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SpearBlog 2018

Bob Diaz - Wednesday, 22 May 2019 22:18

Some things are just worth doing again and again. For us, that thing is our annual Pirate Trip to Grand Cay. For 4 years now, we've been lucky enough to be able to pull off epic annual trips to the Bahamas for the sole purpose of spearfishing. Our first trip was to South Andros , and as epic as that trip was, since venturing out to Grand Cay on our second trip, we keep getting drawn back. Maybe it's the accessibility, maybe it's the environment, maybe it's just a great time! Sometimes, the grass isn't greener. Every year, we talk about trying new places in the Bahamas, and although I know that some day we will travel to those other places, for now we're content, no exhilarated, at the chance to jump in those waters in and around Grand Cay.

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Bob Diaz - Thursday, 03 January 2019 10:28

Another long overdue edit, but what can I say? Life continues to get in the way of my hobbies... Check out the blog .

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Bob Diaz - Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:17

Finally got around to editing the footage from our first trip to Grand Cay back in 2016. It really sucks when what you have to do gets in the way of what you truly want to do. Who knows, this might lead to my getting around to editing all of last year's footage too! Check out the blog .

SpearBlog 2017

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 30 December 2017 00:53

Wind Seas Viz Temp N-NE 10-18mph 2-4' 30' 77F As 2017 was drawing to a close, I decided it was time to get back on the water and give it one last try before grouper season closed on January 1. With the Christmas break upon us, my kids were home and off from school, so we decided to make it a family day on the water (with the exception of my wife that was unfortunately at work today). Throw in my daughter's oldest friend for good measure, and we were off! The forecast wasn't exceptional, but definitely tolerable especially since all the kids had basically been raised on boats. So with my hopefully good luck passengers aboard we headed to one of my local spots that have been very productive over my last few trips and I was hoping for more of the same today.

SpearBlog 2017

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 05 October 2017 22:50

So for the third year in a row, we begin to plan our annual guys spearfishing trip to the Bahamas in April via What's App. The group is put together and the messages start to fly with talk about the great trip we had last year and how everyone can't wait for this one. There's talk about new gear and new training tools and regimes, but the one thing that we knew wasn't going to be different was the destination. It was an immediate and unanimous decision to re-visit Grand Cay near Walker's Cay once again. Although we all like the idea of new adventures, we were all looking forward to taking advantage of last year's experiences for this year's adventure. With the usual issues coming and going of who's in, who's out, which weekend, would we go Thursday through Sunday or Friday through Monday, there were actually a couple of times when the entire trip was in question.

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Bob Diaz - Wednesday, 24 May 2017 20:17

One of the few usable clips from our outing for the opening of the Atlantic Grouper season 2017. Definitely demonstrates why you should always be checking your surroundings. Enjoy! Check out the blog .

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Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2008
Sun1Jun2008

May 31, 2008

Information
Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2008 | June 01, 2008 | Print

Winds: 10-15  E
Seas: 2-3 feet
Surf Temp: +/- 82F
Viz: 5-10 feet
Got a little bit of a late start on Saturday. Thinking high tide was coming early in the morning, we decided to target the afternoon low tide. Unfortunately the charts were off by a couple of hours and in addition to passing up high tide for no good reason, we ended up swimming against an outgoing tide for about an hour and a half before getting a break. The viz was terrible at its best and most of the time you couldn't even see the fish until they just about under you. The only good thing was they couldn't identify you any sooner than you could identify them. The only ones that were extra spooky because of the viz were the groupers. They would barely give you a look and boom! they would head up current where I couldn't follow. I did end up with a couple of nice mangoes (check out this week's pics), but I sure wish I could have dove that morning high tide. I can't help but think that the water would have been somewhat cleaner (besides, I prefer fishing high tides anyway).

 

The one fish there seems to be an ample supply of this summer is the hogfish. Only a few of really considerable size, but tons of legals. We try to be as picky as we can given the supply and only pick out the biggest ones we see. I can barely remember the last time we actually limited out on hogs even though there's more than enough of them to do so almost every time we go out lately. We like to think we will get the ones we let go when they get bigger (what fisherman doesn't tell himself that?).

