Beauty and the Beast

OK I know what youz all are asking, Why am I here blogging with this pristine of a spearfishing day? Right? Well it has to do with the factors that have come together all at once. I will explain and at the same time perhaps enlighten you on a few things to register in the tip tank.

Sun, Rain and Moon- and how it will affect a spearfishing day.

SUN: aka Beauty....ahhh nothing like a sunny day to create that transperancy at depth, as well as warm up the water.

RAIN: aka Beast...Lately its been raining pretty much daily- rain will do a few things for one it'll change the salinity of the water, and second alot of it will got washed off the streets and dumped in the sea.


MOON: although presently a waning gibbous (about 72% full) it was pretty much full on, in all its glowing glory, not to bad if your romancing, but the current gets ripping when the moon be full.

Alright so what does all this info regarding the sun, rain, and the moon have to do with spearfishing? When its been raining alot the waters salinity changes when combined with lots of sun you get an algea bloom so the water gets particulated & greenish and the viz diminishes substantially, on a good note more baitfish will be abounding. The moon will cause the tide to swing stronger on both ends so alot of rain wash off will be coming in and out of the bay, also influencing the viz, plus not to mention make a spearfishing dive quite intense. So now you got bad viz and strong current and warm water....this means looking for fish in 50+feet (warm water=more depth), but since viz is shabby you'll have to hunt at mid depth or the bottom, add the ripping current to the mix and you got the "work for each fish" factor into play.

Ok, Ok, I know better to be in the water shootin fish than blogging....I'm outa here ;)


Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Another Enclosed Track Euro Build

Well, aside from not posting in forever...I've thankfully been busy tying some loose ends on the up and coming SettingSteel SpearGear site and finishing up some more Custom made Euro Enclosed track spearguns. This latest custom speargun design was also tweeked to the max! What we have is a Basswood core (think balsawood) all wrapped in carbon fiber, with a padauk wood triad-shaped sides and padauk/graphite enclosed track. With the very ergo Cressi Geronimo handle/trig mech. This gun like its early precessors also has the beautiful cuttlefish design that helps it track incredibly fast, and the main body of wood (basswood) keep it light and bouyant. As in the other designs I kept the bands as high as possible to alleviate recoil...this results in the famous "recoilessness" of a euro, while adding in an enclosed track also aids immensely in the prevention of shaft whip due to overpowering the gun. A couple of readers have asked why a full on carbon fiber wrap as opposed to just the carbon belly of the other guns? Mainly because the bulk of the gun is made of basswood a very light wood,and the guns incredibly tight dimensions (less than a 3/4' high and 3/4" wide)were needed in order to prevent the gun from bending hence the full on carbon wrap was essential. As in the other builds this gun also has an integrated shark pic/line retainer.










Here are some specs

Gun is 115cm (45")tip -butt2.5cm (1") high, and tapers from 2cm (3/4") to 4cm (1 3/4")

band to first fin 90cm (36") -5/8 20"band to second fin 100cm (39") -5/16 21"made this gun with a basswood,cumaru core, and padaukits triad shaped (like the other build), with a graphite poured enclosed track, CF muzzle and built in line retainer/shark pic








We tried this Enclosed track Euro gun on a few outings and this speargun is amazing! You can't even see the arrow peeling off the track; its got some amazing pinpoint accuracy thanks to the Euro design and enclosed track. This speargun feels like a feather in the water and maneuvers better than a tube railgun, thanks to the double tapered cuttlefish design. This is the fourth of this generation and the guys I've built them for have been stoked with the guns performance, hopefully their will be more to come!

Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

When the trip brings Lemons...

We headed out of Bayfront yesterday for a spearfishing quicky. The boat "2-tiny-2-sea" was as its name implys- tight, so the crew was tight as well. Fur had done some work on her and wanted to see the results, so we decided to make a quick run, and see what the long weekend had left us with. Gotta say the weather was nice for spearfishing, seas under 1', water warmed to a rashguard, winds under 5mph...the 2-t-2-s made the run across the bay like a pro, as hi fives proceeded, our first spearfishing drop was out of Ceasars Creek. This is an area we always want to explore, but never get around to it, so today we decided to spearfish it. Viz was "so-so" that is about 5-10' and current was pushing pretty hard, but do-able. We managed a 'go and mut', before deciding to head out to some clearer waters.
Hopping back in the boat we-hi fived- again, happy to see 2-t-2-s was behaving like a pro, throttled her up, waypoint entered, and off to our next spearfishing spot "Turtle-Ledge" a nice spot in 60'ish that held illusion of massive mutton snapper......rrrrrrrmmmmmmmmm off we go, ppppppppffffffffffff....engine fails, yikes!

