First Fish - Blackfish in Far Rockaway

[smellsfishy]

After having surgery on my shoulder 7 weeks ago, I finally rehabbed my shoulder to a point where I felt I could coax it into a wetsuit, so I went spearfishing today. I drove to Far Rockaway Queens which is about 35-40 minutes from my house. There's a small section of beach in the east rockaway inlet with a collection of rocks that many local divers dive. Here it is:

Google Maps

I got there just before 1 PM which was low tide, and my deepest dive was about 26 feet deep. Water temp was a surprisingly nice at 59 degrees. I dove a few times on the larger rock outcropping but didn't see any fish other than a small school of tiny 1 - 2 inch long fish. I made my way over to the second rock outcropping and on my 4th dive just as I was beginning to expect that the day would be a bust, a large blackfish suddenly swam across my path, in the second it took me to size him up and confirm he was larger than the 14" minimum he saw me and jerked, but I was quicker and shot him just behind his lower jaw. He was around 16-17 inches (I didn’t get an exact measurement). I spent another 45 minutes there diving and did get one other shot off on another large blackfish but I missed as my spear scraped a rock and was deflected slightly. There were some other smaller blacks that I saw that seemed to be around 12"-14" but I didn't want to chance it and shoot an undersized fish. All in all it was a good day.

Some pics:

http://photos-468.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v73/241/96/660580260/n660580260_427468_3964.jpg

http://photos-471.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v73/241/96/660580260/n660580260_427471_4709.jpg

 

[Ron S]

Kind of a cool looking fish. How do they taste?
Ron.

 

[smellsfishy]

Not bad at all. It's a white fish with a mild flavor. I've only had it once before and this one's still in the freezer.

 

[GreekDiver]

They taste really good. They can get up to 20+ lbs. I shot one 14 lbs in chesapeake bay which is big for the bay.

 

[roban]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience, and especially for the map. It's great to know about freediving sights accessible by public transit from NYC. Note to others in the area: if you zoom in enough, google maps (or google earth for that matter -- see the "KML" link on the map page) will show you the subway stops in the area. The A train stops quite close to this location.

 

[roban]

By the way, how was the visibility?

 

[smellsfishy]

The vis there is hit or miss. I've been there when it's 1 or 2 feet but I've also been there when it's about 6 feet.