Dog on a Boat

Fenway is a Boston Terrier belonging to a spearfishing buddy and his girlfriend. He goes out in the boat all day long with us, and even though that sounds brave and tough, he's really a big baby dog. Just take a look - click on any picture to see a larger version.

Key West Snorkeling- Never the Same Twice

Painters can paint the same scene every day and see something different every single time. Monet did this in his impressionist paintings of haystacks, lillies, and anything else he found to be beautiful. Key West snorkeling is the same way. You can go out to the same spot every day and see a totally different scene. And it's not just that there are different fish there each day, it's the quality of the light coming through the water, just what Monet was painting. It's the vis- some days it's very blue and clear. Freedivers and spearos call this "blue water", which is optimal conditions for seeing and spearing fish. Some days you can only see 10 feet in front of you. This day, the vis was ok in some spots, but tinted a very distinct green. We called it Green Water Day. Take a look.

Best Fish Sauce

We catch a lot of fish, (spearfishing) and eat almost all of it ourselves. So eventually the need for lots of fish recipes and fish sauce recipes became an urgent matter. You can get tired of fried fish pretty quickly. Here's one of our favorite sauces, the all-purpose sauce for fried fish and baked fish too.
It's called Red Reef Coral Sauce and it's from Mastering the Art of Florida Seafood.
Fast, easy and delicious.

Coral Sauce
Just stir it all up in a bowl and then put it on your fish!

3/4 cup Mayonaise
2 TB ketchup
1 TB prepared horseradish
2 TB pimento (optional: we never put it in)
juice of 1/4 lemon
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/8 tsp tabasco sauce

Tired Pidgeon

We were out on Sunday, well all weekend actually, spearfishing. On Sunday, the winds were a little strong, but nothing radical. Maybe 13 knots but current made the waves larger than what you would have expected. Anyways, I was eating my sandwich and doing drift duty with the boat (others drift and dive with the boat, and I keep the boat near them) and felt a presence behind me. I looked up at the bow and there was a pidgeon perched on the boat. He was tired, I guess. How did he get so far out? We were near Sand Key.
His leg was tagged, so ...I don't know. I don't know what any of this means, but here he is.

Key West Spearfishing

It's been cold and windy, but the spearfishing in Key West is still going strong for those of us with thick skin (or at least thick wetsuits). Here's a Dog Snapper caught in Key West area waters. Notice the teeth.

Spearfishing near Rock Key, Key West

We had a good day a while back on the reef in front of Key West. It was just Ben, me and Ted but the catch was a good mixed bag. Ben got a grouper then Ted saw a huge shark so we moved to another spot. Then in some shallower water we got some hogfish and a mutton. It's kind of no big deal anymore to get hogfish. I mean, they are so darned DUMB, and you can find them in easy shallow water. My goal is to get one of those huge hogfish you see in Hawaii Skin Diver magazine, in deeper water.
Anyways, here the picture of that day's catch. We all had a great time.

My New O'Neill Wetsuit ROCKS

Warm water is here, and I can finally ditch my 5 mm Scuba Pro wetsuit and three million pounds of weights, plus hooded vest and lycra suit. Srsly! I got a 1mm wetsuit for sun protection and yes i will admit it, for a little warmth. I LOVE it. It fits, I dont' look like a frog ninja, or a michelen man-lady. I can lift my weight belt easily. It hugs my curves, it's stealth looking, it's easy to get on. For summer, it looks so much better than the lycra suit I was wearing...see picture here . I guess that's all I really have to say about a wetsuit, so now let me talk about my new fins.

I got Omer Millenium fins, smallest size they make for my ladies size 7 feet. The foot pocket is still too big so my boyfriend helped me order some 4 or 5 mm booties to wear. The thick socks not only fill up the space but also protect my feet from rubbing and blisters. BF has to tape up toes every time he goes out. I, all I have to do is yank on my tight booties. Each time they are a little looser, too, so if you get some and you just can't believe how tight they are, they do loosen up after four or five wears.

