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  • 2017
Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2017
Sat30Dec2017

Dec 28, 2017 - They Don't Always End Up In The Cooler

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Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2017 | December 30, 2017 | Print
grouper, snapper, mutton snapper, key biscayne,
 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.

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Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2017
Fri6Oct2017

June 9-12, 2017 - Grand Cay, Grand Time - 3rd Annual Pirate Trip

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Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2017 | October 05, 2017 | Print
bahamas, pole spear, hogfish, nassau grouper, tiger grouper, Grand Cay, walkers cay, yellowfin grouper, pirates, Rosies Place

 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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Category: SpearBlog 2017
Fri5May2017

May 1-3, 2017 - Grouper Opening 2017 - Why are we the only ones out here?

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SpearBlog 2017 | May 05, 2017 | Print
speargun, grouper season opening, florida keys, marathon, 2017
 Wind Seas Viz Temp
E-SE 18-24mph 4-6' 5-15' 79F

The excitement for grouper opening started a few weeks ago when my brother in law and I started discussing our plans. There was talk of scouting on Sunday and taking Monday through Wednesday off to maximize our time on the water. We would connect with our friends Lazaro and Chris and we were hopeful that we would have a good opening like last year. As usual, we talked timing, accommodations and weather forecasts. After talking about it for about a week, Lazaro told us to forgo the logistics and stay with him as his place would be empty (with the exception of himself).  We gladly accepted his generous invitation.

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Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2017
Tue14Feb2017

Feb 8, 2017 - Hump Day Staycation Surprise

Information
Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2017 | February 14, 2017 | Print
spearfishing, lobster, hogfish, Miami, mangrove snapper, MIA032-17, Rubble Pile
 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 year, the weather has been pretty disagreeable, at least on the weekends. Week after week, I would watch forecasts that predict calm wind and seas for Wednesday but every week, those forecasts would turn ugly just in time for the weekend. So after suffering since October of last year and accumulating too much vacation time at work, I decided that the very next weekday that showed promise would be mine. As luck would have it, this past week had just one of those days.

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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 - 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 - Tuesday, 06 May 2014 02:55

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...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Wednesday, 08 February 2012 16:32

{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.

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...

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SpearBlog 2005

Bob Diaz - Monday, 29 August 2005 15:07

For those of you that don't pay attention to the news, thanks to hurricane Katrina and her constant refusal to abide by the National Hurricane Center's predictions, this weekend was not one to be anywhere in the keys. While the keys were initially supposed to be spared the onslaught of even a category 1 hurricane's fury, the keys like the rest of South Florida lay right along her persistent path. Our hearts and prayers are with those who are along this monster storm's latest path in New...

SpearBlog 2013

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 27 June 2013 17:34

Seas: 1-3' Winds: 10-15 ESE Viz: 45'+ Temp: 82F In spite of the lack of a blog for last week, it was actually a good hunting weekend as we found big mangroves on the patch reefs for the first time this Summer. In fact, I shot what was probably one of my biggest mangroves yet, weighing in that 6-7lb class. I didn't think it merited a blog though, since I got it on a make up shot because my brother in law had missed it and we wanted to make sure it didn't hightail it out of the staghorn before...

SpearBlog 2006

Bob Diaz - Monday, 26 June 2006 15:11

Winds: 8-10 South Seas: 2-3 feet Surf Temp: 82-83 F Viz: 20-35 feet (variable with the tideline) This weekend started out pretty nice. The weather was agreeable on Saturday to the tune of mild winds and very tolerable seas. On Saturday, we were able to head out to some of our offshore patch reefs and shoot up the mangoes with enthusiasm. We hit a couple of our favorite patch reefs and shot about 24 of the beautiful snappers, all in a very respectable size range. However, just as the dive was...

SpearBlog 2012

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 03 January 2013 18:27

Seas: 3-4' Winds: 10-20 ESE Viz: 30-40' Temp: 78F It's been a crappy year on many counts. Truth is, before the holidays I thought (or rather, I hoped) that the year of crappy weather, fishing, diving and the breakin/robbery at my house (along with numerous other stupid things going wrong along the way) was the worst of it. Unfortunately I don't think I could have imagined earlier this year how bad things could actually turn, but the unexpected and sudden death of my father in early December...

SpearBlog 2002

Bob Diaz - Monday, 27 May 2002 14:57

Winds: Variable direction (mostly northerly) 20-30 mph Seas: 1-3 near land and structures 3-5 inside the reef Surf Temp: +/- 78 F Viz: 10-25 feet Not exactly what I call ideal conditions, but you could get in the water. The water was chilly, for South Florida, anyway. You could acclimate to the water temperature, but after a while you needed a break. Viz was variable, depending on the tide, with low tides being the worst. It wasn't the typical rainy Memorial Day weekend by any stretch. The...

SpearBlog 2007

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 01 July 2007 01:26

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.