Fur got all analytical and ran an inspection; worriedly looks over at me and says" We're f$&*cked" pristine day, seas under 1- and we're drifting back towards Ceasars....and muttons in the distance jumping outa the water saying...Hahahaha you can't get me!!! We dropped the claw in all of 10' of water and start strategizing a plan, a minute later we iron out the details, a few quick calls- and good'ol Sam, Furs bud says he'll come out and get us. SAM'S A CHAMP!!!

Right about the time Fur, starts feeling sorry for the unexpected casualty....I turn around and say,"Dude when life gives you lemons..." and jump inside the water, "make some lemonade" as I swam away. It didn't take long to find a nice little reef (in 10' water) that had abundant sea life, and a new lobster hole (over 20 in one spot-read as a new waypoint-named LobsticoFantastico), a little more swimming around, and a 24" red grouper comes up to say hi. By then the Fur was in too- making some lemonade- as he removed a nice hog off his shaft. We continued spearfishing our new Bayfront hole...and Fur managed to pull another nice toad this one was about 22"....Swam to the boat, checked our phones (remember we're stranded out there) and decided to pull up the hook and "cruise on over" (motorless) to another spot. Seems the sea g_ds were with us (somewhat) as the drift was moving perfectly to some other nice bottom. As we approached a sweet spot I told Fur to anchor up, as the spot looked very inviting and the hunt began again. This spot was full of fish, in some skinny water I may add. It was pretty interesting as the hogs were behaving like blacks, realllllll skittish....I must have seen about 4-5 hogs over 20", but passed on them as I was looking for some 14-16" fryer hogs....also saw a mutton that was well over 20", but was in high gear when spotted. Although the viz was all of 5' feet, we managed to tag a few other fish, including a 5' Cuda before the weather started to get fugly. And not a minute to soon as Fur had Sam on the radio spilling his coordinates (which is now a new spearfishing waypoint in Elliot Key-waypoint name is ShaloHog)...the whole story of the pick-up is just that, another WHOLE story. In a nutshell, we made some new spearing friends, and arrived at Bayfront before dark, and just in time to steak up one of the reds and enjoy in a mango teriyaki sauce....So when life gives you lemons....make some Red Grouper in Mango Teriyaki sauce or lemonade, whatever!

Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

I'm around....

so is the rain :(...rain, rain go away come back another day:(....for some reason it always rains Memorial Weekend...oh well lets hope it betters up for this coming week. On another note reports of mixed viz everywhere, generally with rain comes some pretty bad viz as alot of water run off gets dumped in the ocean, and the salinity decreases so we also get quite a bit of algea blooming...Elliot saw some T-B but alot of haze in most areas....Government Cut was hazy too...and reports are coming in that the mahi's are thick everywhere....looking like summer is here!

Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Forecasting Weather & Spearfishing

Rain,rain, and more rain...much needed, indeed....but man hows about we get it in small dosages,right?


I'm often consulted by friends and acquaintances (you know the random caller, " Yo Tone how you think the weather will be for a dive"), that seem to believe I have some type of magical spearfishing forecastability (is their such a word) on the weather...yep true I'm more often right than wrong, but its not really magic just some plain and simple cross referencing, and yep a little experience thrown in for good measure.
Well, the weather being as such, guess I'll take advantage and post a few tips/ methods I use to forecast the weather for optimal spearfishing (sounds fancy huh).

First off I use a few sites and cross reference them to come up with a spearfishing weather forecast. It just happens to be I got links to those site on my link bar, here they are again:
www.weatherunder.com
www.NOAAbouy.com
www.buoyweather.com
www.weather.com
If you look thoroughly enough you'll find most of the same info on all the sites (more or less), but I just go straight to the specifics on each of the sites. If I had to pick a favorite I'd say its www.weatherunder.com , but they're all good and each serves its purpose.


