I am moving to the St Petersburg, Clearwater, Treasure Island, Tampa area in Mid July I plan on finishing my second degree and my wife will be a nurse there. I'm thinking about living in St Petersburg again, or maybe treasure Island area so I can have easy access to my boat, possible just leave it in the water 24/7 out the back porch. I'm wondering if I should ship my boat (14ft Dingy) over or if there are a ton of spearos that gather in the area, possibly a club. I could also pick up a cheap aluminum river dingy (tippi though) for cheap which would be a lot lighter. I have heard you have to go way out to get fish. I also remember the water in St. Pete as no visibility at the beach.
My spearfishing experience in a nutshell: I have been diving compressed for about 4 years if you guys use that in the area, but I assume not; I think it's mainly an oil rig thing. I have been spearfishing (freediving) for almost a year now in St Thomas, USVI, but quite a bit per week! I Trained and learned from Scott Moen a great fisherman who learned from some great guys in The Pacific Islands (Roda & Guam) and has done very well in some tournys there. I use a float line rig (never tried a real) and I don't scare easily with sharks, depth, teeth, etc. I grew up living in the water e.g. skiing, kayaking, cliff jumping. I usually swim about a mile to fish here, out to a point and back, but have a belly that I'm trying to loose
Or, we take the kayak over to surrounding islands and ussually swim a mile or two. I need work on my accuracy for smaller more ajile fish like makeral who are feeding and continue to try and practice on keeping my heart rate down. I try and keep learning all the time, e.g. hunting techniques, etc. I was taught a lot of saftey, guns while growing up, rigs, ciguatera, apnea, etc. I can build my own bands, rig my own guns; I've wanted to try a direct rig to my float line so the gun breaks free, for blue water fishing but have just kept it connected to the gun with the float line to the back of the gun bc the fish hear don't get over 30 lbs. I have played around with a lot of band and shaft sizes to understand it, I'm learning more and more about apnea in my Anatomy and Pysiology class as I am doing a paper on the respiratory system and diving. I have a 130 cm carbon fiber aimrite that I got at a good price from a friend, that I may take up to 3 bands if the fishing there is a lot of blue water, or might just make it and excuse to fly over and get an Andre and stop by Guam, but I think I'll wait and see how the fishing there is first. It sounds like a lot of sparse reef stuff on the forums, but maybe thats the east side. I have a broken handle on my 110" spora sub that I'm thinking about using to build a gun this summer.
Do you guys go in on gas and repair money for boat usage, rent charters, or is the club scene dead? Do I need my own boat or do guys go out every weekend? Do you dive compressed or free?
Where would you recommend living to get easy acess to a good place to leave the boat. Is it clearer toward Treasure Island or to the South? I assume St pete would be better than Tampa becuase you would have to drive all the way through the Bay, or trailer it to St Pete. I was thinking about living on that street/ HWY toward the "Don" Hotel that has a golf course and cheap condos that line the water ways, just before the toll booths, but I forgot how much the prices are. How are rental prices in the area now for a 1 bedroom?
Ok, enough rambling, hope to meet some nice spearos over there and look forward to moving back to the area after 8 years.
cheers
Josh
My spearfishing experience in a nutshell: I have been diving compressed for about 4 years if you guys use that in the area, but I assume not; I think it's mainly an oil rig thing. I have been spearfishing (freediving) for almost a year now in St Thomas, USVI, but quite a bit per week! I Trained and learned from Scott Moen a great fisherman who learned from some great guys in The Pacific Islands (Roda & Guam) and has done very well in some tournys there. I use a float line rig (never tried a real) and I don't scare easily with sharks, depth, teeth, etc. I grew up living in the water e.g. skiing, kayaking, cliff jumping. I usually swim about a mile to fish here, out to a point and back, but have a belly that I'm trying to loose
Or, we take the kayak over to surrounding islands and ussually swim a mile or two. I need work on my accuracy for smaller more ajile fish like makeral who are feeding and continue to try and practice on keeping my heart rate down. I try and keep learning all the time, e.g. hunting techniques, etc. I was taught a lot of saftey, guns while growing up, rigs, ciguatera, apnea, etc. I can build my own bands, rig my own guns; I've wanted to try a direct rig to my float line so the gun breaks free, for blue water fishing but have just kept it connected to the gun with the float line to the back of the gun bc the fish hear don't get over 30 lbs. I have played around with a lot of band and shaft sizes to understand it, I'm learning more and more about apnea in my Anatomy and Pysiology class as I am doing a paper on the respiratory system and diving. I have a 130 cm carbon fiber aimrite that I got at a good price from a friend, that I may take up to 3 bands if the fishing there is a lot of blue water, or might just make it and excuse to fly over and get an Andre and stop by Guam, but I think I'll wait and see how the fishing there is first. It sounds like a lot of sparse reef stuff on the forums, but maybe thats the east side. I have a broken handle on my 110" spora sub that I'm thinking about using to build a gun this summer. Do you guys go in on gas and repair money for boat usage, rent charters, or is the club scene dead? Do I need my own boat or do guys go out every weekend? Do you dive compressed or free?
Where would you recommend living to get easy acess to a good place to leave the boat. Is it clearer toward Treasure Island or to the South? I assume St pete would be better than Tampa becuase you would have to drive all the way through the Bay, or trailer it to St Pete. I was thinking about living on that street/ HWY toward the "Don" Hotel that has a golf course and cheap condos that line the water ways, just before the toll booths, but I forgot how much the prices are. How are rental prices in the area now for a 1 bedroom?
Ok, enough rambling, hope to meet some nice spearos over there and look forward to moving back to the area after 8 years.
cheers
Josh
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