Posts by hank

  • PFI course in Belize June 23-26

    My son, myself and a few friends just completed the PFI Intermediate course. Kirk Krack came down and we did the course at Glovers Reef.
    I hadn't realized how dumb I was when it came to free diving. I mean, I'm a scuba instructor....I"m a badass....right? HAH !! heh heh.
    And even though we did ok in the course, reaching 100 feet and doing 5 minute static breath hold, I came away feeling like a little kid just learning to walk. Or, just getting an open water scuba cert. You kind of know how to dive but there is so much to learn.
    Kirk can fricken' DIVE. Unreal. There were between 4 and 6 divers in the water (two guys had to drop out) and Kirk did every one of our training dives with us. Don't give that guy a speargun.....he'll clean out your favorite deep holes. haha.
    My son Jake was my partner and when we were doing the static breath holds on the second day I reached 5 minutes. Naturally Jake had to beat his old man and at about 4 min 30 sec, we could see him having spasms in his diaphragm. At 5 min he signaled OK and a 5 min 8 sec, he popped up, took two breaths and blacked out, just like in the training videos we saw. That, to me, made the whole course worth while. That was why I wanted to take it with my crazed, testosterone loaded 22 year old son. We saw first hand that it CAN and WILL happen.
    I came up from my 5 min static and felt pretty woozy. I could hear Kirk saying, "breath....see how is lips are a bit blue?....now look,.....turning pink". Now knowing how to see it and handle it in the water....invaluable.


    The course is directed at the pure performance free diving and as spear fisher people we probably will bend the rules a bit weight wise based on target fish etc, But I know I am a much better buddy now. My son and I are pushing into this as we go on and the course was a real eye opener. If you're serious about free diving, take the course. I've read this same statement from just about everyone that's taken it....but it's worth saying again. Thanks to Kirk and PFI.

  • A few from Belize

    Check out the school master snapper. One of the bigger ones we've seen here.
    Lots of jacks cruising around yesterday. A nice school of yellows passed by a couple times so we shot two.
    So many dog snappers now. We're finding good size schools in all the cuts we hunt. That doesn't mean we're GETTING a lot of them Smart fish. It's not hard to get the first one but then....it took me two more hours to get that bigger one.
    Haven't seen a big school of muttons yet. There was a small school yesterday but they weren't that big. Water is still green inside the reef here too. Weird conditions.
    Jake put three bands on his Riffe C3x and was shooting low all day. I guess the extra kick lifts the rear of the shaft just as it leaves the gun? He gut shot 3 fish but at least didn't lose any.



  • A few from Belize

    We got into a lot of fish yesterday. But Jake had a sinus block and got a splitting headache, so we had to cut it short and head in. That bigger mutton ran out 35 feet of line on my reel and pulled me under about three times. :)


  • Can sinus congestion pills be taken while diving?

    Your mask is fogging so you let in water? That's pretty easy to solve. Scrub the inside of the glass with toothpaste, or if you feel more adventurous, heat the glass with a lighter flame (very carefully) to get rid of the coating that's causing the fogging. (if this is the case)
    But yes, I take decongestants now when I'm free diving. About a year ago I started having my eustachian tube in my right ear clog up after 20 or so dives. It gets hard to equalize going down and coming up free diving. I've since made sure that I drink a LOT of water all day long to stay fully hydrated, and have found that taking a decongestant helps. Sometimes I take a second dose if I'm in the water for more than 4 hours.

  • Spearfishing Puerto Rico

    NIce, Roberto. I like the cero and dog snapper. Looks like here. :)
    I did some diving off West Malaysia on RIBs back in 97-98 with a couple German guys I met there. Very stable boats. Only down side is no bimini. And the Malaysian sun, at 2 degrees north.....brutal.

  • A few from Belize

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    great report and nice fish...


    20 meters is a nice dive Hank..how long did you have to stay down to seal the deal on that thick boy?


    20.2 meters, 58 seconds on my computer.
    I did all my scuba courses in the Philippines back in the 90s and all in metric. :S  <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">

  • A few from Belize

    This female cobia came right up in our faces. Just like the broodstock Jorge has in his hatchery. Pretty dumb fish. She had about 6 blue Creole Wrasses in her stomach. Maybe that's what Jorge needs to feed his broodstock to get better quality eggs. This one was full of eggs, which we kept. Good eating.
    I missed a big barracuda. It was all black, like it had just eaten, laying on the bottom. I dropped down and as I got close he moved off a bit but slowly. I shot.....and missed. Jake was watching the whole time. I told him I thought it must have bolted just as I pulled the trigger. Jake said, "no Dad, you just missed". haha.



    All in all we got 4 nice dogs, 2 grouper, one yellow, one black, a cobia and a cero. All the dogs were staying pretty deep though. Water is getting pretty warm now.

    I finally found the hiding spot for these dogs at a place we call Spot 15. There's a rock out past a sand patch over the wall. I've seen them there but they disappear. The vis was pretty good and I could see the rock from the surface. Dove down and saw about 15 nice dogs. Hit this one at 20 meters.....66 feet?


  • First Freshwater Report- Montana

    Nice. When I was a kid we'd go to upper Lake Huron in Canada and fish for Pike. We'd catch some and fry up a shore lunch on an island. Great eating. Just takes a little practice getting around the Y bones.
    Really nice clear water but COLD.

  • A few from Belize

    Marco, I've only had one day with muttons like that. I was swimming along the top of the reef and I saw three, then 8, then 15, then they were all over and pretty dumb. Not spooky at all.
    I usually find schools of dogs with muttons and cuberas hanging around. And usually where we find the dogs, there are spade fish, horse eye jacks and sometimes permit.

  • A few from Belize

    Went hopping down the reef in three different cuts on Sunday. The first stop was dead. Only a couple dogs but they were small and went deep right away.
    The second spot had really strong current. I made a mistake of trusting a new guy to drive the boat and he lost us. It was a hard swim against the current and yelling so much I'm hoarse, but he finally found us. We had just found a big school of dogs with some nice cuberas (40 lbs or so) hanging with them. I almost got a shot but looking back it was lucky I didn't. I would have had to haul that fish with me to get to the boat far away.
    I got these two at the third stop. The bottom drops down a wall to about 50-80 feet sloping then drops over the wall into the blue. This school was staying in a small area but would drop down to about 80 feet and I couldn't see them from the surface. They'd come up a bit and I could follow them down. Shot them both pretty deep....for me anyway. Miissed a 10 lb cubera.