SettingSteel Spearfishing

2011 Spearfishing Nationals- and the winners are.....

2011-08-04T21:54:00.006-04:00

Individual

Lazaro Caberera 30- fish 117.28- lbs 147.28 pointst
Longfins 2

Harolf Dean 27- 120.07- 147.07
Miami Freedivers 1

Miguel Guinovart 23- 108.23- 131.18
Miami Freedivers 1

Osmany Cuellar 27- 104.11- 131.11
Miami Freedivers 2

Michelle Lechuga24- 103.25- 127.25
Miami Freedivers 2

Julian Cruz 21- 82.22- 103.22
Longfins 1

Sergey Lopez 26- 75.16- 101.16
Longfins 3

Erick Salado 17- 83.08- 100.08
Longfins 3

Alex Bristo l7- 74.2 87.18
Longfins 1

Vladimir Baguer 21- 64.17- 85.17
Miami Freedivers 2

Pablo Rojo 17- 64.16- 81.16
Miami Freedivers 3

Julio Nunez 13- 66.2- 79.2
Longfins 2

Eric Fazzi 17- 59.24- 76.24
MDC

Leo Ramos 15- 56.2- 71.2
MDC

Andrew Geist 14- 55.23- 69.23
Palm Beach Underwater

Scott Turgeon 15- 53.02- 68.02
Palm Beach Underwater

Frank Fornaris 10- 59.25- 67.16
Miami Freedivers 3

Tony Miranda 13- 53.08- 66.08
Longfins 1

Dennis Haussler 12- 49.12- 61.12
Longfins 3

Jose Santeiro 17- 39.1- 56.1
Miami Freedivers 1

Santiago Alvarez 10- 43.1- 53.1
South Florida Freedivers 1

Keaka Ching 8- 40.1- 48.1
Extreme Divers

Rosibel Molina 10- 37.2- 47.2
Miami Freedivers mixed 1

Roberto Ramos 12- 35.11- 47.11
Longfins 2

Adel Sotolongo 11- 35.09- 46.09
Miami Freedivers mixed 1

Matt Brueckner 8- 35.2- 43.2
FSDA 2

Luis Perera 11- 30.22- 41.22
MDC

Manuel Menendez 7- 34.03- 41.03
South Florida Freedivers 3

George Gonzalez 7- 33.21- 40.21
Extreme Divers

Manny Dobal 8- 30.1- 38.1
South Florida Freedivers 2

Manny Diaz 5- 42.05- 36.04
South Florida Freedivers 1

Joe Fernandez 9- 24.09- 33.09
South Florida Freedivers 2

Pablo Edo 7- 24.15- 31.15
Miami Freedivers 3

Jon-Michael Degidio 2- 22.06- 24.06
Palm Beach Team 3

Bill Ernst 7- 13.09- 20.09
GLACD mixed 1

Ed Walker 4- 15.03- 19.03
FSDA 2

Alexander Morato 5- 13.2- 18.2
SFF mixed Team 1

Octavio Soler 4- 12.22- 16.22
South Florida Freedivers 1

Amanda Ernst 4- 7.17- 11.17
GLACD mixed 1

Pedro Querejeta 4- 5.14- 9.14
South Florida Freedivers 3

Paige Latterner 2- 7.02- 9.02
SFF mixed Team 2

Carlos Armstrong 2- 6.15- 8.15
South Florida Freedivers 2

Larry Trespalacios 2- 6.07- 8.07
Extreme Divers

Carl Starling 1- 6.1- 7.1
SFF mixed Team 2

Fabricio Bueno 2- 5.05- 7.05
Palm Beach Underwater

Steve Schrader 1- 6.02- 7.02
Palm Beach Team 3

Robert Little 1- 4.1- 5.1
Palm Beach Team 3

Gaincarlo Fernandez 1- 4.07- 5.07
SFF mixed Team 1

Manny Chica 2- 3.01- 5.01
South Florida Freedivers 3

George Lyn 2- 2.22-4.22
Palm Beach Team 2

William Carpenella 1- 3.06- 4.06
Palm Beach Team 2

Blake Gaylord 2- 2.06- 4.06
FSDA 2

Mens teamsMiami Freedivers 272 fish- 271.53 lbs 343.53 pointsMiami Freedivers
Miami Freedivers 167- 267.4- 334.35
Miami Freedivers
Longfins 255- 218.59- 273.59
Longfins
Longfins 355- 207.36- 262.36
Longfins
Longfins 151- 209.59- 256.48
Longfins
MDC 43- 145.66- 188.66
Midwest Dive Council
Miami Freedivers 34- 147.5- 179.47
Miami Freedivers
Palm Beach Underwater 31- 113.3- 144.3
Palm Beach Underwater Hockey
South Florida Freedivers 19- 97.37- 105.36
South Florida Freedivers
Extreme Divers- 17- 79.38- 96.38
Extreme Divers Council
South Florida Freedivers 19- 60.34- 79.34
South Florida Freedivers
FSDA 14- 52.29- 66.29
Saint Petersburg Underwater Club
South Florida Freedivers 13- 42.18- 55.18
South Florida Freedivers
Palm Beach Team 14- 32.18- 36.18
Palm Beach
Palm Beach Team 3- 5.28- 8.28

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

2011 Spearfishing Nationals update.

2011-08-03T22:49:00.007-04:00

Quick update on the Spearfishing Nationals, this year held in Tavanier Key http://www.thefloridakeys.com/tavernier/ weather seemed to hold out, and conditions were good, word of mouth is viz was hazey to gin clear, BUT fish were scarce. I hope to drive down manana, http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=long%20key%20florida weather permitting (its blowing hard outside now). Score thus far for the Nationals has Miami Freedivers 37 total fish 138.22 lbs totaling 175.22 points, followed by the Broward Longfins 27 fish totaling 101.13 lbs and 128.13 points, and running in third is Miami Freedivers 27 fish totaling 97.03 lbs and fetching 124.03points.

Individual competitors ranking in this years 2011 Spearfishing Nationals:
Lazaro Caberera 14 fish 63.14lbs 77.14pts
Longfins 2

Osmany Cuellar 12 54.01 lbs, 66.01pts
Miami Freedivers 2

Harolf Dean 12 fish 52 lbs, 64pts
Miami Freedivers 1

(photos courtesy of http://www.scubasworld.com/photos/ , check them out too great gear, prices and CS)

this has probably changed as of this writing though, you can follow it here http://www.spearfishingnationals.com/results/live/ another helpful link http://www.underwater-society.org/. Stay tuned....

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Mini Season Day 2

2011-07-28T15:16:00.006-04:00

Just got back from another torturous day bugging ;) It was rougher today than yesterday, but a lot less bug busters out on the water- we managed to fill the cooler in under 2 hours and all the bugs were very decent, and quite a few where girls (more so than yesterday). We found a nice grass ledge, with hundreds of bugs and a metal plate of sorts that was staked with bugs too. Also saw a nice big fat red with 2 antennas hanging out of his mouth....I know where he lives.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

First Day Mini Season

2011-07-27T13:39:00.005-04:00

Well I hesitantly went out today for a short run outa Blackpoint. I generally don't do the Florida mini season, simply because its crazy out there...but after 20 invites, 12 bribes, 7 blackmails, and a twisted arm a succumbed to a short run, very short-out at 10'ish, in by 12'ish. It was rough out there winds were in the 20'ys, water was surprisingly clear, and very warm...too warm. Within a couple of hours we filled our limit, and headed back in. We saw lots of weekend warriors doing some crazy shiat, lots of law enforcement doing their stuff,

and a whole crew of biologists where set up doing their thing at the marina, seems we have a real healthy bug population, with males being predominant (at least for our batch)

....headed to Publix for some unfiltered butter, and fresh garlic ;)

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Got Tail- PART 2- Florida Lobstering

2011-07-27T02:26:00.010-04:00

Part 2 getting some tail. Quite a few methods for lobstering are commonly used.

1) tickle stick and net
In this method you simply find a bug, usually under a ledge or rock, using your tickle stick (which is generally any type stick, often transparent), to tickle the bugs tail with, forcing him to exit the hole- at this point you tap him gently on the horns to get him to crawl back into your net, which was prepositioned when he crawled outta the hole

2) Snare or loop
this is similar to a tickle stick but it has a loop of heavy nylon or coated cable that wraps tight around a lobsters tail, same process as above, first use the device as a tickle stick, once the bug is outta the hole, loop his tail and pull taught. Quite a few variations of the loop have been invented the latest is an automatic trigger release type that seems pretty cool, I have yet to try one.

3) Bull netting
This method is the number one method for night time lobstering, while on the boat with high output lights you search for bugs, usually on the flats or grass beds, when one is spotted you place the net over it and in its attempt to high tail out he gets all tangled in the net, at which point you quickly snap him onto the boat, A lot of guys swear this is the number one method for getting big bugs, prime time is 12-5am after that the bugs start to hole up

4)Mano a Mano
Heavy gloves and a quick hand is all thats needed, hence the least expensive of all the methods, but a low percent success ratio. I know a few guys that fetch their limit every time with this simplest of methods nonetheless.

Where to find them-
Florida Spiny lobsters havwe a lot of different habitats, alot of divers look for them in reef structure that has lots of rocks and holes, sure the frequent this type structure, but you can also find them on small ledges, with a sandy bottom. Often bugs are on grass ledges, that is those thick ledges of sea grass that end abruptly where the sand starts, Then their is the tires, steel plats, cynder blocks and even submerged pipes that are often loaded with bugs....one thing is for sure bugs like structure, so find the structure and you'll find the bugs!

No doubt Florida has some great tail....enjoy it and DIVE SAFE ;)

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Got Tail- PART 1- Florida Lobstering

2011-07-26T23:35:00.015-04:00

Well its here....just 30 minutes away and the OFFICIAL Florida lobster mini (also referrred to as the "sport" season) season begins!!!!!

I thought I'd go over a few of the Florida spiny lobster rules, regulations, and quota as well as a few tips and methods on catching bugs (what Florida Lobsters are often referred too), as well as a few great lobster spots and waypoints.

Lets start with the season dates this year it begins July 27-28, 2011. for the record Mini Season always starts the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday of July each year. So today July 26, at 12:01am (makes it July 27) it officially begins. After the lobster mini season the regular Spiny Lobster season begins, those dates are August 6, 2011 - March 31, 2012.

Aside from your Saltwater fishing license you need to purchase a Florida Spiny Lobster stamp in order to legally harvest bugs in Florida.

How many lobsters can you catch and how many can you have in possession? Lobster bag limits are 6/person/day for Monroe County and Biscayne National Park, and 12/person /day for the rest of Florida, simple enough. If you are not in Biscayne National Park, say you are around Hallandale Beach then you can snare up to 12 lobsters. If you are off of Elliot, east of the islands that puts you in Biscayne National Park so you quota would be 6 lobsters...and if you decided to go lobstering in Tavanier Key then yep, you'd be able to bring home 6 bugs.

Possession limit - on the water: equal to the daily bag limit. Now I'm no attorney by any means, but this thing on "possession" limit can be pretty simple and just as well as complicated as you want to make it. Here is an overview- Possession limit is the lobsters YOU have caught and now legally have in your possession, be it 6 or 12 (depending where your at), and on the first day of lobster mini season you can only have 6 or 12, on the water and/or while your driving home. Now on the second day your "on the water" limit will be 6 or 12, but your possession limit would be 12 or 24 (2x6=12, or 2x12=24)-in other words double the daily bag limit on the second day.

Its very important on these 2 days of mini season to adhere to the possession limits on and off the water, as most of the Marine law enforcement agencies are in full force! Now I know I mentioned that it could get complicated and here is where it can- How many of you bring the wife, the kids, the aunt and the suegra out on the boat, get'em each a license and stamp and wallah your limit just went up to 30, 40 even 50 or more bugs right- nope WRONG! quoted from the regulation "bag limits are only for properly licensed individuals and those people exempt from license requirements who are actively harvesting. People harvesting may not exceed their individual bag limit and take someone else's bag limit. That is, people (including children) who are not actively harvesting or are not properly licensed (if a license is required) may NOT be counted for purposes of bag/possession limits." So if you have 6 people on board make sure you have the proper equipment, and attitude to show anyone watching at a distance (as often happens) that everyone that has a lobster stamp is "actively" persuing the spiny critter...sure this can be a grey area, but at then end of the day if your fined (and they can be hefty)whether you fight it in court or not, its a headache, that can easily be avoided- at the end of the day its just a bug.

OK moving right along minimum size limit must be larger than 3" carapace. Pretty simple get your lobster gauge stick it between the horns if the back end fits into the carapace (where the "hard end" or head ends, and tail begins)its a shorty put him gently back in the water. Keep in mind ALL bugs must be measured in the water. Which means you need to have a measuring device in your possession at all times. I carry a lobster gauge looped on my snare or tickle stick and have a spare looped on my weight belt, just to be on the safe side.

Prohibitions this section is pretty huge, and its usually the area that most everyone will screw up at one point or another. Harvest of lobster is prohibited in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park during the mini season. Harvest is also prohibited during both the 2-day mini season and regular season in Everglades National Park as well as the the Biscayne Bay-Card Sound Lobster Sanctuary. The sanctuary boundary extends from the northern edge of Matheson Hammock Park east to the southern tip of Cape Florida (Key Biscayne). From Cape Florida it runs south to Soldier Key then along the eastern high water line of Soldier Key, the Ragged Keys, Boca Chita Key, Sands Key, Elliott Key, Old Rhodes Key,
Swan Key, Palo Alto Key, and Angelfish Key to the southern edge of Pumpkin Creek. It turns north and then south, running along the high water line of Key Largo, following the western shore of Pumpkin Creek, the southern shores of Angelfish Creek and Little Pumpkin Creek, andthe eastern edge of Card Sound to the Card Sound Bridge. From the Card Sound Bridge it runs north along the western high water lines of Little Card Sound, Card Sound, and Biscayne Bay to the northern boundary of Matheson Hammock Park. All natural, artificial, and tidal creeks between the islands and along the mainland are included in the Sanctuary and are closed to lobstering.
Lobsters may be taken east of the islands during the legal seasons, except in the Legare Anchorage where swimming, snorkeling, and diving is prohibited year round.
Legally taken lobsters may be transported through the Sanctuary as long as no one from the boat is overboard (in the water) while inside the Sanctuary. Dry Tortugas National Park (referred to as Ecological Reserves), and no-take areas in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (marked by 30" diameter round yellow boundary buoys)as well as Sanctuary Preservation Areas(SPAs,)and Special-use Research Only Areas which appear on all GPS's
So thats about it...lets just say you have the "cliff Notes" version if you wanna get down to the nitty gritty follow the links below and fill in anything i may have left out

http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/regulations/lobster/

http://myfwc.com/media/1483464/Lobster_Brochure.pdf

http://home.nps.gov/bisc/planyourvisit/upload/Lobster-Brochure_English_2011.pdf

http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/Lobster2011.pdf

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Quick Detach Weights-3things, 3tools, 30minutes

2011-06-10T11:46:00.022-04:00

Here is a quick DIY project, for anyone who wants to adjust weights on their spearfishing weightbelt- quick and easy.

You'll need 3 "things"
a-Cotter pins about 1.5"
b-Rubber 3/8 tubing about 6" (will vary depending on type of weight)
c-Epoxy (I like G-flex for this project)

3 tools
a- Drill
b-Drill Bits
c-Dremel or File

30 minutes
Thats about how much time it should take to pull this DIY quick detach weight system together.

1-Drill 2 holes on the top (or bottom) of the weight and 1 hole on the opposite end, deep enough to fit about an 1" of the cotter pin
2-Clean up the holes with a file or dremel tool

3-Fit your cotter pin into the first 2 holes, a 1/2" should protrude 4-Mix your epoxy (I used about a drop of each per hole) and fill the hole
5-Put your cotter pin back in, pull it up and down a few times to get a good even distribution of poxy

6-While that is curing get your 6" piece of tubing open the cotter pin (the one going into the singular hole), and push the tubing to the end then tie it with a constrictor knot http://www.animatedknots.com/constrictor/index.php, nip it neat,

7-Once the first 2 holes are set,flip it around and do the same process for the other singular hole (that has the cotter pin with the rubber tubing) and let it set.

8-After its cured overnight, place the lead where you want it on your belt and pull the tubing around, engaging the 2 cotter pins-finito!

