Wind Seas Viz Temp 5-15mph SSE 2-3 SE Swell 40-50' 86F The past couple of weekends were plagued with algea blooms and low viz thanks to the higher surf temps and a West wind that always seems to wreak havoc for us. But right around Wednesday of this...
rule. You see, we used to struggle with which direction to head in almost every time we would head out to the reef for spearfishing. All our bluewater fishing friends couldn't really understand why there was so much indifference (of course, why would...
and able to hang on to the rest of your gear). This past week we were fortunate to have some of the best diving and spearfishing weather that you could've asked for. Almost 7 straight days of less than 10mph winds from the SE to E and seas so slick you...
optimal to abysmal and we would be fighting wind and seas in our efforts to get back out on and under the water for some spearfishing action this weekend. Luckily for me, it was all in my head and the forecast stayed true as we arrived to nary a flying...
composites and wanted to do something to keep them all from getting marred and scratched when doing the bottom spearfishing that we do so much. If you only or primarily freedive, there's no doubt these skins will still look cool, but I was looking for...
Wind Seas Viz Temp ESE 5mph 1-2' 40' 81F This past week started out looking very bleak. Storms rolled through the middle keys pretty much all day Monday and Tuesday with torrential downpours and winds in excess of 30mph. It was so bad in fact that...
Wind Seas Viz Temp NW 12-18mph 2-4' 25-45' 79F This week was a "Boys Weekend" as all the girls and kids decided to stay home and we were hoping to get out for some offshore trolling for dolphin and maybe even get a chance to jump in and shoot a couple....
Legend: Mooring Special Zone NO Spearfishing NO Lobstering Sanctuary Archaeological Preserve No Fishing or Spearing D: Depth R: Relief Site ID / Reef Name Material / Description Lat & Lon D R Outbound 136' Trawler 25 13.01, -79 07.73 Ball Buoy Reef 1...
went back and purchased the Mystic which had been highly recommended by other divers as well as reviews in the spearfishing publication "Ultimate Spearfishing" in their comprehensive review of low volume masks (I don't recall the issue). The difference...
May 2, 2014 - Grouper Opening (the day after anyway). Spearfishing selfies are very hard to do especially in 4 foot seas and 20 knot winds! Still worth it. I got mine!
hands on the boat this week as a friend of my brother in law's was joining us for his first exposure to free diving and spearfishing and my nephew Danny was in town for a week after getting out of Naval Boot Camp before moving on to his next station....
and take the opportunity to kickstart this blog year. I actually hadn't been in the water (for the purposes of diving or spearfishing) since Labor Day (Sept 2013), so I was understandably (at least by me) anxious to jump at an opportunity to get wet. In...
mate (my son) has taken over the helm and doing a very good job of navigating the waves and keeping a good eye on his spearfishing old man. About now, I started to feel bad (both for the catch so far and for my family) about being out in these...
the office, I headed for home around noon. What can I say? The unfortunate circumstance that is work which subsidizes my spearfishing endeavors periodically becomes an obstruction instead of a benefactor of my pastime and unfortunately for me, this was...
more than we can ever say. So during this tough holiday season on Christmas night, I get a text inquiring if I'm up for spearfishing Alligator Reef bright and early the next morning. Of course my immediate response is a resounding "Hell Yeah!" followed...
Seas: 1-3' Winds: 5-15 SSE Viz: 15-20' Temp: 86F So this was supposed to be the weekend I get back to spearfishing after lobster season started last Monday. Since we had gotten bad viz reports from some friends that had spent the last week down in the...
enough is enough and head for home. Honestly, the rest of the week was lackluster as we finally decided to focus on some spearfishing and were continuously faced with either a lack of viz or a lack of fish (or both!). We did shoot some nice mangroves on...
a way you wouldn't have thought possible. I've been having a crappy summer when it comes to my expectations and goals in spearfishing, but I feel like maybe this truly was a corner turned and fun times lie ahead (geez, I hope I'm right).
The Summer up to now has pretty much been a non-event. The wind and seas were keeping the water so dirty that diving and spearfishing was fast becoming an exercise in futility on most days. But I kept hopeful that the weather couldn't stay bad for yet...
Type:
Article
Author:
Bob Diaz
Category:
SpearBlog 2012
Results 21 - 40 of 99
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!
March 4, 2023 - Key Largo African Pompano - Sailfish visitor
A video from a dive last week in Key Largo where my throw flasher proved to be exceptionally effective, so effective in fact that it brought in a special visitor that I never even saw until I was reviewing the video back at home! Stoked to check a fish off my bucket list with a beautiful 25lb African Pompano!
