Home Tournaments Calendar Weather Merchandise Sponsors

Go Back   Spearboard.com - The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Boating Social Media Forum > United States Geographical Locations > Florida Gulfcoast Spearfishing

Florida Gulfcoast Spearfishing Post here to discuss regional action or issues about spearing on Florida's Gulfcoast.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 03-20-2021, 07:48 AM   #1
Dbrown
Registered User
 
Dbrown's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: West Coast FL
Posts: 604
March 14, 2021 trip

Was a beautiful weekend. Fished all day Sat light tackle targeting Hogs and Tripletail. Never caught a one! Got one unlucky King on the flatline. Only hit all day and resulted in a landing. Saw one tripletail while running traps, but too small. Did see only my 2nd, and Jason's first, leatherback turtle. So that was great! Caught about 100 small fish in between, so that was a nice Sat.

Filled the cooler on Sunday with boat limit of mangrove snapper, 3 hogs, 3 red grouper, and a dozen or so sheep head. Top to bottom viz in 50'. 66 degrees. Solid current. Did 6 dives. One very curious sandbar when we came in shallow to 30'.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_3130.jpg
Views:	106
Size:	136.2 KB
ID:	246782  
Dbrown is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2021, 11:10 AM   #2
grey2112
Registered User
 
grey2112's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New Port Richey FL
Posts: 1,984
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

Hey, Dave! Hope you are doing well - after the year we have both had at our jobs, I think we are owed some great diving this year. Thanks for sharing the vids.
grey2112 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2021, 09:52 PM   #3
Dbrown
Registered User
 
Dbrown's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: West Coast FL
Posts: 604
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

All good. Agreed on needing thos calm days to get offshore and enjoy the expansive viewing selections of large, free-range gag groupers! Even saw some small black groupers inside of 50'. Glad you liked the videos. Yeah, I like to yell at the sharks. My bark is pretty innocuous compared to their bite though! Most lengthy conversation was with that Hammer last year when I was with my daughter. I made up some new words!! Bit more profane and less fancy than say, "innocuous".
Dbrown is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2021, 09:31 AM   #4
grey2112
Registered User
 
grey2112's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New Port Richey FL
Posts: 1,984
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dbrown View Post
All good. Agreed on needing thos calm days to get offshore and enjoy the expansive viewing selections of large, free-range gag groupers! Even saw some small black groupers inside of 50'. Glad you liked the videos. Yeah, I like to yell at the sharks. My bark is pretty innocuous compared to their bite though! Most lengthy conversation was with that Hammer last year when I was with my daughter. I made up some new words!! Bit more profane and less fancy than say, "innocuous".
Heh heh - yeah, I thought those were some new words!

Oooooo - black grouper! My favorite.
grey2112 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2021, 02:59 PM   #5
jfjf
.
 
jfjf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Palm Bch County
Posts: 11,256
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

Enjoyed the videos. The first videos of Kevin B. spearing that I have seen. He seemed a good bit more relaxed about that shark than I think I would be.

Interesting to see that it appears that both of you "wear your stringer" clipped off while diving. The HH guys don't seem to ever do that (with fish). When I use a stringer, I normally wear it as well.
jfjf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2021, 03:41 PM   #6
Dbrown
Registered User
 
Dbrown's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: West Coast FL
Posts: 604
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

VERY relaxed! LOL! More like didn't care hardly at all it would seem. He didn't even look around for it. I already had shot a bunch of fish on my previous dives, so I was fine running interference for him, not that he needed it. I wanted to get out of there and go find some Hogfish!
It's a real privilege to dive and shoot with Kevin. I've learned a lot from him, yet he's still forgotten more than I will ever know when it comes to Spearfishing and gun production. I help in the shop periodically when not diving if he needs me.

As far as stringer clipped off, Kevin and Dan may differ a bit on that practice. Kevin teaches he'd rather have the stringer clipped off to him and that shark would have to deal with him to get it. Thought being most all sharks won't. They don't want to get too close to something as unnatural as a bubble blowing noisy scuba diver. I've only had one shark bite my stringer while attached to me. And it was a nurse shark. My buddy got a kick out of it while I beat on the nurse shark as hard as I could until it finally let go and coasted off like nothing happened. Some divers leave their stringer and/or their well speared fish on the bottom and continue to hunt. Fish are curious and may come in to take a look. Dan always seem to nab another gag with that practice. I usually get triggerfish or large ARS when they are closed. The risk is the stringer or spear may not be there when you return. Shark or Goliath. I had to go run my spear down along with most of my snapper from a sandbar last year.

