A few from Belize

A few doggies from yesterday.
We had to hunt for a while to find them and they were farther south than usual. But the school was much bigger....maybe 5-600 fish. We played with them for over 2 hours after they settled into an area on the reef wall where the top of the reef was about 80-100 feet deep. Lucky the vis was good. They would come up and go back down....laughing at us. hah. We shot these at about 40-60 feet.
A school of about 2-250 big fat permit came up right in our faces. THICK fish. A school of about 25 horse eye jacks would pass through every now and then too. It's cool when the swim on their sides, looking up at you.
We saw a few big cuberas on the bottom but they were really spooky. A few muttons hanging around and quite a few black groupers on the bottom. No sharks at all.
Another beautiful day.

A few from yesterday. Andre is 71 and still gets after it. He doesn't dive so deep anymore (me neither) but has a wealth of knowledge.

Jake and a couple snappers. The big one got in a hole, shaft and all, went through and out onto the sand next to the coral head. He had to go down and cut the reel line and feed the shooting line down to the spear and fish.

This place is unreal on some days. A huge school of pretty good size horse eye jacks came right up to me. (must have been that silver tape on my fins and gun :-)) ....really...maybe)
There must have been 150 or more. Also a big school of permit, another school of small horseyes swirling around near the bottom and the school of a LOT of dog snappers, which were spawning occasionally.
Lots of baitfish. A huge mackerel passed underneath me but I couldn't tell exactly what it was from the top.
The snappers moved up and down in the water. Most times they would spook and move out to the blue water or go to the bottom and scatter. Then they'd gather again up in the water column.
But occasionally, we'd dive down near the bottom and they would come right up to us. I can't figure them out. It's just patience and a waiting game.
I couldn't resist shooting a couple jacks. Nice size and a lot of fight. It's a challenge to try and actually stone one, which I think I've only done a couple times. Tough bastards.

I couldn't leave until I got a snapper. They got a little less shy by later in the day.

Went south of the Southwater Marine Reserves yesterday to a normally productive spot. But it was dead. Only saw a couple spooky groupers who dove over the wall as soon as they saw me.
So we drifted south about a quater mile to the next cut. I'd been to this little patch of reef before but it was on yesterday. The top of the reef is about 30-40 feet then drops over the wall to about 70 and slopes into the blue. So many bait fish, chubs, a few dog snappers hanging out.
I was diving down and hiding which brought a couple snappers in close to me. Jake went over the wall and got the grouper, which holed up on him. It came out after about 5 minutes though.

Willy was stoked seeing fish big as him.

I was hoping to see some big pelagic. There were lots of baitfish just out in the blue and they would dive for cover pretty often. I think it would have been good just near sunset but I was 28 miles from home and had to cross an area with a lot of shallow patch reef.

Marco, he was pretty beat up looking after he came out, but he's been gutted and gilled in the pic.

Quote from Marco

Here's a picture of that grouper.

Nice fish. I should make a trip to the other side of the Caribbean.
I have a friend in Hawaii who was taking a small fish off his spear and a moray came up to grab the fish. It missed and grabbed his hand, almost tearing his thumb completely off. He had pictures of it taken by the surgeon who sewed it back together. Ugly.

These were taken by a buddy of ours a few months ago at Turneffe. There's about 4 more in these sequence but these three tell the story. This is what we dream of the night before going out again. Unreal.

Crystal calm day last Thursday. About a mile from our site 15 or so dolphins joined us for about 5 minutes. They stayed right on the bow of the boat. Usually they won't come in so close. Maybe were mating?

I took a couple friends that came down on a scuba dive. I surfaced, grabbed my gun and jumped back in. Not the best idea to free dive after scuba and no surface interval but I didn't dive deep.
Anyway, got into a big school of dogs that had a few cuberas and muttons hanging out with them. The bottom was about 70-90 feet down just on top of the wall. I never got aggressive towards the fish at all.....just diving down and away from them, then turning back to see what they'd do. The mutton and cubera came right up to me. I had to work a little more to get the dog though. They were a little wary after shooting the first two in less than 20 minutes. What a day.

Went back out Sunday but the wives came along. The good thing is, they bring better food and drink than I do. And, it's nice to go snorkeling with my wife, who hasn't been in the water since she got pregnant with our 20 month old son. But, it cut short the serious spearfishing. It was a bit choppy. But Jake and Jorge nailed two nice big dogs non the less.

After some food and drink, I jumped in on the lee side of the caye. Nice and calm with a sandy bottom and a few rocky formations. Some big lionfish int he holes. Then this nice little hog came by. He went into a hole, stopped and started to go in farther when I shot. Just got him before he disappeared.

I'm pretty sure you'll have lionfish soon. They've spread all over the Caribbean in the last few years. They are native of the tropical Pacific from Hawaii west to the Indo Pacific and Indian oceans. It's believed they were introduced to the Atlantic through a large aquarium in the Bahamas which kept lionfish but discharged unfiltered water which likely released millions of eggs or larvae over time.
It's believed that there are no natural predators here so many fear they will take over the reefs and deplete many of the natural species here.