Broward Beach Conditions

    seaweed--thanks for the heads up about the sub bro. The sub escort captains already know me by name :rolleyes1:
    A sub throws a really weird wave wake when you are close in a yak :D


    nice jobsite view you got there seaweed. Maybe we could do a shore dive or yak dive from there for a lunch break or after work :)

    Today Lunkerbuster and I went out to my big hog winter spot "north" of Port Everglades. The seas were calm and viz was 50ft. Viz shut down progressively throughout the day. Judah and I worked our way down the second reef with me drifting a little ahead of him. I saw a nice hog dash into a big coral head and yelled for Judah to come over. He yelled back that he was busy with a big hog of his own. I dropped on the coral head, I could only see the tail of the hog, but took a shot at what I thought would hold. Turns out, I shot him mid body, I wrestled him out of the coral head with him scraping himself up pretty badly, brained him and popped my head up to look for Judah. He was already on his way over.


    I'll let him tell his story, but his hog was HUGE! It was his personal best hogfish and a damn nice one at that! A perfect example of a shallow water winter hog!


    Here are the pics.

    THe long story


    as ben said we were a little but apart..felt like 80-90yds and i was slowly covering the bottom looking for antennae. the bottom was swiss cheese reef of about 5-6 ft of relief off the bottom. I would say about 30 ft of water, 35 tops.


    we had been blessed with some amazing viz to start the dive and could easily see fish shapes 30 ft down and 50 ft away.:D


    I saw something large and white at my 11 oclock and thought it must be a ray. I dropped to the reef to meet him since a nice ray encounter is cool on a slow hunting day. As I was sitting on the bottom he came closer in to view and I identified him as a huge male hog. I immediately got excited and prepared to shoot him as he passed...I prepared to pull the trigger having pre positioned the gun to just shoot once the fish cam by, no movement.
    right as the hog passed the gun I sensed he was alerted by something and he did a quick dart to the way he came and then came right back. I had to surface at this point to breathe and did a quick drop behind the hog but he was fully aware of me. I knew this so I decided to just get some steel into him and not just watch him haul ass down the reef away from me. I kicked hard and shot him....high, real high, like hair cut high....he holed up in the reef holes and I could see tension on the shaft as I did a super fast breathe up..I dove on the hole and said to myself to me real careful cos it was a terrible shot and the second i touched the shaft....slack, gone!


    I was so mad I cannot express it...I watched him dart around inside the coral rooms and disappear under a large head...I reloaded and re wrapped without breaking stare and waited...I dropped a few times and couldn't find him in any holes and I thought i was done for sure...I peeked into one hole and moved on thinking there was an angel fish in it...then it occurred to me that this hog might be that big so I peeked back and bingo...spear wound. I immediately shot straight down on him and finally had a good shot...but he was in the reef real good.


    After about 8 dives of tetris I had him in my arms and was headed to the float...stoked on a PB...gutted he was 7.25 so I call him 7.5lbs..25 inches.


    i like to spear fish

    Edited once, last by LunkerBuster ().

    Very nice fish, even nicer when you really have to work to get him, congrats Judah.


    psychobilly,
    You can take live conch as long as it is not the protected queen conch. Also, if it is an empty it cannot have a hole in the spire.

    Davie Peguero

    South of Port Everglades today
    begin at 830am--------end at 2pm
    wind from W at 8mph---from N at 8mph
    current 1/2mph from N-----zero current
    viz 50f in 50fsw-------30f in 30fsw
    seas 1-2f ------------same
    water temp 74F
    62F 0 clouds overhead ---75F 25% clouds overhead


    Today was another beautiful yak freedive spearin day.
    Saw a nice turtle on the bottom today.
    I shot one hog and when I was pulling him up to the surface a trigger followed the hog all the way up trying to bite off pieces of my hog. Even when I got my hands on my spear the trigger would not give up and I was afraid he might bite me instead, so I took my spear (with my hog still on the spear) and jabbed at the trigger. To my surprise, the spear jab hit the trigger just behind the gill and stunned the trigger just long enough so that I could thrust the spear the rest of the way through the trigger. Now I had a 20in hog AND a 15in trigger on the same spear:@
    Todays catch was one 17in, one 20in and one 21in hog AND one 15in trigger :thumbsup2:
    Day 1 with #322
    __________________

    Went out with Jenny and his crew today out of Haulover. Lots of fish, great viz and little cold but all together a great day on the water with some great divers.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member to leave a comment.

Register a new account
Sign in now