Water Conditions and Your Choice to Dive: Answer Honestly!

[surf2live]

I wanna be able to dive in subaverage conditions in NJ and come back with fish. If I had the skills, I would dive on days others would not and still come home with something. I'm sure, as a greenhorn, I have stepped away from the jetty because I thought the conditions were poor, but perhaps they were still diveable.
Everyone dives on a very clear day and is successful- that is a given.
Crystal Clear day with 15-20ft+ visibility (NJ)= 10,
Murky Day with 1 foot visibility from your mask= 1

Please descibe to me the conditions that you are able to dive and still come home with fish. I am looking for the best worst case conditions, and a description of how your hunting habits may change to accomodate the conditions. Please also tell me when you think it's absolutely not worth it.

As a rookie I found it difficult to hunt with visibility less than 4ft from my mask- I am working on developing thos skills...

What conditions can you still hunt successfully?

[spear kook]

i never get good fish with vis less then 6ft. In find it really hard to estimate fish size. I am bumping into rocks and crap. In those "can't see the end of your speartip" days I end up sticking to a area I know has fish and I will wait on the bottom half the time and thats boring. One of my favorite things about freediving since I was a little kid was checking out the scenery too ,thats why I hate those low vis days.

[zag]

where i'm from, the water is always dirty. every once in a while, you get those gorgeous days at the race where the vis is 10-15' and it is really amazing. but, for the most part, we swim around in 3-6' with fast silt blowing past you in the tide. you get used to shooting fish in fast, dirty water. i have seen a lot of big fish on some of the worst vis days. you would be surprised at where you can find fish and how they like to chill where you can't really see them...or at least where they think you can't see them :beer: bottom line, you get used to finding fish in the dirty water. know your spots, guess when the fish will be around, and jump in to take a look. :thumps:

[surf2live]

When you cant see past the tip of your gun, do you sit on the bottom and wait for them to come to you- i hunt around jettys by the way.
..........
Or, do you poke around the holes where you think they'd be w a polespear or a small gun?

This is what Im trying to figure out...