This simple DIY works pretty good! The weights sit right where you put them, and the rubber tubing also helps keeping the dive belt from shifting around your waist.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

AssKickin' day yesterday

2011-06-08T22:53:00.003-04:00

Woke up all sore yesterday (yep started working out again), kicked my ass out bed at 5am, got our ass kicked headed outa the bay (bad sign to start with) everywhere we dropped the low viz kicked our ass, 2-3' swells kicked our ass, ripping current kicked my ass, no fish in site kicked my ass, gusting wind kicked our ass, and drive back at 6 knots (engine acting up) entertaining 3' chop (in the bay) with nagging "salt spritz" kicking my ass....yep all in all it was a KICK ASS day.

note to self- take a look at the bouys before headed out in the am...even if you'gills'be dry for over a week

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Enclosed Track Hybrid Euro Speargun- first of its kind? Part1

2011-06-02T22:59:00.018-04:00

Well we had quite a few gun builders and hardcore spearo's visit my tiny booth at the Bluewild Expo...and they were all pretty impressed with the HalfBreed (the only gun I showed, actually the only gun I had just about finished)It seems this is the only enclosed track hybrid speargun made on the market...I've been doing a few searches and up to now that statement seems to be true- lots of hybrids, but none with a fully enclosed track, pretty stoked!!! Alot of questions popped up about this gun and I wanted to blog about it as it may very well be questions that others of you may have, plus its a nice opportunity to showcase the HalfBreed. The idea behind the HalfBreed is my persistance in shaving inches off a speargun, while making it incredibly accurate and lessening the spearguns recoil- not an easy task fo'su, but if it were such then everyone would be doing it,right?

Speaking of which alot of great guns were at the Expo and from the looks "anorexic spearguns" seems to be catching on, I think alot of wood/composite gun makers are trying to get the manuevarability of a pipe gun with the benefits of wood-at least thats how it all started with me a few years ago, when prototyping various designs till finally creating the HalfBreed.
A Euro enclosed track Hybrid speargun is a great combination. A Euro speargun, due to its design recoils mostly straight back towards the spearo, the speargun's handle placement in the furthermost rear is the primary reason, this is a big attribute to why Euro spearguns are so accurate, and thus so popular with spearos worldwide. A "pipegun" style European speargun provides a minimum of drag, due to the narrow barrel, most are about 1-1.5" in diameter. Thus a narrow barrel makes for a more hydrodynamic speargun and so the final result is that the speargun tracks fast, this is essential as many fish targeted in Europe are smaller and faster than here in the States. So we can safely say that a European type speargun although it recoils, the recoil will not have a huge influence on accuracy; due to their streamline design will track fish faster and more efficiently than a square type gun like the Riffe Competitor Series and AB Biller spearguns to name a few.

The wood type spearguns have a few benefits as well which makes them also very popular with a lot of spearfisherman (and women)- For one wood is quiet, a wood speargun has very little if any metal clanking against the shaft (or reef), making it quieter than metal guns like the Mako spearguns, Jbl spearguns and Riffe metaltech spearguns. Wood is bouyant, more so than metal. Bouyancy is important in a gun(I will add that not all guns need to float- even though alot of spearos insist that a gun float with the shaft out- this is not always the case depending on what/where you are hunting. I'll talk about this more in another thread). Ok so why is bouyancy important? A speargun that floats will allow you to add ballast (fancy for weight)exactly in the area it needs it most not so much to "balance" the gun, more so to tame the spearguns recoil and shaft whip. I'm often surprised to see speargun builders novice and experienced alike put lead plugs along the entire speargun barrel's length "balancing" the gun throughout, ultimately making it negative...sinking completely horizontal, although it looks cool, its not the best way to ballast a speargun for optimal results e.g. best accuracy, most consistent accuracy, least recoil, and least shaft whip- these are the important factors when ballasting a speargun.

If a speargun is ballasted correctly shaft whip will be minimized. Shaft whip is the inertia caused when the speargun's bands,shaft, and muzzle react. Think of a rifle. When you shoot a rifle the recoil causes the front of the barrel to jump up, this is exactly what happens with a speargun...but the results are a bit different. When the speargun's shaft leaves the muzzle, the tailend of the shaft is lifted (due to the upward momentum of the muzzle)as it exits the muzzle, this inturn causes the shaft to move at an angle downward, resulting in a low shot- most guys who's spearguns are shooting low think they need to power up on the speargun bands, when in actuality they are more than likely overpowered! Of course, the shorter the barrel of your speargun, the more exaggerated the whip will be. Again using a firearm as our example, if we shoot a handgun you notice a more exxagerated whip of the handguns barrel compared to a rifle, this also applies to spearguns. We all want a short speargun (easier to maneuver) that shoots far (heavy bands or lots of bands or both)but having the best of both worlds is tricky, very tricky.

To help spearo's attain more power, in a shorter gun- the Enclosed track came to be. An enclosed track is a channel that runs from the muzzle to the trigger, in which the shaft is "enclosed" in (think of a rifle barrel). Many wood guns have the facilty to incorporate this in their design so you'll see many custom wood guns in enclosed tracks (this is very different than a rail, often found in pipe (Euro) spearguns. A rail is just that, a long groove in which the shaft sits atop, the shaft is NOT enclosed, it just rests on the rail).
Basically the enclosed track will tame the tailend of the shaft as it exits the muzzle so you can power up the gun while keeping shaft whip to a minimal. Another surprising observation is that most gun builders will open up the front 2-4" of a guns barrel (muzzle area), although I will if asked to, this will actually defeat the purpose of the enclosed track, as those 2-4" are the most vital to prevent the tailend of the shaft from dipping.

All these factors where important considerations when I set fourth designing the HalfBreed speargun-ease of maneuvarability, quick tracking, accurate, minimal recoil, quick loading, and quiet. Plus a few extra perks to make it the complete weapon for hunting the ocean. Stay tuned for Part 2 where I'll talk about the HalfBreed's Euro design coupled with wood and carbon fiber all inside an enclosed track.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

The BlueWild Expo, Miami's best spearfishing show!

2011-06-01T23:21:00.003-04:00

Sheri Daye pulled off another great event this year- The Blue Wild Expo is Miami's (and becoming the Continents) best spearfishing expo! This year had a lot of new exhibitors as well as many of the old standbys, with all the best spearfishing gear, at the lowest prices- I mean where else can you get a set of carbon fiber fins for under $100? Yep that's right many spearos don't know that not only is the BlueWild an expo where lots of folk get see newly introduced gear, but its also a show where we can all buy in on the latest and best spearfishing equipment heavily discounted! This year was special as Dr. Terry Maas was there first hand introducing his freedive vest, as well as Sheri's latest addition... the "Spearfishing workshops"...all sorts of "how to" from speargun band tying, to spearfishing off a kayak, to tricks on catching more lobsters, to yours truly workshop, Speargun Building 101, a complete simple step by step guide to building a spear gun. But that's not all, the BlueWild featured an awesome section on spearfishing art that in and of itself was a mini art show. Quite a few of our neighbors over in Europe came over not only sharing tips and tricks on apnea and spearfishing, but also bringing some pretty neat equipment, Juliano the man behind the wetsuit company Polosub was there exhibiting (and selling) has wetsuits- if any of you have tried a Polosub wetsuit then you know aside from being incredibly warm, they fit to a "T", and rightfully so as all are custom made to order. Dimitris from DEEP magazine was there again this year, with a great presentation, and a great spearfishing magazine as well. Speaking of great spearfishing magazines, we had our local boys representing with SPEARFISHING magazine, it seems they just keep upping the bar, on cutting-edge news on spearfishing our local waters, and even some international stuff too. Art Pinder was there, it was quite a privilege to be in such a legendary spearo's presence and also quite humbling to see one of my custom built trophys lined up along side his championship awards. Martin Stapanek from Florida Instructors International (FII) a legendary freediver and quite a spearo too, was there too, providing some great tips on longer breathold and diving deeper as well as diving safety. This year FII organized the ‎1st Annual Fort Lauderdale Freediving Open on Memorial Day and everyone had an awesome time! And lets not forget our locals, you know the fellas we go to (sometimes on a daily basis) for spearfishing gear- Mike from Florida Freedivers, Ulysses from ScubasWorld, Dennis and Luis from Austins, Andrew from Nautilus, and even some not so local- Josh from Neptonics was there with bags full of spear gun trigger mechanisms, speargun tracks, speargun remote triggers...and lets not forget Daryl Wong with his awesome spear guns. We also had all the local dive clubs representing Florida making a splash as well. Top of the line spearfishing gear for cheap, spearfishing workshops, Freedive clinics, spearfishing contest (unfortunately cancelled due to 30+ mph winds), Spearfishing Raffles and spearfishing legends all under one roof, where else but at the Blue Wild Expo...see you all there next year.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

ITS FINALLY HERE, the BlueWild Dive Expo

2011-05-20T22:04:00.007-04:00

Its finally here next week Sheri Daye will be hosting the 5th Annual Spearfishing, er umm I mean Dive Expo....an annual event that can't be missed....everyone who dives, spearfishes, or just downright likes the water should put it on their calender for next Saturday and Sunday May 28-29 its a spearfishing expo packed with Spearfishing events, Its at the Broward Convention Center www.ftlauderdalecc.com/broward-directions.htm Check out this amazing schedule www.thebluewild.com/schedule.htm
This Bluewild Spearfishing Expo is the best yet check out the speakers www.thebluewild.com/speakers.htm their will be spearfishing seminars on hunting underwater, tips on how to be a better spearo, spearfishing and dive safety, how to get more lobsters, how to spearfish from a kayak, how to dive deeper and yep I'll be there too...Sheri invited me to do a workshop on gun builds (with a beautiful smile like that, how could I refuse ;p )So we'll have a Speargun Build 101 workshop, I'll have a pretty cut and dry checklist sheet on tools, best methods, best speargun designs, and simple techniques on how to make your own speargun, and I'm throwing in some free goods too....The Bluewild Dive Expo is an event that can't be missed come on out and show your support...A host of spearfishing celebrities will be there- Art Pinder, Manny Puig, and of course Miss Daye, to name a few! Lots of free spearfishing stuff, raffles and partying will be circulating here's a link if you want to stay the weekend www..fortlauderdaleconvention.com/...so and as though that wasn't enough a competition will be held on Memorial Day www.southfloridafreedivers.com/artPinder2011.html classy....come on and join the fun
www.thebluewild.com/

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Full Moon...Gone Mutton Hunting- Spearfishing Report

2011-05-20T14:47:00.022-04:00

Yesterday was awesome!!!! Zero winds, 20% chance of rain, but after looking at the radars and calculating wind speed and direction I knew we would be safe running outa Homestead for some spearfishing fun. We were in search of muttons with this new moon. Rumor has it muttons start romancing on the first full moons of April, May and June...depending where in Florida you are spearfishing, so yeah those big muts are a bit less spooky and a bit more shallower than normal. We ran from Pacific to Star Reef, hitting some secret spots along the way...everywhere we went it was top to bottom down to 50'ish feet...the entire ocean was a lake, we saw maybe 5 boats, so it was a safe lake at that....but the muts them boyz was slim pickings.

Another reason for this trip was I checking/ballasting one of my HalfBreed spearguns, the newest addition to my speargun line. The Halfbreed is a Euro enclosed track hybrid speargun, to my knowledge the only one of its kind in the market. I'm gonna write a full report on this Euro hybrid speargun soon so stay tuned!

Anyways we were met with some great spearfishing conditions the entire day, other than in some areas the water was particulated with stingers...I dunno what they are, whether its broken up jellies (one of my buddy's theory) or something that floats with the sargassum seaweed, whatever it was stinging the hell outa us. We dropped on a few plates and a few humps and saw fish in all the houses! We hit some pretty "muttony" spots but none were around other than the 2 we shot. We saw a few blacks, that have smartened up, and did not present any high percentage shots so most got a pass. On our last drop we were on a hump that went from 17' to 40' and was stacked with mango's all around a big hole. I slowly dropped on a glide towards the hole, as the groupies dissipated, outa the hole comes a nice mangrove snapper rising up to meet me...before we could get aquainted I pierced his rump with a shaft from the HalfBreed speargun....strung up the 24"er, convinced the Euro enclosed track hybrid needed neither tuning or ballasting, this one banded gun is a beacon!

So we had a great day spearfishing, with a nice line up of great eating fish!

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Gottacudaformybuddies

2011-05-20T14:34:00.004-04:00

It was a pristine day yesterday outa Bayfront Park Homestead....gotta love Miami!!!! It was one of those days spearfishing that just brings a huge smile to my face! Had a special order for a Cuban Kingfish;) from some old friends; although a prefer to pass on them most times, Manny and and Jose made me promise, so I shot this fellow in 40'ish feet fought him for over 15 minutes and he went airborne on me twice, cooooool. Rest of the report to follow

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

When Hogs...make grouper look small

2011-05-12T10:12:00.000-04:00

Headed out from Bayfront for a spearfishing charter, again we were blessed with amazing conditions wind started from the S at about 8mph then lay to under 1 most of the day till about 2'ish started to pick up. Everywhere we went it was top to bottom viz, no wind and AWESOME!

The plan was to spearfish towards Triumph, and hit some new houses on the way..."Coma Reef" was the first its a hump in the shape of a - , _ with a few rock piles around it, sits in 40'ish dropping to 60'ish, the place was a fish bonanza...surprisingly saw only 2 muttons...well really it was 2 muttons hauling ass. I give big props to any spearo that consistently shoots muttons off Elliot, those fish seldom give you a chance, to at least entertain a spearfishing stalk, or hide and seek...those fish just book, no mutton tail dance, no mutton lazy eye role, they just plain and simple- Haul Ass. Everyone else is spearfishing muttons, as the full moon draws near, and over in Elliot those fish just laugh at us! Its been mentioned more than once to take a bluewater speargun to them, but thats another story all together.

Saw a very nice black in the high 20's cruising the spot but never gave me a decent shot, good thing I know where he lives;) We continued on spearfishing towards Triumph to yet another spot that had a few small ledges with sand and dotted with some coral and sea fans...very hoggy looking...and it too did not disappoint, this area had some pretty poor viz (as opposed to the rest of the areas), as I was headed towards the boat I saw the shadow of some fish, shoot from under a coral head bolting out towards the sandy area, at first I thought it was a big mut, but the way it swam and its silloutte, didn't sit right, the only thing I knew was it was BIG...so I too bolted in his direction....as I saw his swim pattern I immediately registered a hogfish snapper, but the thickness and width was just not fitting the typical 20'ish dimensions...he kept darting from rock to coral to rock everytime I would drop he would swim to the next spot, this went on for over 30 minutos, till he ran outa rocks (pun intended) as I dropped to the coral he had slid under and peeked I saw nothing other than an exist on the other side, DAMN I lost him, the bad boy gave me the slip....guess they don't grow that size from being dumb. Then I remembered the old "big hogfish" trick of turning sideways and flattening up against the inside top of corals, so I did a nice breath up dropped peek'd in and saw the ninja, all camo'd...he was HUGE....heart pounding I swam up and thought a game plan out. I'd poke him out the rock, and land a solid shot, rather than risk a hole shot and not engage the flopper, a common spearfishing mistake...so thats what I did...I thought the shot stoned him, but the beast half dazed got his wits about him and holed up, I was set as the shot I knew was solid, headed up relaxed (yeah right) and went down for the extraction, not easy but 30 minutes later it was a kodak moment...26", boy was thick...couldn't get your hand around his tail,
snout was 12" across (openned) probably the heaviest hog I've shot while spearfishing in Miami/Keys. We actually didn't quite register its massiveness till we put it next to the 24" Red, made it look puny!

A big shout out to the Sea G_ds for allowing me the opportunity to harvest such a magnificant beast, and providing a great day of spearfishing our Miami waters!

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Short trip, Big Hog

2011-05-11T00:59:00.016-04:00

I know, 2 days and 2 posts...what can I say, been getting alot of mail- folk asking if I'm alive-nice. Truth is I am, but been busy as hell preparing for the BlueWild, building guns and of course my daytime job...but hey always time to do some spearfishing, this report is outa

Blackpoint Marina in Homestead. Last week we had another window open, so we ready'd the Classic Whaler, aka "The Rompe Hueso" and headed out to Boca Chica, Soldier and surrounding area for some great spearfishing.
Conditions were lake-like, flat seas 2mph winds, and top to bottom everywhere we went....saweeeeet! We ran most of the regular spearfishing waypoints around Boca Chica, Soldier, and Sands saw an abundance of sea life

and managed to shoot a mixed bag of fish ....but not a mutton or decent grouper was to be found? After a few hours we cut the day short and headed home...

notable fish was a 23" (or a cuban 24) hog I stoned off a hump I call "One Rock Hump" everytime we drop in, there is a 20"+ hoggie waiting to do me right.

Thats the line-up with the smallest hog rounding in at 14", and a couple of mangos that weren't to shabby, for Elliot that is.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

1 Breath, 2 Shots, 2 Kills

2011-05-10T15:51:00.009-04:00

Well after a pretty windy week, I was able to make a few quick runs from our Miami spearfishing waters. Most years here in Miami and the Keys mid April (use to be beginning April) winds starts blowing hard making spearfishing throughout the Keys, Homestead, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale less than desireable- with this wind comes cleaner waters- meaning a higher visibility for spearfishing, depending on how far you travel out- but at the expense of getting beat to Sh!at- both in and out of the water...so count on Mid April to Mid May strong winds- with some freak days just being dead calm, this was one of those days.

