Captain’s Corner: Bill Hardman

The Tampa Bay Times

At the very end of 2019, offshore depths of 60 to 70 feet started to produce fair bottom visibility which gave divers the ability to see and spear fish.  Hopefully the cleaner water just 10 to 20 feet off the bottom will continue in 2020.  Where the bottom visibility is clean, good sized flounder are showing up.  These flounders are easier to find on top of the sand around offshore wrecks and artificial structure in the Gulf of Mexico.  A good strategy for the diver is to peek and sneak around the wrecks for snappers, red groupers, hogfish and other bottom fish, then once the search for these fish is over, move out into the sand and look for the tell-tale shapes of flounders.   Flounders are nice sized this time of year and always very tasty. Try to stab the flounder with your dive knife rather than spearing with your speargun. The flounders kick hard for a few seconds and then settle down.  Leave your speargun loaded and ready in the hope that other fish get excited by the movements of the flounder.  Sometimes, the other fish you didn’t see on the initial search around the structure get excited at the shaking of the flounder and come out of the shadows. These other fish will swim right up to you to see what is happening.  With your speargun ready, you can take the shot. This is one of the ways that experienced spearfishermen use the vibrations of a wounded fish to kick off the predator response of other fish. We call this “calling in the fish.” 

Capt. Bill Hardman teaches scuba classes and runs trips for Scuba, Spearfishing, Freediving and Technical diving courses at Aquatic Obsessions, 6193 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg, FL  33710.  You can reach Capt. Hardman at (727) 344-3483 (DIVE) or info@aodive.com