Posts by mrmike

Sat sept 11th my g/f and I, along with one of my good friends and his g/f set sail with Royal Caribbean towards Key West, Cozumel, and Cococay. the cruise was typical, drinking, partying etc. But the part I mostly wanted to share was about the diving in both Cozumel and Cococay. Being that my g/f is fairly new to snorkeling/diving and my friends g/f was a first-timer, we just went easy and went out with tour group snorkel trips that stayed inside 30'. First off water clarity in both places was phenomenal, although I was surprised how cold the water in Cozumel was (I was cold in 30' with a rashguard on). Cozumel had a lot of reef structure even in shallow water, I think I went through 4 or 5 different caves in the 3 hour trip. In Cococay we never ventured deeper than 10' (stupid rules for beach diving and really there was no need). Overall a great cruise with some outstanding snorkeling.

Fish highlights were: an ~80lb grouper in 20' of water as soon as I got off the dive boat in Cozumel, really got my blood flowing and got me excited. saw another large grouper of about 20lbs as I swam through a cave, and saw a white snapper (thats what the tour guide told me it was) that was around 24". Cococay had literally dozens of 16+" mutton snapper everywhere!! the first one I found (in 5' of water) was probably 26" and I followed it to a deeper area (maybe 10') and found a school of 14-18" muttons hanging out around a sunken beach chair - also found a lobster under the beach chair. then later we say mutton that was probably pushing 30"!!!!!! Biggest one I've ever seen and none of them were skittish at all - clearly nobody spearfishes over there. I just couldn't believe that such large fish were in such shallow water and had absolutely no fear of people!

Fish lowlights: We saw a lot of lionfish in both Cozumel and Cococay, I am happy to report that any lionfish we found on the dive trip in Cozumel was killed. The tour guides there bring small kabob skewers with rubber bands to spear the lionfish and placed them in a 5 gallon bucket. In Cococay I didn't see as many but also had no way to kill the ones that we found. Lots of jellyfish in all dive locations, found out the hard way my g/f is allergic to jellyfish stings which kept her out of the water in Cococay.

I like alba ass, and thats the only movie I know of, I own it just so I can watch it when the weather is shitty.

damn I was just tinkering with something similar, although I've found that (at least for me) it's unneccesary, I'm just using rope coiled around the spear with adhesive lined heatshrink over it. Im working on making a band though that wont cause blisters in my palm. Right now I've just sewed a loop of ratchet strap together through the band and put my hand through that. It lengthens the amount of pull to get the same band stretch but since the strap doesn't compress down on my skin at all it doesn't cause blisters. Hopefully ill be able to find a way to use 2 straight sections of band with strap at the end where the hand holds. this spreads the load relieving pain and doesn't pinch the skin causing blisters. Excellent work jeff! I may try to play with the idea a bit and see if it can be improved on any.

Quote from Kyle c

North of the port today viz was spotty, it cleared up in some areas at the second then other places went to crap. I got 2 16" macs today, saw dozens of good size margates and grunts but I am starting to dislike those fish. Mike put some shinny stuff on your fins or use a flasher. I put some reflective tape on my fins and today the macs swam right up to me.

im guessing you put it on the top (side facing down when cruising the surface) of your fins? do you just use a strip or cut out a shape?

viz was great today until low tide just south of the inlet, viz was easily 40+. I got 1 lobster and one trigger, but 2 macs evaded my polespear kill zone.

so i'm back at it again I picked up another piece of aluminum (carbon is just too expensive for me to experiment with) this time I went with 7' long .5" OD and 5/16" ID epoxied and pinned an odor extension with 6mm threads in the one end and will tap the other end and just stick a stainless screw in it. plan on using a 3/8" band to help save my hand. using the KISS method on this one and on the premise that "long and thin goes right in". I will probably use either a sliptip or paralyzer with this one.

welcome!

Does anyone know if there are any plans to do such things? They seem like they are everywhere now.

thanks LB, glad I decided not to shoot the one I saw on the second reef last week.

Quote from Aaron Proffitt

Captivating...oddly so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BWBn26bX0

Yikes, made the mistake of watching that before bed... I may have nightmares and need therapy...

Scary stuff, hopefully nobody was injured. Glad to see your continuing to keep pursuit gear in the upper echelon and not letting mediocre gear bear your name. just an fyi in the coming weeks I would like to buy one of your spearguns. Please PM me if/when you'll have one available along with a price.

what are the rules on spearing african pompano here in florida?

Quote from Dan

I don't understand how they get the fish off the hook.

I believe they just use barbless hooks, the action of them yanking them in doesnt give the fish a chance to spit the hook but once in the boat the fisherman lets the line go slack and out comes the hook.

:@ wow that fish must have been moving to pierce that rubber.

Quote from sdeisen

thanks mike
i got out before class this morning. i spent an hour jsut trying to find the reef, it was all sand till i got to a depth my anchor would not reach, and bein alone and with less than 30 foot viz i wasnt really into scopin that out. so i swam in and realized that there is no continuous shelf or ledge like down south its all patch reef, and i would cross big expanses of snd between outcroppings all in about 40 feet deep,, but the little patches were pretty cool and i saw several large muttons and some well over legal mangroves and macks,, also generally a lot more fish (small snappers and grunt and triggerfish) clustered around than in dania... oh well looks promising next time im bringin the gun.
also screw small kayaks, i dont know how i used to do it

im off tomorrow if you want to go diving

im not familiar with anything that far north but I know up as far as say hillsboro inlet, the structure is similar to the area where I met you, its not as broad and expansive but there are nice lines. lots of boat traffic around there though. my friend talks about some reefs up that way I'll try to call him tomorrow or the next day and see if he can give me any general areas.

I lost my weight belt off of pompano beach 2 weeks ago if anyones seen it, its oldschool style(not rubber) with plain lead weights

thank you, I stand corrected.

I can say that as a child it really does suck ( i was 8 when I was bit) I'm terribly sorry for the family of the little girl. adult fatalities are far less common but everyone should still be careful. I will say this, IF you are bit: remain as calm as possible and keep the wound below the heart - I remember the 911 operator revoking her previous statement when she couldn't remember how I should lie as I waited for EMS to arrive.

Quote from Don Paul

I watched a 110 pound girl go into convulsions after getting hit my three spines.
My friend who was 6'9'' got hit by two spines and I got to hot tap water very soon, but he said it felt like get your hand slammed by a two by four.

terois (eg, lionfish, zebrafish, turkey fish, butterfly cod): In one series of 101 described cases of captive lionfish (genus Pterois) envenomations in the United States, 92% of patients experienced local pain, 60% experienced edema, and 13% experienced systemic symptoms. There were no fatalities. Wounds were graded with the use of a grading system, and 95% of the wounds were found to be grade I (erythema), 4% were found to be grade II (vesicle formation), and 1% were found to be grade III (tissue necrosis). Pain was relieved with hot-water immersion therapy in 97% of the patients, and 0% of the patients required antivenom administration. One patient required intravenous antibiotics, one hypotensive patient responded well to intravenous fluids, and 13% of patients had variable, less severe, systemic symptoms.

Judging from this and other reports in the United States, the vast majority of lionfish stings appear to result in uncomplicated wounds with severe local pain that is responsive to immersion therapy. While reports of fatalities exist, detailed documentation is sparse and deaths must be very rare.

Cheers, Don

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don not trying to be a dick but i believe it is antivenin, at least I know it is in snakes ( i was bit by rattlesnake) not 100% sure if its the same for poisonous fish.

just fyi: I saw 5 today in islamorada so if someone wanted to start a lionfish tourny in the sofla area id be game...