We headed out of Homestead towards Ceasar for some spearing, winds were out of the east blowing 7mph. So off we were by 5am- plan A) was to hit a few patch reefs then either head out towards Pacific Reef or B) stay on the plates. We exited from Ceasar to meet some pristine waters, just ripe for spearfishing fun! You know, it was just one of those days that regardless whether you shoot some fish or not, just being out on the water, hunting fish is all the thrill you need ( yeah sure a few nice fish is the icing). We had pre-logged the spearfishing strategy on the GPS, and had it ready to go, some old hotels and some new ones were on the role, and the first was a spearfishing hole, literally out of Ceasars due north, this 30' deep "pit" was a goverment contract that never was.

Story has it there are about a half dozen of these holes with boulders in them...and some big @ass mango snappers...that were dug in the late 70's as part of some jail they were piloting- like an Alcatraz- anyways I got me uno of them waypoints, from a very old spearo, who had them plotted from land (no GPS's back then), Elliot Key (thats how close in we are) to be exact, with another spot, a shoal to the East- viz can be zero that close in off Ceasars all the way to Soldier, but in the Pit its always clear, kinda eerie as your swimming through soup and BAM...the cool clean pool that is the Pit. Gotta hit it smooth and quiet as the big mangos are the first you'll see and more than likely the first to disappear...so following protocol, I glide slow and easy to be greeted momentarily by a nice 20'ish mango, CLICK, as I pull him hard and fast to the surface, before he warns his buddies, string'em up, then down again a bit faster this time...CLICK...his smaller friend, and so it went 5 in all before they wised' up. It was close to eight am when we started hitting some of the plates in Ceasars off of Hawks Channel. Its no spearfishing secret, Elliot is hit hard and fish are not as abundant as in the past, mostly do to hook & line, but us spearos still pay the load. You can go from patch, to plate, to hump and not even see a shootable fish. Then all of a sudden you find one thats got everything on the menu, and you load up. Thats the way it is. So we went at it viz was about 10' with anything beyond just shadows, fish were also spooky, both often the result of wind. Slim pickings but we did manage to pull a few fish, before heading out looking for some clean water...which we never found....so we headed back in to the shallower 30'ies making the dive a bit easier.

The last plate we hit had a few curious yellows passing through, spined the first (29"),

reloaded, on the same breathe, while the school circled, and shot a second...nice ending to a great day on the ocean spearfishing our Miami waters.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

The First ever Invisible Speargun...GhostGun

2011-03-24T16:30:00.004-04:00

So here it is, the first ever invisble speargun....The Ghost gun is made of a state of the art material developed in W.Germany. The latest news is the new Stealth fighters will be using this on their jets....pretty awesome, if the enemy can't see the jet, then they can't shoot it, right? I applied this same principle in the Ghost Gun, if a fish can't see the gun....

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

2011-03-23T14:31:00.004-04:00

Well after quite a loooooong wait http://www.settingsteelspeargear/ is on the net....the spearfishing site is up and running, but I'm sure we'll have a few bugs in it. Head on over and check it out and if you see something wrong with it let me know, and yeah if you see it ok let me know too.....Now I can start getting back to what we really like spearfishing and them reports, stay tuned!!!!!

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Miami Mutton Snapper Tataki -2 ways

2010-10-21T10:19:00.011-04:00

Here are a couple of Mutton Snapper Tataki Dishes and a couple of hashi yasume sides

First squeeze a half a lime

cut in 1/2 thick slices
and lay them atop

a ginger dressing, thin sliced white onion
mix

while the mutton snapper is fuming and cooking

chop some cilantro

heres a close up of the fished turned over, the middle piece has not yet been flipped

sprinkle the cilantro over it let it sit, go on to the next dish, after you've chopped the other mutton go back to this dish put all the mutton slices in a bowl, throw out the onions add some sesame seed oil mix, and then lay back on dish

and sprinkle with some black sesame seeds, if you have a problem eating some of
this before serving

you will end up with a void in your presentation (a no no in japanese cuisine

In this case, slice an apple thin, baste with a little miso and garnish with a shiso leaf

Your second tetaki, chop some Miami spearfished mutton snapper, together with some lemon grass, the top part of the stalk is bittery lemoney and the bottom thicker part is a milder sweeter flavor

add some australian sea salt, dried (or fresh jalapeno) and some roasted sesame/ginger mix

add a half a lemon mix it up, let it sit

get a half (or quarter) avaocado, chop it together with some mango ( I used some frozen Dole mango chunks)

Heres a cool way to get a Avocado seed out, whack the seed with the knife

and whala!

Mango avaocado mix

add some japanese pepper mix

some smoked sea salt

and serve, with some cold sake or

one of my favrite beers- Asahi Extra Dry

Another pic with another side dish (hashi yasume)

And finally clean up your tools for the next Miami Spearfishing adventure!

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Elliot Key spearfishing (short report)

2010-10-21T00:09:00.010-04:00

Headed out for a very short run outa Miami's Elliot Key for some spearfishing and more R&R (Repeatability and Reliability)on the carbon fiber pole spear.

Woke up yesterday for some pool R&R on the new carbon fiber pole spear we've been prototyping, as I had mentioned in the previous post, the pole is ready to be part of our line of spearfishing gear, but being the nitpicker I wanted to get some more "controlled" values in the pool...and as I was about to start I noticed my primary weather marker, yep when this baby looks like this

I need to check a bit further with this

take a closer look

yep when this bamboo is sitting that still its time to go Set some Steel! It just happen to be, as the thought was running through my mind, I get a text from the Squirrel (my son, not exactly a squirrel anymore) to check on, yeah you guess it, the bamboo, and he added he was off work today...so as tough decisions, are as they are, I was left with no choice but to pack up the Whaler and take my R&R to the sea. We where headed outa Homestead marina at high noon.

Our first drop 3 Humps an Elliot spearfishing waypont was met with an empty house. Water has cooled significantly, vis was pretty bad, soupy less than 10 feet, no worries as I had the pole...our next spot was a place I discovered last time spearfishing out of Sands Cut another excellent waypoint that had a few bugs, hogs and a nice mutton...pulled in nice and easy slipped the claw in the water and followed right behind, a few hogs where around and the Squirrel wasted no time skewering a nice 18"er, as I patiently waited...and in the shadows I saw him lingering. As he headed towards the comotion, I circled around knowing the Squirrel would freak out and cause him to ultimately freak out too- and swim straight towards me...and it played out, just like that! Had a nice quartering shot, and after a slight hustle I had a 21" pole speared Miami Elliot Key mutton snapper on the stringer-gotta say this pole spear is furiously fast, hits like a sledgehammer too! We hunted the area for about an hour got a couple of more hogs and 3 bugs, then headed in. All in all a nice short 2 hours of work (remeber R&R;)...hopefully this nice weather will continue and we go out again soon, with a fully charged battery.

[edit-Note to self, have camera fully charged]

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Matheson Hammock Report-Test Drives and Bugs

2010-10-12T18:47:00.011-04:00

We finished some final work on the old whaler and decided we'd shoot out for a test drive last Friday. I've mentioned test drive "s" in that I'm totally outa shape, so I honestly wasn't planning on getting wet...but the temptation of testing the last of the mohican prototype pole spear was too much (of course the lake placid type conditions weren't any help either). I also happened to have all my gear on board, as well as a lobster lasso prototype I've been tinkering around with, for a few months. So you can say I didn't have much choice. MH is a "fun" marina located http://www.miamidade.gov/parks/parks/matheson_beach.asp It truly has quite an assortment of activities and a family can easily spend a day enjoying this great park and marina http://www.divespots.com/scuba/destinationID-3/partnerID-7/typeCode-4/partner.info for more info I purposely tied this link into this report, because this site is awesome packed with great info and some pretty neat dive spots, don't miss surfing into http://www.divespots.com/scuba/site-miami/destination.info we've spearfished all these dive sites and some can be incredibly productive for public numbers!!!! So we headed out and the Whaler was a gem, engines purrred like sphynx http://picsdigger.com/image/1c3d5cc0/...hate to repeat, I'm pathetically out of shape...over worked and over indulged, made me think how much I enjoy the sea, and how long its been, amazing how just a simple day out in the ocean can be so calming- it also gave me a reality check that I need to get my lame ass in shape...so expect a few of my old spearfishing workouts, as well as some new ones that are being used by alot of spearos during training these days. Expect also to see some spearfishing exercises as it relates to apnea...can't get one without the other, right? Lately crosstraining is the in term, and their are also quite a few crosstraining and core exercises (yep another in term) geared perfectly towards spearfishing- so expect a few great workout training tips for spearfishing coming soon. The seas were flat water was patchy- milky in some areas and gin in others, and seems to be cooling up-really wasn't expecting much, other than to try out my final version of my custom pole spear which I hope will soon be available at http://www.settingsteel/ speargear.com...and yeah I guess trying out my custom prototype lobster snare would have been nice, but not high on the list, as the area we were cruising was and has always been hit hard, we ran outa sands cut, a tricky booger of a cut, and immediately were met with same very clear waters and some weird readings on the sonar had me hustling with my gear. We found some pretty nice color changes in about 30 feet that proved to be a lobster bonanza, so with custom lobster snare in hand, I managed to fetch over 15 bugs in a 15 minute time span- with quite a few keepers in the bunch, a short drift bought me to a transition area that was, ahhh so very hoggie looking that I had to go up and fetch me custom pole spear, to be met be a decent (for that area at least) hoggies- a short pull, a gentle release and hog fish snapper on the stringer- and a quiet celebration knowing that my new custom pole spear is finally finished!!! so a few lobsters and a hog on the first drop-off MH- who says Miami has no spearfishing????

We proceeded spearfishing on to some deeper ledges, in about 80'ish, then 60'ish, but zero, nada, of fish of in the house, and viz was challenging. I notice some nice bottom as we headed out so we back tracked back to the area and I bumped into a boulder of a rock that had over 30 roaches so I picked them over pulling another handful from the bunch; apparently all the commotion brought some hogs in that all virtually impalled themselves on to my pole spear, and that bought in a very nice mutton snapper well over 22", of course while I was horsing the hog....no worries I got his number ;)...so all in all a nice day spearfishing in Miami with some new spearfishing waypoints....and not to mention a classic whaler http://www.whalercentral.com/Boston_Whaler.php that has a new life-final tally a few bugs and hogs, a great custom pole spear, and soon to come an awesome lobster lasso....oh and yeah some serious training to be cont.....

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

GOOD NEWS-BAD NEWS

2010-10-12T11:50:00.004-04:00

Which do you want first?????

GOOD NEWS!!!! Of course....
Went out this weekend for a spearfishing quickie trip, well it was more like a test run (both engines-insider joke) report to follow today.

BAD NEWS, boo woo...
Well it could also be good news. If you recall I've been tinkering with a pretty rad speargun, that a few friends have been testing for about a little over 2 years....the spearguns has been
"debugged" and "tweaked", and was going to launch the grand opening of our new online store www.settingsteelspeargear.com, then lo and behold outa the blue (literally) comes this spearfishing company and they want the speargun....I've worked with a few manufacturers before with their own designs/ers, but have never actually been exposed to this side of the business (although I'd imagine its no different than selling a furniture design- which I have quite a bit of experience)...should be interesting journey, as this is/was my baby....ok enough babbling...so it seems perhaps (sadly) I may enter in to some type of agreement that may put restrains on our marketing end of the gun....but the good part is this amazing concept speargun my finally be available to the masses, and I hope will set a new standard in underwater hunting.
I'll keep you all in the loop, on the process and hope to even throw in some sneak pix of the gun, along the way!

On a side note I hope to have my humble site up and running by the end of Nov. (dang didn't I say that last Nov.) anyways thanks for dropping in, be safe out there.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Wheeew that one was close....

2010-09-29T17:26:00.004-04:00

Looks like it missed us...but jeeeeez is it wet over here- I know, been outa the loop as of late, but all for good reason....stay tuned

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

Speargun Line Retainer Bungie

2010-06-08T14:51:00.024-04:00

I often get guys asking me how I make my speargun bungies, also known as muzzle bungies, shock bungies, and/or just plain "bungies". Perhaps my speargun bungies draw some attention due to the lack of any type swivel on them, or maybe its just they look a bit too simple (read not technical). Anywayyyyys hear in Miami spearfishermen tend to do quite a bit of improvising as do our European spearo friends so here is my version of the muzzle bungie.

BUT before I jam the pictorial let me enlighten thee on my take of the shock bungie. First, of all names given to this device "shock" is the least acceptable in my book, why??? cause in most cases by the time your spearfishing shaft reaches the end of the wraps it hardly has any more smack, penetration, power, force....well you get it. Second, ideally the less you have going on between your speargun, line, and spearfishing shaft, the less chance of something going wrong...so yeah if you can make do without a spear gun bungie then go for it..."Less is more"...true that! And yes their are other type of spearfishing "line retention" methods that at one point or another I'll be blogging on with a saweeet pictorial for the picture happy spearos. Third, if you insist on a bungie then try to make/buy one as streamlined as you can and fasten it to your line anchor...alot of spearos are always tweeking their spear guns, for optimal power and distance, to later have a huge piece of rubber halfway between the line and shaft. And finally the main reason why you should consider a bungie is to keep your line tight to the stock, this both lessens tangles and more importantly prevents it from getting caught to your self or bottom structure-that said a small, swiveless, bungie should suffice... and this is my take on the spearfishing muzzle bungie

Give yourself ample line to work with- for a 3" rubber I use about 15" of line, as you can always cut the excess. Double up the spectra (dyneema) spearfishing line (at this point make the call whether you want to use a swivel or not if you do I'd recommend these http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_8555____SearchResults

and make

a simple overhand knot. Alot of the Miami guys I go spearfishing with think I'm a knot guru, but truth be said I'm knot, er, um I mean I'm not, I just simply dip over to this site http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

and whalah!

OK still with me? This next step is vital, after your knot get some "super glue" you know, the strong smelling watery type glue that sticks your fingers together...yeah yeah that one....and add a few drops to your knot, this little step goes a long way, as it virtually welds your dyneema spearfishing line on to itself- In fact, I put a few drops of super glue on EVERY knot I tie thats gonna see water

ok so now you got your first knot done and you proceed to the next knot which is on the other end of your line, here you do the exact same function as above and you nip off the excess line here is a picture of your spearfishing bungie half way through the process

EDIT ok heres a better pic. So now you have your 2 loops and next you attach some whipping line (also called rigging twine) to one of the loops this will ease running your dyneema spearfishing line thru the rubber tube in the next step

Moving right along, next you get some liquid soap and dip your spectra line in it this eases the entire process, as a close spearo friend says "lubrication, rules the nation". You then proceed to thread the whipping line (which is waxed allowing you to straighten it out) through the rubber tube and pull the spectra spearfishing line through to the other side....wondering where to get that whipping line....here you go compadre http://www.meltontackle.com/products/heavy-duty-waxed-rigging-thread.html

once thats done you set up a couple of constrictor knots, here's another another cool site for the Miami spearo or for that matter any other spearfishing person that would like to be up to date on the best knots for spearfishing

http://www.animatedknots.com/indexfishing.php?LogoImage=LogoGrog.jpg&Website=www.animatedknots.com

Pull the rubber tubing over one end of the dyneema loop knot and constrict it. I use two needle nose pliers for maximum torque, same goes when I tie my bands

You'll have some rigging twine left over you can do another constrictor or just nip off the excess

And here you have it...neat and purdy like, next you move on to the other side of your dyneema loop. Here it gets just a tad bit tricky ideally you'd like a third hand to help out, as in this way its one simple fluid move, but if a third ain't happening then just proceed without. First slip your second constrictor knot over the rubber tube and let it hang loosely there (in the picture on the bottom left you can't see it but its there on the bottom half),

next pull the rubber tube this allows the spectra line to "creep" into the tube, and generally stays well within it up to where the knot is. To get the knot in get those needle nose pliers, pinch the knot with them and cram them in, the dish soap we aid in this step

Slip your constrictor knot over the tube and constrict away...............then nip the excess, as so neatly, shown above. So their you have it a spearfishing bungie worthy of many an outing in any spearfishing adventure near or far!

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

New world Record cobia

2010-01-25T21:11:00.002-05:00

A huge cobia was shot spearfishing off Espírito Santo, southeastern part of Brazil. I don't have to many details on the fish, but its said to be at or around 140#, if so, that torqued the current WR by over 30#'s

I'll keep you spearo's posted as I get word

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

A Cold window opened, today.

