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| The right tail..er um yellowtail can make your day! |
September marks the end of summer and the beginning
of what too many is the spearfishing season. Spearfishing from Miami,
Florida Keys, Hollywood Beach, Dania Beach, West Palm Beach, Sebastian Inlet all
the way to Jupiter, as well as the Treasure coast on North spearfishing really starts to get awesome as the water
starts to cool up and fish start to come into shallower waters. Although
September is a fairly slow month for tourism and spearfishing charters, heck
even fishing charters in general…it’s a blessing in disguise as our Miami
Florida spear fishing waters free up of boat traffic, allowing for 100%
spearfishing charter success. September
is a kinda, what I call- a transition month- that is lots of what
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| A Sept. Line-up |
went on in
August carries over into September, and what’s to come in October starts to
happen towards the end of September as well.
And that includes the “famous” mullet run, in fact as of this
writing
there should be schools of
mullet making their way from Daytona, Melbourne and Sebastion….some pretty
awesome spearfishing grounds in their own right!
Of course this is no secret to the best, top
notch
spearfishing captains who know, following these mullet are predatory fish-
the likes of Cobia, Jacks, Pelagics and the usual reef predators. One spearfishing
secret in Miami, Elliot Keys, Key
Largo and continuing to Marathon Key is yellowtail snappers these guys are tops on the list for this September month of
spearfishing!!!
For some reason
September always delivers big on Flags (BIG YELLOWTAIL) and you’ll find them
from Miami to Key Largo and forward south to Key West.. Waters are
teaming with
yellowtail waiting to be shot and the spearfishing trick is lots
of chum and shoot them from the
bottom up. Also big muttons are readily
available, and as the water starts to cool off, some nice, very coy
blacks and gags will be showing up too. Let’s hope this North current continues
to
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| A Flag! |
cooperate as this is optimal for good reef hunting. Offshore and into
the blue it’s a whole other “can of sardines” bluewater spearfishing starts to
idle a bit as the October spearfishing bonanza approaches!!! For those of you
in search of Mahi don't despair as the fall patterns begin to settle in towards
the end of September we should start seeing the bigger size Dorado gaffers
and slammers as they start their journey North-
if you find flotsam or birds you’ll more than likely find some mahi worth
jumping into the water to spear!!!. Chances on blackfin are also high.
The offshore wrecks as well as the Marathon
Key humps are teaming with them from
footballs
to
big 20-25 pounders lots of chum and chunking
brings them right up fast…but following right behind them are the taxmen so
buddying up makes a lot of sense. With this cooler water we should be
seeing more kingfish and their smaller cousins Spanish and Cero mackerels as they start
invading our waters= look for them along the reef edges where the drops
are as well
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| Nice Florida Hamachi |
as wrecks.
Speaking of wrecks,
keep an eye out, they are now also loaded with big
amberjack. and
Almaco Jack (much better eating than AJ's)
if you're up for some gear wrecking fish, this is the fish for you…tasty either
smoked or as escabeche
this fish provide
a cheap bluewater spearfishing thrill and some great training for whats to come
in the months ahead with the best spearfishing bluewater in Miami as well as the Florida Keys!!!!
Finally our September spearfishing report wouldn’t be complete without a
heads up…. Keep an eye out for those big fat pink moon plates otherwise known as
These big pink jellyfish
always invade our Florida waters around September so for you guys out there spearfishing be very careful.
Although their
sting is’nt to bad they really can do a number on any divers especially on your
ascent running into on head first…our waters are presently bombarded with these
big pink plates so keep an eye out for them
jellyfish.
If it’s a fight you’re looking for, then you need to
shoot yourself an Amberjack-I’m referring to the Greater Amberjack, not the Lesser amberjack which look very similar, but
do not reach the same size. Also known
as a Reef Donkey (or just Donkey) or just simply as A.J’s, Amberjacks are one
of the hardest fighting fish out there pound for pound, and will surely put your spearfishing gear to
the test, if not out of the test all together.
Never underestimate the brute power of an AJ, and make sure you have the
appropriate spearfishing gear to handle these brutes! My preferred set up is either a break away with
a floatline (about 25-30 feet shorter than the bottom, attached to a Heavy
Riffe 2 atm float, or 30L
Hippo attached
to a 10’ bungie with a 15 L float(best) or the same set up attached to your gun
(much more precarious).
In my opinion a
reel for this type spearing is a little riskier as an AJ can tangle up on the
bottom on that first strong run and you can lose a lot of reel line.
It’s important to put some muscle on him on
the first run as they will be headed to the bottom like a freight train from hell.
AJ’s like structure that’s holding bait so
wrecks is always tops here in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and the Keys, Oil rigs
are also tops for Donkeys…but we still don’t have those here, yet.
You find AJ’s on your sonar usually mid depth
and as a general rule the deeper the water the bigger the donkey. Once you find
them do some burley and chunking this will bring them up a little more off the
wreck…wait as the smaller 10-20 will come up first, usually the 50-100’ers are
hanging solo and take their time climbing the water column. So wait to take
your shot…then be prepared to enter the house of KICK ASS!!
Really any month is ok for amberjacks, except
of course the
closed dates which can very in state waters and
federal waters so
make sure you’re on the
target with that, most spearfishing charters
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| Nelson Kwok with a huge AJ |
will be
informed and up to date.
Usually April
and May you will find the big’ems, but we have seen a steady amount of Big AJ’s
around the end of September going into October. The current
IUSA record for
spearfishing using a speargun is 166 pounds from Portugal (H/L its
157#'s from Japan) and the
world record Greater Amberjack for
polespear/ Hawaiin sling is 50.5 pounds.
Some peeps shy away from a AJ’s as far as table fare, I for one won’t
target them specifically for eating as there are fish I prefer more than an AJ,
but don’t think for a moment these fish aren’t tasty they make great grilling
or smoking meat when prepared fresh. or as a dip.
Sometimes AJs will have worms. Most of the
worms appear in the meat toward the tail area of a filet as opposed to the
shoulder meat which tends to not have worms.
Up to now we have never found any with them
but have heard of some spearos finding them. The worms themselves don’t present
any health issues
even if you ate them, but
it is a turn-off, so if an AJ has worms just cut off that piece
and pop him on the grill
Well that does it for September, thanks for dropping
in…DIVE SAFE
Till next spearfishing report, tight bands, straight shafts, and smooooooooth triggers!
Tone
http://www.settingsteelspeargear.com/
Nice Post.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and valuable information
Thanks for sharing..! Destin fishing