Posts by Pachamama

Hank, that's great. I also took a skin sample and a couple of scales to keep in my freezer. Here are a few more photos.

It's a little hard to see but the blue dots are there, as are the gold folds around the mouth like a dog snapper.

Yeah, it's an amazingly bright orange and red, weighed 6.7 kgs. He was about 80' down hanging out near a small ledge.

I see that there is a cubera/mangrove hybrid on the IUSA records site, but this one is not similar. I have more photos if anyone is interested in seeing a certain part of the fish.

My buddy and I were out commercial spearing today and he shot a snapper that neither of us are familiar with. The same is true among all the fisherman at the co-op that buys our fish. We're usually shooting either mutton, cubera, dog, hog, or mangrove/grey snappers. To our eyes, this one has the coloring of a dog snapper on the body of a cubera. I know that there are hybrids out there, but I couldn't find any info in my FL/Caribbean fish ID books. So, any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Rick

Nice! It takes a strong presence of mind to do what Ale did. Looks like he's off to a great start. Congratulations to you both.

Wow, what a shame that you weren't able to boat the entire fish. He's a monster!

Very nice, you'll have to try Isla Mujeres next time!! We have a really excellent fishery.

Nice shootin'!

Congrats! Hell of a king...

Odelay!!

If we have a fish hole up, normally black grouper or snapper, we'll usually leave it for a while and start fishing for other fish. All the commotion of a holed-up fish will oftentimes bring in more fish. Obviously, this is from a boat where we're using break-away setups and can easily re-rig a gun. Letting the fish sit can also make it easier to recover later. Worst case, we normally go with a SCUBA rig...

My condolences, as well. So sorry for you loss.

That's pretty cool.

I second the towel idea, plus a little dish soap... Nice finish on the ends, I just leave mine cut off straight and have had no problems with misfires or tangles. Is it cosmetic or is there a good reason for finishing the rubber?

Dan, that's so funny but only because it is true.

OBTW, the GoPro was waiting for me when I visited the states; thanks for the service. I've already got some good video shooting snapper, black grouper, yellow jack and amberjack. I'm looking forward to doing a little editing and sharing. Also, the dyneema was exactly what we were looking for.

Cool boat. How do you exit the water, over the side? Can you leave all your gear on? We're getting in and out around 50 times per day and the 25' Imemsa is a piece of cake to pull yourself in over the side.

You need to get that gun back in the water - where it belongs. I'm going to Cozumel again in August to run a 10k road race and am thinking about bringing my gear along. We are planning to stay three nights. The east side of the island looks like it could be quite fishy, even from shorediving.

Yeah, just got back from a week vacation in Cozumel. Killed me not to bring the gear, but we had a great time. Now it's off to the US to visit family for 10 days, so the fishing will be on a lake, from a boat... Still will be a great time with my brothers. I'll be hitting it hard again come mid-June. My buddy was out while I was gone and shot 450 lbs of grouper, snapper, and amberjack one day, and another 220 lbs the next. Water seems a little colder than expected for this time of year.

I think the two of us shot maybe six in the last year. We never see more than two or three at a time.

Yes, we're just about at the confluence of the Gulf and the Caribbean. I think that is why it is pretty fishy around here. Normally, we have 1-2 knots of current flowing south to north, so we do a lot of drift diving from the panga. We'll get in about 200' up current, drift, dive, shoot and land the fish by about 300 feet past the spot. The whole evolution takes 10 minutes.

We'll run up north of Isla Contoy for a day of fishing, it might be about 70 miles round trip. Up in that area we get lots of amberjack, plus cobia, African pompano, grouper and snapper. Ran into some black tip sharks about a week ago. There were five or so of them around while we were going crazy on a school of 1000 amberjacks. We decided to leave since we were working right on top of a murky layer. You never know what you don't see...

We're about six hours north of the Belize/Mexico border and I've never had a problem traveling into Mexico with my equipment, guns and all. ADO runs a nice bus service from Chetumal to Cancun if you don't want to drive.