Spearfishing Homosassa 9-5-20

butchbal

Went spearfishing with my buddy Eric Ratcliffe yesterday. We planned on going out 40 miles to 65 feet but a storm parked right on top of the area we were headed. We decided to look for new spots a little shallower, 50 and 35 feet. Found a beautiful reef and fish. We ended up with a good batch of fish, 2 gags, 2 hogfish, 8 large mangrove snapper. When we got back I checked my crab traps and found 22 crabs in the traps, a new record.

Seas were flat on the way out but picked up to 2 footers as the day went on. Water temp in 50' was 87 on top 85 on bottom. There was a strong current all day.

Big gag was 32" small 25". Nice fat mangos, if we weren't focused on hunting gags we could have filled a cooler full. The mangos were all in the 1 1/2 to to 2 lb range. Lots of gags and hogfish around but most were short.  Tons of bait on the four reefs we dove, tomtaits and something that looked like small pilchards. The bait schools were so thick in places that it was hard to see. Sorry no underwater pictures this time, our team photographer Barbara is in Tennessee.

xmuskyguide

Nice mess, Butch. 

mburke001 aka TripleB

👍👍👍

deerfly

Excellent!

I used to spearfish **** near every weekend growing up in S Fl. Only times we ran more than a mile or so offshore was to go to Bimini or West End. Diving around these parts is like going to the Bahama's and back every trip except there's no safe harbor, no gas and ice when you get out there  

Doc Stressor

Diving in the Big Bend area is a nice secret.  There are reefs out there starting in 30 ft that are absolutely amazing.  The problem is visibility. You need to get out on a day when the vis is at least 25 ft or you're just looking at the stuff right in front of you.  

I used to log 100 dives a year back in the day.  There are a lot more fish on the Gulf reefs and wrecks than just about anywhere.  I never did the Red Sea, Indonesia, or the Great Barrier Reef, but the number of fish you see in the Gulf are more than most spots in the Caribbean.  The problem is that there is so much bait and forage available they don't have to spend much time feeding each day.  In the summer and early fall, the only way to get them is to dive and push them out of their holes. and stick a spear in them. 

Ruff One

Nice dive Butch! I can see it now. Deep fried cuban style snapper!! I am coming home next week save some of that snapper.

deerfly

The few times I've fished out in that 30' range out here visibility was definitely nothing like what I grew up diving. I/We primarily free dove back in the day with Hawaiian slings and pole spears 20'-60'. Visibility was generally good enough to see either the fish you wanted to spear or a coral head/ledge from the surface before descending. We saved the tank diving for the 90-120' range, typically known as the 3rd reef along the SE coast.

Jts

Some nice fish, way to go.  And getting the blue crab was a bonus.

Big Bend Brian

Nice report BB! And great details. A banner day for sure!
Thanks for passing on the love!
Brian

kingkong954

Doc Stressor said:

Diving in the Big Bend area is a nice secret.  There are reefs out there starting in 30 ft that are absolutely amazing.  The problem is visibility. You need to get out on a day when the vis is at least 25 ft or you're just looking at the stuff right in front of you.  

I used to log 100 dives a year back in the day.  There are a lot more fish on the Gulf reefs and wrecks than just about anywhere.  I never did the Red Sea, Indonesia, or the Great Barrier Reef, but the number of fish you see in the Gulf are more than most spots in the Caribbean.  The problem is that there is so much bait and forage available they don't have to spend much time feeding each day.  In the summer and early fall, the only way to get them is to dive and push them out of their holes. and stick a spear in them. 

Truth.

Some of our best dives have been right here in the big bend. We've been to a few places in the Keys, Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, GBR, Coral Sea, Okinawa.

The macro sea life is phenomenal here (just weak on the corals and inverts).