2010-01-14T22:59:00.007-05:00

Headed out for some Runnin'&Gunnin' today. My sources said it was gonna be a good day spearfishing so I headed outa Goverment Cut swung North and headed to some Miami spearfishing numbers that never fail! Weather was nice and cold as....well you know. Seas where less than 2', viz was hazy in some spots , but mostly top to bottom down to 60'...seems fish are still shallow, which is good for spearfishing, hopefully the water will warm up as it was close to unbearable in my 3mil...but I got my mammalian reflect kickin' in fast when that icy water hit my face. Glad to see Miami still has its share of fish still wating to be hunted. Shot a trio of mutton snapper to 20" a few hogs in the high teens and a godzilla mango, a hair under 24"...some sashimi mac's rounded the bunch.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

The $$$ Fish

2010-01-12T11:04:00.004-05:00

GOOOOOOOD riddance 2009 has come to an end! Aside from some great spearfishing not much else can be said for 2009.....now 2010 seems like its gonna be a winner!!!!!!!

Quite a few fellow spearo's have been trying to get a hold of me for sometime....good news is yes I'm still kickin (my fins), bad news is not as much in the water as on land. I'll hopefully be spearfishing a bit more now that I've added a few more employees to my team... I'll have a few Miami spearfishing reports soon, as well as a few evaluations on new spearfishing gear as well as a few new carbon spearguns, ooops I mean Miami-made carbon spearguns. I hope to provide my readers with up-to-date news on Spearfishing Florida and surrounding waters, as well as the latest spearfishing rules and regulations. OK that being said....

How would you like to shoot yourself a $177k fish? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34711137/ns/business-world_business?GT1=43001
A 500# Bluefin tuna was caught off of Japans northern coast, auctioned off for a startling $177,000....imaging how many of my custom carbon fiber spearguns you can by with that! Quite a few articles have popped up on the www. regarding Bluefin Tuna and the crazy $$$ a fish like that fetches, food for thought in this depressing economy. Imagine running into a school of bluefin like this http://www.savethebluefin.com/profiles/blogs/aerial-video-of-big-bluefin on your next bluewater spearfishing expedition.

What a majestic fish, although it fetches a big chunk of ka-ching bluefin tuna are not exactly targeted be bluewater spearfisherman, in general as much as its close brother the yellowfin tuna. The spearfishing gear necessary to spear a fish like this is not only specialized, but downright tough as these fish can put up 2-3 hours worth of blood, sweat and tears http://vimeo.com/2311555. Speaking of which looks like the bluefin is on a decline- thanks to commercial overfishing http://www.bigmarinefish.com/bluefin.html.

Speaking of Bluewater spearfishing I'll soon post some quick tips and pointers on gear an methods for bluewater hunting, look for them soon.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Beauty and the Beast

2009-06-13T10:59:00.006-04:00

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

2009-06-10T15:57:00.006-04:00

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...

2009-05-27T09:15:00.007-04:00

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....

2009-05-25T22:54:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-19T11:36:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-18T10:56:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-18T10:35:00.004-04:00

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/

The Long Key...Tale

2009-05-15T09:21:00.005-04:00

Well NOAA said it was gonna be the last "nice" day this Wed. before the wind picked up, so we decided to take a jump over to Long Key for a spearfishing trip.

5 in the am found us loaded up and headed on the 2 hour drive to go spearfishing at one of my favorite Keys, we were hoping on some good viz as the past few days were quite calm- Long Key is notorious for poor viz (compared to most of the other Keys) probably because it sits on the "curve" of the Keys as well as that 3 mile bridge, which serves as a huge funnel for water to run in and out of, as well as its one of the farthest points from Gulf waters.

We decided to put in on the public ramp and make a run to some new spots we had noted on our last trip spearfishing Long key, so we dropped the Raptor in and headed out oceanside....Ahhhhhh NOAA gotta love'em, wind was about 10mph and seas were choppy 2's, with some 3's (later picking up to 15-20 with 3-4's), the Raptor handled them well , the current was strong , but manageable....the viz was saaaweeet everywhere we went it was top to bottom, the water was perfect for me and my rashguard- but the Squirrel found it a bit nippy (giv'em time , he'll man up)!

Our first few spots were nice, but no fish in the house, on our next spot in about 30' we saw quite a few nice fish, including a 30+pound Black Long Key grouper, that I swore could read and write....the boy totally played me, and their I was thinking I was all ninja-like....what a joke! You see the reason I stress a "Long Key" black is that most of the blacks over in Long key, to me seem a bit above average in IQ compared to blacks elsewhere, perhaps its because they get hit more- as this guy had a nice recent mohawk- or its just in the genes. Anyways I was drifting and saw him all lit up about 5 feet above the reef just floating in midwater, I kicked up current about 2-300 yards and planned a drift right towards him...no kicking, no movement, just a "blob" of pure ninja tactico moving in behind him....well to make a long story short as I was about 100' away he dropped to the sand about 15' away from the reef...the plan was for me to drop very close to the reef and clip him over the ledge ( as I thought he'd be half way in his hole, with just his head poking out) Well as I got to the ledge hoping to see him there, he was was gone...PUFFFF!!!! My peripheral caught some movement, and I slowly looked over my shoulder to the left and about 30 feet away I see him pop up for a peek (could of' sworn he smiled, no more like laughed) and bolt back in his "exit" hole....oh well :(

We made a few nice drifts over some good Long key waypoints, that produced a bunch of reef fish, and from their headed out 3 miles to shoot what we hoped would be a limit of permisos and mules! As we were headed out we spotted some nice relief on the scope in about 75' so we decided to take a closer look we hunted the area for about an hour, pulled some nice fish out, one of the boyz saw a few nice kings in the 75# range,and a nice gag in the 30# range- and another shot a nice Cero mackeral.

Well we got to our spot out in federal waters and dropped in...and were happily greeted by fish everywhere...we moved fast as daylight was a burning and spearfished a bunch a fish adding to our already heavy cooler including a couple of high 20#'s permits ( a new PB for one of the crew) and mules (yellow jack)...we wrapped it up by 6'ish and hauled in. Ahhhhhh a solid 10 hours of spearfishing...thats what I'm talking 'bout!...... ohhhhh and the final tally, alot of fish!

Now, ain't that just a Tale?

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Tavernier Spearfishing Report

2009-05-12T11:01:00.008-04:00

We just headed out spearfishing to Tavernier for a short run...thought I'd post the report now that I got the fish porn sent.

Conditions were pristine, again, T-B in most areas seas under 2', wind under 5mph, water was comfy in my shorty...saw plenty of fish, and we spearfished some new excellent waypoints in Tavernier, we had pinpointed on google...goes to show a little homework pays-off! And talk about pay-off seems nothing like shooting fish, improves ones performance, in well....shooting fish! WTG guys!

we spearfished a few nice slab mango's in the mid 20's rangethe water was gin!

heres the ecletic Jimmy Philipino with a decent mule

Another sashimi grade mule and a 22' hoggy that sillied up on our last drop...Note the Fur stylin' his Picasso suit (poor boy was sweating bullets)

all in all a great time, filled a cooler of fish and made it home 'fore night time.....saweeeet!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

The Squirrels Euro Enclosed Track Speargun

2009-05-12T08:58:00.010-04:00

I've been playing around with the idea of an enclosed track Euro speargun for about 4 months now (more or less about the time my son-the Squirrel- had mentioned he wanted a Euro speargun for his B-Day) so I decided to combine some of my slim down versions of my regular enclosed track spearguns with some Euro gun concepts.

Here's the breakdown:

First off the decision was to determine the Handle/Trig mech for the speargun. It was a toss up between the Demka or Marlin handles, and since the Demka was unavailable (I think its an awesome handle) I went with the Marlin...a sweet, smooth as butter, handle/trig that allows for a R or L line release.
The speargun has a double taper front to back, it is about 3/4" in the front and widens to about 1 3/4" in the back, they call it a cuttlefish designed speargun., and its triad shape side to side-not exactly anything new as I have been making this similiar design in my regular spearguns for about 2 years now. But for this Euro I decided to tweek it as much as possible so it can live up to its "Euro fame" of a fast, light, smooth tracking speargun....so I started trimming fat (wood) off the design to make it as streamlined as possible, and the only way to do it without any bend in the barrel was with carbon fiber, so I laminated carbon fiber (CF) between the wood lams and on the bottom (belly, another one of my trademark designs) of the speargun, this resulted in a height less than 2cm (think a little under a quarter-25 cents) not including the track. I added some lead shots front and rear for ballast, the speargun sinks slowly, very slowly, horizontally with shaft, and floats vertically without. This gun tracks incredibly fast and light and feels like a gun half its size in the water. From band to fin the gun is 110/115cm, total length is 130cm, 2 bands 5/8" . The shaft is a Riffe euro 9/32. The gun has a built in shark pic which doubles as the line retainer as well. I made the muzzle with CF to provide the structural support allowing me to bore the band holes as high as possible (inline with the shaft) the space b/t shaft and bands is about 1/16", so the recoil is hardly felt, that coupled with the spearguns cuttlefish design, lets even the wimpiest of kids (er, ummm no pun intended Squirrel ;) shoot the gun without flinching, and shaft whip is nonexistant (enclosed track). The enclosed track was not as complicated as I originally thought. To my knowledge there are no enclosed track Euro spearguns commercially produced on the market today, and very few if any gun builders have made them. For those of you who never have shot an enclosed track gun I urge you to give it a try, you'll probably never go back (same goes for wood compared to metal spearguns) I've been using graphite on most of my tracks as of late so this speargun got the graphite too...I really like the way the graphite sizzles the shaft off the track. The gun shoots to the end of 5 wraps (or 2 depends how your counting) and penetrated up to the flopper in 3/4 plywood...we took it out this weekend and it performed quite nicely ( http://settingsteel-spearfishing.blogspot.com/2009/05/fowey-rocks-spearfishing-report.html ) I'll probably be adding this gun to my line of Miami custom made spearguns, as the Euro type speargun has proven itself time and again to be a "fish, Killa"....so whats next? How about an Ipe/Basswood (yep basswood, like balsa wood) Eurogun..... report to follow!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing...Miami and the Keys

2009-05-12T08:41:00.004-04:00

OK, don't ask me why I'm here blogging about spearfishing...
Spearfishing Tavanier Key would be soooooo sweet today http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=key+largo&searchType=WEATHER, but then
Spearfishing in Long Key would be awesome too http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=33001 just think of that reef waiting for a spearo to drop in and shoot some fish....and what about Spearfishing the good ol' Key West http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=33040 some one say, "lets go spearfishing to the Marquesas", alright point made on spearfishing the Keys, but do we really have to drive that far? Spearfishing off of Blackpoint wouldn't be to bad either http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=33030 ahhhh the patch reefs off of Soildier Key with there alpha hogs, saying "shoot me, shoot me" and of course we can't forget Miami's famed Fowey Rocks for a spearfishing smorgasbord http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=33134 WOW I think I'll stop now....why did I even blog about this...hopefully the weather keeps up.......should I say "To be Continured"

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Fowey Rocks, Spearfishing Report

2009-05-10T11:46:00.010-04:00

Headed out this Friday with a few friends for another spearfishing adventure off of Fowey Rocks...conditions were pristine! Water was T-B in most areas some a bit hazey. Wind was under 5', seas under 2', bright and sunny comfy in a shorty, although we hit a pretty strong thermocline around 70' (thermo started at about 40'), and talking 'bout strong...current was ripping, probably due to the full moon, which of course being May means "Romancing Muts" (no not a porn flick ;) The plan was to do some bluewater spearfishing around Fowey Rocks then hit some reefs for the usual hogs, snappers, grouper, etc.

Well plans got changed and we went to the reefs first, as we spotted some very nice spearfishing bottom on the sonar. We found a very nice "taverny" area that was loaded with decent fish, and the fun began!

We saw plenty of fish including quite a few sand tiles in the 50'ish...although viz was awesome the current made it quite challenging.

We managed to spearfish a mixed bag including a 30" Mut clipped after a very tedious stalk

thus the May Mut Romancing Extravaganza has begun, also pulled a couple of slab'gos 23"&25" out of the taverns A nice gag, and another nice 23" mut and some hogs gave us our fix, so we headed to the blue for some pelagics- gotta say with all honesty, we really didn't push it, so we really never scored on any blue other than a few yellow jacks we ran into...all in all it was one of those magnificant days your thankful to be in Miami, with great friends, on the ocean....spearfishing!
someone say sashimi.................................................................................................on the way
and of course no trip is complete without this....the Raptor of Pangea pulled thru again!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Late and quick spearfishing report...Soldier Key

2009-05-07T22:12:00.005-04:00

Went out this past weekend with crew out for a spearfishing adventure around Soldier Key, Boca Chica area. Viz was decent in most areas, about 10-15' seas were 2-3's with some "wake me up" 4's for good measure! Current wasn't to bad, but pushing somewhat, a new moon is on the way so that will soon change to ripping, give or take. We hit a few spearfishing holes in and around Soldier Key and Boca Chica, from 15'-40' and found fish in most of the houses, nothing too notable, but hey a nice day out on the ocean with friends and a cooler full of fish (picture shows half the story as a nother of the mates parted with half the bounty) is nothing to be complainin' bout.

Well actually one thing was quite notable I finished my son's enclosed track, carbon/teak euro gun its a 2 (5/8) banded 115cm gun, the finished dimension is thinner than a quarter (25 centavos, that is), with 5 wraps the shaft sizzled off the gun with room to punch... WOW, just WOW for now, report to follow.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing World Records...Part 2

2009-04-27T22:43:00.026-04:00

Well if you read Spearfishing World Records Part 1, you know the two entities (http://www.iusarecords.com/world_record_list.php & http://www.freedive.net/ibsrc/index.htm ) that monitor and classify the speared, potential, world records, so what are some of them? Glad you asked here are some pictures (of course we gotta see some pix) with weight for species thrown in! For a the entire list of world records go to (http://www.iusarecords.com/world_record_list.php

African Pompano 43.6#

BlueRunner 10.1
BroomTail Grouper (Scamp) 18.96#

Red Grouper 15.7#
Yellow Jack 28.1#
Yellow Fin Tuna 353#
YellowFin Grouper 31#
White sea bass 93.4#
Warsaw Grouper 39.4#
Wahoo 125#TripleTail 23.5#
Striped Sea Bass 68.41#
Spangled emperor 13#
Spade Fish 11.8#

Snook 60.3#

Porgy 10.8#
Scribbled Snapper 27.56#

Rooster 73.8#
Permit 41# Ocean Trigger 14.75# Mutton Snapper 25# MilkFish 55.1#
Black Margate 19.8#
Mangrove Snapper 14#
MahiMahi 70.11

Kingfish 75#
Jobfish 30Jack Crevalle 46.8#

HorseEye Jack 30.6#
HogFish Snapper 21.8#
Gulf Grouper 148#Greater Cuda 64.9#GagGrouper 64.4# Dogtooth Tuna 201# Dog Snapper 31#
Cubera 124#Cobia 104.5#Cero Mackeral 14#
Spotted Cabrilla 52 #Cabezon 17 #
BroomTail 123# Bonita 22.3#
Boarfish 11.9#
Blue Runner 23# Bluefish 21.5# Bluefin Tuna 654#Black Skip Jack Tuna 19.8#Black Jack 23.4#Black Grouper 63.9# Blackfin Tuna 28#Blackfin Cuda 24#
BlackDrum 84# BigEye Trevally 17#Atlantic Sheepshead 15#
Almaco Jack 113# Amberjack 110.2#

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Report-not...Spearfishing Gear Report-yes

2009-04-27T09:24:00.006-04:00

Report?, what report?....weathers been windy as hell this past weekend, as forecasted so my gills be drying up again, but I guess its ok as this time has allowed me to catch up on some orders, as well as finish up a few more guns for the summer season.

My latest gem is a carbon/teak euro speargun, with a Marlin handle/trig mech I'm making for the Squirrel (my son, B-day coming up). This gun will be unique in that it will be full'on enclosed graphite track (not many enclosed track eurospearguns out there, right). Lately I've been making most guns with a graphite poured track I've noticed a huge difference in performance, although its alot more work (and messy as heck), the graphite provides a slick surface for the arrow to ride! This gun has presented a few challenges, but hey, thats whats its about, what fun would it be if it was easy (yeah right). For example getting the right elevation of the enclosed track relative to the handle, another was tweeking the band holes (could have gone with a prefab muzzle but that was just too easy) to get them as high up as possible (that is inline with the shaft, I mean com'on its a euro right) Well this this carbon/teak custom euro will be measuring about 110cm, we're looking at 2 bands probably 5/8 (the Squirrel's man'ed up from 9/16, I hope) and my trade mark double taper, but this guns side taper will have a triad rather than concave finish (report to follow).

