Feb 8, 2017 - Hump Day Staycation surprise So glad the new hogfish regulations haven't been implemented yet! Hogfish would be closed right now if they had been. Two nice hogs on the very first spot. Check out the blog
Feb 8, 2017 - Hump Day Staycation surprise So glad the new hogfish regulations haven't been implemented yet! Hogfish would be closed right now if they had been. Two nice hogs on the very first spot. Check out the blog
Feb 8, 2017 - Hump Day Staycation surprise So glad the new hogfish regulations haven't been implemented yet! Hogfish would be closed right now if they had been. Two nice hogs on the very first spot. Check out the blog
I was interested in. Nevertheless, she hung in there with me and we had a pretty good time while I was able to land a few hogfish for some fresh catch-of-the-day. By Friday (Day 4), Carlos is thinking that I'm bored because I haven't been able to...
in essence making it a $400 learning experience. Very soon after Jorge bags the first fish of trip in the way of a nice hogfish and we spend the next 45 minutes landing the rest of our dinner... a yellowfin grouper, a Nassau grouper and a few more hogs....
rest and nourishment and around 3p we decide to head back out to see if we can round out our catch with some snappers and hogfish. Unfortunately, the wind has picked up considerably by the time we get back out and the slop and soup was just too much to...
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 Spring... that is, up until this year. Life as we all know gets complicated and sometimes...
turned to a couple of small black grouper that are uncommon here. Unfortunately in doing so, I completely overlook a large hogfish feeding in the sand even after my brother in law mentions it to me as he swims up. I dive and land a mangrove, but...
brother in law lands a nice black grouper afterwards as we drifted with the current. We close out the day with our limit of hogfish for dinner and our black grouper limit as well. Sunday after striking out at #113, a spot that was incredibly prolific at...
even if we don't land fish when we get to the next spot. As I make my way around the reef, I see only small mangroves and hogfish that although possibly legal just weren't worth shooting. Sometimes spots with less activity are good because it gives me...
of us wanted to swim back to the boat to grab a tickle stick and a net). We also ended up shooting a few decent sized hogfish at this spot, so we decided to add a new Miami waypoint to our list. To this point, we had pretty much been killing time until...
for a big catch of my very own. This weekend we decided to catch the high slack tide closer in so we could stock up on some hogfish as we hadn't really focused on those much so far and the home freezers were getting a little barren of that particularly...
on the way out and back from fishing. So we put the bay boat in, load up our gear and head out with a plan to pick up some hogfish and then head out to deeper water to see if we can find some clean water like promised us by our above the water-line...
some time until the early afternoon high tide which we wanted to hit closer to the 7 mile bridge for some mangroves and hogfish. This turns out to be a good decision because after only few minutes in the water I spot what seems to be a legal gag grouper...
We close out the morning (which is now the afternoon) dive with a shallow dive around the 7 mile bridge to pick up some hogfish just for good measure before heading back in around 2:30 in the afternoon. After a snack and a few drinks we decide we would...
but worth it in the end as the fish seemed to be a respectable 14-16lb specimen. The day proceeded slowly with a couple of hogfish and snappers being bagged (not by me) as we worked the heavy seas for hours all the while looking for more grouper. It...
Type:
Article
Author:
Bob Diaz
Category:
SpearBlog 2012
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Gallery Spotlight
June 10-12, 2021 - 6th Annual Pirate Trip
After Covid-19 restrictions last year, everyone was itching to get back in the water this year. As always, an amazingly fun trip with lots of meat in the freezer to show for it!
After Covid-19 restrictions last year, everyone was itching to get back in the water this year. As always, an amazingly fun trip with lots of meat in the freezer to show for it!
After Covid-19 restrictions last year, everyone was itching to get back in the water this year. As always, an amazingly fun trip with lots of meat in the freezer to show for it!
The Summer of 2025 had been especially slow from a spearfishing perspective for me. I will typically be gifted with at least one mentionable fish from my spearfishing ventures each Summer in Key Largo. This year, I was really starting to give up hope on my perennial "mentionable" fish. Luckily for me, perseverance can pay off and on a lazy Sunday morning when I almost decided to stay on the dock, I got my gift! On my first spot of the day and only the second drop of the day, I was able to land my personal best (in Key Largo) Mutton Snapper, weighing in at almost 14.5 pounds!