Can I just warn people a little bit about long freediving fins? They displace LOTS more water than soft little short fins like my old Mares VOLOs. Those things were bending right in half with every kick right before I got the new fins. Look, here's a picture I took to prove it:



The freediving Omer Millenium fins are longer, harder, and MUCH harder on your ankles. Yes, my ankles were useless after my first day with the fins. It felt like sprained ankles. Have to practice and then your ankles get used to it. But still, if I forget and go all out kicking to catch something in the water (a fish, the boat in a strong current, or BF), I still get the fake sprained ankle feeling for a while. Remedy is just to take a half hour break and it goes away.
Here's a picture of me trying out new fins for the first time. You can see my ankles breaking:

Spearfishing Girls

Ok, where are all the girls out there who spear fish? Where are all the female spearos? I read spearboard, my boyfriend and I occassionally meet people and go spearfishing with people from the board, and so far only one other girl has come out with us and shot fish. Come on girls, where are you? I have gear questions, I want to bond! I need girlfriends with common interests and crazy outlooks on life. I know you're out there, come on this is Key West. Leave a comment, let me know who you are, how long you've been a spearo, or anything you want to tell me about spearfishing.

I've been at it for about 8 months and I can get down to almost 30 feet. My goal is 40 feet by the end of the summer, but I think I need actual longfins for that. My current fins are Mares Volo, which are kind of short and flexible. It takes me considerable effort to get down to the bottom, which is killing my bottom time and endurance. Longfins might help but I'm not really 100% sure. Well, that's what they guys wear, and freedivers wear longfins for a reason, so why wouldn't they help?

The problem is, I can't seem to find longfins in women's sizes. I'm a size 7, which is European size 37 or 38. Cressi garas come in size 40 and up. That's a women's 9!

I've seen Omer Milleniums at size 38/40 online, but I can't find someone who actually sells them anywhere, even online. The store that has them in the smaller size is out of business (spearfishinggear.com).

So, how do you spearos out there fit your fins? Someone suggested I buy some thick (like 5mm) booties to fill up the larger fin. I guess I could do that, but at over $100, I'm going to try and find the right size.

If anyone out there has some advice, I'd surely appreciate it!!!!!!
-SpearCat

Too Much Lobster

Ben is getting so good at getting lobster, I'm can't even believe I'm not excited anymore about how much lobster I get to eat. I don't even try and help anymore, instead practicing shooting fish in the shallow waters while he searches under rocks for entrenched lobsters who've managed to survive this long into the season. We've been eating so much lobster all winter, it's hard to believe there are any more out there. And we don't even go far from Key West. They're right there, so close to home. Still!

I haven't yet warmed up to the idea of reaching under rocks into the darkness, which is why I also don't seek out grouper. Whatever. Let me kill my jacks and I'm happy as a clam. I LOVE killing jacks. Although a GIANT hogfish, the kind with the gaping mouth like a flopper would be nice too. People have lists, well, the giant hogfish is on my list. I kind of like getting snapper who hang out on the bottom next to coral, too. They are challenging and very smart. They keep their eye on you, so when you get near, they run away. very keen senses.

Here's a nice little catch we got recently. As usual, most of the stuff is Ben's catch but I'm getting better. Now that I have a super 5mm wetsuit the cold doesn't get to me anymore. I'm such a coldness wimp! You can tell we were in shallow water because there are lobster and the hogfish are small. The jack is random and just passed through.

Spearfishing for Hogfish in Key West

Spearfishing for Hogfish, or Hog Fishing as it's sometimes called, is the best way for beginners to learn the basics of spearfishing and freediving. That's because legal-size hogfish can be found in relatively shallow waters off Key West. So, they are easy to get to in a boat, and easy to dive down to. There's another reason hogfish are good targets for beginners: they are pretty dumb and therefore easy to spear.

Hogging requires minimal diving skills since they can be found starting in 10 feet of water. They have to be at least a foot long for them to be legal, which for me is about the length from your spear tip to the end of the gun.  The water skews how big a hogfish really is, so it's hard to judge whether a fish is big enough.  Therefore, it's a good idea to measure a foot on your speargun so you can kind of "measure" them while you're under water, until you get used to judging size.

They like hard bottom, and in 10 feet of water, even on a bad day of visibility, they are pretty easy to spot against the light colors of a hard bottom. They try and camoflouge themselves next to soft coral and rocks, but you can still see them. The big black spot near the back of a hogfish body is a dead giveaway, plus the rooster crown distinguishes them from all other fish in the shallow reef areas.

If you see a hogfish who looks like he might be too small for spearing, then follow him anyway. He might lead you to his bigger cousins swimming nearby. Once you've found a legal-sized hogfish, dive down and get level with him. He will make your job easy for you because he'll wonder what you are and turn sideways to get a good look at you. That's when you shoot. Put your speartip up close and aim for the area just behind his gill plate. Don't wait until he's swimming away from you. When he turns sideways he'll make a good, broad target and that's your moment.

