Posts by shallow runner

I am glad that justice has been done especially considering I have lost several friends over there looking for his ass however it was suggested to me by a friend that the celebration of another persons death only places us on a similar level as he. Not sure I agree with that but it is something for thought; philosophically anyway.

Also I would caution on a few key notes I was discussing with some of my intel buddies last night:
1) he has been almost completely inactive for some time so his death may not change much
2) Terrorism takes a group effort and he is but one in a large network.
3) Someone will take his place who could be worse, and
4) There will almost certainly be retaliation and attempts made on us.

With all that said I certainly send a salute to the Seal/Special ops Teams and Intel agents who carried this out. I would have loved to have been on the team that accomplished this!

I know it isn't really a solution but sure would be nice to see a USN destroyer sit out there and start blowing these SOB's out of the water. :angry5:

I may have to get a reel and try it out; see which one I like better I guess. The FL is a huge PITA sometimes.

And I would imagine hold on for a ride afterwards. :@

Only because I have been considering getting a reel; but I also like my float-line. Would the two of these be redundant/unnecessary? It seems for the reef fish it would be fine alone; but what if you were to happen across that big Cobia that spools you? Wouldn't a float be beneficial in that instance or or would the reel give you enough line to get topside for air and not lose your gun?

Not sure I could have resisted the urge to pull the trigger on that one.

Come on now buddy; I was just following the conversation.

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting 'Holy shit! what a ride!'" ~Hunter S. Thompson"

Better?

Quote from Jareyberrysplash

"Pain is weakness leaving the body"

From my jersey from my old BMX racing days: "Pain is temporary, bones heal, and chicks dig scars"

Yea, these are the issues I am running into and it really sucks it is the only thing keeping me from it. But what is worse is my new place is right on the water on a canal off the ICW but there are no slips; just a dock on the seawall. The Units next door have them but the guy with an open slip wanted like 300/month which is crazy I think. But thanks for the insight, I will just keep searching.

OK, so I tried posting this on the Florida Sportsman and some other forums with little help so I figured I would try here.

I am (hopefully) going to be purchasing an older model sailboat in the near future and restoring/remodeling it. The process is going to take I imagine a year or more; determined mainly by cost. What I am looking for is a place I can store it on the trailer while I am doing all of this. The issue is everyone around here wants hundreds of dollars per month to store it and I can't swing that reasonably right now, and don't feel it is worth the cost. I don't need a marina, services, or water access necessarily just a safe place where I can work on it. I know back home (Tampa) there are several places like that for like 50-75 per month; just big lots with a fence around them. I am in Ft. Lauderdale but for a decent place don't mind a little drive. This is something I really want to do and this issue is my only real barrier. Any insight into this is appreciated. Thanks.

If it matter I am looking at ~30' vessels.

The main issue is that the sediment settles on the reefs and smothers them. The cease order from the Army Core of Engineers was because they were in violation of several guidelines of their permit. Money will always rule in this state until our beaches and coastal ecosystem are in shambles. Dredging, altering the natural process of beach corrosion, building of all the crap they have placed on the coast, is all killing the reefs and beaches but people want pretty beaches so....

Yea, it is all about rich d-bags and f'ing snow birds having something pretty to look at. I wonder if they realize that the reefs (which they are killing with this) are an intrinsic part of all that? Idiots. I was speaking with the people from cry of the water and they have been fighting this for years. But in this state ran by an endless line of morons money rules.

Thanks for updating the link Steve.

Feds issue Cease and Desist Order to shut down beach renourishment project

http://reefrescue.wordpress.com/

Definitely a good move.

Thanks guys; yea Judah he had a schnoz on him for sure. Had a terrible shot on him. I followed him for so long that I was getting the "time to go up" signals from my body and he was staying just out of range and wouldn't go broadside so when he changed directions I caught him on the bias but the spear didn't even go through; the flopper thankfully kept it in him but it was just under his skin. I am not sure how he didn't pull off.

Yea Scott is definitely good to dive with. Now that I am close to the beach I am sure we will get out more often. Just need to get the yak rigged up with a anchor trolly and flag.

I agree with LB about being inverted for so long and in repetition. If I don't eat something substantial before diving I start feeling sick after a bit. If the seas were flat I don't think it was vertigo since the dives are spaced out enough so that movement shouldn't cause that. I know I didn't eat Saturday and was feeling gross after an hour or so and had to rest up on the yak for a few. Hope you get it figured out.