The Summer of 2025 had been especially slow from a spearfishing perspective for me. I will typically be gifted with at least one mentionable fish from my spearfishing ventures each Summer in Key Largo. This year, I was really starting to give up hope on my perennial "mentionable" fish. Luckily for me, perseverance can pay off and on a lazy Sunday morning when I almost decided to stay on the dock, I got my gift! On my first spot of the day and only the second drop of the day, I was able to land my personal best (in Key Largo) Mutton Snapper, weighing in at almost 14.5 pounds!
I realized recently that I had overlooked the fact that I had purchased and used some new SpearGear at the beginning of the Summer of 2011 and hadn't gotten around to posting about it (here or in SpearGear). This article is going to be one that definitely crosses over between SpearViews and SpearGear because of the fact that I do own it but I definitely think it's worthy of a review as well. In the end, SpearViews won the coin toss deciding where I would put the article (especially after I...
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...
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...
The summer had been busier than I would have liked this year and I honestly hadn't had as many opportunities to post much less given much thought to writing a new SpearView, but after having time to really reconsider, I realized that I had actually had multiple opportunities to try out new equipment this year (not all of it successfully). Further to that point, when I took the PFI Freediver course back in March I had decided to invest in a new mask and ended up deciding on the Omer Zero Cubed...
{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...
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....
Well it's hard to believe but another year is in the books. 2011 definitely passed in the blink of an eye. I guess it's true what they say... time does go by faster as you get older. I think it's yet another application of Einstein's theory of relativity. I believe that it goes by faster as you get older because the amount of time that passes is shorter relative to your age. When you were 10, a year was 1/10th of your life. At 50, it's a mere 1/50th so relatively speaking it's a hell of a lot...
Wind Seas Viz Temp 10-25 ENE/Variable 3-4' 5-15' 78F In South Florida, probably one of the most anticipated and planned spearfishing outings (aside from those that take you to major global destinations) is the trip we make on or about May 1 of each year for the re-opening of Grouper season. It doesn't always fall on a weekend but when it does (like this year), the planning begins early. The season closure has barely taken effect on January 1, and we already start talking about how many grouper...
Winds: (Saturday) Southerly 30-40 (with incessent rain) Seas: (Saturday) Extreme chop, 5-6 (for as far as the eye could see) Surf Temp: (yeah, like I was going to find out) Viz: (Not sure, but if I had to guess, 2-3 inches) Another weekend of crappy weather. This seems to have been going on forever now. Winds were blowing 30-40 mph almost straight out of the south. The seas were milk. We had whitecaps in the marina! Needless to say, all we did was fix the boat (from last week's difficulties),...
Seas: 4-7' (some 8') Winds: 15-25 SE Viz: 10-15 Temp: 86F I've always told people that even the bad weather is better in the keys. Well it would seem that Mother Nature is determined to test my resolve on my declaration this Summer. This has been without a doubt the Summer plagued with the worst weather and viz that I can recall. There have always been times of bad weather as is the case anywhere you go and anytime of the year, but this year the wind hasn't let up long enough to allow the viz...
Sat 6/23 Winds: East 5-10 Seas: 1-2 ft Surf Temp: 82 F Viz: 20-25 ft Finally some weather worth diving for... The winds have laid down for about 4-5 days now and we are finally get back to business. The water is calm and a wonderful temperature too. We didn't catch a whole lot, but at least we got back in the water. Just the usual suspects today, black grouper and mangrove snapper. Still, it felt good to get back in the water after the last few weeks.
Winds: (Saturday) Variable 15-20, (Sunday) Variable 5-10 Seas: Light chop, 2-4 inside the reef, 5-7 outside the reef Surf Temp: +/- 85F Viz: 10-15 feet At least we were able to salvage Sunday out of this weekend. Saturday afternoon wasn't too bad, but the boat didn't want to cooperate, so we spent most of our afternoon working on it. It rained most of Saturday and well into the night. Sunday, we awoke to clear blue skies and calmer (not calm) seas. We headed out for a morning dive, and came...
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