A few from Belize

    Quote from hank

    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.


    Yeah but HOW does such a small fish deplete a large variety of fish population?

    I think the WR lionfish is around 4lbs, (although rarely seen that big) they eat anything that fits in their mouth and I know all of the ones that I have seen aren't the least bit scared of man.

    Sunday, Found this 53 lb, (gutted and gilled) in the "house" in one of our favorite cuts. There was an 8 foot nurse shark, who is usually there, right next to the fish when I shot. I crawled over the edge and peaked in upside down. Hit him right through the head and the flopper opened inside his mouth cavity. Not much fight after that. He was brained. He did bend my shaft 90 degrees though.
    Then Doc called the boat over because a large shark was swimming around him with his fish he'd shot. He got on the boat and we went back outside to drift in with the strong current. I jumped in and got ahead of the other guys when the biggest shark I've ever been in the water with, a 10 foot or so hammerhead...big and fat.....cruised right past me. Whooooaaaa. I had my gun pointed at it but I think if I'd shot I would have just pissed it off.
    I know you can't shoot goliaths up in the US, but they're perfectly legal here. A guy that works here catches them every week in the lagoon next to the farm.



    A few dogs and a jack, plus Doc's favorite, the trunk fish.

    Du Quesnay and Doc (my dentist). Two old sea dogs. Great guys. 110 years spearfishing between them. Doc shot another ray while my son was on the boat. Jake said it looked like he was being pulled by a boat across the water. I saw at least 15 eagle rays in that cut yesterday.

    Edited once, last by hank ().

    very nice....your face in the GG pic is awesome...you look wind blown and stoked :)


    are the rays really that difficult to clean and prepare? I have heard that the meat rots other fish on contact and such...what is your experience

    i like to spear fish

    We gutted the rays and the gg on the boat. I don't know how Doc's Taiwanese friends prepare the rays but they really like to eat them.
    We put the rays right on top of the gg in the cooler. The gg tasted fine.

    Hooked into a nice school of cuberas yesterday. They were looking to get into spawning mode. Filled up the cooler in less than an hour and a half. I was driving the boat because of current and the fish were scattered. I didn't even had time to clean fish as they were bring them up faster than I could gut them. All I did was take out the spear and throw them in the cooler.



    Had to get some of the family to help hold up all the fish Jake got a nice grouper and both of them got a nice mutton.


    excellent Hank...what a great last picture...a beautiful family celebrating a good day's hunt....pretty much perfect. thanks for including us in that moment

    i like to spear fish

    Went hopping down the reef in three different cuts on Sunday. The first stop was dead. Only a couple dogs but they were small and went deep right away.
    The second spot had really strong current. I made a mistake of trusting a new guy to drive the boat and he lost us. It was a hard swim against the current and yelling so much I'm hoarse, but he finally found us. We had just found a big school of dogs with some nice cuberas (40 lbs or so) hanging with them. I almost got a shot but looking back it was lucky I didn't. I would have had to haul that fish with me to get to the boat far away.
    I got these two at the third stop. The bottom drops down a wall to about 50-80 feet sloping then drops over the wall into the blue. This school was staying in a small area but would drop down to about 80 feet and I couldn't see them from the surface. They'd come up a bit and I could follow them down. Shot them both pretty deep....for me anyway. Miissed a 10 lb cubera.


    Edited once, last by hank ().

    Quote from hank

    Thanks Marco. You have to tell the story of that haul in your boat in our avatar pic some day. :)


    Well, there is a video (after the fishing). The muttons were all over. Literally.


    And visibility was more than 100'. You could see them from the surface and choose which one to shot. One of those magic days that you can count with one hand's fingers. :)

    Marco Melis

    A bad day fishing is ALWAYS better than a good day at work.

    Marco, I've only had one day with muttons like that. I was swimming along the top of the reef and I saw three, then 8, then 15, then they were all over and pretty dumb. Not spooky at all.
    I usually find schools of dogs with muttons and cuberas hanging around. And usually where we find the dogs, there are spade fish, horse eye jacks and sometimes permit.

    This female cobia came right up in our faces. Just like the broodstock Jorge has in his hatchery. Pretty dumb fish. She had about 6 blue Creole Wrasses in her stomach. Maybe that's what Jorge needs to feed his broodstock to get better quality eggs. This one was full of eggs, which we kept. Good eating.
    I missed a big barracuda. It was all black, like it had just eaten, laying on the bottom. I dropped down and as I got close he moved off a bit but slowly. I shot.....and missed. Jake was watching the whole time. I told him I thought it must have bolted just as I pulled the trigger. Jake said, "no Dad, you just missed". haha.



    All in all we got 4 nice dogs, 2 grouper, one yellow, one black, a cobia and a cero. All the dogs were staying pretty deep though. Water is getting pretty warm now.

    I finally found the hiding spot for these dogs at a place we call Spot 15. There's a rock out past a sand patch over the wall. I've seen them there but they disappear. The vis was pretty good and I could see the rock from the surface. Dove down and saw about 15 nice dogs. Hit this one at 20 meters.....66 feet?


    Edited once, last by hank ().

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