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