Unfortunately you would have to travel quite far to find a place free from the dangers of DUI boaters in South FL. Its just how it is here. When I go out im more worried about boaters then SWB, sharks, etc. The reefs here are used like highways and most boats run up and down them parallel to the shore so there is nowhere you are really safe from traffic. The best thing to do is beachdive on weekdays when you can since almost no one is out boating. When people are out boating make sure you keep an eye and an ear out as best you can for boats. Most boats you here coming a looong ways before they are close. But ive been surprised by enough very silent boats (mostly sailboats) to know its not a foolproof method.
Posts by Reefchief
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The reef youre talking about is actually like the zero not the first. There are actually 4 reefs but people seem to skip the inshore one and call the actual second reef the first. The first is actually about double the distance from the pier and what you are thinking of as the second.
If you continue past that 0 reef ledge it will eventually turn back into sand, and if you swim over the sand you will eventually come to rocks that get rockier and rockier in about 20ft which eventually turns into ledges and shallow reef. That is reef #1. If you keep swimming over the reef it eventually gets deep again, turns back into sand, a lot more sand, and then when you hit rocks again you are at the front of the second reef with the sand at about 25ft 30+ at the back. Another patch of sand and you arrive at the back of the second in 45ish. And then yet another expansive patch of sand will land you on the 3rd in 60+ ft of water.
There are some spots that have patches of reef missing, but for the most part you can know where you are by how many large patches of sand you swam over.
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Ok cool, I will try to implement that into my dive plan for friday. Just a heads up though about John U. Lloyd, your absolutely correct about no spearguns within state park property. However, North of the pier the park doesn't start for maybe a few hundred yards until you see a big brown sign in a bush line that says "John U. Lloyd State Park" blah blah and thats where your gear can be confiscated by FWC and park rangers. Had a run in with one last time I was out there and an officer told us we were too far north and showed us the boundary we could enter the water from.
Later,
Chase
Yeah I wasn't sure exactly how close to the pier it started but it is pretty close. Only problem with launching so close there is if the current is heading north at a strong enough pace you might have no choice but to land in the park. Id rather just go more south or more north and not deal with the hassle of the park. Never found much fish there anyways.
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ReefChief,
I've been going mostly around the jax, so snappers and hogs are usually the main fish I see that are shootable. I do not think Ive seen any sheepshead or porgy's and certainly not any macks or anything of that nature on my ventures. Thats why I was seeking tips specifically for snaps/hogs. Some nice parrots around there though I'll tell ya. Too bad they're not on the menu, atleast for a season ya know. Strange that other parts of the world eat/catch them but we can't. Im doing a beach dive with my dive buddy on friday at dania pier if you feel like schooling me a bit, let me know. We are pretty lax'd when we dive and won't abandon you.
Chase
As far as I know Spearguns in John U Lloyd park are prohibited and they will give you a ticket if caught with it on the beach. I think the jacks youre talking about are north of the pier which is in the park.
You need to venture out to the reefs. You can pick almost anywhere and swim off shore and run into each reef line the further you swim. The first one is only a few hundred yards from shore and ive caught fish there even. The deeper reefs are where you will find a wider assortment of fish to shoot Mac's and triggers and yellowjacks passing by etc. Dont be afraid to just pick an area and explore it.
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Very very true, I guess it was unfair for me to say you learn less. Instead the learning is more concentrated. You def do get to know the fewer places you visit like the back of your hand.
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If you ever find the answer to catching fish off the beach here consistently I would love to hear it <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin"> <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin">
In my experience the biggest challenge with most of the diving here is finding fish to spear. Not actually spearing them. Stalking and hunting techniques, a longer bottom time, a good shot, more understanding of fish behavior etc will help you capture more of the fish you see, but I am going to assume you have a bigger problem of finding them then missing them.
Finding fish here is mostly a matter of hard but fun work. Going out exploring off the beach or even in a boat and finding spots that hold fish better then other places and maybe get targeted less is the key. Then when you find those spots you concentrate on them on other dives using the info you learned. If you combine that with doing a lot of hunting (swimming [covering ground] ) you're maximizing your chances as best as I know how. Then again im not a very good spearfishermen compared to many. Beach diving is difficult because you cant move around looking for fish and visibility in all different kinds of places. So you have to take a gamble on an area and get lucky to a certain degree. It also takes longer to explore an area, you learn less info about places you find. And the places are harder to find again without nav equipment pinpointing your spotz exact location.
Basically just enjoy the hunting and keep diving wherever you can the better you get from going diving and the more spots you learn from going diving the better you get at bringing home the fish. Enjoy taking a variety of fish besides the token snapper/hog if you always want fish.
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My CF Speardiver 120 is awesome for beach diving. Worth the extra cost for the CF barrel since you will have the gun a long time. Im pretty sure the bands weight more then the gun does. I end up lugging a lot of crap up and down the beach so its nice that at least my gun is light. Im not sure how much of a difference it makes in the water but its enough on land that I am glad I have a CF gun. Plus it looks like... wayyyy cooler. My gun is so perfectly balanced in the water its crazy. CF is a luxury, but imho one with clear utilitarian benefits.
