July 25, 2021 - Finally, a break in the weather After an incredibly windy May and June with what seemed to be permanent 15-20kt winds, I was finally able to take advantage of a calm day and get out for some dinner.
as productive as I wished I was but just as I miss the lionfish and my spearshaft strikes a rock behind it, a large mangrove snapper darts out and begins to circle. This is quite honestly the largest mangrove I've seen in the Miami area in a very long...
The question came up as to it's table-fare worthiness, but I explained that this fish had meat much like that of a mangrove snapper, although they typically have to get larger than mangroves to get good size filets. Nonetheless, it was in the cooler. As...
Wind Seas Viz Temp 5-15mph SSE 2-3 SE Swell 40-50' 86F The past couple of weekends were plagued with algea blooms and low viz thanks to the higher surf temps and a West wind that always seems to wreak havoc for us. But right around Wednesday of this...
Wind Seas Viz Temp 5-10 SSE 1-3' 25-55' 85F Many times I get asked the question, "How many fish have you lost to sharks?" and I always find it interesting how people that don't dive or spearfish frequently automatically associate what we do with sharks...
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...
Wind Seas Viz Temp ESE 5mph 1-2' 40' 81F This past week started out looking very bleak. Storms rolled through the middle keys pretty much all day Monday and Tuesday with torrential downpours and winds in excess of 30mph. It was so bad in fact that...
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...
Legend: Mooring Special Zone NO Spearfishing NO Lobstering Sanctuary Archaeological Preserve No Fishing or Spearing D: Depth R: Relief Site ID / Reef Name Material / Description Lat & Lon D R Outbound 136' Trawler 25 13.01, -79 07.73 Ball Buoy Reef 1...
Wind Seas Viz Temp NW 5-10mph 1-2' 20-25' 75F It seems like once you break the ice of making it out the first time, all your subsequent attempts at getting out on the water just seem to come a little easier. So with another good weather forecast on the...
Seas: 2-3' Winds: SSW 10-15 Viz: 25-40' Temp: 82F After yet another weekend with a minimal breakdown on the boat (just remember, BOAT=Break Out Another Thousand), I head down this weekend trying really hard to remember why I do this. After all, the...
it free and surface with all my gear in tact. The day would end with a modest take of schoolmasters, yellowtail and mangrove snappers but it would be enough for dinner so we head home as the light of day just starts to dim. Sunday was more of a scouting...
Seas: 1-3' Winds: 10-15 SSE Viz: 20-35' Temp: 86F (82F Thermocline @ 40') Well, it's been one of those years. The times we have calm seas, we get no viz. The times we have viz, the seas are rough or the fish are nowhere to be found. Saturday morning,...
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...
Seas: 2-3' Winds: 15-20 NE dropping to 10-15 SE in the afternoon Viz: 30-35' Temp: 82F "Third time's a charm", or so I thought... as I headed down for another shot at what would hopefully be my first "full" weekend of the Summer. With the boat in tow...
of that spot or the usual suspects in the area, we left with only a yellow jack, a cero mackerel, a yellowtail and a mangrove snapper to show for it. But we would not be dismayed... (at least not yet anyway). Eastward ho we headed in search of cleaner...
Seas: 2-3 feet Winds: 10-15 S/SE Viz: 50+ feet Temp: 84 F After spending nearly a week in Cat Cay, most people would have been satisfied to get home and vegetate for the rest of the weekend. But truth be told, I've never been lumped in with "most...
Seas: 1-3 feet Winds: 10-15 S/SE Viz: 45 feet Temp: 84 F Don't get me wrong. Regardless of my title for this article, I wouldn't trade the worst weekend in the keys for one sitting at home. And it wasn't the weather or the fishing but the fact that my...
Seas: 1-4 feet Winds: 10-15 S/SE Viz: 25-30 feet Temp: 84 F After last weekend and the good luck we had with finding the large mangroves, we decided early on that this weekend we would focus on doing more of the same as we talked during the week. We...
