End of Grouper Season [windy as hell]

Well here I am in Key West and it’s blowing like crazy.  It seems like it has blown pretty continuously now for a month.  We got like two calm days so far in January and the month is over in 3 days.

Anyways nothing of interest to report this month but last month I had some pretty fun trips. One of my favorite times of the year is the end of December (really December in general is usually a good month to dive). The water has cooled off, black groupers reappear on the reef, amberjacks start showing up and often there is wahoo if you put the time in.

December Diving: What could be better then diving in 100 foot vis in the morning and shooting big wahoo and then going in and getting fat black groupers in the afternoon, not much.

This year was not a good year for diving.  For one the wind blew like crazy. Every day was 15-20 knots, often over 20 knots. Secondly the wind was from the south a lot, like almost every day it was blowing from the south or southeast. So we had huge seas, and it was hot, like in the high 80s.

Although the south wind seemed to keep the blue water right on the reef line,  the huge seas that came with it made most of the Hawks Channel and inshore water undiveable. The hot air kept the water warm and kept the big reef fish from showing up consistently.

Even though I am complaining we did have some pretty good days.

The bluewater on the bar and everywhere else looking like blue green milk did mean one thing: got to go for wahoo a bit. This year seems better then last year for the wahoo, in that if you go you often see one. So far I haven’t seen any huge schools, and they haven’t exactly been running right into the spear for the most part.

I have made it out with Chad, Rob, Seaver, Cole and Alan and we have all gotten some fish.

The only time I can write good fishing reports is right after I dive.  Now, all the days have blended into one another. But I can remember some high lights.

Guy telling Alan to move

Alan shooting a wahoo right after a fishing boat anchored right next to him and told him to move.

Deep water signaling

Diving with my reel gun trying to shoot reef fish in 100 feet of water, having a wahoo come in and circle me, giving me enough time to signal to Seaver to come down and shoot it.

Bluefin Tuna

Seeing 3 blue fin tuna swim up underneath me. Yeah you read that right I saw three tuna swim under me in around 100 feet of water. At first I thought they were giant porpoises or something.  I didn’t see sickle fins on them and their backs looked as wide as a door in your house.

So pretty much El Niño years are terrible

Even as I write this it has been blowing at least 20 knots for like a week straight, and we actually had winds up to 35-40 knots last week. What is up with that 40 knots! Usually like 25 knots is as windy as it gets here.

I have been looking back at some old reports in January from years ago, like this one https://deep-blue-water.net/vis-highly-variable-hammerhead-and-ceros.html .  It was soo much easier to have an awesome time when I was beginner. Just another thing add to the long list of things that get worse and worse as I get older.