But those guys are welcome to speak for themselves on it. I'm just regurgitating what they both have taught me!
Dbrown is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2021, 11:05 PM   #7
Spear One
Retired Comm. Shooter
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Largo, Florida
Posts: 5,140
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

Quote:
Originally Posted by jfjf View Post
Enjoyed the videos. The first videos of Kevin B. spearing that I have seen. He seemed a good bit more relaxed about that shark than I think I would be. Interesting to see that it appears that both of you "wear your stringer" clipped off while diving. The HH guys don't seem to ever do that (with fish). When I use a stringer, I normally wear it as well.
Any underwater photos or video of me is rare as I historically dove alone. I got back into diving in May of 2016 after taking a 10 year break and a few of the guys I dive with (like David) wear a GoPro and now I sometimes end up on video when I dive with one of them.

That shark was a pregnant female Sandbar and she was not displaying any predatory/aggressive body language so I was content just to keep an eye on her. However, on that last pass she swam right up to us and although she was still not behaving aggressively, I decided she was getting a little too friendly. Although you could not see it on the video, I decided to get a little aggressive with her and show her who the real boss was. I let her get about 15ft off the end of my gun and I bounced a Freeshaft off the base her dorsal fin. I only shoot one band on my gun and that distance ensured the shaft would not penetrate or injure her in any way but would let her know that what she sensed might be a feeding opportunity was anything but. As soon as she felt that shaft she bolted away and she never returned. I only take a fatal response on a shark when I feel my personal safety is definitely in jeopardy.

When it comes to carrying a stringer of fish there really isn’t a right or wrong way to do it. Everyone needs to do their research, talk to other divers in your area, assess the risks, and decide for themselves what is and isn’t and acceptable level of risk. Dan told me he doesn’t clip his stringer because he has had some very "up close and dangerous" encounters with sharks. Myself, I have clipped hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish to my waist throughout my 40 year diving career and have never had a serious issue with a shark. Maybe I have just been lucky and managed to beat the odds.

However, given the current uptick in aggressive shark behavior, I am giving very little latitude to sharks displaying aggressive body language. There has been minimal commercial shark fishing for the past 15 or 20 years and we are now seeing the repercussions of that. Diving and spearfishing has inherent risks.....that’s the reality. You have to do what makes you comfortable, regardless of what I, or anyone else may do.
__________________
Ocean Rhino Spearguns: Designed & Built By Commercial Spearfishermen

Manufactured By: Spearfishing Specialties (727)-548-7686

E-mail: oceanrhino@gmail.com Web: OceanRhino.com

Last edited by Spear One; 03-24-2021 at 08:09 AM.
Spear One is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-23-2021, 04:35 AM   #8
diverlen
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Tequesta, FL
Posts: 1,191
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

Very well said
diverlen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-23-2021, 08:02 AM   #9
CuzzA
Registered User
 
CuzzA's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Palm Harbor, FL
Posts: 953
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

Good topic. I've heard both schools of thought and I don't think there's a wrong way. Personally I carry mine these days, but keep it really close, even for the spot I'm working. I do have a clip incase I need my hands free. But my thoughts are if it's attached dangling it's a target for an ambush at a vulnerable spot coming from your six. Especially a big jewfish.

I don't have the decades underwater to gauge the increase in shark populations, except for my anecdotes of the difficulty of getting fish to the surface hook and lining wrecks, but I sure as hell hope they don't get to the levels that Jim has in S. Florida. I don't think you could get away with setting your stringer down over there or you'd be losing a lot of your fish. Just way too many bull sharks running in packs.
CuzzA is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-23-2021, 10:03 AM   #10
jfjf
.
 
jfjf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Palm Bch County
Posts: 11,256
Re: March 14, 2021 trip

Thanks for sharing your perspective Kevin. I try to learn different techniques or configurations from people who are more experienced/accomplished than myself.

In west palm beach, we don't have that many big fish (at least that I can find), so sending them up on a float is not that big of a deal. I don't really use a stringer in Palm beach county anymore because I feel it is too dangerous wrt sharks.

I sometimes put them into my (magic) mesh bag that I have somehow convinced myself that sharks can't see (or smell) through - but even that practice seems to be less and less desirable.

In all honesty, putting fish in a bag is much slower than a stringer and can more easily result in the loss of the fish, but it is less stimulatory than a stringer.

If I have a stringer and the sharks are getting too close, I have unclipped and hand carried it, trying to keep it more in front of me where I can see and protect it.

I have also unclipped the stringer and laid it down near a hole to attract fish and it has worked - but never tried it in palm beach county.

I once tried to "bounce a shaft off a shark's tail" and ended up with a 7-ft shark on the end of my line shaft gun while scuba diving. Damn MAKO floppers! LOL. It made for a rather interesting (private) video. I ended up sending the mess to the surface with a float and the boat finally got it sorted out and released the shark with a small hole not 12 inches from the rear end of the tail fin.

Even sending fish up on a float is not always successful. An old picture.

Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	jim fish head.jpg
Views:	317
Size:	116.4 KB
ID:	246786  
jfjf is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:18 AM.


The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Social Media Forum Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2002 - 2014 Spearboard.com