A few other spearfishing gear we've been manufacturing quite a bit of is our low profile spearfishing floatline, a very low profile floatline that provides virtually zero drag while spearfishing! Another spearfishing accessory is my 7x7 Punch speartip, the best spear tip out there (in my humble opinion), its a much needed improvement on the standard rock tip. Not only is the actual point bomb proof, seriously we've shot rocks head on and this point returned unscathed, but if it does blunt you send it back to us and we'll re-point it for as long as you own it! This spear tip has some very tight dimensions perfect for our mutton snapper's helicoptor effect, once speared...no more lost fish with this speartip. And of course the Divezilla Dive bag http://settingsteel-spearfishing.blogspot.com/2009/02/found-it.html, thats earning a new title as "the best made dive bag" in the industry, this dive bag will not only hold those huge freedive fins, but will keep everything catagorized and snug....and its breathable a big plus!...theirs a few other products we've been working on, but thats under the radar for now...reports to follow!

ps on a side note we'll be lauching our speargear website soon (sorry for the delay) and as I have told a few of you we're gonna have a "name our gear" contest for some of our stuff, the the prize will be the gear the winner named, we'll keep you posted.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Tavernier Key Spearfishing Report

2009-04-23T08:47:00.016-04:00

We headed out today for a Tavernier Key Spearfishing adventure. 5 am found us hauling my buds 30' Cat to Tavanier Key, Spearfishing was the plan! The day before Tuesday (4/21/09) we had hoped to head out to Tavernier Key for some spearfishing, but 40% chances of rain/thunderstorm, wasn't to convincing, plus the wind howling for about 3 days straight wasn't going to help with the viz...so we apted for plan "B" to head out Wednesday.

Wednesday's forecast called for a sunny day, with winds in the low 10, seas under a foot, we figured a couple of windless days and a nice sunny day was gonna make our spearfishing Tavernier Key trip quite "bright", but come Tuesday night the wind picked up and our latest NOAA findings were reading 15 mph winds, carrying over to Wednesday morning, then laying towards the later middle of the day. This particular Tavanier spearfishing trip, had a pretty large crew, so everyone was "Are we going spearfishing to Tavernier?" " hows the visibility going to be?" " is it worth the trip?"...needless to say I was under the gun, and had to make a call- Spearfishing to Tavernier Key...Yay or Nay.

Yay, and here is why, generally when its raining the wind lays down (unless you get a hurricane/tropical storm setting), when you have a day or to of rain, the next day is usually pretty calm, even if it picks up (windwise, as in our case) the night before, even if the forecast changes (increased winds as in our case), even if its pretty windy first thing in the morning, once that sun comes up, expect the wind to lay! One thing to always keep in mind is that a forecast is just that, a forecast, its based on records from the past then applied "today" sometimes you need to read more into it, and apply some of your past experiences to get the "micro-picture" of your area. So how was the weather on our spearfishing Tavanier Key trip?

Morning, say about 10mph winds blowing outa the west (forecast called east), it increased to about 15, as we were arriving to Tavernier Key, then around 9am it went down and by 11 the ocean was more like a lagoon, the sun bright, the water tempt was in the high 70's (perfect for a 1.5mm, I used my 3mm top only) ...and the viz...ahhh the viz...viz in Tavernier Key was pretty bad (for Tavernier) we had about a milky 15' -25' in most areas, the water was very particulated and lots of small jellyfish and jellyfish piece.

We cruised to a few small spearfishing ledges in Tavernier we had marked, and a few big rock piles we had spearfished off of on our last Tavanier Key visit. We also hit some new spearfishing locations in Tavernier, that were amazing, we counted 15 hogs in just one spot! We also saw quite a bit of just undersized gags, I saw what was about a 34" gag in about 50' that I did not shoot, to avoid getting hit by a boat. This Tavernier spearfishing adventure had a a bonus in that I was able to try my new prototyped slip tip. This slip tip is the same one we have been tinkering around with for over a year and we finally got one made up and were fortunate enough to use it. The damn thing worked like a charm, fresh outa the box, on the first "prototype run"...so stay tuned for a full review on this never before seen, new slip tip concept! (ooooo sounds like a cool commercial)
So our spearfishing Tavernier trip was a success the weather cooperated, the fish did too. Although the viz was pretty shabby we managed to fill a cooler full of fish, including a nice mackeral I shot at about 20' with my custom speargun, a graphite enclosed track bubinga wood/carbon fiber 130cm custom speargun (this was a gun I was testing for a client prior to shipping)

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing World Records...Part 1

2009-04-20T08:48:00.012-04:00

Alot of us have aspirations to break one spearfishing world record or another. Indeed to see a world record fish is not an easy task, much less spear a world record fish, that would be quite an accomplishment!

What does spearfishing a world record fish entail? Where do I find a world record fish? Who hold the spearfishing world records? How many world record spearfish categories are their? Who catagorizes the spearfishing world records? If I spearfish a potential world record fish to whom do I submit it? and how do I submit my world record?

All legit questions, and we'll try and get them answered for you. But before, let me hook you up with a couple of very valuable links that may answer many of your questions regarding a potential world record. Basically we have two groups http://iusarecords.com/records.php and http://www.freedive.net/ibsrc/index.htm

An excert from IUSA says "The International Underwater Spearfishing Association (IUSA) was formed in 1950 to promote spearfishing and to assist in scientific and spearfishing competitive efforts. As part of this task, the IUSA became the certifying body and custodian of the spearfishing world records. The IUSA has certified over 60 records for a variety of fish from bluewater species to smaller and less sought after fish. Through their forty-six years of existence, the IUSA has seen diver's skill and technology change from the Hawaiian slings of the Pinder Brothers to the high-tech equipment and super-powered spearguns of today's freedivers." and "...The mission of the International Underwater Spearfishing Association is to promote ethical, safe and sportsmanlike spearfishing practices, to encourage and support a sense of environmental responsibility among divers, to establish uniform regulations for the compilation of world spearfishing records, to provide basic spearfishing guidelines for use in other spearfishing activities, and to participate in educational and scientific programs. ..."

and from IBSRC"An international group agreed to formulate an organization for the certification of world records-the IBSRC. Two main goals emerged. The first goal was to establish a committee to evaluate each country's historical records and combine them into a worldwide registry. Eligible fish are bluewater species such as tuna, marlin, wahoo and sailfish. To keep the committee international, these species must be available to divers on more than one continent, thus yellowtail (kingfish) made the list but white seabass (mulloway) did not... The other goal was to establish and publicize a set of rules by which future records would be judged." and "The mission of The International Bluewater Spearfishing Records Committee (IBSRC) is to promote ethical, safe and sporting spearfishing practices, to establish uniform regulations for the compilation of world-bluewater gamefish records, and to provide basic spearfishing guidelines for use in bluewater contests and any other bluewater spearfishing activities worldwide."

So you see both of these entities have similiar goals/objectives main difference is the latter deals with specific pelagics.

Now IUSA (which has a broader scope of species and thus records) has a few categories one is
20th Century Records, that is records on or before December 31, 1996. obviousely this list is closed. The other is the 21th Century Records these records were opened on January 1, 1997. This is the list you want to submit your new records to. And finally, World these are world records that are derived from both the 20th Century and the 21st Century record lists.

Stay tuned for Part 2 "The Records"

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Rock'on...Some inspiration from Nike

2009-04-19T09:53:00.010-04:00

Thought I'd throw some pretty cool Nike videos at you for some "Spearfishing Motivation"
If you're wondering, yes, no spearfishing today, windy, very windy...good day to go kite surfing though.

Everytime you FAIL you succeed, the Mike motivation!

and the Armstrong determination

and the Tiger inspiration

Warhawk Scott...just do it...WORD!

GOT GAME ain't just spearfishing!

ok, ok not just hoop, or spearfishing...

Your weapon is Your Body...say it "Your Weapon is your Body", repeat...

Better is Better...so Better Up, Playa'r

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Freediving, freediving, freediving.....

2009-04-19T09:43:00.017-04:00

Well the Freedive event of the year (IMHO) came to an end last week and what a freediving experience it was!

For those of you out of the freediving circuit, from April 1-11, 2009-
Vertical Blue http://www.verticalblue.net/ held its annual Invitational Freediving competition in Dean’s Blue Hole, Bahamas. This event hosted the biggest names in the sport, with world record holders and world champions competing and taking the human body to maximum underwater depths all on a single breathhold.

Dean’s Blue Hole is the deepest blue hole in the world, at 660 feet (203 meters), and each of the 21 invited freedivers will be dropping their maximum depth in an attempt to be named the world’s deepest man/woman. .

In 2009 freedivers will once again compete in three disciplines of freediving:

1) Constant Weight: the diver descends and ascends with fins or a monofin. The current world records are 113m (370ft) for men and 95m (311ft) for women.

2) Unassisted: the diver cannot use any fins or propulsion equipment of any kind, and descends and ascends with a kind of adapted breaststroke. The current world records are 86m (282ft) for men and 60m (196ft) for women.

3) Free Immersion: the diver uses the rope to pull themselves down and up. Current world records are 108m (354ft) for men and 85m (279ft) for women.

Some of the freedivers that competed this 2009 freediving event were:
Herbert Nitsch: 22 world records in freediving, “greatest freediver ever”

William Trubridge: current world record holder in unassisted and free immersion.

Sara Campbell: set world records in all 3 disciplines over 3 days in 2007.

Ryuzo Shinomiya: Japanese freediving champion.
William Winram: pan-American freediving champion.

Kathryn McPhee: NZ freediving female champion and world record holder.

Jana Strain: US freediving female champion.

And the results are in.....taken from http://www.verticalblue.net/news/

Vertical Blue saw 5 world records in 4 events, and the correct answer in the competition, for total of 14 possible points was:
male CWT: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 120mmale CNF: broken, William Trubridge, 88mmale FIM: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 109mfemale CWT: broken, Sara Campbell, 96mfemale CNF: unbrokenfemale FIM: unbroken
Two entrants both finished with 11 points: They were LEONARDO D'IMPORZANO from Italy, who picked:
male CWT: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 114mmale CNF: broken, William Trubridge, 88mmale FIM: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 111mfemale CWT: broken, Sara Campbell, 96mfemale CNF: broken, Sara Campbell, 61mfemale FIM: unbroken
and STEFAN DROGUET, who picked:
male CWT: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 115mmale CNF: broken, William Trubridge, 90mmale FIM: broken, Herbert Nitsch, 111mfemale CWT: broken, Sara Campbell, 96mfemale CNF: unbrokenfemale FIM: unbroken

Since they both finished with the same score we had to go to the tie-breaker, which was the prediction of the dive time of one of the records. Both Stefano and Leonardo made predictions regarding William Trubridge's CNF world record:
Leonardo: 3:21Stefano: 3:37
The real dive time for the 88m was 3:30, which is closer to 3:37 than it is to 3:21, so the winner is Stefano Droguet!
Congratulations to them both for their accurate predictions!

(N.B. Apologies for the earlier clerical error which stated that Leonardo was the winner).

Enjoy some of the pix from this great freediving

http://www.verticalblue.net/news/ ...a pot luck dinner held at William's apartment during the training days of Vertical Blue. Never before has Long Island seen such diversity of ethnic dishes all under one roof!

William, Herbert and Alex Sarasitis (Herbert's coach) went on a spearfishing trip after the competition was finished. They are holding 2 hogfish, a conch shell and 2 yellowfin rockfish - some of the most tasty seafood the Caribbean has to offer, and served up on a barbecue later that night. Ahhhh the bahamas, gotta love'em...these boyz know how to have fun!

The Vertical Blue athletes and crew together at the midway barbecue at Kris and Jean's private beach in Salt Pond. Conflicting goals, common spirit.

Here is some freediving history in the making! Enjoy and congrats again!!!!!!!!

http://www.verticalblue.net/news/ Sara Campbell (top) decided to close her campaign after her huge 96m world record, and an oh-so-close attempt at 100m. Saturday was an easy 40m dive for the cameras and "for the love of it!" Jana Strain (right) ended with a solid 60m CWT dive that will qualify her to return also in this discipline at the world champs in November.
Once again Leo Muraoka (above) stole the show at Vertical Blue 2009. The 53 year old Hawaiian battled his way through body-wracking contractions to win back the US National Record in Free Immersion that Robert had taken from him, with 81m in a time of 3:28. The crowd of spectators watching from the beach erupted into applause and cheering as Leo showed his white tag and the judges replied with their white cards.

William Trubridge again attempted 111m in CWT on the last day, but the sudden darkness on the last day of the comp meant he lost the line on the descent, retrieved it via his safety lanyard, corrected vertical position, but by which time he had missed an equalisation, and so turned at 103m. He finishes the competition with 107m in this discipline, an improvement on his competition PB of 88m set two years ago in Dahab with bi-fins.

History in the making: Herbert Nitsch ascends the last couple of meters in the bubbles of his own exhale (above). Below, Herbert greets his father after the successful record attempt.
For complete updates and news as well as many more pix go to http://www.verticalblue.net/news/

Here's a very good explanation taken from Herbert Nitsch site http://herbertnitsch.com/ , on the various freedive disciplines...great info (especially the acronyms) thanks Herbert and congrats!
Constant Weight Without Fins (CNF)
The freediver descends and ascends under water using only his own muscle strenght, without the use of propulsion equipment and without pulling on the rope. Constant weight without fins is the most difficult sportive depth discipline, because of absolutely no propulsing material to go down in the water. This category needs a perfect coordination between propulsing movments, equalization, technique and buoyancy.

Constant Weight With Fins (CWT)

The freediver descends and ascends using his fins/monofin and/or with the use of his arms without pulling on the rope or changing his ballast; only a single hold of the rope to stop the descent and start the ascent is allowed. Constant weight is the common sportive depth discipline of freediving, because of the specific fins or monofins used in it. Constant weight is one of the three disciplines considered for the international competitions by team, with Static apnea and Dynamic with fins.

Dynamic Without Fins (DNF)
The freediver travels in a horizontal position under water attempting to cover the greatest possible distance. Any propulsion aids are prohibited. Dynamic without fins is the most natural of both disciplines measuring the distance for many freedivers, because it doesn't need any propulsing material, but a very good technique. Performances also could only be recognized in pools with a minimum lenght of 25 meters, and are greatly appreciated from "old-swimmers".

Dynamic With Fins (DYN)
The freediver travels in a horizontal position under water attempting to cover the greatest possible distance. Any propulsion aids other than fins or a monofin and swimming movements with the arms are prohibited Dynamic with fins is the most typical of both disciplines measuring the distance in freediving, because of the specific means of propulsion : long fins or monofin. Performances could only be recognized in swimming-pools with a minimum length of 25 meters, and are sometimes considered in national or indoor's 'combiné', with the Static apnea.

Static Apnea (STA)
The freediver holds his breath for as long as possible with his respiratory tracts immerged, his body either in the water or at the surface. Static apnea is the only discipline measuring the duration, and one of the three disciplines considered for the international competitions by team, with Constant weight and Dynamic with fins. Performances could be done and recognized in both pool or open water (sea, lake, river, etc).

Free Immersion (FIM)
The freediver dives under water without the use of propulsion equipment, but only by pulling on the rope during descent and ascent. Free immersion is the sportive depth discipline with the purest sensations, because of the speed of the water in the body, and the power of each pull on the rope as only mean of propulsion. Performances could be done the head first during the descent, or the feet first, depending equalization facilities of each freedivers… Some of them also even use mixed solutions.

Variable Weight (VWT)
The freediver descends with the help of a ballast weight and ascends using his own strength: arms and/or legs, either by pulling or not pulling on the rope. Variable weight is the first of both depth disciplines using a sled to go down in the water. Old sleds was descending "head first", like presented in the famous Luc Besson's movie "Le Grand Bleu", but new sleds descending "feet first" are now generalized.

No Limit (NLT)
The freediver descends with the help of a ballast weight and ascends via a method of his choice. No limit is the absolute depth discipline. Going down with a sled, and going back up with a balloon, a diving suit or a vest with inflatable compartments, or whatever other means

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

The 1000 lobster wreck

2009-04-17T22:53:00.011-04:00

Well, I blogged about a wreck that had over 1000 lobsters on it, on one of our recent Boca Chica spearfishing adventure. I know being in Miami and spearfishing Miami areas seldom does one see a dozen lobsters in one spot...heck you don't even see this many lobsters in Miami while freediving, right? But on this particular day we were blessed not only with an awesome new freediving spot, but also a great new spearfishing spot in Miami....but to top it all off we found the mother load of all lobsters in Miami...in less than 10' of water...can you guess where we are gonna be for lobster mini season, yep- you guessed it, in our Miami lobster spot!

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, this video speakes a thousand lobsters! In Miami!!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Great spearfishing days in Miami

2009-04-17T08:31:00.004-04:00

These past few days Wed, Thurs, and today-Friday have been really nice days for spearfishing in Miami! Weather has been bright and sunny wind has been under 5mph, and seas under 2'...it seems always the week leading to Easter Sunday is always windy, but then after its dead still, on the down side the water is usually stirred up so viz for spearfishing is less than ideal...but you know what I say, a bad viz day spearfishing in Miami, is better than no spearfishing at all... I'm writing in my spearfishing blog, so yes sadly I am not in my beloved Miami waters spearfishing....oh well, someones gotta work, right?...of course the spearfishing forecast for the weekend is looking less than good (for lack of better words)...but maybe it'll lay and some Miami or Keys spearfishing might be in the things to do list.....to be cont.