OK so back to forcasting the weather for spearfishing, how do I read'em- I first go to www.weatherunder.com and enter the zip code of the area I will be spearfishing in the search bar. Once entered you get a box on the left giving you current condition and a box on the upper right giving you a pretty accurate (up to the about the 3 next days, although it goes further I just analyze those first 3). I read how the day is presently, then look how it will pan out in the next few days-this sections breaks up the wind/tempt in time sections, which I happen to like- leading onto the day we will go spearfishing. I then go to the left-side box with the current info and click the Local radar link I use this to verify what I just read for the next 3 day forecast, generally my experience has told me that if you see 30% rain lingering in your area it'll probably rain, even if the wind says (remember the right bar says wind and rain) it will be blowing it out...If the radar says 15-20% and the wind says it'll blow it out theirs a very big chance it will. Next I go right below to the Wundermap, it gives me a few different visuals (satellite, hybrid, terrain and the area- local, regional, and for extended forecast I dip into the continent)) on the weather, and those orange markers are weather stations so clicking on them gives you minute details on whats happening, scroll to the right and you see another box click on the weather station there to get the same feed (just that you can see the name of the actual station)and some even have a link for a more in-depth analysis...Moving right along I go to in the same section a few links down I go over to Marine forecast and click that...that will give you a NOAA (yeah my fav. NOAA) forecast, scroll down that page and you see the tides...always good to know as good spearfishing and tides go hand in hand....finally I read the forecast in the main page on the lower left.

My next step towards determining the weather for spearfishing is to head on over to www.buoyweather.com and once there I click on the map with the buoy having the area I will spearfish, this takes me to a section that gives me a 2 day forecast on the boating, and a 2 day forecast on the wind and waves broken up by time, I find the wind and wave forecast is pretty accurate on this site. It also use to have a "virtual buoy" info/forecast but its now a paid option....so off we go to my next puzzle piece on determining the ideal or best weather for spearfishing...drum roll....www.NOAAbouy.com , those of you who read my blogs know I don't like NOAA, as it pertains to forecasting, but to get raw info, they are top notch, why cause they have the weather stations out there reading real time, another reason I dip here is because some of the other sites may not at the moment have the latest update. So at this site I click on the weather station in my spearfishing area and read what they say, in particular the pressure (rising/lowering more on this later), wind, direction, and of particular importance where the Gulf current is presently (more on this later), so yeah its a short visit here, next I go to the very commercialized www.weather.com for another quick visit, I dial in my area and pop onto the outdoor activity section click on the weather bar and that tells me the sunrise&set, the moonrise&set and the moon phase (more later), it also shoots me a quick tide reading for the area as well as a 10 day marine outlook (more on forecasts latter)...after this I go back to the Outdoor activity bar and click on "Fishing Reports", why?.....because I can and now you can too...lol, in all seriousness you can get an idea on whether the fish will be active or not by looking at the graph which is an accumulation of info from various sources.

OK so now that you got a picture from various sources you can draw a somewhat accurate picture. One thing to remember is a forecast is just that, an estimated guess, based on past weather throughout the year...every site has a different forecast model so each will provide a bit different info, its up to you to interpret it, and the more info you have the better your chances (although too much might be overwhelming).
Here are a few more tips to help you better predict the best weather for spearfishing-
*When the tide is rising or falling the fish will be moving
*A few consecutive windy days will stir the bottom, in the shallow stuff
*The closer in the Gulf waters are to the coast the clearer the water will be
*An E wind (on our coast) brings in cleaner water.
*A rising or lowering Barometer makes fish active
*A few windy days with winds laying will usually lay earlier than predicted
*On our coast any wind from the West, is fine for diving
*After a shower the wind subsides, do to pressure
*A forecasted windy day with rain will be usually less windy
*A day or two before heading out call the LDS in your area and ask how viz and conditions are.
*When the moon is full the tide will be ripping and the tides will swing to the extreme (a higher high tide and a lower low tide)
so their you have it MOST of my tips on forecasting the weather for the best spearfishing, yes of course their are more, quite a few more...but that's the magic part...and no magician tells all his secrets !


Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing World Records...Part 3

If youv'e been following this series on Spearfishing World Records http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=5458882750790685633 & http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=5458882750790685633 then you know Part 3 is long overdue.

The first and probably the most important step in this part is to PREPLAN. That is you want to have all your duckeys inline so that if and when you land that trophy of a lifetime you know exactly what you need to do to qualify it.

Here are some essential preplan game strategy:
1) Know the rules, this is soooo important, if you don't bag your fish according to the rules it won't qualify. Here are some important exerts from the IUSA site:

Divers must be freediving when they spear and land their catch. The use of artificial breathing devices is not allowed at any time (e.g., to retrieve the speared fish).

Divers may leave the water to obtain additional equipment but the diver must reenter the water where exited (allowing for free boat movement) and continue the pursuit free swimming. No pursuit of the quarry by means of boat will be allowed.

