
skittish which invariably led to my missing opportunities on at least one legal black grouper and a couple of nice hogfish. I was really starting to get frustrated. The seas were consistently keeping the boat outside of shouting range especially when...
that have been excavated by a slew of Goliath Grouper that have resided there over the years. We can usually find some nice hogfish and grouper (provided we can get the shot on them as they hide in the recesses of the ledges that surround this area)....
names - and it's probably best that way), a terribly shallow spot that we usually hit for lobster (in season of course) and hogfish with an occasional red grouper thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately the water here looked like split pea soup and...
things anyway! I'm hoping to get out in February to scout some new spots in the Miami area to see if I can find some good Hogfish and Mutton spots (since Grouper is closed) or maybe even get out for some more bluewater action. I've been hearing some...
on days like this. Once ready I jumped in and almost immediately spotted the first victim of the day. A beautiful male hogfish with his incredible dark brown markings was patrolling the edge of the coral heads I was searching so I moved in....
a better camera! We close out the day with a dive on the reef in 40 feet of water where we land a Mangrove and a couple of Hogfish to round out the catch. All in all it really was a very exciting day of both sightseeing and fishing even if we didn't get...
on the beach to fish about ¾ mile out in about 30 feet of water. There I was able to land a couple of nice Muttons, a Hogfish and my personal best Ocean Tally (Gray Trigger) along with a couple of other fish for dinner that evening. Wednesday morning...
a red grouper, a margate and some nice sized ocean tallies. Sunday morning we head out early with a full boat to go on a hogfish hunt since high tide is a little later this morning and high slack tide is always a good time to find hogs. I still feel...
like a reptile the way I was seeking out the sunlight to shake that chill. We hit one last spot hoping for some high tide hogfish but only found a couple (3 actually) worth shooting. Even though Saturday was not what I would call stellar from a fishing...
caps gave us signs that the day was pretty much done for us. When all was said and done, there was a red grouper and a hogfish in the cooler. Not exactly what you would call a bountiful trip. So we headed back home to spark up the grill for lunch and...
of our spots' names are best left untold). Historically, the Glory Hole has been a high tide producer for us with plenty of hogfish and grouper to its credit. We jump in and start spotting hogfish so we bag a few of these delectable edible fish while we...
The Summer of 2025 had been especially slow from a spearfishing perspective for me. I will typically be gifted with at least one mentionable fish from my spearfishing ventures each Summer in Key Largo. This year, I was really starting to give up hope on my perennial "mentionable" fish. Luckily for me, perseverance can pay off and on a lazy Sunday morning when I almost decided to stay on the dock, I got my gift! On my first spot of the day and only the second drop of the day, I was able to land my personal best (in Key Largo) Mutton Snapper, weighing in at almost 14.5 pounds!
The Summer of 2025 had been especially slow from a spearfishing perspective for me. I will typically be gifted with at least one mentionable fish from my spearfishing ventures each Summer in Key Largo. This year, I was really starting to give up hope on my perennial "mentionable" fish. Luckily for me, perseverance can pay off and on a lazy Sunday morning when I almost decided to stay on the dock, I got my gift! On my first spot of the day and only the second drop of the day, I was able to land my personal best (in Key Largo) Mutton Snapper, weighing in at almost 14.5 pounds!
This review is actually long overdue as I've had this mask for well over a year now and I honestly don't know why I hadn't done it before now. After trying multiple masks over several years (and several hundred dollars), some were good (Mystic, Star, Nano), and some were bad (Zero Cubed). Before this, I had actually decided upon the Cressi Nano as "the one". I thoroughly enjoyed the fit and volume of the Nano, but there were a couple of VERY minor issues with the fit. I'm convinced that the...
Over the winter I looked into and purchased a couple of sets of Reef Runner Gear's fin skins. I had contemplated having my own manufactured but when I came accross these, it just didn't seem worth the hassle. You can create your own custom design for a few bucks more and although you can run into some small snags when doing so (I'll elaborate later on), Jon from Reef Runner Gear is an awesome guy to work with and he will do everything he can to make things right.
