Posts by Hardline

  • Why a float line is safer than a reel

    Quote from Reefchief

    Guilty as charged! Although I actually run away so frank cant put fish on my stringer! :laughing3:


    Yes Dans floatline spool is genius, I need to make me one of those. Although I find the stringer is what ends up getting tangled with everyone elses stuff not so much the spool (when Im using one).


    I dont mind pulling the stringer...i just lost mine so I dont have one! Cant be as bad as the banks board in heavy seas!

  • Why a float line is safer than a reel

    I agree with everything Dan said. I've also found it frustrating having a dive buddy with no float because you never know where they are unless they are right on top of you. This means I waste time and energy trying to locate my dive partner instead of looking for fish. On shore dives, this is exponentially difficult as distance increases.

  • Hardline's Dive Reports

    Me and the boys got out today to do a little spearing off Elliot on what is arguably my new favorite section of reef in the area. While finding dinner is always the goal, I also had the secondary mission of finding some bait for my upcoming shark research trips. The bait of choice for this is of course Barracuda and Jacks.


    As soon as we jump in the water, I hear Mark screaming and as I mosey on over, I see a school of about 4 Cudas. I assumed he was pointing them out to me until I heard him scream again and I looked to my left and saw the biggest snapper of my life in about 15 feet of water.


    That snapper eluded Mark the whole rest of the day and I continued looking for fish. I shot my first Cuda and started back towards the boat with the fish on my shaft and I saw this nice black grouper just sitting next to a small rock on the sand staring up at me. I called Mark over since there was nothing I could do at that moment and he came over and whiffed on the first shot. I swam back to the boat, dropped off the fish and heard him yelling to get the camera cause he got him on the reload.




    We cruised this area for quite some time. I shot a bunch of Cudas. Jimmy shot a bunch of snapper and some others and Mark just kept chasing that elusive 20+lb snapper.


    Everything seemed to swim through here...big snappers, big ocean triggers, big yellow jacks, big cudas, nurse sharks of all sizes, one lone bull shark, two turtles (one had a head the size of a basketball) and stingrays (which I hardly ever see).


    Shark Bait!


    All in all it was an awesome day on the water and the weather forecast lied. I'm sure the other guys have more to add in here.

  • Hardline's Dive Reports

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Maybe too long of a soak? When I was doing my crab traps the fish baits were all but gone after 12 hours and seemed to have lost most of their oil and such much sooner. Pigs ears and feet were always the best crab bait.
    Perhaps the other species were around earlier and took off


    That's very possible. So much we don't know about their behavior when we think we do. It's been an exciting experience for sure!


  • Hardline's Dive Reports

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Frank! Good to see you are still getting out there buddy. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever.


    Amazing pics.


    Any concerns that the SAD will teach sharks to frequent an area looking for food ? Might not matter might train a toothy to look for food in a certain spot?


    I know man! We gotta get out more this summer for sure.


    What's funny about the SAD, is that we went out on a Friday, caught 4 species of sharks and then deployed the SAD for our Saturday trip. The SAD soaked all night and we went back the next day to fish the area and only caught 2 nurse sharks...so I can't really say that they were drawn in by the SAD. You think there would have been more with the SAD but that was not the case.

  • Hardline's Dive Reports

    Some more recent photos from our trips.


    3m female Great Hammerhead cruises over turtle grass in the shallows off Key Biscyane, FL


    A Blacknose Shark is released after a brief sampling and tagging procedure.


    A Great Hammerhead shark is kept in the water while the team rapidly gets samples and attaches a tag before releasing.




    A SAD (Shark Aggregating Device)