Hello from central Mo

[Michael Gtr]

Hey,

A little about me. I'm From Missouri. I'm now a chemist but while I was in college I worked as a sushi chef. I'm still really new to scuba as well.


My gf and I recently got certified and are planning on diving in Florida in mid Oct. Both of us are into science and the environment so we'd like to spearfish a massive amount of lion-fish while we're out there diving!!! Maybe volunteer with some sort of charity for a reef cleaning, or help a marine biologist with something dive related.

I'd love to hear any suggestions the members have for diving and spear fishing in Florida!!

Thank you,
Michael

 

[drrich2]

Welcome. Haven't spearfished. If you do, be mindful you may draw attention, such as from sharks & moray eels, especially if you swim around with one on your spear. Saw a couple of reef sharks make life interesting for someone hauling one around on a spear in Belize. Alert Diver, DAN's magazine, has an article you can see online called A Shark Tale, where someone got bitten. I'm not saying that's at all common, but looks like you're still pretty new to diving, and spearfishing might bring some complications you haven't run into yet. I used to be more eager to 'zap' lion fish than I am now. I've read too many accounts of people who'd know what they're doing way more than me getting nailed by the little buggers, and some get serious wound complications.

Which raises issues; are you content to lethally nail one, or do you feel the need to stab it in the head to quick kill? Wrangle it into a container to take back to the boat, or drop it where it is?

Since you're talking about Florida, it's worth noting there's a lot of varied ground to cover. Judging from other's posts, the east coast is preferable. If you ignore the inland freshwater offerings such as the springs. Just focusing on the east coast, the Florida Keys offers lots of shallow reef diving with decent viz., but if you've got AOW cert.s, you can do some deep wreck diving on the Spiegel Grove, Duane & Bibb, for example. I'm told the upper Keys have the best diving; I've only been to Key Largo diving with Rainbow Reef Dive Center, & loved it (trip report). You can get a lot of diving done; I had 20 dives in 5 days, and it was pretty cheap for a scuba trip.

Further up north, you've got the deeper, moderate viz. drift diving of Jupiter, Fl, known for its bigger animals - such as the lemon shark aggregation in spring & goliath grouper aggregation in the fall. I did the latter - my trip report.

In between those, you've got Ft. Lauderdale/Pompano Beach, West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach & the Blue Heron Bridge. Places I've not dove yet. Here's a thread on distinctive Florida & Caribbean dive destinations that has some Florida content that may interest you.

If you like sharks, be mindful you've got options a bit further north; diving out of North Carolina can be fun and sharky (trip report)!

Richard.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Welcome to SB! Like Drrich said above, be sure to mind your P's and Q's when spearfishing in florida. Also check out the wrecks of NC. Of course don't discount some epic freshwater wreck diving just northeast of you on Lake Michigan...we'd love for you to join us!

 

[Randal Cox]

Welcome to the group. I am also new to the group and new to scuba diving so I have no advice since I am also learning. Have fun diving and take care.

Randal

 

[digdug87]

Welcome to SB and the wonderful world of SCUBA. I'm also in Missouri, down in the SW part of the state. Good to see another diver from the Show Me state.

 

[Michael Gtr]

Thank you all for you reply's!

Which raises issues; are you content to lethally nail one, or do you feel the need to stab it in the head to quick kill? Wrangle it into a container to take back to the boat, or drop it where it is?

My thought was to use Utility scissors (the sort that will cut a penny in half) and cut the spins off underwater while on the spear (unless i get a zoo keeper), kill and release the small ones and keep and eat the larger ones. That we can't get Lion-fish here In Missouri combined with my years of making sushi has put Lion Fish nigiri and sashimi high on my list of "Forida To do"!! I'm also *hoping* to have a chance to dive for spiny lobster too! I sort of hope my first dive there is a spear fishing dive or something so i can get it all out of my system.

I do hope to dive some reefs and wrecks while I'm there. Thanks a TON drrich2 for the links and resources,those are exactly the sort of referals I was hoping for!:thumbs-up I'm check those out as soon as I"m off work today!

About 4 hours south of me there is Bull Shoals lake where I can spear fish catfish and some other fish. The videos on Youtube make spear fishing look really fun! It's what really got me really interested in scuba.

 

[iamrushman]

howdy and welcome from south Florida..........looks like you got a great start on info for your adventure...i don't think you need a fishing license for lion fish but in Florida the FWC takes fishing/lobster license very serious for all other fish...have fun and good luck on your diving and ocean hunting adventure.