Frickin' Jake.. spearfishing Belize

Quote from Dude george

I always enjoy reading your reports fellas, big smile again on my face...one day Hank I will show up on a yacht with a gun and in need of some space in and around the "condos"

Or show up on a plane with no gun. I'll loan you one and will put you in the "condo" for free. :thumbsup2:

Anytime.

I'm back. haha. I was trying to let my elbow heal up but I can't wait any longer. The pain of being dry is much greater than the pain in my elbow.
Quiet as far as snappers. The commercial guys were heading north from the first cut we hit. Jake said he saw something at about 120 feet on the new fishfinder on the boat but I never saw the school. They run deep when they get scared. So I circled around in the cut hoping for cobia, like last year this time. The eagle rays were there in force....like 60 or more. But no cobia.
I moved as quiet as a fart in church and creeped up over the "Hole" that usually has fish around it. There was the dog snapper under the ledge. Got a good head shot and stoned him.
Found the hog in a cut south of there. Big one for here. Not much else there though. Duqesnay swears there just aren't much fish this time of year. He's been spearing here for about 45 years. Maybe he's right.
The boys were getting some porgies and black snapper. Jake has a healing boil on his leg so he just drove the boat all day.
I shot the two barracudas. The new signal to the boatman is "TEETH!. haha. I'm still a bit leary of those sneaky bastards.

Quote from Josediaz

Congrats! has good size snapper :thumbsup2:

Thanks. When I first saw the dog snapper turning to look up at me, I thought he was a cubera. Really dark colors for a dog and it was hard at first to see the triangle under his eye.

Like the one Dan shot a few weeks ago that he had to really work for, this one was a bit the same. It's one of those times when it's best to be hunting alone. If someone else had been with me and been 4 feet farther out in the channel, the fish would have seen him/her and most likely gone back into the "Hole". The satisfaction of a hunt, sneaking up like that, to me is greater than shooting multiple jacks, ceros, hogs.....these dogs were on red alert. Hard to approach like that.

I actually kind of chased the hogfish. He saw me drop down about 20 feet away from him and slowly started moving away. I just followed....and started picking up the pace. Then he turned, as they do so many times. I rarely, if ever, catch a mutton, cubera or dog doing that. Once a snapper starts moving away, if I follow .....they're gone....fast moving.

Had the family out yesterday. It's not hard core hunting but it's a lot of fun. Mo, Tino, Maritsa, Jake, DuQuesnay (he's "uncle" Andre) and me. We pretty much all jump in and scare any snapper or grouper within a quarter mile into a hole or the deep but the hogs and barracuda still come around when you lay on the bottom. Mo and Tino said they saw the all time biggest hog ever....but it's not in the cooler. haha.
Jake shot the lone snapper at one of our favorite cuts. But someone seems to be beating us to the spots. The fish are getting educated or someone is outright just chasing them. For the last month or so all the dog snappers we find seem to be scattered on the bottom instead of schooling up in the water column.
I can't dive that deep but Jake does. This fish was 91 feet. The crab attacked him when he shot the snapper. haha. He got the crab in one of our shallow houses. Great eating.
[/IMG]
[/IMG]
[/IMG]

Quote from Dude george

Nice one as always guys, you out for revenge on those cudas Hank?

Nah, the one that bit me was just doing what barracudas do. But I am a little more wary of them than I was before that incident. I didn't stone any one of them. Close....but about half inch off or so on each one. But they bled out quick and got weak.
It was just one of those days. I was lying on the bottom in the cuts trying to get muttons to come in, tossing sand in the water. But only the barracudas were showing up.

Went to a new spot yesterday. DuQuesnay has been holding out on me all these years. haha. A school of dogs came in from the outside at about 3 pm.
There was a bit of swell at this place because it's between Turneffe and Glovers on our reef so it gets any swell in the Caribbean. Lot of surge. I actually got rolled on one wave. hah. Good fun.
Mo and Tino cleaned up. Those boys are learning fast. Mo will be 11 and he got 3 hogfish, a barracuda and a snapper. Tino got the black, a snapper and a nice hog. The old man got the biggest dog of the day though.
Unreal place. Big "castles" of coral around these sand grooves and LOTS of holes. All the snappers are in there. Saw an amber jack and a big permit.
One of my best friend in the world's son is here. Just hanging out diving and working in the hatchery. His dad and I started one day apart in this shrimp business almost 36 years ago. His dad still runs a small catfish and prawn farm in Ka'a'awa Valley at Kualoa Ranch. Probably one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'll be there again this August. ya man.
[/IMG]
[/IMG]

Went out again yesterday. So calm....had to go.
Someone is gill netting our snapper holes. This happened a couple years ago too. We find a few but they're scattered on the bottom and really spooky.....deep. Normally we see schools of 50 or more at these spots. They'll be back. Those guys clean them out and leave them alone for a while.
I couldn't hit anything. I missed a nice dog, a grouper, a mutton and another smaller dog....and a cero.... Bent shaft....yeah, that was it.....a bent shaft. But I got two hogs, a small cubera and a cero. At least I was finding fish and getting shots. That shit'll work on your mojo....
WE still got some fish. Jake was back in the water after a stomach flu or something. Brian from Hawaii got a few fish too. The cero bit Jake's finger.

[/IMG]
[/IMG]
[/IMG]