Report from saturday 7/11

[Spearooo]

Did a beach freedive and got some nice dinner. who needs tanks.;) nah jk, we'll do it from time 2 time but it does feel nice to travel light.

[Rolo]

Spearoo,

I've noticed that you have had some success spearing off the coast. I know you take necessary precautions and normally hit quiet beaches. I've spearfished out of the beach only from northern Palm Beach County. My in-laws recently purchased a condo in the Hallandale area. It's surronded by other condos and the beaches are not overly crowded. I know you have mostly fished out of the northern Dade county beaches. Any suggestions on heading off Broward beaches? How far out is the nearest reef?

I plan to do some freedives very early in the morning. I have a home-made device consisting of a board, dive flag, dive net, stringer, and even a submersible GPS. Any suggestions, you seem to have more experience with this. My concerns mainly are with boats, watercrafts, and accidental tourists inspecting your catch when you come back into shore. This is why I'll only do the dives in off hours, perhaps right at first light. Any further specifics regarding the aforementioned or currents, etc... will be appreciated. You can PM if you prefer. Thanks!

[KJNDIVER]

Damn, think that gun is big enough to handle those brutes? hehe

[Marcus]

Whoa! That's the biggest sardine I've ever seen. :)

[Spearooo]

hy sorry I mised you guys this weekend.
First what you said is important, dive preferably on weekdays and early this will make it the least likely that there will be drunk on the water. Another thing to have as part of your safety geart is a good waterproof safety whistle, and some signaling mirrors and possibly a waterproof flare. It is much safer to dive from a kayak bc it is easier to spot but the board and flag is much less cumbersome and more convinient so I guess its a trade off. One thing I do that I belive is important is when swimming on the surface I have tha gun in one hand and the floatline where it attaches to the board in my other, this keeps the board directly next to me instead of 50 or 60 feet back. When I do a dive I let the line slide through my hand and tha way im adjusting the length every time I dive that way when I surface the flag is right next to me. Another thing would be to buy your wife a good pair of binoculars so she can also keep an eye on you. Also most of the time the local lifeguard if not in a state park will often offer good pointers were to start as well as keep an eye on you from the tower. Always keep a sharp ear for trouble. If you hear boat near you I suggest you stay on the surface. If diving with a buddy practice one up one down and have hte one on the surface on idiot watch.
Another consideration is the current. It runs north pretty quick so you might want either adjust your swimm slightly upcurrent to compensate or get dropped off about a half mile south from where you want to end up or take a few quaters with you so you can call and get a ride if you decide to drif longer.
I always bring a cooler with drinks for the landlubbers which when my dive is over it becomes the fish box.
Once you shot a fish put him on the board ASAP. I always have a spare gun on the board in case the taxman or another fish shows while the main gun is unloaded.
As far as locations I discovered a money artifical reef in broward that just got finished this week. its huge and no more than 200 yrds from shore. i'll PM you the location so the secret doesn't get out. I checked it out on Sun. with my little bro no diving just snorkling and it was already packed with mangos. The boulders are bare at the moment but not for long. the thing is massive
Another place with good reefs within a swim from shore is palm beach.
My girlfriend lives in broward so im there all the time .
If you want to get together to do some beach dives my ear should be better by next week id be glad to go along.
.

[Spearooo]

haha To bad i shot a 37lbs king in the same spot last year. Somehow I have a feeling a 40 inch freeshaft ain't going to cut it while freediving for king macks.
I rather be prapared for whatever than think im some kind of prodogy and end up trying to shot an elephant with a spitbal.
lets see some of your monster specimes.

[Rolo]

Spearoo I appreciate the info and advice...Gracias! Is the reef strucuture the same in Broward as it is in Dade and Palm Beach? I know some guys from Broward Longfins that do alot of beach freedives from Hollywood. I'm going to check it out in a few weeks. You make some good points and I'll let you know how it goes. Perhaps in the future you and Gerald can do some dives with me as well. The good thing is that my in-laws apartment is facing the beach so someone can also look down from the 11th floor. Again, I would only do these dives in the slow hours.

Regarding your king, is this the one you speared with the RA?

KJNDIVER,

C'mon lay off us Miami guys, we are not as fortunate to have as many quality spots as you folks have in the upper gulfcoast. Look forward on seeing some more nice Red snaps from you and DF in the future. :) Dive safe, amigo!

[Spearooo]

yup, I got it with the RA. A perfect tail shot i must say, but at least i hit the spine. That day the water was super clean and i misscalulated the size of the fish at mid water. I thought he was about 20 lbs. till I got my hands in his gills.
It was like an Alien had landed on the beach when I swam it back. The tourists were gathered around in a crowd asking the usual. I must say I ws glad to have the 130 anything less and this smoker would have been just another tale.
And as far as the haters are concerned it doesn't phase me the only thing that does is posts like young gun's who has the spear game by the balls and actually makes some seroius contributions to the site. he has all the right to call my fish whatever the hell he wants. People just looking to have abit of fun at others expense are showing themselves for what they are.

[Rolo]

Well, hopefully your ear will heal up and you can join submerged, shimano, the reefraiderz, and myself for some more spearing--Those guys are all quality individuals and we'll probably organize another get together soon. I think I'll try my hand at the beach freediving, my boat will be out of commision for the next two weeks.

How did you prepare the king?

[KJNDIVER]

Didnt mean to be a hateful post. Just giving a lil ribbing to the guy. All in fun, not anger. Lord knows we have all been there on misjudging the size of a fish. On a slow dive one day, wasnt seeing anything and when an AJ came along, it looked huge, so I popped him. Wasnt until i got him onthe boat did i realize that he wasnt even legal keepin size. Have done the same on dives with only small snapper around. Unless you have some bigguns around to judge against, constantly lookin at small ones tends to cloud ya judgement.

As for the upper coast being fortunate, I was just thinkin the same thing about Miami. Hell, yall are gettin the good stuff right off the beach. Where I fish we have to go about 30 miles before decent fish show up. Im a lil jealous of yall. But I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.

Guess I need to learn how to use the smiley faces more to get my point across.

[Rolo]

It's cool Rajun Cajun. We know you and your bud are good guys. Spearoo always has some very nice pics in his posts and provides good info. Did the hurricane muck things up for you guys up there? Take care and dive safe!

When are you going to posts some recipes on Red snappa---Louisiana style....yummy!

[Spearooo]

None taken, thats the kind of stuff that makes us a closer group.
Ribbing is just part of life and around here its part of the fun.:D
like you said the grass is always greener on the othe side
I must say that my PB mutton though. The mack was just my buddie wanting to make sure we didn't come back empty, you know how it goes. The sad part was that we saw one that was about five pounds bigger than this one (8lb) but as usual the biggest fish always escapes.

[Spearooo]

We had plenty of king for several recipies. Some was steaked marinated and put on the bbq, and the rest we fryed shreded and made empanadas with. It was awsome.
Every single time I go out I hope to top that day, but it has yet to happen.
later

[SLAYER]

spearoo

how are you liking your rob allen

[Spearooo]

The RA is awsome, they aren't very expensive and will outshoot almost any gun out there. I have landed some pretty long shots that i thought would be a bit too long, but the RA was rigth on target. The best thing about these guns, is that they don't fool around giving you a gun that needs a million mods to shoot strong. My 130 was a beast rigth out of the box and soo accurate its scary. I lost my first RA to an encounter with the taxman and got a riffe C3x for my b-day that ive had for almost a year but I miss the RA's range it was just such a well balanced accurate gun that im saving up to get another one and keep the riffe for shallow hunting and a back up.