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=33134&hourly=1&yday=107&weekday=Saturday

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?hourly=1&query=33030&yday=107&weekday=Saturday

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=33001&hourly=1&yday=107&weekday=Saturday

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Boca Chica Report

2009-04-16T12:08:00.012-04:00

This is a late report from April 10....We headed out of Boca Chica on another Miami spearfishing trip. The original plan was to go to some Miami spearfishing spots, but that got changed up as time was limited for this Boca Chica spearfishing adventure.

We headed out about 8'ish on a beautiful Florida day, light wind under 5, seas about 2's viz was a milky T-B on most drops. As we headed out of the bay we decided to hit some spearfishing spots in the vicinity. We found a bay spot that was buzzing with gags and bugs...in 8' of water!!! Yep 8', not only were their about 15-20 gags (most undersized, but a couple of slobs) but in this one spot we must have seen over 1000 lobsters, I've never seen so many bugs outa Boca Chica or Elliot in all my life...amazing! Good to see the lobster population flourishing in Miami.

Ok back to the spearfishing report, so we hit this shallow bay spot contemplating on spearing some gags, but them boys were skittish as are most shallow water fish, so the action proved not as easy as the plan, of course if I would have bought one of my custom spearguns the scenario would have unfolded differently (so lets just say this part....to be continued)...along the spearfishing adventure we bumped into a shallow water wreck that also was loaded with bugs, a Goliath, a nurse shark and a few gags, one that was all buddy buddy with the nurse so we spent quite a bit of time hassling the nurse and harrassing the gag. The plan was to let one of the spearo's onboard shoot the gag grouper, which not only would make it his first legal grouper, but his personal best gag, well all the hassle/harassment proved to succeed and our bud has a new personal best, note the "big smile"

After that Boca Chica bay spearfishing outing we headed on out to a few "new" spearfishing spots, the wind picked up, and the fact we had to head in a bit early limited our range, but nonetheless our next Homestead spearfishing spot was saweeeet! Although the current had picked up, we managed a few fish including a sheepshead,

and a couple of slab mangrove snappers.

All in all a great time, with friends and the sea.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Report, Blackpoint

2009-04-12T23:11:00.004-04:00

We headed out of Blackpoint Marina for another spearfishing adventure this Saturday. Although the weather was nice low winds under 5mph, seas were suppose to be below 2's and were closer to 2-3's with some 4's in the mix. We headed outa Blackpoint Marina and out thru Sands Cut for some spearfishing. We were met with HORRIBLE viz in most places was about 5' and in others about 10' generally not the ideal for spearfishing, but murky water is what was served and so thats what we ended up spearfishing in. We ran around a few spearfishing wayponts we had recently aquired around the Boca Chica, Soldier Key, Sands Cut area and did alright. One of the spearfishing spots off of Sands Cut had about 12 hog snapper hovering around this one rock. We definitely had to work for each fish as all the spearfishing was done stalking the bottom...pretty taxing in 50' of water but we managed to spear some fish including a 19" hog (plus a few others in the 15-18" range) and a nice 29" black I shot thru a hole on the other side of a boulder, that was the last drop and a nice finale to our Blackpoint spearfishing adventure!

On another note if and when I get some pictures from a fellow spearfishing mate (errr,ummm, won't mention any names) I'll post another spearfishing report out of a great new spearfishing spot we discovered.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Elliot Key

2009-04-05T21:38:00.021-04:00

What a difference a day to day can make in Miami! Today we headed out of Elliot Key on another spearfishing adventure, rather skeptical I may add, as the weather called for winds under 6, and seas under a foot, but then that was the forecast yesterday too. Fortunately the weather did cooperate, as did the Sea Gods, and yes even the fish.

8am saw us at Bayfront Marina ready to board Eric & Sean's (father and son team) Contender (those boats are just off the chain- what a ride!) for a sweet day at sea spearfishing the patch reefs off Elliot.

As we drove out we were met with some pristine conditions, seas under a foot wind under 5, bright day, water tempt in the mid-hi 70's (would have been comfy in a 1.5) minimal current, and viz, hmmm well viz was decent in most spots with some areas close to T-B, not to bad considering its been blowing pretty harsh for the past week. the ocean was packed with boaters and surprisingly quite a few spearo's at one time we counted 15 boats in a given area half of which were flying dive flags. Although the sea was busy our skipper (Eric) did a stand-up job taking care of his crew, and running that 'Tender like a doggy on a chain- hats off to'ya' Eric!Ok, well on to the Elliot Key Spearfishing report, aside from the patch reefs, we also spearfished some huge plates one of which produced a nice 24" hog for Sean, quite a nice christening for his new Mako speargun...WTG Sean!

We also spearfished some decent Elliot Key finger ridges that we pulled some hogs and a nice toad red for Donny, Brian also nailed a couple of hogfish snapper including an 18", he also had a Mega Spanish Flash&Wizz him, ahhh maybe next time it'll be a spearfishing different story for this here blog. I also hawked a decent 19" flounder (yep a flounder) that was under my nose!

After we had our fix of reef hunting the Elliot patches we decided what the hell lets make a run to the blue, so off to some bluewater spearfishing, was the next course of action, everyone got busy with notions of 70# wahoo's and spearing some mahi's, unfortunately we found neither birds, nor structure, but the Skipper did put us on some baitballs, so that idea was short lived (but not forgotten)...back off we went to one of the crews secret spearfishing spot, I guess the best I could describe it is some deep crevices resembling finger channels.

This place was teaming with fish, fortunately for them the viz was about 5-6' and the current was ripping (it actually started to pick up about 2'ish). Brian in one drift saw 2 huge muttons, that wanted nothing to do with him...as I was doing my spearfishing drift I saw a nice mango dart under a ledge and then dart out, this could only mean one thing so I swam down for a closer look. As I poked a peek under I saw a huge tail of what I thought was a parrot fish (being it was pressed up under this ledge) then I saw that telltale spot and knew (oddly enough it was a Mut so I took an off shot on the bottom of my time)...that beast busted a chomp and tore of....bitter would be an understatement, so I was a cursing, and bitching and pulling up my spearshaft when all a sudden I feel this thump, thump....so I haul down and low and behold on the end of my shaft was a 24" black that apparently was behind the mut! so I nailed a mut and a black with one shot, landed the black....but wait the story continues.....

So by the time I get the black strung up I was about a 1/4 mile from the area (remember ripping current) and knew there was no way I was gonna swim back and get that mut I had mortally injured....so I continue my drift- Skipper goes on to pick up the crew and then in the distance I see Donny smilin' from ear to ear holding up a rather familiar mutton snapper! Apparently Donny (aka wingman ninja) was drifting behind me and bumped into the same mutton snapper with half his guts hangin' out, and took a shot at him, with that ripping current and spined him at 10'......saweeeeeet....thats what you call unplanned tag teamin'.....and not what one would call a story about "The One That Got Away"!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Long Key....short trip, shorter report

2009-04-04T20:25:00.004-04:00

Headed out of Long Key for some spearfishing, on the "Run & Gun"...suppose to have laid for today with under 6mph winds-NOT.

We put in on the Indian Key ramp with some 10-15 winds blowin' on our back the ride out was grueling...but visions of 20# blacks pushed us on to our Long Key spearfishing grounds!...my bud lingered behind as he wanted to do some "wave running"...vis was under a foot; my partners ski zoinked before our final distination so we called it a day by 12 noon...indeed the spearfishing in Long Key was not to be, but- to be continued.........

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Freevive contest Miami?...not...but Vertical Blue yes!

2009-04-01T21:11:00.009-04:00

http://blog.apneaworks.com/
As quoted from Ryuzo's (world Japanese freediving champ) site:

"From April 1-11, 2009 Vertical Blue will once again hold its annual invitational Freediving competition in Dean’s Blue Hole, Bahamas.The event will host the biggest names in the sport, with world champions and world record holders competing to test the limits of the human capacity for depth on a single breath.Dean’s Blue Hole is the deepest blue hole in the world, at 203 meters (660 feet), and the 21 invited athletes will be descending to over half that distance in their attempt to be crowned the world’s deepest man/woman.The 2008 edition of Vertical Blue was heralded as “the most successful freediving event” with 5 new world records and 23 national records being broken.In 2009 athletes will once again compete in three disciplines of freediving:Constant Weight: the diver descends and ascends with fins or a monofin. The current world records are 113m (370ft) for men and 95m (311ft) for womenUnassisted: the diver cannot use any fins or propulsion equipment of any kind, and descends and ascends with a kind of adapted breaststroke. The current world records are 86m (282ft) for men and 60m (196ft) for women.Free Immersion: the diver uses the rope to pull themselves down and up. Current world records are 108m (354ft) for men and 85m (279ft) for women.Some of the athletes who will compete this year include:Herbert Nitsch: 23 world records in freediving, “greatest freediver ever” William Trubridge: current world record holder in unassisted and free immersion. Sara Campbell: set world records in all 3 disciplines over 3 days in 2007. Her records have since been broken, and she is in training to get them back.Ryuzo Shinomiya: Japanese freediving champion William Winram: pan-American freediving championKathryn McPhee: NZ freediving female champion and world record holderJana Strain: US freediving female championr egular updates will be uploaded to the Vertical Blue news page"

Here are a few other freedive bloggers, drop in and say wassup, also take a look into their freedive training logs as their are some valuable tips on freediving, as well as, some freediving workouts, and specific freediving training...on how to dive deeper, how to hold your breath longer (longer breathold) and how to be safer while freediving. And improvements in freediving equals better spearfishing, yeaahhhhhhh!
http://www.verticalblue.net/
http://www.sarafreediver.com/
http://www.kerianhibbs.com/
http://kathrynmcphee.blogspot.com/

Heres a link to the results of AIDA Belgium Competition in Namur on March 29th 2009 http://ericvanrietpaap.blogspot.com/
to Eric 92.6 in static.

Take a look into Erics blog, quite a few good tips on freedive training there too.

I've always wondered how feaseable it would be to have a freediving seminar in Miami, kinda like a week long thing with different contests and games that could be implemented, as well as safety issues about freediving, and training freedive programs all rolled up into one, ah well just food for thought.

........and finally a little inspiration

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Picasso spearfishing 2009 Lineup

2009-04-01T20:39:00.006-04:00

Looking like the new Picasso line of spearfishing gear is rolling out, just in time for summer too! Seems they got a few nice new spearfishing gear and stuff. One thing I always have liked about Picasso is they're always innovating. One particular item that caught my attention is their "Tiger" spearfishing knife, seems its a pretty complete spearfishing tool, thats fit for spearfishing in Miami waters, the only modification I would do to that spearfishing knife is add a bungee lanyard to it. I also like the "quick dyneema" inserts for tying spearfishing bands...definitely a quick fix when your out spearfishing in Miami/Keys. Another essential spearfishing tool, is a spearfishing gaff, which I never leave home without- in fact I have been prototyping one for about a year now, this will hopefully be the best spearfishing gaff around, but just the same, Picasso's looks good; its great to see at least one major spearfishing brand carrying them. I wonder how that nylon stretch weight belt fairs, as well as their kevlar bootys...and finally the professional floating cable, hopefully I'll come across some reviews.

http://www.picasso-sg.com/Portals/0/catalogues/Picasso_2009_eng.pdf

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Miami spearfishing spots, Miami spearfishing spots...

2009-03-30T22:50:00.005-04:00

Everybody's looking for spots in Miami to spearfish...and everyone thinks there are no spearfishing spots left in Miami....Does Miami still have good spearfishing spots? I say absolutely YES! One area I frequent that always produces some nice fish are the patch reefs around Key Biscayne, thats right, great spearfishing spots right in Miami....ok, ok kinda vague, how about lining up with the old Sonesta Hotel in Key Biscayne and heading out about a couple of miles...all those patch reefs in that area hold fish, and one can easily paddle a kayak and spearfish this Miami area, and probably spearfish a cooler full of fish in a day! Like I did today.

Yep this day was just too good to pass up, so I headed out solo on the "Run&Gun" to my "secret" Miami spearfishing spots. I headed out of Key Biscayne Marina, through Bear Cut and swung South about a mile thats around where the first patch reefs start and they are often overlooked due to their close proximity to land...these "patchy" reefs are always loaded with hog snapper and this first Miami spearfishing spot did not disappoint with to practically identical 16" Hogfish...vis was quite murky, under 6' in 20' of water, wind was under 2mph, as was the waves...water was warm in my 3mm, but probably would have been comfy in a 1.5mm, sun was high so that helped...off to my next Miami spearfishing spot, or should I say Key Biscayne spearfishing area as this spot is a pretty huge area of piled up rubble that has formed a kinda reef...here's another freebee its about right in front of that building on Key Biscayne that looks like an Aztec temple (or at least thats what we call it)....first drop hawked a nice 24" red, marked the spot and continued roaming the rubble piles ( about 4 of them each about 50' apart)
saw a keeper mutton snapper and let the arrow fly about 10' away, stoned, with my Bubinga carbon custom speargun...and were did I spearfish said mutton? Indeed in my second Miami spearfishing spot, shot 2 more hogs before revisiting the red grouper, which I thought about shooting, but decided to pass (don't ask me why???)...well after jumping back on the ski, I decided to hit one last spearfishing spot that is about 2 miles from that second Miami spearfishing spot, its in about 40-45' water and has what I call some "finger channels" that always hold a nice black grouper, grey snapper and a mutton here or there...well the third Miami spearfishing spot did not disappoint either, on my first drop the "mango train" came in for a curious visit shot 2 (15" and 18") before they wised up! so there you have it 3 Miami spearfishing spots ( or Key Biscayne spearfishing spots, depending what part of town your from) all hit in about 3 hours all with fish in the house (true not stellar trophies) making a great trip and dinner all in my backyard.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

2009-03-29T14:51:00.005-04:00

Well its Sunday and although it looked NOAA'wise that it was gonna be a decent day...it was windy as hell and raining throughout the better half of the day...hopefully it will get better this coming week and a window will open this Tues. (or so it looks as it may)or Wed.

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Late Spearfishing report

2009-03-29T14:18:00.009-04:00

This ia another late report (3/13/09) from a spearfishing trip we did out a Elliot Key. We headed out around noon to meet some choppy seas 2-3's, with the wind blowing outa the east at about 15mph, vis was decent in most areas around 15-20' we hit a few new spearfishing waypoints that we had plotted on our last trip, and they did not disappoint. One plate was about 10' from surface and dropped to about 30' it was full of sealife and had a nice black grouper that switched homes to a cozy cooler. I saw him lying out on the sand about 10' from the reef he saw me and bolted for the rocks, I swung my custom carbon/teak gun on him, and spined him at 12'. The next few areas we hit had fish in house including a nice 20+" hogfish snapper and a nice bug...all in all a short productive day spearfishing outa Elliot Key.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Florida spearfishing forecast

2009-03-28T10:38:00.004-04:00

Its been windy as hell! for the past week the wind has been howling forever in the high 20's with gusts in the 30's
http://www.buoyweather.com/wxnav6.jsp?region=FL&program=nww3BW1&grb=wna&latitude=25.5&longitude=-80.0&zone=-4&units=e

...seems like it may lay down in the next few days, hopefully.

On another note I'll post a short (and yes, old, spearfishing report from Elliot Key)

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Trip Elliot Key

2009-03-25T13:50:00.008-04:00

WoW its been awhile since I've posted...been kinda busy filling orders for my Miami made custom spearguns and dive bags. We headed out of Elliot (3/12/09 I know late report) and were met with some nippy water mid 70's and some mellow 2-3's wind was outa the E about 10mph....vis was varied some places top to bottom others 15-20'. We dove a few patch reefs and some plates out to 50'.

Fish were in the house, and it seems hogfish are starting their courtship (perhaps a bit early). The first drop I decided to "test drive" one of my Miami custom spearguns (I know I need a name for my spearguns), which I normally do prior to selling just to make sure its ballasted correctly and of course shootin' straight. These spearguns are a bit tricky in that the profile is quite thin, in fact its probably the thinest, most hydrodynamic custom made teak speargun on the market today. I've attained these mimimal dimensions by placing carbon fiber within the spearguns build, the carbon fiber strengthens the speargun allowing for a very thin dimension, which equates to a very hydrodymic speargun design, so yes, these spearguns cut through the water like a knife, they track fast and having an enclosed track makes them lasers, out to 20+ feet.

Ok so the first drop was incredible the reef was full of fish and my gun was a balance beam, the best thing about making a custom speargun is that it does what its suppose to do incredibly well, whens its made right...that first drop produced 6 hogs and a red!