{sigplus link=oculusr5 index=1} {/sigplus}Hot on the heels of my review of the GoPro Hero2, I felt I would be remiss if I didn't follow up with a review of the case that resolves the one (and only one in my opinion) flaw in the Hero2 design, it's underwater focus (or lack thereof) flaw. You see, as I wrote about in the Hero2 review the curved lens on the stock case creates a focus fallacy when shooting underwater. It's fairly common knowledge now, so if you want to read about it, you can check...
I realized recently that I had overlooked the fact that I had purchased and used some new SpearGear at the beginning of the Summer of 2011 and hadn't gotten around to posting about it (here or in SpearGear). This article is going to be one that definitely crosses over between SpearViews and SpearGear because of the fact that I do own it but I definitely think it's worthy of a review as well. In the end, SpearViews won the coin toss deciding where I would put the article (especially after I...
Over the 4th of July holiday I was able to break in my hawaiian sling made by HawaiianSling.net (Ray Uppstrom). I had purchased this quite some time ago in preparation for a trip to the Bahamas and I finally got to try it out in the waters around Cat Cay, South Bimini. This isn't your normal hawaiian sling. The design is completely unique and interesting in its approach compared to traditional slings. This sling is much more akin to a bow and arrow than it is to a regular sling and it looks...
{sigplus link=goprohero2 index=1} {/sigplus}I finally jumped on the HD bandwagon and bought myself a Hero2 HD digital camera by GoPro. These little beauties have been around for quite a while now so hearing about them isn't exactly news. But since I finally got around to purchasing one for myself and it happens to be that the Hero2 is the biggest leap in performance that they've given these cameras since their launch, I figured I would put in my 2 cents worth.
Seas: 1-3 feet Winds: 15-20 SSW Temp: 85 F Viz: 10-45 feet This weekend we tried to head out for some more of what we found last week and even though we did have some fun, we weren't able to find the schools of bigger fish that we were hoping for. We had to head very far east to find any visibility but when we jumped into the water in about 43 feet, we found some very nice diving for a while. We dove the area for about 45 minutes, but after only getting a single cero mackerel, we figured we...
Seas: 4-7' (some 8') Winds: 15-25 SE Viz: 10-15 Temp: 86F I've always told people that even the bad weather is better in the keys. Well it would seem that Mother Nature is determined to test my resolve on my declaration this Summer. This has been without a doubt the Summer plagued with the worst weather and viz that I can recall. There have always been times of bad weather as is the case anywhere you go and anytime of the year, but this year the wind hasn't let up long enough to allow the viz...
Wind Seas Viz Temp ESE 5mph 1' 40' 85F After almost another week of typical Florida Summer weather with afternoon thunder storms a possibilty on any given day, the wind started to lay down around Wednesday and the forecast really started to shape up for the weekend with calls for 5-8mph winds out of the SE and less than 1 foot seas. Of course my typical cynicism kept me thinking that at any minute (most likely on Friday afternoon) the forecast would flip from optimal to abysmal and we would be...
Seas: 1-2 feet Winds: 10-15 E/SE Viz: 15-25feet Temp: 82F On Friday once again, the winds and seas were cooperative and allowed us to get out for some more long awaited dive time. We stayed out west on Friday because we thought we had our best chances for clean water. We don't exactly get an early start as has been our habit this past week. We get underway around 10a and head southwest. We stop off at #67 to find that the water still hasn't cleaned up this close to home yet. In addition to...
Well, another year has come and gone. Some changes have been implemented for us spearfishermen this year, not the least of which is the closing of all shallow water grouper from Jan 19, 2010 through April 30, 2010. If you want to read more about the reasons behind the closing, check out this article . In future years, the closing is scheduled to begin Jan 1 (instead of 19th like this year). The closing includes pretty much every grouper species with the only exceptions being the Snowy, Warsaw...
Winds: 5-10 South Seas: 1-2 feet (maximum) Surf Temp: +/- 80F Viz: 15-25 feet The viz was about as good as it was last weekend, but the important thing is... NO BULL SHARKS! It sure was nice to be able to actually shoot more than 1 or 2 fish before having to move to another location. We took our time picking out the best of the schools and ended up shooting a couple of really nice mangoes and hogs. We've been going more for quality than quantity lately and it has been very gratifying. The...
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