Late report for 4/2.
Out with Scott today near Ft Lauderdale.
Amazing weather and air temp, water was still a bit cool as I was comfortable in my 3 mil and even got a little chilly near the end.
Seas were <1' from start to finish
Vis: ~20' in 30'
Current minimal.
We hit the second reef and on my second drop I nailed a 20" Spanish mack who swam right under me on my descent. Not much going on after that so we headed into the first where I got a 20" hog (my largest so far <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x"> ) and then a 15" hog to finish the day. Scott also got a nice Spanish and a hog both I believe on the first reef. All in all not a bad day for only about 3 hours in the water. Not too many boats near us and as Hau mentioned lots of beach buns on their morning run.

From what I hear they are planning on being at the middle grounds for extended periods of time. What is great about the grounds is that they are pretty inaccessible for most because of how far offshore they are so it is not as over fished as other areas; so as a Gulf Coast native and lover of the grounds I am not a fan of this monstrosity. Kinda hope a hurricane turns it into an artificial reef (with no loss of life of course). Just my opinion.

Quote from LunkerBuster

Sailing class. Sounds cool.

Yea man, I am pretty stoked. Once I find a yard to store and restore it for a decent price I am going to buy and restore a sailboat. Been thinking about it for years.

And yea, I think a dedicated Spear BBQ thread would be good to get more participation. Good idea.

You out for the weekend? Give me a shout.

Quote from cmfish

I believe there was quite a few holes poked in that study.

While I may share the same restraint when choosing the size of hogfish to harvest, I believe this should be my choice and that the limits should be based off what is sustainable.

There were for that study but I read many studies that all seemed to echo the same results.

The current limits have been shown not to keep the stock within the maximum sustainable yield as currently hogs are considered over fished by both size and recruitment considerations because of the detrimental overlap in minimum size limits and maturity/reproduction of hogs. The 18" limit could theoretically raise some of these numbers by as much as ~50%. If a minimum size is given people will shoot it at that size; until I read more on it I did. One of the issues I think, and believe it was mentioned before, is lack of education/understanding of the issues overall.

Quote from cmfish

I also don't think you can make comparisons between Gulf coast and East coast. The environment is completely different. There is and entirely different set of parameters that governs the populations (food availability, quality, size, water temp, available habitat, red tides and other environmental events....etc etc etc). Most reef fish in my opinion should be regionally managed.

Completely agree here and they certainly should be regionally managed. But the point I was making was that there is a huge size and max age difference between the gulf and Atlantic fish and there is a strong correlation between these numbers and fishing pressure; which is more intense here because of reef proximity. But yea other factors play rolls as well as you mentioned.

With the artisnal fisheries and correlating it to spearfishing yes the type of pressure and interaction is different but fishing pressure is fishing pressure. Just through classical conditioning animals learn on a basic level through punishment and reward so over time and various encounters with spearfisherman (applies to H&L as well but I am keeping it to relevance for us) they learn what shapes and postures of us and our respective gear (long fins, guns, swimming patterns, etc) are to be avoided from past experiences. I think it is valid.

Quote from sdeisen

The bottom line is there is just too many people IMO.. a borderline 12" hog should be left to grow.

That is one of the things that needs changing, the size limit. It really should be around 18". At 12" many hogs have yet to spawned and in some cases may not have fully transitioned into males causing juvenescence of the stocks. I leave them alone now until they are a bit larger even though it means going home empty.

cmfish, yea I referenced that study as well as Choat, et al and a myriad of others. I know the data collection isn't the best but I think given all I read from various studies and just being out there that they are close.

sdeisen, I agree and as stated I leave the small ones alone to make more fish. I agree that there are too many people hunting our easily assessable reefs (go to the Gulf coast and they are everywhere in good sizes) but a huge part is people taking all they can each trip. I mean once I have enough for that nights dinner or one in the near future I stop hunting. I have no use for 5 hogs in one sitting shy of a fish fry. I think one for dinner and one for the freezer for later is good enough.

Roberto, the catch of Hogs by commercial guys, who do actually report their catches, is negligible in comparison to recreational catches. But I am sure there is something to be said for the free v scuba comparison; as a diver I know that the fish scatter sooner when they hear that thing coming (I hunt 98% freediving unless hitting deep stuff). I think though that they learn much in the same way regardless of the gear used; they know when they see that gun/silhouette not to mention the predator aggressive posture taken when spearing. I know we try not to have such a posture but fish aren't dumb and in an area so heavily hunted they learn pretty quick.