The Tampa Bay Times
This past weekend, mother nature finally gave us some semi-calm seas, moderate underwater temperatures and reasonable underwater visibility all at one time. Our bottom spearing offshore divers have been mostly limited to mangrove snappers, porgy, hogfish and the occasional sheepshead. If the divers focused on some of the artificial structure and wrecks they ran across cobia, permit. If the water was over 80’ some of the divers ran across keeper size red groupers. The mangrove snappers have given us the most action of late. Some nice sized snappers are roaming in and around most of the limestone ledges, potholes, and wrecks. Basically, you can find good numbers of these snapper on almost any bottom structure in the Gulf of Mexico. Hogfish are still plentiful offshore, and, besides lionfish, they are the easiest to sneak up on and spear. If you get on a limestone ledge system that hasn’t been speared in a few weeks, your hogfish daily limit can usually be reached. Most of the cobia have been under thirty pounds, but the larger ones are soon to show up. Don’t be surprised by a big one on your next dive offshore. These strong pelagic fish are best captured when you use a line shaft system on your speargun. So, take some time before your next spearing outing to double check all your spear gear for weak points. It is much better and ethical for you to find a vulnerable point in your spear-gear before you enter the water and spear a strong cobia and the fish finds the flaw and gets away.
- Jay Mastry - March 26, 2024
- Captains Corner, Gorta - March 23, 2024
- Dave Zalewski - March 12, 2024