March 4, 2023 - Key Largo African Pompano - Sailfish visitor
A video from a dive last week in Key Largo where my throw flasher proved to be exceptionally effective, so effective in fact that it brought in a special visitor that I never even saw until I was reviewing the video back at home! Stoked to check a fish off my bucket list with a beautiful 25lb African Pompano!
After trying and being disappointed by the Omer Zero Cubed mask last year, I picked up a couple of other masks ( Mares Star and Sporasub Mystic ) that fit fairly well and did not disappoint, but were not the perfect fit I've been looking for in a low volume freediving mask so I didn't feel overly compelled to write a spearview about them. In defense of these masks, they are both low volume masks that are relatively inexpensive so for the money they are great purchases. Of these two, the...
This year at The Blue Wild I was fortunate enough to meet Mike Hickey. I know of Mike from his appearances on Speargun Hunter on the Outdoor Channel with Sheri Daye. Mike was orginally a guest on the show and 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 cost of spearshafts specifically....
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....
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...
I finally bit the bullet and decided to sell my No-Ka-Oi. It had gotten next to no use in the time I had owned it and it seemed a shame to have it just sit there so I Ebay'd it. With the funds from that sale, I invested in a gun that is a little more multi-purpose (at least that is how I convinced myself to get it :). I was extremely torn among 3 choices. I was considering the Euro 120, 120x and 130. After a couple of weeks of deliberation and a lot of flip-flopping, I decided on the Euro 120....
{sigplus link=goprohero2 index=1} {/sigplus}I finally jumped on the HD bandwagon and bought myself a Hero2 HD digital camera by GoPro. These little beauties have been around for quite a while now so hearing about them isn't exactly news. But since I finally got around to purchasing one for myself and it happens to be that the Hero2 is the biggest leap in performance that they've given these cameras since their launch, I figured I would put in my 2 cents worth.
Seas: 1-2 feet Winds: 5-10 SSW Temp: 85 F Viz: 30-60 feet When I arrived Fri night we started talking about what we were going to do the next morning and figured that this weekend we would pull split duty. One group would head offshore to go for dolphin and the other would hit the patch reefs and go for some of the more local fare just in case the offshore outing wasn't as productive as one might like. So the offshore fishing crew headed out before dawn. I heard them setting up in the wee...
I am still pretty much out of commission. My hearing has returned (most of it anyway), and most of the ringing is gone. I did get to go out this weekend. Unfortunately, I was only driving. But the conditions were as follows: The winds were gusting up to 35 MPH, and storms kept moving up from Key West through the lower and middle keys. It didn't make for a nice weekend for the land lubbers, but you could see bottom from the boat in water as deep as 25-26 feet. Considering the storms, the water...
Wind Seas Viz Temp NW 12-18mph 2-4' 25-45' 79F This week was a "Boys Weekend" as all the girls and kids decided to stay home and we were hoping to get out for some offshore trolling for dolphin and maybe even get a chance to jump in and shoot a couple. So we woke up bright and early Saturday morning to see who else in the campground was ready and willing to head out into the deep blue yonder. Much to our surprise, we were the only mice stirring that morning so we decided to drop in the big...
Wind Seas Viz Temp NW 5-10mph 1-2' 20-25' 75F It seems like once you break the ice of making it out the first time, all your subsequent attempts at getting out on the water just seem to come a little easier. So with another good weather forecast on the horizon this week, I started the calls on Wednesday to see who might be interested in another outing this weekend. After connecting with the usual suspects, my brother in law and I decided to go out on Sunday as the forecast was just a little...
This was an abosolutely beautiful weather weekend (If you're into flying kites, wind surfing, sailing or getting seasick). I really shouldn't be so facetious in print. Of course, the name of the site isn't windsurfing.com or crappyweatherlovers.com so I guess anyone who's not paying attention, gets what they deserve.
Winds: 10-12 South Seas: 2-4 feet Surf Temp: 83 F Viz: 10-15 feet Today started out a little slow, but we were rewarded for our continued effortrs by bagging some of our favorite and recently absent quarry, Black Grouper. Not just a Black, but a big Black , at least for this area (34 inches). We haven't bagged a specimen like this for more than a few years (actually, since 2001 ). We actually bagged more grouper today than we have for the past couple of weeks. The big one from above, another...
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