Posts by Grouper

  • Lost THE grouper

    I'm gonna make the switch to the cable headhunter tip on the gatku with the adapter. I've just had to many fish slip off the gatku one anyways. Probably gonna sell one or both of the gatku injector rods. Just have to figure out for how much

  • Blackout while Spearfishing Video

    Quote from ladvr

    The diver seems to have an obsession with his dive watch. Depth, bottom time, surface interval...blah blah blah.


    Glad it ended well.


    I think it's good to have a healthy obsession with my dive watch, especially for my surface intervals. I usuallyonly check it once or maybe twice during a dive though.

  • Lost THE grouper


    Awesome. Thanks a lot man I'll try it out

  • Florida prohibited fish species spearfishing

    Quote from virgili

    is in Florida this specie prohibited spearfishing refering to a scientific base or to a sportfishing lobying pressure ?...


    There are different rules for where you are. In federal waters (3 miles out) you need a permit. I'm not sure about state waters but I don't think you need one. The only type of billfish being caught in state waters regularly is sailfish anyways because they can tend to come in pretty close to south florida. Either way you can only take billfish by hook and line, not sure why. I like it that way and don't think I would shoot one, probably only because I've been in Florida my whole life and have always seen them released. Plus I don't want to get stabbed by one.


    They're definitely important to keep around. Each fish is probably worth more alive than dead to the economy here. Sport fishing brings in a lot of money from both tourists and residents


    Edit: A couple links on the subject


    http://myfwc.com/fishing/saltw…highly-migratory-species/


    http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/species/billfish/index.html

  • Nassau grouper

    Seen one before but it was in islamorada sitting fat and happy without a care in the world..I'm sure they're here too. Did he not hang around long enough to get a good look at?

  • Blackout while Spearfishing Video

    Crazy, gotta keep fresh on the basic. You're right about getting into bad habits too. My dive buddy pointed out to me after our last trip that I wasn't doing my recovery breaths. I didn't have an answer for him and realized I was cutting corners I shouldn't be cutting. Glad the guy is ok.


    Dive safe all the time!

  • Lost THE grouper

    Quote from Dan

    That's a new one for me, in the encyclopaedia it goes.


    I didn't even think about it at the time. It was just the only way to put a quality shot in him. The composite end of the gatku is really flexible and quite strong so it took it no problem.

  • Lost THE grouper


    The first slip tip on the big fish was either cut off very close to the tip or the knot slipped. I'm thinking the latter because the spectra was slightly pigtailed after coming out of the coral but I can't say for 100%. It looks like the entire original length though. The second tip just completely disappeared spectra and all so either the bottom knot failed or the spectra snapped close to the base and both pieces of remaining spectra stayed in the coral. :crazy:


    Either way I'm rethinking my slip tip setup. I like sliptips a lot since they don't put as much stress on the spear for rocked up fish, but there's a tradeoff in not being able to control the fish as well and risking being cut off/knots slipping on coral :frustrated1: Either way I'd rather lose a tip than snap the front end of my spear completely I don't know lol


    That kevlar line sounds like a good option where could I look to get some?

  • Lost THE grouper

    Quote from sdeisen

    Bittersweet indeed. Morays can be so tenacious. The largest black grouper I ever shot was almost lost to a very thick green moray. It locked it's body in the reef and mouth in and around the gills of the grouper. Even after being stuck hard with the albeit blunt end of my gun in didn't even flinch. It wound up following the grouper all the way up from 80 feet before letting go just 10 feet from the surface and hung around half a minute after I had the fish in my hands.


    Sorry for your loss, very frustrating. Always heard the marquesas are beautiful and bountiful place to dive.


    Damn! Yea he was all business. Haven't really seen that from a moray before usually just see them fairly docile. He took a couple pokes from the business end of the gun no problem. The Marquesas were awesome and definitely have a lot of great fish. For us the vis was shit though except on the outer reef where the current was just ripping. Had to pick the lesser of two evils. It was a good time nonetheless and definitely want to go back someday

  • Lost THE grouper

    Quote from Dan

    Great story. So if the moray was out of the way you couldn't have checked better? Why not poke it?


    Why were you not using a speargun?


    We tried everything from distracting it to shoving the spear down its throat. SOB just wouldn't give up. I did get a few good looks from different angles when my buddy distracted the eel and didn't see the fish. Figured he got real high and tight to the coral head at some crazy place. Would've stuck my hand in to feel around but yea...


