Heading to West Palm

[Jersey1971]

Hi Everyone,
My 12 year old son and I are heading out to West Palm Beach Halloween weekend so he can get his PFI freediving certification.
We plan to do some practice dives around Blue Heron Bridge to familiarize ourselves with the fauna in a (hopefully) target rich environment and then head out for some spearfishing where it's allowed. Doing some research, it seems the Breaker's reefs might be accessible from shore with a sturdy dive buoy to rest on between dives.

We've both freedived and spearfished in NJ and Mexico but are relative beginners.

Any other recommendations? If anyone is going out that weekend (Thurs-Mon) and open to tag alongs we'd be happy to supply food/fuel, etc.
Kenji

 

[Johnoly]

it seems the Breaker's reefs might be accessible from shore with a sturdy dive buoy to rest on between dives.

So the HUGE Ft. Lauderdale boat show is that weekend. And hundreds of boats will be passing WPB while steering on auto pilot and not watching for divers (let alone knowing what a dive flag is). Many of them will be stopping at WPB's inlet to stay overnite or gas up. It happens every year and without a boat to block for your divers, you are a sitting duck in the water to get hit.

The Breaker's (and most of the WPB inshore reefs) can start less than a mile swim from shore but it's mostly sand till you get out there. Also don't forget we have strong currents that can carry you 3/4's of a mile in an hour from your start point so you may wind up on the other side of the inlet if you are out there for a while.

The last week of October is also typically the annual Mullet Run up the shoreline. It's really cool to see at high tide, but I hope you like sharks cause that's their food chain also. They won't bother you if you are not spearing and just diving and it's really cool to see.

Chartered Freediving boats are really tough to find unless you have a group of 6. Best to talk to all the guy's at Florida FreeDiver's store in North Palm Beach. They can put you in touch with guys with boats that might be looking to add a couple of spearo's. At Blue Heron Bridge don't bring your guns on the sand or it's trouble, just 'sayin.

Enjoy the class and be safe !!

 

[Jersey1971]

Yikes!
Thanks for the heads up. Not the best news, but I'm glad you told me. I'll look into renting a boat, which might be a safer option than just swimming out there.

I know there's no spearfishing at Blue Heron, so we'll definitely keep the guns in the car!

 

[Jersey1971]

Just an update on my trip. We ended up renting a boat for 2 afternoons and had good spearfishing in shallow water along wrecks and structure between Little Munyon Island and Peanut Island. No monster fish, but it was perfect for novice spearos like us. We also had some good line fishing with a constant bite with live shrimp. We tried to head offshore for the Breakers, but winds and waves were pretty rough this weekend, so couldn't make it. My son took a freediving course, but day 2 was postponed due to the weather. We hope to be back in the spring!

Florida fishing regs are so complicated, especially for spearfishing. I wasn't sure exactly which waters fell under state park jurisdiction, and even with a fish identification card, I found the array of species to be mindboggling, compared to what I'm used to in New Jersey.

On another note, this was my first time traveling with all this equipment. We flew Jet Blue and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have an exemption on size limits for sports equipment, so we were able to cram most of our stuff into a sport tube, which was treated as standard luggage. It was close on weight, but we made it by carrying most of our lead in our personal carry on bags. Is signed up for the credit card that was advertised on the outbound flight, and as a result, was able to get free bags on the return flight, which paid for the annual fee.

 

[Belzelbub]

Florida fishing regs are so complicated, especially for spearfishing. I wasn't sure exactly which waters fell under state park jurisdiction, and even with a fish identification card, I found the array of species to be mindboggling, compared to what I'm used to in New Jersey.

To be fair, Florida fishing regulations are actually fairly straight forward. There is a list of prohibited species that you can't spear. Collier county and Monroe have some unique rules, but other than that the rules are the same. In the case of Monroe, the differences are mainly in certain locations.

Did you mean to say state park jurisdiction or just state jurisdiction? I could be wrong, but I believe there is only one state park that is underwater. That would be Pennekamp.

If you meant state versus federal, then yeah that can be a challenge, but it's not entirely unique to Florida. What is unique to Florida is that Florida has Florida State regs, and two sets of Federal regs (South Atlantic and Gulf). State waters end at different distances on the gulf and Atlantic sides. FWC actually recognizes that there can be confusion, and they recommend using the Fish Rules App. This will select the appropriate set of rules based on where you are hunting.

Yeah, lots of different species and recognizing what is what is not exactly easy.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

The last week of October is also typically the annual Mullet Run up the shoreline.