The next few drops got us a bunch of reef denizens ranging from muts, to porgies to go's and a few other nice hogfish snapper up to 24" (the hog next to him is 14") and my Miami custom speargun did not dissappoint as you can see from the shot placements...more to come!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

LongKey GagFest ala Run&Gun

2009-02-16T21:41:00.011-05:00

Headed out this Sun. after the front to Long Key for another spearfishing adventure. The drive down was pretty cool as we had about 50 ft viz on the road do to the heavy fog, kinda reminded me of my midnight drives up to Okeechobee for the annual duck hunts with my uncle. Well NOAA said it'd be under 10mph winds with some scattered showers, my bud had gone spearfishing the day prior (Sat.) and encountered under 5' viz...but man I've been jonzin' to wet me gills and needless to say shoot another carbon teak speargun I just finished custom making for a client....so we decided to "travel light" and hit Long Key on the ski's.

6 on the am found us driving down the the spearfishing stretch with my custom dive bag strapped to the back of my ski...arriving about 8'ish, by then the fog fizzled and we were greeted with a beautiful day, zero wind, seas calm, I mean less than 1'...current was very light, viz was practically T-B everywhere we dropped. I had some new spearfishing waypoints I had picked up on the last spearfishing adventure and I wanted to investigate it a bit more so me and the O'V drew up a game plan and plotted our way to the spearfishing spots.

WOW every place we hit had fish in the house, seemed the ocean was crawling with Gags, some shorty's, but most legal and healthy we filled our limit within the hour and my Miami made custom bubinga carbon spearfishing gun was havoc on the fish . We managed to shoot a few nice mules (Big Yellow Jacks) quite a few hogs, a decent sheepshead, and probably my personal best octupus (didn't shoot him though). Damn them boys are masters of deception!. We were drifting a spot and my eye caught some telltale movement, that quickly registered as an 8-legged critter, next to a pretty big sea fan, I gulped some air and went down to get him in about 40', when I reached the fan I searched and he was nowhere to be found, I left my custom speargun marking the spot and followed my low profile floatline up. I was certain he was around so I just chilled on top waiting him out. He finally made a move....he was about 6" from my bubinga carbon speargun and about a foot away from the seafan, in other words he was right in front of my nose and I never saw him- took another gulp submerged, followed my low profile floatline down and poked him...someone say SUSHI.

And of course, no story is complete without the one that got away. We went to our favorite spearfishing permit spot (about 3.5 miles out) to find us a permiso, didn't see any, but as I was headed to the ski I saw what may have been the biggest permit I have ever seen (including H&L) in Florida, damn thing looked like a car door (well a SmartCar, car door;). I dropped to intercept his path, but he wanted none of that, so he switched on me and headed towards sand. I sped after him, my lungs screaming AIR and took a hailmadre shot (read as a 20

+ foot shot) that got him about a 6" forward of the tail. My clients custom speargun did not dissappoint hitting its mark, but that permit went beserk and launched into high gear, towards the sand I fed him my low profile floatline and chased on top, well I guess he wisened up and made a U'ee back to the structure, my heart sank as I new the flopper did not clear, and he'd probably not hold. When he got there the low profile floatline went slack, but I optimistically and cautiously, approched the hole as I did the floatline moved again, as soon as I saw him (inches from me grabbing the shaft) he shook and hit the shaft against a rock and the rest is a spearfishing story...of the one that got away :(

Not complaining though all in all it was a great spearfishing adventure at Long Key!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

1000 words...some Spearfishing Photo's 2008

2009-02-09T10:41:00.010-05:00

I've been wanting to post a "spearfishing photo journal" (about half) of 2008's fish and spearfishing adventures, but been kinda lazy thought I'd give it a go this Mon. morning...

Here are some nice African Pompano and Yellow Jacks we spearfished
a color deck of a few other reef denizens we got on a spearfisjing Keys adventure

A nice black grouper and red we spearfished in biscayne bay

here's a nice mule (big yellow jack) spearfished in Biscayne bay
gotta love spearfishing the Florida keys a huge porgy shot with speargun and a bit of luck

Spearfishing Florida Keys style!

Another nice Spearfishing adventure out of biscayne Bay

who says spearfishing is'nt good out from Haulover cut?

Some quality fish while spearfishing from Miami Beach

Here is a nice Mule yellow jack caught while spearfishing in Key west

Nice deck full'o'fish

Here are a couple of quality fish shot on aMarathon Key spearfishing trip

Some nice lobsters while freediving niami beach

A huge red grouper caught spearfishing in Duck Key

Another picture of the duck Key spearfishing trip

A nice flounder nailed while spearfishing Key Biscayne

A few nice hoffish and red grouper spearfishing key biscayne

A couple of decent grey snapper from a Long Key spearfishing trip

Nice cero Mackeral and mangrove snapper on the same Long Key spearfishing charter
A nice mangrove snapper and tasty florida spiny lobster caught freediving Biscayne bay

Huge permit nailed while spearfishing little torch key florida

A nice stone shot yellow jack spearfishing ellot key

a boat full of fish spearfishing key west

a cooler of lobsters freediving Biscayne bay

A few more lobsters from our freediving adventure

A nice day spearfishing Miami Beach

A nice Miami hogfish and red grouper spearfishing Key Biscayne

A stringer of fish from our Mathesson Hammock spearfishing trip

the famous deck displaying our spearfishing result

a clean stone shot red grouper

Another day of spearfishing fun

A couple of nice Miami hogs

a couple of other fish

a nice Hogfish and red grouper spearing from Miami

some big sheepshead caught while spearfishing from Tavenier Key florida

Another bounty of a spearfishing bonanza from Long Key

The gang on another great spearfishing adventure!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing...not

2009-02-09T10:38:00.006-05:00

Woooooo its been pretty damn cold this past couple of weeks...tempt dipped into the mid 30's and 40's and its been windy as hell...needless to say me gills be drying up. Hopefully it'll warm up this week and I'll be able to submerge the urge! and go on some sort of a spearfishing adventure...btw nice full moon yesterday.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

The Best Spearfishing Dive Bag...Found It

2009-02-02T23:23:00.008-05:00

The perfect spearfishing dive bag! For sometime I've been trying to find the "perfect bag", that is the dive bag that will keep all my spearfishing gear (and then some), together in one place, and do it neatly. I got tired of looking so I decided to make one. This is the final product after a couple of years prototyping different materials/designs for my dive bag. The primary material is Textilene.

I like that you can see through it, and it breaths, and its...everything resistant- Mildew, Rot, odors don't faze this stuff, plus it holds an incredible amount of weight. Rather than double stitching stress points, I double stitched the entire bag (using spectra thread) then baffle stitched it, just because...I can;)

I made 2 exterior pockets (15"X15"X3"), that will hold my 2 masks & snorkel, wetsuit (3mil), wt belt, floatline, gloves, and misc. spearfishing equipement (light, booties, knife etc.) I added some gnarly YKK zips to keep things well secured. The main compartment (46"X16"X7") holds 2 sets of fins (my cressi/edge) a pretty big Fiberglass spearfishing float, extra floatline (it is my low profile floatline) with room to spare. Since I like getting to the main spearfishing gear fast I made the main compartment with a double velcro closure, and finally 2 carry straps (which double as a backpack) completes the spearfishing bag.

I have given away a few of these spearfishing dive bags to friends to get some input, if the reviews are good (and I hope they will) I will begin to manufacture these dive bags locally (yes in Miami) for any in need of THE BEST spearfishing dive bag in the industry (humble huh ;)

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Bayfront Report and Pix...SettingSteel

2009-01-29T23:11:00.007-05:00

Late spearfishing report, been kinda crazy with the new pole spear we're prototyping...Headed out Sun. wind was under 5, seas were nice slow 1-2's water was below 70, cold as hell perfect for a 5mil, mostly sunny so that helped. We headed spearfishing outa Bayfront about 8'ish viz in most places was top to bottom we hit a few patch reefs outa Ceasars in 20-40' spearfished a few hogs, blacks, and YJ including a nice mule,and the biggest Trigger this year (yeah I know we're still in Jan. but hell that trig was a Toro). And in all a productive day spent a good 40 minutes extracting a black grouper, the snatch gaff (another new prototype) was christenen, and it saved the day, or is it the catch? The trick for pulling a holed up fish is to feel for the head and thats where you set the talon. I cramped in both hams late in the day (guess that tonic water does help as I ran out the night before), so that messed with my dives the rest, guess I have a good excuse for losing that 30+" black I thought I stoned off Alans ledge...Had another bud shoot my new bubinga/carbon custom enclosed track gun, 15+' and clearing fish, dead on accurate!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Report...Elliot Key

2009-01-21T15:20:00.006-05:00

Headed out this spearfishing past Sun. 1/18/09 Conditions finally calmed down as predicted headed out of Homestead Bayfront Park, water was nippy, and sunless day added to the chill factor, a 5 mil would have been the ticket. Seas were under 2 viz was hazy, but good, wind was blowin from the east at 5 then switched ESE a bit more than 5...towards the end of the day the tempt. dipped and so did we...Nothing too extraordinary we spearfished close to a limit of hogs, a nice YJ, and a few of my favorite eating fish...Mojarras, and a new waypoint entered...Mojarra Patch, rightfully named as I speared quite a few of these quality eating fish there.

Today Wed. 1/21/09 its cold as hell low 40's probably less in the morning, dead still wind under 1...thinking of heading out spearfishing...NOT

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Forecast....

2009-01-17T18:41:00.006-05:00

Winds been howlin' for the last 2 days, tempt. dipped to the low 60's too, but tomorrow Sun., looking like we may get a break and go spearfishing AT LAST. Forecast calling winds 5-10 with waves at 3' outa Miami...hmmmmms looking mighttttttty tempting.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Another late spearfishing report, from Blackpoint

2009-01-14T09:41:00.007-05:00

Headed out Sunday 1-11-09 from Blackpoint, through Boca Chika for another spearfishing adventure, the area from Soildier to Ceasars....the weather was great! We had under 5 mph winds, seas were under 2' (which the 30' Cat ate up), water was nippy, but comfy in a 3mm. Viz was top to bottom a little milky at about 40'...current was ripping in most places again likely due to the moon. ...Spearfished with a few spearo's and his son (a spearfisherman in the making). We saw plenty of fish, nothing to memorable other than some decent size hogs.

On another note Mon. 1-12-09 & Tue. 1-13-09 the wind was howling, had some rain and the days were overcast throughout, seemed like a front rolling in. Today Wed. 1-14-09 it slowed and the day is bright and sunny, tempt dipped to 60's...pretty decent day to go shoot some fish, hopefully it'll continue till the weekend and we'll go spearfishing!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Report Duck Key 1-10-08

2009-01-12T22:38:00.008-05:00

Headed out to Duck Key early Sat. morning. Although conditions called winds under 10 with seas 2-3 we were met with some nippy winds more in the 20+ and seas 3-4 with some 5'ers thrown in the mix. Although seas were pretty rough for our 20 footer the viz was surprisingly good top to bottom with some milky spots, current was ripping, probably due to the "very" full moon we had (and are still having) We headed to a couple of spearfishing spots I'd discovered on the last spearfishing trip and it did not disaapoint producing a few nice fish. The Rubble never disappoints with permits and YJ (were present but none of the "car door size"curious enough to check our shafts closerup) so I can't say the spearfishing was outrageous, but nonetheless productive. Hog Grass didn't dissappoint with the fish its named after we nailed quite a few hogfish snapper on this great spearfishing spot, and Hammerhead Finger produced the usual reef denizens and Fur speared this toad of a Red- as Fur tells it " I was stalking this black grouper and all a sudden I see this fish kinda staring at me at a distance, next thing I know I was wow he's gonna bolt so I went down as quick as I could thinking he's a gonner and this big'ol fish just sat there all lit up waiting for me to stick my shaft in him....boing...then he went crazy...I tackled him and wrassled him up" WTG Fur!!! All in all a nice day and heavy cooler!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing World Record YF Tuna- 2007

2009-01-07T23:02:00.006-05:00

As told by Julian Allen-Ellis

Julian Allen-Ellis 353 Pound Yellowfin Tuna October 2, 2007

It is day two of our long planned week-long trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Ray Klefstad, Eduardo Godinho and I boated out to Corbetena Rocks in a moderate sea-state in high spirits. Peecha is our excellent panga skipper and Ben Cowley is his first-rate deck hand. This spot is known for big fish and is the location of the current IUSA world record yellowfin tuna, so fortunately, we had prepared by studying the IUSA and IBSRC rules before the trip.

Conditions were improved over day one and visibility was very good at 90 ft plus. Large tuna were jumping on the surface pretty regularly and the whole area seemed very fishy. The high spots are home to tons of natural live bait that fight for food drifting with the current. Hundreds of boobies are diving the bait on the surface, which Peecha says is a very good sign for big tuna.

On day one Ray and Eduardo had taken two shots each. Ray shot and landed two wahoo. Eduardo shot and landed a wahoo then shot and lost a 100 lb class yellowfin tuna with a tear off. I passed two good shots on wahoo while waiting for something special. I spotted a solitary 200+ lbs “cow” tuna, a truly magnificent sight, but it never came in range. We had seen large schools of tuna up to 100 lbs, huge numbers of jack crevalle cruising in the shallower places and gafftopsail pompano on the surface. There were tons of bait fish at various depths and smaller jacks hanging up current of the high spots and the tuna seemed to be just up current from the live bait. This is the prime region to be at hunting depth during each drift. The dense walls of skipjack tuna were a surreal spectacle and held out the exciting possibility of predatory wahoo and marlin close by.

The typical pattern is for Peecha to motor the divers up current, where we get in and drift down over the high spots. I got into my normal routine of two minutes breathing up on the surface followed by up to two minutes diving, aiming to be down at around 40 or 50 ft when we run into the yellowfin tuna ahead of the high spots. We did a few drifts without seeing any game fish. Ray got back into the boat and shouts out, “Guys, were going to get a big tuna within the next three drifts, I can just sense it.” The next drift nothing. The following drift is one I will never forget.

As Ray drifted nearer to the high spot, he spotted a 300 to 500 pound marlin swim by the leading edge of the bait. I dove before the bait, held my depth at 45 feet, passed on several 50 to 200 pound tuna as they swam by, and then waited in hope for a bigger fish behind the main school. There were many fish in this school and it seemed to take an age to pass me on the left. The school had nearly passed from sight over my left should when I saw a dark shape approaching steadily and effortlessly about 15 foot below me. From above the tuna’s skin was jet black in the deep water below and made it difficult to estimate range but the huge distance between the pectoral fins left me in no doubt this was a really big fish. It was either unaware or unconcerned by my presence and maintained its direct path and depth as I made myself as small as possible by crunching up and trying not to look it directly in the eye. As I slowly angled down and extended my gun to shoot I saw the long, arching sickles that are found only on big yellowfin. The gun seemed to extend and fire of its own free will. I had aimed for a gill plate shot and allowed significant lead but had underestimated the size and speed of the fish and was at a greater range that I had judged – perhaps 20ft. The shaft struck the rear third of the fish from above at 45 degrees but it didn’t look like a deep penetrating shot at all despite the forward momentum of the target. We suspected this fish could be a record contender, so I was careful to do everything myself and everything by the rules – which is not difficult as long as you know them beforehand.

I was using my Darryl Wong Ono gun (4 bands, with a 5/16'' shaft 65'' long), Aim-rite slip tip, and 100 ft of Kitto/Klefstad tuna bungie, tuna float, and trailing flag. In the time it took to watch the tuna turn a full 180 and angle my head up to look to avoid entanglement the float had left the surface, stretched the 100ft bungie to its maximum and steamed past me vertically down before disappearing out of sight within a second or two. Both the fish and the float left behind a dramatic trail of cavitation bubbles. The speed and power of the first run was unlike anything I have ever witnessed underwater before. I wondered if I was ever going to see me gear again or if I could handle such a powerful beast.

My bottom time for that dive was 1:45 and max depth 60 ft/ 18m according to the Suunto. Eduardo and Ray are yelling their congratulations from the boat but I remain very, very cautious. It isn't in the boat yet and I am going to do everything I can to make sure I don’t lose this one.
The float surfaced after a nervous 5 or 10 minutes wait on the surface. The trailing flag Ray had made for my trip to Guadalupe made it very easy to spot when it did resurface - even from the water - as it stands a good three feet above the waterline. This is a wonderful piece of equipment and the Kitto/Klefstad divinycell float and bungie floatline was instrumental in capturing this trophy. Ray credits Ron Mullins with developing this entire big-game fighting system for landing big tuna. I also thank Ray for showing me how to rig the shooting line properly so that it will not fail. I crimped this shooting line myself using the techniques he had taught – using two thick-walled cable crimps per connection, not one mono crimp as some use.