    As far as not using a speargun, my buddy was using his gun but we weren't able to angle it to get a shot on the fish. I had to bend the shaft of the gatku just to get the spear into the hole pointed at him

  • Lost THE grouper

    So for the past few years to celebrate my birthday in style I've been going on trips to do some fishing and diving. This year we rented a boat out of Key West and spent two days in the Marquesas looking to get into some less-pressured areas. We got out there and it turned out to be more difficult to find fish than expected due to the vis, current, and lack of a properly functioning depth finder :frustrated1:


    Anyways we towed around areas that looked good on the chart and were able to find some good structure eventually. One such place was awesome with a few coral heads that had reef in-between with cracks and short ledges. Spotted at least 6 grouper just hanging around initially. Signaled to my buddy about 50 feet away to come over to where I was at. As he was swimming he must've spooked the monster of a black grouper that ended up holing up in the coral head underneath right where I was. "Holy *#$% there he is...don't panic" was all I could think. We were only in 30' of water and this guy hadn't left the hole. I took some deep breaths, cleared my head and made my descent to check on him. Got down there, looked in a small crack at the bottom of the head and just saw his head up to his gill plate. He was just sitting there, feeling real secure-like. Went back up to the surface and had to regain my composure before diving again. Got down there a second time to check again and see how I could angle my pole spear to get a good shot into him. Figured it out but ran out of air and headed back up. My adrenaline began to get to me, knowing that this next dive it was going to be on with the trophy grouper I had been looking for. Headed down for the third time, and got my polespear into position. A Gatku 9-footer with a slip-tip that I had to bend under the coral head and over a small hill of sand to aim at him. I lined up right at his skull and let it fly. Nothing happened. "There was no way I missed, hopefully I stoned him." Wishful thinking. I pulled on the spear and all hell broke loose. I gave a slightly stronger pull as he made the polespear rattle in his full blown rage. Thinking that I should let him tire out a little I decided not to pull harder and headed to the surface. Connected to the spear was a short bungie and a 70 ft floatline attached to a homemade buoy. Looking back down I could see the spear rattling around, almost halfway into the coral. I wanted to put some pressure on him so I grabbed the line and tugged a little. To my utter disbelief, the spear gently slipped out of the coral. The tip was gone, all that remained was a long piece of spectra with some bloodstains on it. "Ok now you really need to not panic." It was the most gut-wrenching feeling but I kept some hope as he was definitely still in there. My buddy stayed over the spot while I went to get my other tip from the boat. Got back about a minute later and swapped them out. He dove down to check on the fish while I regained my breath from the swim to the boat. I saw him jump a foot when he peeked in the coral and thought that was odd. Turned out that a big moray decided to scare him. Turned out to be the most aggressive moray ever. Each time we checked a different hole in the coral he would pop out of it and scare us half to death. After an hour of trying to work around him we gave it up. There was no way around the moray. We even debated freeshafting it but neither of us had seen the grouper anyways when we did get the chance to look. No point in killing the eel too.


    The thought of losing that fish is going to haunt me for years. Don't know if the knot securing the tip let go or if it frayed off in the coral but I was not too happy. Wasn't sure if I was asking too much of it with that big off a fish. Icing on the cake came later when I hit a second, much smaller black that took off into a crack, I pulled straight back on the spear and out it came with no fish, no spectra and no tip. What the hell was that about? I can understand (barely) that it didn't hold the big black :weeping:, but why did the system fail on the smaller one? Maybe it had some damage that I didn't see from some earlier trip. It had only taken a couple fish before but the first tip was brand spanking new (I decided to just buy a new one instead of sharpening my own tri-cut)


    Anyways, it was a very bittersweet birthday for myself. I got my ass handed to me by a beast but also saw some awesome things, swam with a huge pod of dolphins in bluewater, and most importantly spent two days on the water with friends doing what I love. But damn I really wish I got that one grouper. Now I just hope he survived the whole ordeal so I can get him next time.

  • Letting go of a speargun

    Agree with everything you said. Everyone needs to pay more attention to their knife choice. I'm going to start carrying two. Lucky me I lost mine today and have a reason to do look for two now :D

  • 15 year old lost to SWB

    To the noob spearo thinking they can just hop in, go deep and spear moby dick, a reality check often comes in the form of an irreversible consequence. Yea I was diving as deep as I could long before I knew about free diving or spearfishing. Carried on into spearfishing and then figured I'd become FII certified last year with my usual dive buddy. I agree that spearfishing has a whole lot of different safety issues but the course helped me become a better, safer diver. I became more aware of my limits, learned of warning signs to watch for as well as rescue techniques for when I encounter SWB (probably more likely than not for us). That being said, Dude is right on when it comes to learning to spearfish. My bottom times increased after the course, which led to more fish on the table, but it didn't teach me when to come up on a working dive or what to do if I got wrapped deep. These things were learned over time from personal experience or through hearing the experiences of others.


    Spearfishing is a whole different game than freediving and should be looked at in a completely different manner. I've heard of only a couple spearfishing courses, hopefully they'll become more common with more and more wanting to get into the sport.

  • Broward Beach Conditions

    So should I revive this thread? Looking to go out Monday afternoon off Atlantic or somewhere around there. How's the vis been lately? If anyone wants to tag along just let me know I kinda want to just explore around the backside of the 2nd reef. Bringing the pole spear along just incase ;)

  • Letting go of a speargun

    Wow, incredible story and powerful lesson. I'm glad he made the choice soon enough to make it back home that night. All of us are prone to making mistakes, especially in the heat of the moment. In this lifestyle, we're more likely than not to face situations that seriously test our instinct to survive.


    Not sure how I would've reacted to that same situation but Don's right - backup plans and "eject button" options need to be practiced repeatedly until they become second nature. In the ocean, a single reflex can mean the difference between life and death. If a scenario can't be practiced then the thought of surviving, or the thought of "it's not worth it," needs to be deeply ingrained in one's self. It might make a difference one day.