Below follows a quick report on a day of diving the “fished out” waters around Miami, FL
My sister was in town, and always sees me post all these pics of fish slayed while on various diving adventures with my fellow immigrant spearfishermen, so decided she wanted to tag along and see for herself how it is done. My dive buddy JC (spearooo) was able to arrange a ride for the day with Jeremy(Mushkee), a young up and coming Miami diver with heaps of talent. So after being land locked due to unusually high winds for almost a month, we were finally ocean bound.
We left the dock at 6:45 AM on the dot, and headed south on flat calm seas with the rising sun giving everything around us a magical glow. The water was unusually clear, even while running down inside the usually murky bay. Our hopes were up high, and we were not to be disappointed.
Once we finished punching in some #s in the GPS we headed to our first point, a wreck in about 130ft. Upon our arrival the fishfinder lit up! JC and I excitedly slid over the gunnel in stealth mode, and were greated by 100s of schooling Permit. To make things even more impressive, there was a school of sharks aggressively feeding on them. Unfortunately Permit are illegal to shoot in Florida waters, so we took in the vista for a few moments and started our quest for for eligible species. After about 15 min with no fish in sight we decided to hit up one of the shallower reefs in the area. Once again JC and I were first over the side while Jeremy and my sister stayed on the boat.
Having been in the water no longer than a minute Jc points out a nice grouper to me cruising on the bottom about 55 ft below. He dives and starts his stalk. A passing cloud obscures him from my vision for a few seconds, and in that time I hear the distinctive sound of a speargun firing. I see JC bolt for the surface with a slack tag line and am greeted by a slur of profanity in all three languages he speaks. Nothing but some skin and gut stuck under his barb… All the commotion has attracted a large Cero Mackeral, and I line up and BAM. I nail it right behind the gills. The fish however manages to break free with a few powerful strokes of its tail, and leaves me with nothing but skin and soft tissue as well.
By now Jeremy and my sister have joined us in the water, and we start seeing more fish.
While swimming towards Jeremy, a school of Yellow Jacks comes in from the haze about 70ft away. I grab my disposable flasher I keep in my wetsuit sleeve and trow it in the water about 20 ft ahead of me. It seems to work, as the school breaks from its original course and heads towards me at an excellerated pace. A few fish break from the formation and investigate Jeremy. I dive down, and am overwhelmed bby the size of these relatively common fish. They all seems to be well over 20#s. I over analize the situation, and wait to long while trying to pick a trophy fish(they were all trophies) Finally I decide on one of the last fish in the school, and nail it… …in the ass. After a short but fierce fight he wins, and breaks off. Jeremy also managed to nail one, and the fish somehow manages to break his brand new omer real. Also with a poor shot, and no way to retrieve the lost line from his real, I dive down for the kill shot and stop the fish dead in his tracks. Finally, a fish in the boat. A 20# yellow jack.
We all get back on the boat and change locations. My turn to drive the boat and bond a bit with my sister. While towing th eother behind the boat to scout for new terrain, I notice Jeremy letting go, and pop back to the surface less than a minute later with yet another fish. A nice 4# hog fish. We decide to anchor the boat, and right away JC spots another nice Black grouper that bolts into a cave. He dives down and places the shot. From the surface I see a big cloud of silt com from th ecave, and JC pops up besides me asking me to place a back up shot. While diving down I see a grouper explode from the silt and head over the reef. Thinking this is the grouper JC just shot I give chase, and finally loose him in the haze… Damn those things swim fast.
It turned out it wasn’t the same grouper, and JC landed his nice 15# black grouper.
At the same spot while laying on the bottom stirring up sand, a curious Mutton Snapper comes within range. I take careful aim, not wanting to loose yet another fish, and nail it in the spine from about 8ft.
Anyways, I notice this is getting a bit lengthy, and not the quick report I intended it to be. I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking.
Hope you enjoyed the report.
Dive safe,
Gerald
PS.