I worked the cable-stiff bungie up using the retrieval clip attached to the float a few inches at a time. The fish ran at least 5 more times, some runs lasting up to 10 minutes. I was very nervous about the holding quality of the shot. I tried to swim with the pull of the fish to reduce drag as I held onto the rear of my float and was towed along with each run. Several times I had to let go of the float as I judged the pressure on the slip tip might be too much and had to swim after the float and trailing flag. The runs at first were fairly vertical as the fish dived for the bottom (around 150 ft) but became more horizontal as the fish tired and the bungie was effectively shortened as I clipped it off to the float. Ray’s tuna floats give 60 pounds of floatation, which seemed to be plenty for this fish. I climbed on top of the float several times to ease my retrieval of the bungie.

When I had retrieved all but about 3 feet of my bungie, I dove down the 30ft of 1/16” 49 strand shooting cable to inspect the quality of the shot. I could see the slip tip just under the skin and I knew I needed to get another spear in. I called to the guys on the boat for a second gun. Ray handed me his unloaded five-band tuna gun as he shouts “shoot it right in the brain!” At this point, the fish was visible from the surface, so Eduardo jumped in with his camera to take some video and stills.

I was so exhausted from the fight and worried about getting too close which may cause the tuna to run again that I rushed the shot and missed! Fortunately, the fish was pretty tired by now. I reloaded again, dove and intended to hit the brain, but I just got worried that I might lose this monster fish, so I shot it mid-body near the first shot – I did not want to miss again. Once I had secured the entire second gun’s floatline to the float I felt the fish could only be lost to the sharks now and was motivated to get it boated. I had lost my first yellowfin at Guadalupe Island to a great white shark and did not want to repeat the experience.

At this point, the fish as still about 30 feet down, but he is very tired. It was time to kill it. It had been a long fight. I had lost my dive knife on a Guadalupe Island trip the year previous and had no chance to purchase a new one. Fortunately, Ray had a brought spare dive knife that he lent me for the duration of this trip – one of those that has no plastic handle – just a solid piece of stainless, which turned out to be ideal for this purpose. I dove to the fish and was shocked by the huge size! I just couldn’t get the knife into him on that dive. I dove again, and this time, I delivered the coup de gras with a knife into the tuna's head and then pounded the knife in with my fist to get it deep enough into the tuna's brain to finish him off. I saw one more powerful twitch and that was the end. A stream of blood poured out of his head area.

I pulled the fish up towards my float and clipped it off . I got the required three meter teather from Peecha and tied the tail of the fish off to the boat. I climbed into the boat and was dying of thirst. Gaitoraid has never tasted so good!

Peecha tied another rope through his mouth. It took four strong guys to pull the fish into the panga. My dive buddies were convinced this could be a world record contender and insisted on heading back immediately to weigh the fish. Eduardo had read a fish can lose ten percent of its weight sitting on a boat all day which could mean the difference between a record or no record. My buddies gave up a whole day diving in prime season to get this fish back before it lost too much weight. We had a bumpy ride home, but were eagerly anticipating the weigh-in. It took five strong men to manoeuvre this fish from the panga 100 yards up the beach to where my very understanding wife Rebecca and our son Tom were waiting for us with ice cold beers. Peecha and the crew raise the tuna up on the scale. A massive 353 lbs and the new world record. It was 35 pounds heavier than the previous IUSA world record speared by Dr. Craig Petersen the year before. It turns out that saving the ten percent in weight loss was critical.

It took 1 hour 30 minutes from the time I shot this tuna to the time I finally killed it. The end of my shaft has a 30 degree bend about 8'' back from the tip and will make a nice memento of this magnificent fish. The adapter of the slip tip was also bent and is testament to the power of the fish and its initial run.

Thanks to Ray, Eduardo, Peecha and Ben. This was a team effort and the realisation of a life-long dream.

Julian Allen-Ellis

Thats amazing, they can who believe they can or is it chance favors the prepared mind!

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing World Record Doggie

2009-01-07T22:54:00.007-05:00

As told by Cameron Kirkconnell
Current world-record dog tooth tuna for men—91kilograms (200.4 pounds) by Cameron Kirkconnell February 4, 2006 at East Nusa, Tengara, Indonesia

Description of the hunt by Cameron KirkconnellWith the two fish in the boat and our time expired we decided to head back to the mainland 2 hours away. Something in me felt wrong though and I persuaded the boat driver to stay another hour ($15 more) so that we could dive in the ever increasing current for one last shot.
With a rain squall coming hard on us and the visibility darkening we decided on one last drift. Fighting his way out of a whirlpool a while later Craig breaks a blade on his fin before we can catch him with the boat. Handing me his tuna gun he smiles and says, "This is it, this is the one, make it count, I'll ride shotgun and bring the second gun so you can shoot your fish twice..."
5 minutes later i was relaxed and diving down through the warm surface layer to the cooler water below relishing the change in temperature that these type of Tuna love so much. At 50 feet i stopped kicking and glided down to find a school of dogtooth tuna surrounding me from 15 to 120 lbs. Patiently i glided deeper and caught sight of the black back of a slightly bigger one on the bottom at 90 feet. Passing the other smaller tuna the big fish turned slightly just as i reached the end of my float line and i squeezed the trigger.
Thunk!
The fish immediately shook his gills and then made two circles on the bottom banging the shaft against the coral in an attempt to break free of the object now lodged in his after half.
As the great fish strained for deep water i pushed hard for sunlight and grabbed my passing floats on the surface just in time to tell Craig, " I shot a TOAD!!!!"
Without pulling the first float under the fish headed for deep water. With my hands on the bungey I worked my way towards the fish and after only 45 seconds felt him stop kicking. Slowly but firmly I worked him towards me and again he powered down only to stop again. Nervous the fish would pull out i fought him as gingerly as possible trying to drown him by pulling him backwards every time he stopped. Within a few minutes the fish was in sight and I could see he was hurt bad but there was no way i was going to lose this fish. Grabbing my 115 Omer America with a reel from Craig, I quickly reloaded, dove and approached him. At 12 feet my lungs were screaming for air at the exertion of the last few minutes and I prayed that my shaking hands would aim true.. whoosh! The fish went stiff and i surfaced pulling the ever growing fish to me.
Oh my god. Oh my god.
I can't wrap my arms around him! I have never screamed so loud in my life. The rocky cliffs a mile distant reverberated with the sound of my voice and then mingled with that of Craigs and the boat driver.
With a raging 10 kt current approaching I handed the tail of the fish to the boat driver and jumped in the boat to relieve him but even with Craig and I pulling we could not budge the fish from the water. Trailing the fish to calm waters the three of us pulled the beast into the boat and then there was complete silence.
Looking at the 6 ft long fish at my feet my mind shut down and I was flooded with emotion at what I had before me. Never in my life could i have imagined this possible. Craig and I stared in utter silent disbelief.
Dogtooth Tuna. What I have always preached as the most challenging and difficult fish in the world to land. Diving 30 miles from civilization in 6-10 kts of current. The whitewater rafting we had done the week before doesn't even compare to the whirlpools and down currents and 5 ft standing waves we encounter every drift here. All the nights worrying about Malaria and days spent unsuccessfully trying to convince local fisherman to take us to the ends of the earth were forgotten. Before us lay the fruits of all our efforts and the answer to all our dreams.
200.4 lbs. 6 feet long and 4.5 feet in girth.
I am the luckiest man alive.
Cameron

Wow thats a great adventure and quite a feat, that dogs a beast...gets the blood boiling...here tuny, tuny.

goes to show not always the first man in gets the fish...but most of the time he does. WTG Cam

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Forecast...That NOAA dun'noa'ting

2009-01-07T22:15:00.006-05:00

Yep seems NOAA's a 50/50 wind was howling today and cold front starting to move in its 10pm now, hopefully it'll get better for the wkend, my shoulder too.

On a side note got most of the materials to start the pole spear prototype...looking forward to it!
and about finished with another carbon/teak custom enclosed track spearfishing gun, this one is a 120, 2 banded...laser!

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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing...Dropping In

2009-01-06T23:16:00.007-05:00

Weathers been nice these last few days sunny & bright with under 5mph winds in the a.m. and pickin' up to 10-15 after 12 noon, decent. Friends headed out spearfishing this past Sat. winds about 5's pickin' up to 10's then laying to 5's about 2'ish, vis was horrible outa the G.C. on North and water was quite cold, beyond nippy in a 3mm...shoulder still killin' me so I'm holding out, hopefully by this weekend it'll better up and so will the spearfishing conditions. Cold front suppose to come in tomorrow (dropping to 50's), but then its just a forecast, right?...Moon is at half, seems a it wants to fill in. Weekend looking goodish (is that a word) Got some buds heading out tomorrow for a spearfishing outing lets see how they fair.

Putting the final touches on another of my Miami custom spearguns this is a 100 euro carbon/jacatoba rail speargun (not enclosed) with a magnetized muzzle 1 band...of pure fishing killing mayhem!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing...Long Key Hunt 12/29/08

2009-01-01T23:09:00.010-05:00

Went out with a couple of spearo's this Tuesday (12/29/08) over to Long Key...what a great day spearfishing with some great guys! NOAA said it would be under 5mph winds, and although it was gusting in the early a.m (15mph) and bumpy headed out (4-5' waves) it laid down around noon...vis was amazing top to bottom everywhere which is not to common in Long Key...current was slow, very lazy, even at our famous snapper ledge...we also scouted some new spearfishing spots that might be quite good for the summer spearfishing adventures. Saw a few nurse sharks no bulls...surprisingly we didn't see any "huge" fish but plenty of legals, hundreds of hogs everywhere, and a bunch of 20-23" blacks. Climax was a huge kingfish that Jim speared and shook off his speargun, oh well we'll gett'em next time Jimbo...arrivato

Here's a baracuda I speared or should I say, ran into my shaft...fought him for about 15min and he went airborne 3 times before he was strung, goota add that my low profile floatline I'm prototyping performed like a champ too!...cudas makes great crudo, and escabeche...and yeah, yeah chum/shark bait too.

note the big smile which was triggered by the big Yellow Jack, that was stoned...Gotta say the carbon wood custom guns I'm making are lethal...WTG Jim! a black and toad red all part of our spearfishing trip, courtesy of Long Key

A half days bounty...gotta love them keys.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

Spearfishing Question...Why am I here?

2008-12-29T14:27:00.006-05:00

Its Monday Dec 29 and its still as still can be today winds under 5 seas flat...Synopsis
High pressure will be over South Florida today and then shift east into the Atlantic tonight. A weakening cold front will move across the South Florida waters early Tuesday with weak high pressure building behind the front through mid week.... and I'm here blogging, shhhht, oh well tomorrow we have planned to go out spearfishing"...Tuesday Northeast winds 5 to 10 knots. Bay waters a light chop..." so hopefully a post full of spearfishing porn and a great spearfishing story will follow! Stay tuned!!!

Guess I'll just go work on them low profile floatlines.

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/

The Jack Kearns Spearfishing Classic

2008-12-29T12:41:00.026-05:00

A bit of a late post, but better late than never. This is the first of what I hope will be others more to come of this really great tourney. The JKC originated after a meeting with Mike (the S. Florida Freedivers president http://southfloridafreedivers.com/) and Jack Kearns one of the oldest living Hawaiin Slingers around. Jack and Al Pinder put some serious hurt on fish throughout Florida & the Bahamas in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and still today! As some of you know I've been pushing around a spearfishing contest http://forums.deeperblue.com/florida-east-coast/77248-miami-spearin-contest.html for some time now. The idea is to make this a yearly set spearfishing show and to make most of the prizes $$$$, thus the name "The Miami MoneyBag Shootout" Well after rolling it around I talked with a few others that had past experience and decided to start with a small show, the timing was right and the JK Classic came to be, originally it was thought out as a pole/sling spearfishing contest but later decided to throw in spearguns too. Well after a great show we hope next year to run the JK Classic as originally planned (sling/pole) and follow it up with the MMB Shootout. In fact, Jack suggested we make it a week long event with other water/spearfishing contests/events so who knows? Anyways heres a pictorial of the 2007 Jack Kearns Classic.....enjoy!!!

The start of a great day

The "earlybirds" getting it in gear for the shoot. The day called for some flat seas and less than 5mph winds...what we thought would be a 20-30 person show turned out to be an over 60 person spearfishing shoot and over 100 attended the weigh in party!

Here we have Carl getting ready to haul outta Scotty's in the "Prince of Tides" Carl is an ace Hawaiin Slinger and a hell of a nice guy!

Here we got the boys getting geared up for the "shotgun Start" of our spearfishing tournament

thats Jim with his new 25' Contender and me slightly hungover and having a bad hair day...all happied up to go spearfishing.

and they're off

Back at the weigh in thats the WidowMaker, Team Longfins, which took home a big chunk of the wood, nice platform

here weez got the boyz from Austins (which donated the Torres tips for the trophies) represent-ing....Wasuuup L&LThat'd be the man himself Mr. Jack Kearns, one hell of a great guy and a xpearfishing legend

Theres Jack and another great spearo Carl (note solar powered hat rigged to GPS)

Heres a deck full'o'fish taken by the first place H-slinger....quite a feat

A nice cooler

Thats Carl's slob Red taken on a slingHere's the prize fish a 50+ Cobia taken in 20' of water by the Longfins

here's a yellow jack and a 27"Mut I shot on the last drop and ironically the last shot in 30' spearfishing a nice plate

Here's a behind the seens hidden camera pic of a fellow (name witheld) assuring a place in the spearfishing shoot(all in good fun;)

Some of the sponsors and coordinatoors Julie (divewise on the right) and Amy (the go to girl that put alot of the show t/g)

A couple of the hostess that insisted on taking pic with yours truly

Good ol'fashioned fun at the spearfishing weigh in Some goodtimes thats Mike (Miami Freedivers presidente) in the middle right

Part of the prize table for the Jack Kearns Spearfishing Tournament...you know if a bottle of rum is on the prize list...its JUST gotta be good

First place slinger Leo Ramos...congrats again dude!

Harolf Dean first place professional and Longfins President Tito DiazTeam Longfins with the first place team trophy and first place amateur trophy WTG guys

A random pic of the the T's

And finally the Ooooolllllllll SeaDog at his finest
We want to give a special thanks to all the participants and the promoters that made the show happen...as well as all the guys/gals that donated time and $$$ for a good cause and in goodwill, just seeing a bunch of spearo's and speara's mingling, laughing, and have a downright good time is reward in and of itself...We hope next year to see you all again...Happy Holidays!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteel speargear.com/

My very own Spearfishing Blog

2008-12-18T21:32:00.005-05:00

Well its official, I got my spearfishing blogspot up and running! Welcome to SettingSteel Spearfishing Blog where spearfishing is the passion and everything ocean and friends come together. The primary reasons I started this spearfishing blog is to have a log of the days I've gone freediving and spearfishing, hence a record of how the day was, how the spot(s) we speared fish produced, as well as a memory of the spearfishing trips. Cause at the end what you will take with you are those GREAT memories of friends and spearfishing our great ocean!!!

I hope to see some of my old spearfishing friends contribute as well as see some new friends come aboard. The spearfishing community is pretty small compared to other rec. sports, and here in Miami, Florida where I live its a pretty tight group of spearfisherman...In fact we usually will bump into one or two boaters carrying guns who'll wave at a distance, a kinda "hey wasup, I spearfish too" type of hello. Well I hope some of you guys recognize me and c'mon over and introduce yourselves, as one can never meet enough buds to spearfish with, or as I often say "Green some water".

Another reason I got this spearfishing blog going is to share experiences, stories and spearfishing tips. Some that might very well save you life (a little trivia for you). If you get all the high risk sports combined (eg base jumping, bungie jumping, race car driving motor cross, alpining etc.) freedive spearfishing kills more of us each year than all these sports combined! So yes safety is important and as I come across some gear that increases our spearfishing safety margin, or tips that can keep us safer I'll post'em up. Tips on getting more fish, dive deeper, shoot better etc. I'll also try and post- and I hope anyone else that comes across some stuff does it too.

Finally, as an Industrial Designer by trade, I'm a big time spearfishing tinkerer, always getting spearfishing gear and trying to "one up it" so to say, often times (more than I care to mention) meeting a dead end, but sometimes, just some itsy-bitsy times I come across some stuff that I {modestly} think every spearfisher person in the world should own...these few and far between pieces of gear I usually handmake in small runs for friends and friends of friends, and friends of friends of those friends, whose friend wanted a friend to have one of their friends friend so I made it for their friend...get it? This stuff you will soon find on my spearfishing web site http://www.settingsteel speargear.com/. Like I said its not alot of spearfishing stuff but its tried and true, simple and functional, and has pretty much a lifetime guarantee. You'll also find a few free things over there, yep free...so surf on, I mean submerge on over there and check it out...and like always opinions/ spearfishing reviews are always welcome. Anyone interested in trying out my spearfishing gear just gimme a holler and will go out (what better excuse) and trial it!

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

Tone
http://www.settingsteel speargear.com/