SpearBlogs

Things I want to tell you about...

Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2009
Mon7Sep2009

September 5-7, 2009 (Labor Day)

Information
Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2009 | September 07, 2009 | Print

Seas: 2-4 feet (very sloppy)
Winds: 15-25 Variable
Temp: 86 F
Viz: 50-60 feet
We arrived Friday night to high winds and stormy skies and were worried that the weekend was getting off to a very rocky start. Unfortunately waking up the next morning to more of the same didn't exactly give us a lot of hope. We waited around most of the morning to see if the storms would finally clear up but it seemed as though the winds kept swirling with every storm front and kept the storms hanging around for a good part of the day. We ended up taking a chance and going out around 10a to see if the water was clean close by and if the current wasn't too bad (since high slack wasn't until 1p) so we could do a couple of drifts and try to pick up some bugs. At first, things weren't exactly looking up as we couldn't really make out the bottom in only about 10 feet of water so we kept moving on in spite of the looming storms. We kept moving staying out of the worst of the storms while looking for some more ledges that might hold lobster. After a couple of hours we had 5 bugs in the cooler and decided to head to one more spot before calling it a day. We weathered a very sloppy 3-4 feet of chop for about 4 miles to get to our spot only to find there wasn't much to see once we got there.

We headed back and had some lunch as even more storms rolled through. After lunch, one of our campgrounds friends offered us a ride offshore on his larger boat, which would be more comfortable, so we packed up our gear and headed out to the reef. The winds had laid down since the morning and although still rough, the seas were considerably milder (I'm sure the boat had something to do with it too). We started out with a warm up dive in about 35 feet since our friend mentioned that he had some spots in 50-60 feet but I didn't want to hit the deep water right off. After bagging a couple of nice snappers we moved on.

The highlight for me was when we jumped in a spot that started out in about 45 feet and sloped down into 55-60 feet where the reef ended at the sand's edge. The reef wasn't productive but I did enjoy dropping down to peer under some very attractive ledges. This depth is pretty much my current max and I always enjoy pushing my limits just a little bit. I wasn't sure I would be up to the task today as my head wasn't really in it. As much as I love diving, there are days that you're dealing with distractions and it doesn't really do much good for your bottom time. It was nice to be able to hit my limits in spite of my apparent lack of focus. At one of the last spots we hit, I chased a couple of nice cero mackerel (to no avail) and shortly after doing so, an 8 foot bull shark swam across the reef. Luckily he wasn't interested in me at all. After a while, it was getting very late so we decided to head back home to prepare our steak dinner since today hadn't produced any considerable amount of (picture-worthy) fish. We just hoped that tomorrow would be a little more productive.

Sunday morning was more of the same with respect to the winds blowing about 15-20 so we decided to do a couple of chores around the camper before heading out around noon. The winds had laid down just a bit so we stayed closer to home looking for lobster and hogfish because we had friends coming over for dinner. So today was more of a meal hunt than a trophy hunt. We did limit out on lobster within a couple of hours so we decided to head offshore in search of some more clean water and mangroves. On the way, we jumped in on two reefs that looked promising. Unfortunately for us, they were very nice to look at but didn't hold a lot of fish. I did manage to bag a couple of nice mangroves and gave my brother in law a hand with a black grouper that had picked a pretty good hiding spot. We headed back to the campground around 4:30p to make sure we had enough time to clean fish and start cooking before the guests started to arrive. The rest of the night was spent eating good food (if I do say so myself) with good friends. Not a bad way to close out the weekend. Sadly, Labor Day weekend is the official end of my summer so I will have to say ooodbye to my summer friends for now.

Old Spearblogs

Video Spotlight

Gallery Spotlight

Popular Videos

Weblink Spotlight

  • Riffe Spearguns

Spearviews

Spearviews

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Monday, 07 June 2010 08:53

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...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 30 January 2010 08:16

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....

SpearViews

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 - Sunday, 12 February 2012 23:29

{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...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:50

This review is actually long overdue as I've had this mask for well over a year now and I honestly don't know why I hadn't done it before now. After trying multiple masks over several years (and several hundred dollars), some were good (Mystic, Star, Nano), and some were bad (Zero Cubed). Before this, I had actually decided upon the Cressi Nano as "the one". I thoroughly enjoyed the fit and volume of the Nano, but there were a couple of VERY minor issues with the fit. I'm convinced that the...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 28 September 2013 18:22

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...

Spearblogs

Spearblogs

SpearBlog 2013

Bob Diaz - Tuesday, 28 May 2013 10:36

Seas: 1-3(am) 3-5(pm) Winds: 10-20 ENE (am) 20-25 ENE (pm) Viz: 30-50' Temp: 81F This week's forecast was calling for a fairly typical Memorial Day weekend, rainy and windy. But what were the chances that those charlatan voodoo witch doctors (more commonly known as meteorologists) would get it right this week? I've lost count of the number of times the meteorological evangelists promised wonderfully light winds and calm seas only for me to make the hike and arrive to find weather conditions...

SpearBlog 2011

Bob Diaz - Monday, 30 May 2011 17:06

Seas: 3-5 feet Winds: 20-25 S/SE Viz: 20 feet Temp: 81 F The forecast for the long weekend was promising, at least for Saturday. S-SE winds at 5-10 knots with seas 1' inside the reef and only 1-3' outside the reef, phehomenal. The outlook wasn't as great for Sunday and Monday, but we hoped one good day would be enough and besides, we usually get the hell outta Dodge early on holidays to beat the traffic so Monday didn't even really count, so we were hopeful as we pulled in Friday night and I...

SpearBlog 2008

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 15 June 2008 01:11

Winds: 10-15 E Seas: 2-4 feet (sloppy) Surf Temp: +/- 80F Viz: 15-50 feet (depending on location) We decided to play the tide game today and actually won! The last couple of weeks we were either busting our humps because we got to our spots too early (running into strong tides), or missed the boat altogether and still end up busting our humps in order to catch some fish in spite of missing the slack tide (this of course precludes the fact that we would still run offshore to some of our patch...

SpearBlog 2011

Bob Diaz - Monday, 06 June 2011 08:50

Seas: 3-7 feet Winds: 20-25 E/SE Viz: 25 feet Temp: 81 F There really isn't much to write about this weekend as it was yet another weekend spent holding or weighing down everything from the tablecloth to your plate once you had eaten more than half the food on it. As for the forecast this weekend, I'm not going to split hairs with the meteorologists. They forecast 15-20 E/SE and I'm reasonably sure the wind was considerably stronger than that (I honestly believe 20-25mph with frequent 30mph...

SpearBlog 2011

Bob Diaz - Monday, 18 July 2011 12:21

Seas: 1-2 feet Winds: 5-10 S/SE Viz: 40 feet Temp: 84 F After hearing from my brother in law all week how incredible the weather had been (SOB even sent me pictures), it was finally Friday and time for me to get back down there to shoot some fish for myself. With yet another late departure plus having to fuel up the boat on the way down after that week in Cat Cay (ouch!), we didn't roll into the campground until after midnight. It was probably 1:30 or 2 by the time I got the boat parked,...

SpearBlog 2010

Bob Diaz - Monday, 12 July 2010 19:22

Seas: 1 foot Winds: 5-10 W/SW Viz: 25-40 feet Temp: 83F This past weekend was great and horrible all at the same time. The winds were so calm that there were hardly any seas to speak of but the lack of any wind at all coupled with the extreme heat made it brutally hot when you weren't moving in a vehicle or in the water. Luckily for me, I try to spend as much time as possible in the latter. This weekend started out like any other so far this summer when the seas have let us fish. We wake up...