Thanks for taking us out again Jeremy!
My sister was in town, and always sees me post all these pics of fish slayed while on various diving adventures with my fellow immigrant spearfishermen, so decided she wanted to tag along and see for herself how it is done. My dive buddy JC (spearooo) was able to arrange a ride for the day with Jeremy(Mushkee), a young up and coming Miami diver with heaps of talent. So after being land locked due to unusually high winds for almost a month, we were finally ocean bound.
We left the dock at 6:45 AM on the dot, and headed south on flat calm seas with the rising sun giving everything around us a magical glow. The water was unusually clear, even while running down inside the usually murky bay. Our hopes were up high, and we were not to be disappointed.
Once we finished punching in some #s in the GPS we headed to our first point, a wreck in about 130ft. Upon our arrival the fishfinder lit up! JC and I excitedly slid over the gunnel in stealth mode, and were greated by 100s of schooling Permit. To make things even more impressive, there was a school of sharks aggressively feeding on them. Unfortunately Permit are illegal to shoot in Florida waters, so we took in the vista for a few moments and started our quest for for eligible species. After about 15 min with no fish in sight we decided to hit up one of the shallower reefs in the area. Once again JC and I were first over the side while Jeremy and my sister stayed on the boat.
Having been in the water no longer than a minute Jc points out a nice grouper to me cruising on the bottom about 55 ft below. He dives and starts his stalk. A passing cloud obscures him from my vision for a few seconds, and in that time I hear the distinctive sound of a speargun firing. I see JC bolt for the surface with a slack tag line and am greeted by a slur of profanity in all three languages he speaks. Nothing but some skin and gut stuck under his barb… All the commotion has attracted a large Cero Mackeral, and I line up and BAM. I nail it right behind the gills. The fish however manages to break free with a few powerful strokes of its tail, and leaves me with nothing but skin and soft tissue as well.
By now Jeremy and my sister have joined us in the water, and we start seeing more fish.
While swimming towards Jeremy, a school of Yellow Jacks comes in from the haze about 70ft away. I grab my disposable flasher I keep in my wetsuit sleeve and trow it in the water about 20 ft ahead of me. It seems to work, as the school breaks from its original course and heads towards me at an excellerated pace. A few fish break from the formation and investigate Jeremy. I dive down, and am overwhelmed bby the size of these relatively common fish. They all seems to be well over 20#s. I over analize the situation, and wait to long while trying to pick a trophy fish(they were all trophies) Finally I decide on one of the last fish in the school, and nail it… …in the ass. After a short but fierce fight he wins, and breaks off. Jeremy also managed to nail one, and the fish somehow manages to break his brand new omer real. Also with a poor shot, and no way to retrieve the lost line from his real, I dive down for the kill shot and stop the fish dead in his tracks. Finally, a fish in the boat. A 20# yellow jack.
We all get back on the boat and change locations. My turn to drive the boat and bond a bit with my sister. While towing th eother behind the boat to scout for new terrain, I notice Jeremy letting go, and pop back to the surface less than a minute later with yet another fish. A nice 4# hog fish. We decide to anchor the boat, and right away JC spots another nice Black grouper that bolts into a cave. He dives down and places the shot. From the surface I see a big cloud of silt com from th ecave, and JC pops up besides me asking me to place a back up shot. While diving down I see a grouper explode from the silt and head over the reef. Thinking this is the grouper JC just shot I give chase, and finally loose him in the haze… Damn those things swim fast.
It turned out it wasn’t the same grouper, and JC landed his nice 15# black grouper.
At the same spot while laying on the bottom stirring up sand, a curious Mutton Snapper comes within range. I take careful aim, not wanting to loose yet another fish, and nail it in the spine from about 8ft.
Anyways, I notice this is getting a bit lengthy, and not the quick report I intended it to be. I’ll let the pics do the rest of the talking.
Hope you enjoyed the report.
Dive safe,
Gerald
PS.
Thanks for taking us out again Jeremy!
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