When Hogs...make grouper look small

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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/