My final dive of 2011 out of Miami and my first time ever seeing a Ribbon Fish (had to look that one up). I got a little tired of seeing this as one of my only 480p videos on the channel so I remastered it in 4K. Original footage is 1080 so there was a little upscaling involved, but I think it was worth it.
My final dive of 2011 out of Miami and my first time ever seeing a Ribbon Fish (had to look that one up). I got a little tired of seeing this as one of my only 480p videos on the channel so I remastered it in 4K. Original footage is 1080 so there was a little upscaling involved, but I think it was worth it.
{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...
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...
Over the weekend of March 27 th & 28 th I took the Level 1 Freediving course offered by FII (Freediving Instructors International) at their Headquarters in Pompano Beach FL. FII was started by Martin Stepanek, a multiple time freediving world record holder. The Level 1 curriculum is taught over a 2 day course. The first day is classroom and pool based and spans almost 9 hours. This course is designed for beginning freedivers and is supposed to get novice divers to a depth of 66 feet.
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....
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...
This past weekend, I finally got to go to The Blue Wild dive expo. After 3 years of everybody telling me about it and not being around to get to go to it, the stars finally aligned and I was able to check it out. Unfortunately, it meant missing out on 5-10mph winds and less than 1' seas inside the reef, but there were other reasons I couldn't get out this weekend, so I figured I would take advantage to check it out and possibly win something from the raffle to boot (I won't keep you in...
Winds: 5-20 South Seas: 3-5 feet Surf Temp: 83 F Viz: 5-10 feet The weather pattern was almost identical to last weekend! Saturday was turbulent and dirty with winds picking up the seas to a steady 3-5 feet on Saturday. But Sunday was even cleaner than last week. Not only that, but the winds laid down and the seas were flat. Even my son was able to hang with us in the water for most of the day without taking in any water through his snorkel. All in all, Sunday was a beautiful day of both...
Winds: S 5 Seas: 1-2 ft Surf Temp: 86 F Viz: 35-40 ft Saturday was not a good day... I mean, the weather was fine but I just wasn't having a good day. We went back to a spot we had found the week before in about 40-42 feet of water. Last week the viz was absolutely incredible, but unfortunately so was the current. We were fighting what felt to me like a 2-3 knot current. It was an incredible amount of work just to stay put. We spotted about a 10-12 lb mutton but the second I broke the surface...
Preface : This is a particularly long blog that I wrote for reasons of personal recollection and has very little spearfishing content. What can I say? Ownership has it’s privileges. My first crossing to Bimini, Cat Cay to be specific, and what a day we pick to do it. After planning and weather watching for the past few weeks (quite the exercise in futility as it turns out), hoping for a smooth crossing, prayers were answered, unfortunately they must have been someone else’s prayers because I...
Seas: 1-3' Winds: 10-15 SSE Viz: 20-35' Temp: 86F (82F Thermocline @ 40') Well, it's been one of those years. The times we have calm seas, we get no viz. The times we have viz, the seas are rough or the fish are nowhere to be found. Saturday morning, with the entire family on board, we decided to head out West without hesitation hoping we could find more of some of the snappers we had found a few weeks ago (even though that wasn't even all that much). We had hit a few spots back then that had...
Winds: See report below Seas: See report below Surf Temp: +/- 85F Viz: See report below Well, our vacation was a little less than cooperative this year. Both mechanically, and meteorlogically. The weather started out fantastic. July 3-7 (the weekend), was actually extremely favorable. Winds 5-10, Seas 1-3, Viz was in the 20-50 foot range, depending on the particular location, but overall, very favorable. Unfortunately, Sunday had to come... It started to rain on Sunday night, winds picked up....
Unfortunately, right after starting this conditions journal, I have experienced a small setback. I am suffering from an inner ear problem which currently prohibits me from spearfishing. I will probably be out of commission for a couple of weeks (at least). But I guess it's worth it. I'm pretty stone cold deaf in my right ear, and the ringing is enfuriating. Hopefully I will be back in the water soon.
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