Somebody kill some fish….dammit.

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Here ya go...

amazing pompano!! congrat,s:thumbsup2:

I'm glad you liked the recipe KC. It's name is Italian. My parents are from there.

Let's see Hank. It's been slow here. Some movement will bring fish for sure. :thumbsup2:

I'm glad you liked the recipe KC. It's name is Italian. My parents are from there.

Let's see Hank. It's been slow here. Some movement will bring fish for sure. :thumbsup2:

I finally took a couple of photos off my camera from last week, this might help keep you motivated! It was a decent day for groupers with a few muttons hanging around. Valente speared the black grouper at 120'. We don't normally use buoys, but decided to on this dive. He was concerned that if he shot something that he would not be able to keep it out of any structure, etc.. and we wouldn't be able to recover it. I waited at the buoy and started fighting whatever was down there when I felt a tug on the line. Valente was able to swim to the surface while I landed his fish. Worked pretty slick...

Dan, landing the AP was pretty straightforward. It was a rare day where I was first in the water while Valente drove the boat. It was the first dive of the day, and we were planning to work a big shipwreck about seven miles from shore; it sits at about 80' and can hold big schools of permit, barracuda, horse-eye jack and cuberas. Occasionally there will be smaller schools of AP and some wahoo. The current is usually light and I started my dive to around 60' about 150' before the wreck. I was just cruising mid-water, looking forward to the wreck, when three APs came to me. I just picked out the biggest and shot him right behind the gills. I swam to the surface while letting my line out of my weight belt; there wasn't much of a fight. However, he was swimming a little, but on his side. It was like pulling up a door mat until he finally wore out. Valente really noticed the size while pulling it into the boat. We decided not to clean it until checking on the record. Glad for that!

I may never reef dive again [emoji20] I feel so inadequate, like the robot from hitchhikers guide to the universe [emoji22]
Hank this is all your fault!
[emoji1]

Gents, I just fell into an incredibly good situation. My buddy, Valente, is the one putting the vast majority of fish in the boat. I just tag along and all my fish go into the cooler. We've been diving together long enough that we work very well together. Every day is a treat, and a lot of hard work keeping up with a 28 year old... But we have a good time together and he makes a pretty decent living. Plus, I'm out of my wife's hair.:laughing:

Yeah, maybe it's because we're basically where the Gulf and the Caribbean meet. Lots of commercial fishing co-ops keep busy with several different techniques, but there are only a handful of freedivers that make a living by spearfishing. And, we've got quite a library of GPS points, enough to let many spots rest for six months or more.

Are you Mexican or American?

I'm from the US, but retired here about seven years ago. We bought our house in 1999 with the plan to do that. It took five years to get my permanent Mexican residency, and Valente and I have been fishing together for more than five years. Haven't been bored one second and have been thankful for every day.

Hank, I'm normally boat diving 90% of the time, the rest is shorediving along our east coast, the reef is right on the beach. The current isn't usually too bad, normally 1-2 kts, but it's all drift diving. We have some areas where it reaches 3-4 kts, which is a real challenge because the spots in those areas are up to about 90'. You're flying over the bottom... In those areas we're entering the water about 500' upcurrent and starting our dives about 250-300' prior to the spot. Big schools of big barracudas sit in that current and don't seem to move around too much. The groupers that sit in the current on the bottom are big and strong from living in those conditions. I'm not sophisticated enough to know, but it seems like the speed of the current here is better related to the wind rather than the phase of the moon, but couldn't say for sure.

Our spots start fairly close to the island, less than five miles with depths at around 50-60'. We have several shipwrecks within 10 miles, the bigger ones are up to about 300'. They all can hold large schools of fish. I think our farthest spots are out to about 45 miles, not exactly offshore but up the coast. Still a long way in a 25' panga with a 60 hp four-stroke... We're usually pulling away from the dock at 6:30 a.m. and getting back after five in the afternoon. When we're working a spot it usually takes 10 minutes per drift, from entering the water to diving/shooting/landing a fish, and getting back in the boat to reposition back to the start/reload/re-enter the water again. I think I've said it here before, but commercial spearos know how to put fish on the boat quickly. We're not using floats, reels, knives, or anything extra to take time. It's all very efficient.

We don't spear many wahoo here, maybe six per year, but we see plenty of sailfish when entering the water. They'll just look at you and slowly swim away... We normally see wahoo in pairs and Valente and I can often times get both of them. One will shoot the first fish and play it until it's calmed down, the big thing is not to rush. It's partner will stay close to the fish on the spear and the second diver can usually get a shot while bringing the first one up near the surface. It's a treat to get them, you can really feel the power from them.

We focus on black groupers and snappers (mostly mutton and dog, and cuberas up to about 20 lbs). But we can also sell gags, amberjacks, mackerels, cobia, yellow jacks, permit, horse-eye jacks, African pompano, barracudas, and oceanic triggers. When the north winds kick up, like this time of year, the water clears and a lot of fish move into the area. The water around here was a mess this last summer with the low winds we had Jul-Sep. It was worse than normal, so we did a lot of diving through murky layers... It usually opened up on the bottom, but the thermocline dropped the water temps. Ugh.

I think that this will be a good winter for us. Plus, I picked up a new 5mm wetsuit from Dan a couple of months ago and think that it will do the trick for me. Super warm and comfortable. Well a buddy called to go get in the water (and it's flat calm this morning). Gotta go get dinner...:)

Nice! Is that your partner Valente in the last picture?

Yes, that is Valente and me in the weigh-house at the co-op we fish from. Most of our fish are sold there. He also keeps his lancha there. Pretty nice set up with industrial-sized ice machine, cleaning stations, etc. Luckily for me, it's less than 100 yards from my house!

When I lived in Puerto Rico I used to dive with three commercial spearfisherman. It was hard but fun. We used to leave home at 4 am to drive and ride to the spots and most of the time I wasn't home before 10 pm.

But we had lots of fun and made good friendship. We're still very good friends.

And last but not least, I usually left with some money in my pocket.

Shot this little guy on Saturday on a kayak dive with Liquid and few other buds. Maybe I should post my fish more, I shoot a lot

Cheers

Chase