Also keep an eye out for barracuda. They like to try and steal your catch before you can pull up the line and get the fish in your hand. On some parts of the reef, they're so used to spearfishing they'll stalk you and follow you whereever you go if you have a speargun in your hand.

Spearfishing for Beginners in Key West

Snorkeling on Key West's Middle Grounds, an area southwest of Key West, you can see the best of what a living coral reef has to offer, without diving down at all. There are purple fans, giant parrot fish, some sharks, zebra fish, porkfish, barracuda and tons of other types of reef fish. There are buoys for your boat, and a short swim towards the marker stick will take you to reef that's just a few feet below the surface. Easy! What's also kinda cool is that the Middle Grounds are not a Sanctuary Preservation Area, which means you can do a little fishing. For me, it was the perfect place to try my first time at spearfishing. It's not really sportsman-like to fish at a marked reef with buoys for snorkelers and divers, however. It's too easy and it bothers the swimmers. But for beginners at spearfishing, it's ok to do it just once.

With gun pointed out in front of you (don't forget to release the safety switch before you dive), swim fast at your target. Middle Grounds is a good place for beginner spearfishing because it's not deep and there are tons of fish. If your target escapes, there's probably another nearby. Bar jacks get big so they make nice targets. Plus, there's often a lot of them together so you get multiple targets. They swim right up to you sometimes, too. Perfect!

Don't forget to take a deep breath before you dive down. It's easy to get so excited about shooting the fish and thinking about how to manage the gun that you forget your diving techniques. Try and wait for the fish to turn sideways to your spearpoint. You want to try and shoot it right behind the gill plate. Get up as close as you can without scaring him away. 

I'm a beginner, and I'm a girl, so my gun is weak.  I shot my first fish on the backbone because I was too exicted to wait for him to swing sideways to me. If your gun is weak, what happens is if you shoot it in the back, you'll hit the bones like I did and your spear will probably bounce off.  That's only if your gun is really weak.  Try to make your gun as strong as possible without using accuracy.  If you power it up too much it will become less accurate.  The fish will jump and swim away so you might as well wait for a better shot next time. You can shoot them from the front, too, according to a poster I saw in a dive shop. Aim for just above the eye, I guess for the brain. Sideways seems much easier.  Best is to have enough power on your gun so that you can blast 'em in the spine.

I see you down there

Yeah, snorkeling is cool. When we first moved here, it was great to take a break from our 8-hour fishing days and take a dip in 85 degree water on a hot summer's day. Float and look, paddle and look. I'd stay in forever but some people get spooked by sharks so we get out and leave. Spookiness is catchy.

Now we've discovered spearfishing and there's a purpose to snorkeling. So much better! Actually, boyfriend is the one with the spear, I'm just a looker, a spotter. The catch gene is fully activated same as when he fishes, so now we get to snorkel -ahem, spearfish, for hours and hours. A match made in heaven!

With the new sense of urgency in finding the right fish to shoot, comes a need to see better and learn new skills. Snorkeling for me has been a purely horizontal affair: I float and look, paddle and look (see above). Spearfishing, and even my dinky job of spotting fish, requires a third dimension. I have to think in 3-D now. I have to get to the fish, because after all I want to someday get promoted from spotter to shooter (it would be a self-promotion). I have to dive down, go straight down to the bottom. I have to get down to those silly fish, looking up at me. I still let them know that I see you down there. And I'm coming to get you.

Let me just say right now that I get mad when I can't do something I really yearn to be able to do. I want to dive down to the ocean floor like a mermaid, like a water nymph, like a ... a... fish? I want to enter the third dimension and stop acting like a tourist on a party snorkel boat. Why so hard? one word: breathing and pressure. My first day trying to dive, and I am out of breath by the time I hit bottom and need to jet upwards to the surface to frantically breathe like a dumb tourist. What's up? I run five miles at a clip, I do yoga.

I am mad.

Was I born with miniature lungs? I see the fish down there, Parrot Fish, laughing at me. I see you down there. I want to get to you so bad. I want to do it, so I practice over and over, dozens of dives. I blow the air out on the way down, kick my fins, and ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzrrrrrrrrrrrttttt.

Did you say blow the air out on the way down? ...my boyfriend asks me later that night at home as I tell my story. Immediately I realize that's wrong. I can just tell by his face when he says this. Why am I doing that? What strange habit have I picked up in my past, where diving down means to expel all my precious air right at the start? It's like starting a hike on empty, no breakfast, no snacks, no energy. It's sabotaging yourself.

Next time out, I'll get down there and I'll swim like a mermaid, just wait and see.