spot your boat. We didn't take any pictures this weekend because quite honestly, lobsters make for boring pics and the spearfishing took a back seat to lobstering this weekend so it was only a few fish that were really the bycatch of decent hogs and...
in, so we headed to some of our spots to the west of the lighthouse. While I didn't get any video or good pics of the spearfishing, we did end up limiting out with my brother in law landing one monster mangrove (with only two left before limiting out)....
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...
or how far you need to look to find that so-called lining. Usually, I will be the first to tell people that my worst day spearfishing is still a great day diving but unfortunately this weekend has stretched my belief to the limit. We went out Saturday...
reef. Unfortunately, as good as that sounds, it's not always the only determnining factor in having a good (or great) spearfishing weekend. Even though all the signs were pointing at another picture perfect weekend, we would be reminded that no matter...
that seeing that fish you've been hoping for has on your dive time. I tried my hand at the Aspetto (waiting) style of spearfishing too. Without all the stimulus of seeing fish I wanted to chase (much less shoot) I was able to consistently get my dive...
how much more money I need to spend in their stores) with my friends from Austin's Dive Center and Nautilus Spearfishing. In addition to the expo that lets you check out the latest products from manufacturers like Spetton, Omer, Riffe, DiveR and just...
and give me knowledge about freediving that I did not currently possess so that I can improve my freediving and spearfishing skills. We were fortunate to not only have our 2 instructors for our class, but to also have 2 of the students in our class be...
don't get a lot of Permit family fish because they are protected in state waters and we don't do a lot of federal water spearfishing, so at first glance I thought, "Who cares..." But after following the link and reading the article, I started to get...
or a video, simply put the camera in the correct mode, and press the shutter release... Voila! you're an underwater spearfishing videographer. Not too shabby if I do say so myself (so I will).
sometimes you get lucky, and you don't even know it until everything has happened. It was late in August, 1999. We were spearfishing a ledge that we visit from time to time. Usually we find a fair amount of grouper there. But we also know that this late...
water for and probably closer to the actual events than I would care to consider... It was the summer of 1997. We were spearfishing along the 7 Mile Bridge on the East side of Mosier channel. We had been in the water for a couple of hours already and it...
a try! I am also working on making my own flashers for use in blue water. I have been watching these being used on a few spearfishing shows and their reasoning seems sound for their success. They didn't seem too hard to make, so I decided to make my own...
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...
compete in any national or even local competitions. I really don't think I'm at that level (yet). I do, however, enjoy spearfishing immensely. I created this site and continue to maintain it in the hopes that someone who is thinking about picking up the...
for yourself and get acquainted because there were other changes too. I guess if I get to go out for some late winter spearfishing this year, I'll have to focus on some of the other dinner fare fish until May 1st. We can only hope that this change will...
huge catch, but I still wouldn't have missed it for anything. I've said it before and I'll say it again... my worst day spearfishing is still a great day of freediving and fun! So we'll just have to get 'em next time. And so, since this is my last entry...
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...
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...
It didn't take me long to finish rigging up the 120 with a new reel and 2.2mm dyneema line. Unfortunately as of now (Apr 2009), I haven't had an opportunity to get into the blue water to put this new toy through its paces. I am definitely jones'ing to give it a try! I am also working on making my own flashers for use in blue water. I have been watching these being used on a few spearfishing shows and their reasoning seems sound for their success. They didn't seem too hard to make, so I decided...
Believe it or not my latest addition to my spearguns is not one for shooting fish (well at least not shooting to kill them). But it hopefully will help others watch online what I love to do underwater. I have made a camera mount for my Riffe Euro guns. This mount will fit on any Euro that has the reel inserts (basically all of them). It was terribly simple to make. The only fairly tricky part was putting together the actual mount screw for the camera tripod mount itself.
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: 0-5 Seas: Less than 1 foot Surf Temp: 87F Viz: 20-25 feet Considering we had a hurricane pass through the area within the past 7 days, the water was not too bad. Viz was a solid 20-25 feet in most of the areas we dive. The fish were there, but nothing in the monster range. We had a solid day of shooting mangoes. The water was extremely flat so even my kid got to swim along with his old man while the rest of the family was on the boat. As my son gets older, I only hope he takes a healthy...
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...
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...
After a few years' absence, we were able to make it back to Cat Cay for a family vacation this Summer. Just like our last trip , we spend the week leading up to the departure stocking up with supplies to minimize our on-island purchases (even though there are sundries on the island, they can be a little pricey), weather-watching and double checking everything possible on the boats before that (hopefully) early morning crossing. The weather wasn't shaping up perfectly, but definitely better...
Winds: 15-20 Sat, 5-10 Sun Seas: 2-4 Sat, 1-2 Sun Surf Temp: 83F Viz: 10-20 feet Things started out pretty ugly this weekend. Saturday was blowing a solid 15-20 mph from the East/SouthEas. We tried to make the best of it, but the wind and the seas made it less than hospitable. Sunday was thankfully a different story. The winds laid down completely and gave us a chance to get some diving in. The water was surprisingly clear considering the prior days conditiions. We were able to bag a few fish...
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...