They have an event for that haircut?

 

[Johnoly]

Florida fishing regs are so complicated, especially for spearfishing.

Weather was tough, but glad you got out.

I'm local and been spearfishing every other week for 25+ years and I still get confused on boundaries and the different size with no-take etc. It's crazy to keep straight. But there is a great solution !! A very good spearfisherman and friend of ours lives in Jupiter and spears often. his name is Albrey Arrington. With the FWC & Federal fishing help he has developed a phone app that will tell you EXACTLY what the rules, lengths, species, etc are using your phone's GPS location. If you move over the state/fed line, it will update the screen automatically and won't let you get into trouble. Under a premium add-on, you can even take a picture of the fish and an expert will come right back an tell you exactly what your picture is.

It's very very simple and like I said, developed by a spearo so you know it's good. It's called "Fish Rules" and you can find it on your phone's app store (ios/win/android). The website is:

Fish Rules - Fishing Regulation App

Fish Rules is the innovative way to view fishing regulations so you can fish without fear

fishrulesapp.com

 

[Jersey1971]

I meant state parks. There's the John MacArthur park north of Munyon Island. And while it's not a state park, on the south end of where we were hunting, there's Phil Folster, where spearing is also prohibited. It's not clear exactly what the water boundaries are for each of them. Then you can't spear near jetties, piers, line fishermen....

Then there's the whole aquarium fish thing. There were nice, meaty parrotfish where we were fishing, and I wanted to try "stuffed uhu", which I learned about on Meateater, but I couldn't find them anywhere in the regs. I had to dig deeper to find that they are decorative, so fall under a whole different set of regs. Anyway, enough whining . It was like an embarrassment of riches after NJ fishing. We loved it.

I heard about the mullet run and was warned of sharks. We didn't see any, but it might have been different if we'd been able to make it offshore. We did briefly venture out there to line fish, and we had a couple of rigs snapped off, so I wonder if those were sharks.

 

[Jersey1971]

Weather was tough, but glad you got out.

I'm local and been spearfishing every other week for 25+ years and I still get confused on boundaries and the different size with no-take etc. It's crazy to keep straight. But there is a great solution !! A very good spearfisherman and friend of ours lives in Jupiter and spears often. his name is Albrey Arrington. With the FWC & Federal fishing help he has developed a phone app that will tell you EXACTLY what the rules, lengths, species, etc are using your phone's GPS location. If you move over the state/fed line, it will update the screen automatically and won't let you get into trouble. Under a premium add-on, you can even take a picture of the fish and an expert will come right back an tell you exactly what your picture is.

It's very very simple and like I said, developed by a spearo so you know it's good. It's called "Fish Rules" and you can find it on your phone's app store (ios/win/android). The website is:

Fish Rules - Fishing Regulation App

Fish Rules is the innovative way to view fishing regulations so you can fish without fear

fishrulesapp.com

I just downloaded and tested it. I'm back in NJ, and it's accurate for my local species. Thanks for pointing me to this great resource.

 

[Belzelbub]

I meant state parks. There's the John MacArthur park north of Munyon Island. And while it's not a state park, on the south end of where we were hunting, there's Phil Folster, where spearing is also prohibited. It's not clear exactly what the water boundaries are for each of them.

I see. Yes, I forgot about Phil Foster, though that may actually fall under the below. I'm not sure though. I'm more familiar with Monroe County which has several locations that are Marine Sanctuaries, which means no harvesting of any type. Sometimes around those, there is also a buffer that allows hook & line, but not spearing.

I jumped to the state/federal thing because that is usually the big question, and rightly so. Sometimes fish are open in federal, but closed in state and vice versa. You definitely don't want to stop in state waters if you have fish caught in federal waters that wouldn't be legal if landed in state waters.

Then you can't spear near jetties, piers, line fishermen....

Well, to be fair, there is no prohibition of spearing near line fishermen. There is, however, a prohibition against spearing from all but really long jetties, fishing piers, and bridges where fishing is allowed. Lots of people spear around bridges that don't allow fishing from above, and that's perfectly legal. As is spearing off of a boat near fishing boaters. Should be avoided, but not illegal.

Then there's the whole aquarium fish thing. There were nice, meaty parrotfish where we were fishing, and I wanted to try "stuffed uhu", which I learned about on Meateater, but I couldn't find them anywhere in the regs. I had to dig deeper to find that they are decorative, so fall under a whole different set of regs.

Fish Rules has you covered on this one as well. Additional regulations state that when fishing for dinner bag limit = 0 for parrotfish.