If a diver looses contact with his floats and can no longer see them, he may reenter a non moving boat and "spot" the floats. He must then reenter the water where exited (allowing for free boat movement) and free swim in the direction of his floats and regain contact. Under no condition may the diver utilize the boat to recontact his floats

Another diver may provide a second or additional unloaded gun to the spearfisher, provided they do not assist the diver in any way to subdue their catch.

Divers must pull their fish to the surface while they remain in the water. Once the fish is subdued and at the surface it may be gaffed by someone in a safety boat. Another diver or crew member may pass unloaded guns to the diver, provided the guns and associated gear follow the regulations set forth above for the primary gun and gear (D.1 and 2).

Powerheads are prohibited.

2)Know who in you area has a certified IGFF scale, to weigh your fish, although most certified scales will do IGFF scales remove any doubt.

All record fish should be weighed on scales that have been checked for accuracy by government agencies or other qualified and accredited organizations. All scales must be regularly checked for accuracy and must be current within 12 months, or recertified within 2 weeks after the weighing.

The fish must be weighed by an official weighmaster (if one is available), or by an IUSA representative, or by a recognized local person familiar with the scale (*note check their site for exemptions to these rules)

To replace a record for a fish weighing less than 25 pounds (11.33 kg), the replacement must weigh at least 2 ounces (56.69 gm) more than the existing record.

To replace a record for a fish weighing 25 pounds (11.33 kg) or more, the replacement must weigh one-half percent (0.5%) more than the previous record. For example, for a 200 pound fish (90.71 kg) to defeat a current record it must weigh 1 pound (.45 kg) more than the existing record.

Fish may be frozen before they are weighed. If still frozen while being weighed, any adhering ice must be removed.

At the time of the weighing, the actual gear used by the spearfisher to catch the fish must be exhibited to the weighmaster and weight witness

3)Have a good quality camera, and take plenty of pics

Two identical sets of photographs, preferably color, must accompany the application, providing sufficient detail for unequivocal species determination.

Photographs showing the full length of the fish, the diver with the fish, the speargun(s) used to make the catch, and the scale used to weigh the fish must accompany each application.

In all cases, photographs should be taken of the fish in a hanging position and also lying on a flat surface on its side. The fish should be broadside to the camera and no part of the fish should be obscured.

An additional photograph of the fish on the scale with the actual weight visible will help to expedite the application.

4) Have the forms ready beforehand

The Spearfisher must submit a completed IUSA application form along with all required documentation. Applications can be obtained on this website, or by contacting the IUSA.

Divers must record the date, exact location, common name and scientific name of their catch on an official application

Acceptance of the application is, in part, dependent upon the completeness of the description of the hunt and capture. Include gun type, terminal gear, depth at which the fish was speared, names of other divers present, name of the diveboat, use of chum, water visibility, sea state, distance from shore, estimated bottom depth, current conditions, time of day, and associated fish (e.g., other members of a school, bait fish, etc.).

Time limits of claims: Complete application must be submitted within 6 months of date of capture.
To assist in the verification of the weight, the length (fork length and total length - see application form) and girth of the fish must be measured and recorded. A measuring tape made of a material that does not stretch or shrink, even when wet, must be used.

Weights calculated from length and/or girth shall not be accepted, however, a meritorious award may be made for a fish which exceeds both the length and girth of the current record.

Catch weighing or measurement must be witnessed and as much documentation as possible should accompany the application for the record.


Their are ALOT more rules that you can review on the IUSA site, heres the link http://iusarecords.com/rules.htm....so there you have it, now what you waitin' for- go git yourself a WR

Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Fowey Rocks-Spearfishing

Wind, Rain, Heat=Dry Gills....seems like forever since I last hit the water for some spearfishing...the forecast ain't looking too good for the next few days either. So yes I be jonesin to head out, particularly since I plotted some new spearfishing grounds out of Fowey Rocks http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=704, it looks like a very steep ridge in about 50', abruptly dropping to 70'. I've asked around (a few close gung'ho H&L) about this area and they say its a fish bonanza catching pelagics and reefies...its a transition zone so unless you got your eyes on the scope you'll go right over it, thats a good thing. Another spearfishing spot south of Fowey Rocks also looks promising. Alot of spearfishers say Fowey Rocks is overfished, to a certain extent I agree, but some of the surrounding (read less popular) areas have some great spearfishing holes, you just have to look harder.


Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/