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...
April 19, 2024 - Shooting and landing a pair of African Pompanos (in 10 minutes or less) - Spearfishing Key Largo
This Spring day in April started out slow but ended up being one of my best days when I happened across this pair of African Pompanos in uncharacteristically shallow water. This video is practically unedited as the title suggests. Spring time is definitely THE time for AP's in the upper keys.
April 19, 2024 - Shooting and landing a pair of African Pompanos (in 10 minutes or less) - Spearfishing Key Largo
This Spring day in April started out slow but ended up being one of my best days when I happened across this pair of African Pompanos in uncharacteristically shallow water. This video is practically unedited as the title suggests. Spring time is definitely THE time for AP's in the upper keys.
Throughout my relatively short history in spearfishing (as of this writing), I have only used a few different spearguns. Now obviously, my opinion in this matter is not one of extreme trial and error. Mostly it consists of recommendations made to me by those I spearfish with along with some of my own common sense. In the beginning (early 1990's), I used one of my brother-in-law's extra guns. Specifically, a 38" Arbalette. Now this gun had already seen finer days by the time I started using it....
{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.
This year at The Blue Wild I was fortunate enough to meet Mike Hickey. I know of Mike from his appearances on Speargun Hunter on the Outdoor Channel with Sheri Daye. Mike was orginally a guest on the show and in later seasons participated as an underwater videographer. Mike is the USA distributor for FreeDivers ( FreeDivers USA ) spearfishing equipment. I came across his booth and after a great conversation about spearfishing, we started discussing the rising cost of spearshafts specifically....
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...
After trying and being disappointed by the Omer Zero Cubed mask last year, I picked up a couple of other masks ( Mares Star and Sporasub Mystic ) that fit fairly well and did not disappoint, but were not the perfect fit I've been looking for in a low volume freediving mask so I didn't feel overly compelled to write a spearview about them. In defense of these masks, they are both low volume masks that are relatively inexpensive so for the money they are great purchases. Of these two, the...
{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...
Winds: 5-10 variable (except for Monday) Seas: 1-2 feet Surf Temp: +/- 85F Viz: 15-25 feet Definitely better than our typical Memorial Day weekend weather. While Memorial Day is usually a pretty rainy weekend, this year the rainfall was confined to inland showers, and left us pretty much alone. The viz wasn't what we would have liked, but at least the weather was agreeable.
Wind Seas Viz Temp NW 5-10mph 1-2' 20-25' 75F The winds had been incessant all through April and as May came around there was no end in sight. Throughout the month, everyone was landlocked and cabin fever was setting in with the fishermen I knew (and liquor stores were running low). So as the forecast for Memorial Day kept looking so good, there were 3 factions: 1) those that didn't believe it (Memorial Day historically has bad weather), 2) those that would sell their Grandmothers to get out...
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: Sat - 1-2' Winds: Sat - 5-10 SW Viz: Sat - 15-20' Temp: Sat - 84 F I can't say I wasn't a little worried since the week before I finally get away for some time off after months of dealing with work responsibilities and a host of other distractions was more than a little frought with high winds and rain that pretty much kept most of South Florida under constant siege from foul weather. I had been looking forward to this week with so much anticipation. The Summer up to now has pretty much...
Winds: 10-15 SE Seas: 2-4 feet (sloppy) Surf Temp: +/- 80F Viz: 25-60 feet Saturday was pretty much a wash for me due to the fact that I had to pull an all nighter on Friday and didn't get to show up on Saturday until about 3:30 in the afternoon. But after downing 6 or 7 beers and laying down early to get a full night's rest that night, I hoped Sunday was the beginning of a better weekend. Unfortunately, I was wrong, my brother-in-law was sick with a flu so it made it a little hard to get him...
Winds were 2-5 out of the East. Seas were for all intents and purposes flat. Unfortunately, in the area of Marathon and Big Pine Keys, the water was extremely dirty. Actually, it looked to me like an algae bloom. The temperatures have been inordinately high lately and with a little bit of rain, these things can happen. In depths as shallow as 25 feet, the bottom was nearly unidentifiable. You could still spearfish, you just had to use a lot more bottom time just in the hunt. You also had to...
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