Labor Day Spear Slinging

[Florabama]

Dove some pyramids that are west out of Pensacola on Labor Day and they are still almost completely covered up with sand that Ivan moved around. Just the top third of the pyramid was out of the sand, but inside my son shot this big snapper and the grouper.

I went down on one and saw some snapper off in the distance on something else, and swam over to them and found a 6 x 10 ft metal box on the bottom. The snapper around it were small, but as I swam over it, the big guy I'm holding swam out the otherside. I just barely got him in the gut and was sure he would pull off, but he circiled back into the box and I was able to pin him down.

After the pyramids, we came back to a barge that's nearly covered with sand as well with only about 2 ft at the highest part out of the bottom. We picked up about 6 flounder. There was something big inside the barge that kicked up a bunch of silt, but the openings on top were too small for me to fit through to see what it was. Whatever it was, it silted up the whole inside of the barge. You couldn't see anything inside.

Overall a great day with flat calm seas.

 

[LowVizWiz]

Nice job... I have never caught a true red =(

 

[wkyongae@aol.com]

Those are some really nice fish and glad to read that I'm not the only one shooting flounder. Although here in the Puget Sound that"s about all we can shoot.

 

[Florabama]

There aren't as many true reds as you move down toward South Florida. There's more muttons and of course yellow tails which we don't have at all up in the Red Neck Riviera.

Nothing wrong with poking flounder, wkongae. They're on the move in Northwest Florida right now -- migrating from the bays and rivers into the Gulf so we are finding them around wrecks now. I never pass up a good one.

 

[Johnoly]

That's a nice ARS!! Seas look dead flat behind you, makes for a great day on the water.

 

[wkyongae@aol.com]

The only 2 kinds of flounder I see so far in the Puget Sound is Sand Dabs and Stary Flounder. Some call um Sole. I haven't done any scuba I just snorkel for em. How do you keep from scaring them? I'm new to spear fishing.

 

[Florabama]

The only 2 kinds of flounder I see so far in the Puget Sound is Sand Dabs and Stary Flounder. Some call um Sole. I haven't done any scuba I just snorkel for em. How do you keep from scaring them? I'm new to spear fishing.

I don't know about up there, but around here they will lay still unless you are very jerky. Just try to be smooth in your motions. Most people around here, poke them with a pole spear. As long as you don't get right down on top of them, they will lay still thinking that they are hidden from your view. They prefer to stay hidden versus running, and if they do run, they will generally stop and bury up in the sand after a short run. If one runs, instead of chasing it, watch it until it stops and then swim slowly over to it.

At night it's even easier to get close to them.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Great looking fish I'm with you, I'll poke flounder whenever I have room in the freezer!