Well it’s been pretty uneventful lately in terms of spearfishing.  Last week Pat and Chris were here and there was some of the worst weather we have seen in a while.  We went went out one half day and the vis was terrible and we got chased in after a short time by a big storm.  Got a YJ and some other little stuff for dinner though. Then as soon as Pat and Chris left the weather cleared up.

It’s been kind of hard to find people to go out with recently, the combination of having time off, have some $ to pitch in on gas and the ability/desire to spearfish is proving kind of rare.

Friday we went out with Irma and Anthony who were visiting Key West.  Catherine and I had been out cleaning my boat bottom on Thursday and noticed very clear water coming down Calda channel, so with the reports of green water on the Atlantic side, we headed to the gulf.

We hit some patch reefs on the edge of the gulf and the visibility was decent, probably pushing 20 feet.  We dove in really shallow water like around 15 feet deep. It was fun and gave my ear a break. There were actually some decent fish on that little patch reef, a couple legal blacks both of which eluded me.  There were also a number of big lane or dog snappers. They were not really big, like 20 inches long at most but were extremely spooky. It kind of made it interesting though because they kept coming out of their holes, unlike a grouper which may just hole up and you never see again. I spent quite a long time, chasing after these snapper and shooting rocks while trying to get them.  Anthony shot some average mangroves and we both shot some average keys hog fish and I also shot a ciro mackerel. Nothing big but all edible.  Catherine took numerous photos of the reef life.

Then we drove out to barge in the gulf, the numbers are very public and I didn’t see anything on it. Just jewfish, mangroves and cero mackerel but everything was small. It was in 30 feet of so of water, and not visible from the surface so not the best snorkeling for Irma.  We then on a whim drove to Smith Shoal. The area looked like it had potential but the vis dropped down to less the ten feet, so we didn’t stay long. I shot a mutton on my first drop but didn’t see anything else.

Not a bad day on the water, saw some new things and went to some new places, plus got a week’s worth of fish.