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Bob Diaz - Sunday, 10 March 2013 12:57

Back in March of 2010 I enrolled in and completed the FII Level One freediving course . I was extremely happy with the course content and the outcome (check out the SpearView ). Unfortunately for me, I'm not a professional freediver, so as with many people, life gets in the way and complicated which in turn keeps you from building a true regimen that reinforces all the good behavior learned in the course. Needless to say, I forgot some of the basics, fell back into many of my old bad habits...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 11 February 2010 20:57

Believe it or not my latest addition to my spearguns is not one for shooting fish (well at least not shooting to kill them). But it hopefully will help others watch online what I love to do underwater. I have made a camera mount for my Riffe Euro guns. This mount will fit on any Euro that has the reel inserts (basically all of them). It was terribly simple to make. The only fairly tricky part was putting together the actual mount screw for the camera tripod mount itself.

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 28 March 2010 18:32

Over the weekend of March 27 th & 28 th I took the Level 1 Freediving course offered by FII (Freediving Instructors International) at their Headquarters in Pompano Beach FL. FII was started by Martin Stepanek, a multiple time freediving world record holder. The Level 1 curriculum is taught over a 2 day course. The first day is classroom and pool based and spans almost 9 hours. This course is designed for beginning freedivers and is supposed to get novice divers to a depth of 66 feet.

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 23 June 2011 16:49

Over the 4th of July holiday I was able to break in my hawaiian sling made by HawaiianSling.net (Ray Uppstrom). I had purchased this quite some time ago in preparation for a trip to the Bahamas and I finally got to try it out in the waters around Cat Cay, South Bimini. This isn't your normal hawaiian sling. The design is completely unique and interesting in its approach compared to traditional slings. This sling is much more akin to a bow and arrow than it is to a regular sling and it looks...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 30 January 2010 08:18

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....

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Monday, 26 July 2010 15:11

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....

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SpearBlog 2006

Bob Diaz - Friday, 28 July 2006 15:14

Winds: 15-20 SouthWest Seas: 5-6 feet Surf Temp: 84 F Viz: 20-25 feet This year's mini season was a little different for us since we went down to the keys to find our bugs. We usually stay close to home to go bug hunting for these two days, but the last couple of years had been a little more than disappointing so we decided to shake it up a little. We did end up bagging our limit, but with the limit in Monroe county being half of the Dade limit, it sure didn't add up to much! We didn't worry...

SpearBlog 2009

Bob Diaz - Monday, 24 August 2009 01:00

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...

SpearBlog 2012

Bob Diaz - Monday, 18 June 2012 15:05

Seas: 2-3' Winds: 15-20 NE dropping to 10-15 SE in the afternoon Viz: 30-35' Temp: 82F "Third time's a charm", or so I thought... as I headed down for another shot at what would hopefully be my first "full" weekend of the Summer. With the boat in tow after working on it during the week to resolve fuel flow problems caused by the introduction of ethanol into our fuel supply (Thank you, big oil) I call ahead to have a friend turn on our A/C so temperatures are tolerable for our arrival. I get a...

SpearBlog 2009

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 29 November 2009 00:00

Seas: 1-2 feet Winds: 5-10 NW Temp: 72 F Viz: 50-60 feet I've actually been slacking off on the blogging as of late. I went out on two winter dives that I didn't blog about right away so I am cramming in both of them in one sitting. I am still going to keep them as separate entries, for the sake of maintaining the conditions separately, but just know that I have written both of these in one sitting, and for that I apologize. I make no excuses for my laziness :).

SpearBlog 2005

Bob Diaz - Monday, 13 June 2005 15:04

Winds: 15-25 East Seas: 2-4 Surf Temp: 82F Viz: 10-20 feet The weather just did not want to cooperate this weekend at all. Tropical Storm Arlene was wreaking havoc in the Gulf and we were feeling the peripheral effects in the keys as well. We dove in spite of the weather, but weren't able to take anywhere near our regular catch.

SpearBlog 2017

Bob Diaz - Monday, 13 February 2017 20:24

Wind Seas Viz Temp S/SE 7mph 2' 25-30' 73F Disclaimer : No matter what I do or write, it is NEVER a good idea to dive alone. I do know better, but I'm old and stubborn (no excuses, just stating facts). No matter how cautious I am with staying in shallow depths, watching currents and waves, it's extremely dangerous to dive much less spearfish alone. The possibilities for life threatening situations are too numerous to count, so please don't follow my very bad examples. Since October of last...