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Was a great time diving with frank as always. Nice viz, nice seas, which is not always. Got to test out some issues recently fixed on my dads boat which was the main reason for the trip (Ethanol in gas sucks). Not very fishy, the few worthy fish I did see were wise to my game. But we spent a lot of time messing around deeper then we usually dive and having a lot of fun doing it.
That picture should be called "Crap I cant equalize my right ear" first time in a long time I was blocked up but I was able to clear it up relatively quickly.
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Awesome report Frank. What a beachdive it was. Wasnt nearly as flat or clear as we had hoped for. Current was ripping most of the dive. But it was an awesome time anyways. I will remember shooting that hog after losing the lobster and swimming over to my gun for a long time. Not to mention the size of the lobster i missed. Gotta be very gentle with the huge ones. They are that big for a reason it seems.
The boat was scary. I heard nothing and surfaced frank pointed I think, and I turned around to find a catamaran within conversation distance going by. I didn't want to say anything because they weren't going fast enough for it to be unlawful. But man there's a whole ocean out there wtf.
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Linghut,
Its good enough that I haven't ever really paid attention to it to say exactly how good it is. All I know is for as much as I accidentally leave it on diving im surprised at the battery life. Its bright enough for diving even in bad viz through almost the entire battery life.
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The Speardiver is 270 lumens. The one you linked is 116. So the speardiver torch is over two times as powerful. It also has a beam meant for spearfishing. Not to mention its cheaper. I love mine and its found me a whole lot of lobsters in the last year.
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This was actually after. And it was more like. "Holy shit look at how beautiful that flat ocean and sunset is im so glad I finally got to go diving after like 3 months and in such cool conditions that was so fun and badly needed. My wetsuit feels so good. Gosh my bottom time was crappy I need to work out"
Awesome shots frank. I love the snorkel shot on the surface and the shots from the bottom. Hopefully we get more winter days like this in the future and get to enjoy them longer..
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Thanks Dan!
Were still not sure of that ourselves. It looks somewhere between red and dirty blonde depending on the light. I guess well have to wait and see which direction it goes.
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Ive been absent from the forums (and spearfishing) for quite a while. Ive been swamped with major workload at a new job. But Ive also been working on a project with my wife for a few months that's finally complete. I wanted to share the finished product with everyone here.
Speardiver meet Hunter. He arrived healthy on 12/31/13 weighing 9lb 1oz. So far its been a whirlwind of excitement and learning and little sleep but im having a blast. Im already counting the days until I can strap on a mask and fins.
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The green and gold seems to be their default. But ive seen mahi do some cuttlefish like lightshows on their way out and turn all sorts of silver and blue sometimes with pulsing stripes. I took this pic last year. It went from normal to almost completely silver and blue and then back in a pretty short amount of time. Those fish above look like they are mutated in a way that causes them to look like that all the time.
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I do so much licking and spitting and lubricating building bands they should pay me afterwards. <img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin"> But same with Don, I learned with H+L to lick knots.
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Steven I should mention, freak mermen like yourself would crush the tg-2 without a housing. Its rated to 50 feet without the housing. But even as a topside cam its great.
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Thanks guys! I didn't think about the fact that it would only be apparent what I was doing after I did it with the handgrab behind the rock. I just said "hey frank can you shoot me hand grabbing this lobster?" Thinking about it now its so great haha.
Dan I agree with the mixture of hunting and scenery hugely, usually the problem is im too busy hunting to chill for a little and take some cool scenic shots. So it becomes a compilation of gopro headstrap video. Franks much better about remembering to take the time to shoot various footage. And this time i stole some of his. I also feel like videos benefit the same from outside filming that tells the story better too. But again, bad at doing it lol. Definitely need to do some other transitions too.*
Judah is correct. Some of the really clear correctly white-balanced shots were with the olympus tg-2. It's a pretty sweet little camera for getting decent pics in the water on a budget. It's waterproof to a decent depth with out a housing and has underwater shooting settings. It's biggest problem is it has trouble focusing so when you are filming spearing action you get sometimes blurry shots and video. But when they are in focus it does really nice stuff.
Two other major factors were how shallow the tops of the reefs are out in Elliot key. And the moderately clear viz.Although my gopro videos from the sand were green and gross.
I always shoot at 60fps so things can be slowed down some and still look good.
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Nice review! Not a bad thing to have while diving in a panga on a trip. God forbid engine dies while you in the water and boat cant make it to you.
I have a 406 epirb, and a pair of handheld vhf with dsc as backups on my boat, but this looks slick and like a good solution, to have attached to the float. Perhaps it would nest inside another pelican style case for some added impact resistance for the added rigors of getting knocked around
Wouldnt be a bad thing for all divers to have one.
If the need ever arises it will become priceless in a hurry.
Thanks guys.
One issue you bring up that I forgot is the limited range of dsc. The distress signal is VHF relay based so ships need to be within range to receive it. I think this maybe makes an epirb a better solution for offshore boat emergency stuff. But its better then just a handheld VHF.
