ITS FINALLY HERE, the BlueWild Dive Expo

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

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

Have you seen our website? GREAT...but please beware of a few product changes

 Well as you all know are websites been up for a few months (after a year and some back and forth with web designers, and the "web designer peanut gallery"-you know who you guys, and gals are lol) we are on the web, and before you can say woohoo....we are changing a few of our product offerings either because our suppliers/vendors no longer carry the merchandise, or we can't get the products at a discounted price or just (painfully so) not enough demand.  Rather than going through another few months of "rewebbing" our site to reflect these changes we have decided to list them here for now and hopefully (read as probably in the next few years)at one point or another we'll make the changes on our actual site (ps don't hold your breath on that one)
The Ghost Gun, unfortunately we do not have access to this space age material due to a prohibitively how cost of producing the material/speargun, but we may in the future (and if it meets our quality standards) produce this same spear gun in an polycarbonate mix...we'll let you know as the GHOST GUN may very well reappear (pun intended).
Bluewater Stone Staff with Flying Shaft a great concept, and a great design but just not enough demand, although we've had a few spearo's really liking the stone staff it seems for now not enough of an interest in bluewater pole spearing, so we're gonna pull this one off the shelf till further notice.
El Cheapo Dive Knife After a long deliberation (with our vendor lol) El cheapo couldn't be had at a cheapo price so this ones off the shelf (or potential shelf as we never really made it past a vendor sample) too.
Chum Can This is another coulda woulda didn't make it :( guess nothing beats the tried and true $1.00 mesh bag).
Mantis Muzzle A great muzzle but just not enough demand, so we are rethinking this baby while addressing the annoying "band flip" associated with multiple bands-stay tuned for updates!
Nile-Tec, Alexander, or Wong Mechanisms We will not carry any of these mechanisms either because of vendor reliability, availability and/or cost.
Spetton Demka, Omer T-20 We will not carry any of these mechanisms either because of vendor reliability and/or availability.
Alexander Aluminum Handle Great handle but just too long a wait, so we won't offer this handle as a choice on our guns.
Heinrich Release just not enough demand for this style line release, so this ones off the shelf too
Beanies hate to say it, but no beanie's- maybe its this Miami weather, but we just don't have enough demand on beanies (weep).
Decals this ones a shot in the dark, we will only keep a handful of decals in stock (please call or write for availability before you order), but any order above 100 might be available.

Finally all our oversees customers PLEASE read shipping info prior to your order and if you have any questions please read http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/shipping.html

We apologize for any inconveniences, any thoughts input on these changes is greatly appreciated.


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

Tone

http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com

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