All in all it was still a great day (no matter how horribly I was shooting) as my friend Adrian ended up with about a 10# mutton snapper as well as a 24" red grouper (he's really annoying that way ;). We held off on cleaning fish that day because the...
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 good reports about...
the video shot but I got the fish so I was still stoked. As I'm dispatching the fish and reloading my gun, I notice a legal mutton snapper has let his curiosity get the better of him and has moved in close to investigate what all the commotion is about....
follows that shot on the big one. The fact is that if it weren't for that very reel, I would have lost my personal best Mutton Snapper that I shot on my first Summer dive of 2010 (see May 22, 2010 - It's about time). But this new reel is the epitome of...
of chasing or mentioning so we kept moving West. After hitting a few spots, we had a Black and a Gag Grouper, a couple of muttons and about 15 Mangroves in the cooler. We had lost a couple of other grouper at one of the spots so we were determined to...
little less clean due to the constant wave action against the nearby rocks. There I saw a legal Black Grouper as well as a Mutton snapper that was probably about 10lbs, but missed the former and couldn’t close the gap on the latter to take a shot....
ear has pinched on me completely to where I can't equalize at all but we close out the day with our limit in mangroves, a mutton, 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...
the bunches. After a few mangroves, we ran into a couple of bait balls that had all kinds of fish in attendance. Mangroves, muttons, mackerels and more! We move on from spot to spot, each one taking us further and further west with the water getting...
started out a little slow but decent with a couple of very nice sized ocean tallies (grey triggerfish) and even a nice mutton. On a subsequent drop, Adrian yelled out about another large tally so I headed over to get mine (I had already lost one, so I...
have to move on. We finish the day at the Staghorn (see the video in the video gallery) where I'm able to land yet another mutton snapper. I think I've shot more muttons so far this summer than any 2 or 3 others combined. We get lazy today after a long...
spot a little more thoroughly. We arrive to find some decent clarity and the first thing I spot when I jump in is a legal mutton. So I descend and chase the mutton. Luckily this mutton doesn't make too many evasize moves and I'm able to bag her...
hit one spot in about 40' that looked extremely promising upon arrival but after a whole bunch of descents, I only had one Mutton to show for my effort. It's really tough diving repeatedly to 40' with so little to show for it. Especially when you aren't...
{phocagallery view=category|categoryid=16|imageid=268|detail=5|float=right|type=1}First stop, the spot I landed that big mutton a couple of weeks ago to see if the switch in the wind back to the East was successful in driving some fish back into...
in the area so it was nice to hang out and have nothing to do but chit chat about last weekend's weather, the mutton I caught a couple of weeks ago and the latest gear (more specifically, how much more money I need to spend in their stores) with my...
draw in any curious fish that may be in the area to no avail. I am just about at the end of my breath, when I see a large mutton come in to view on my right side. I decide I have a little more in me and descend once again to pursue this very nice...
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...
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...
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 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...
{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...
{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: 1-2 feet Winds: 5-10 S Temp: 88 F Viz: 10-15 feet My advance apologies for the brevity of this week's blog. Just not in a very literary mood this week, I guess. Luckily, it was a short weekend due to the fact that Father's Day was Sunday and I tried to head back home early to spend it with mine. Unfortunately, some people who are apparently guaranteed employment at the public works in Monroe County decided it would be a good idea to close down northbound US1 on the 18 mile stretch from...
I won't even bother putting up any stats about this weekend's weather because it would only remind me how bad the past 3 weekends have been due to the fact that the Atlantic has just remembered that it's hurricane season and we have had (and will continue to have for at least the next couple of weeks) tropical storms and hurricanes wreaking havoc with the seas and weather. After having one of the best visibility summers I can remember, it has all come to a crashing halt! From what I could see,...
Seas: 1-2 feet Winds: 5-10 NW Temp: 72 F Viz: 50-60 feet I've actually been slacking off on the blogging as of late. I went out on two winter dives that I didn't blog about right away so I am cramming in both of them in one sitting. I am still going to keep them as separate entries, for the sake of maintaining the conditions separately, but just know that I have written both of these in one sitting, and for that I apologize. I make no excuses for my laziness :).
Wind Seas Viz Temp NNE 10-15mph 2-3' falling to 1-2' 20-25' 80F Another year begins without an early opportunity for a foreword... As I get older (and grumpier) it seems like I get to do what I want less and less. That's not to say that what I do (soccer tournaments, band competitions, college days, work - ugh, etc) is less important or even that I would change it if I could (not all the time anyway), but these landlocked activities and responsbilities definitely encroach on the time that I...
For the past 20+ years my family and I have been heading down to Marathon during the Summer months for the purposes of spearfishing and family weekends. Over the past 15+ years since owning my web site, these Summers have offered me the opportunity to load up my site with blogs and pictures that have entertained me (and hopefully some of you) tremendously along the way. I have looked forward to my Summer escapades chasing mahi, snapper, grouper, hogfish and facing sharks and goliaths every...