Spearfishing charter week of March 31 in Jacksonville/St. Augustine?

[csp20108]

I'm going to be in Jacksonville next week and having a hard time finding a place that can take two Padi advanced divers spearfishing. I've contacted the Dive Source, Savage Diving and a few places in Savannah, GA with no luck. In fairness - Savage Diving did get back to me, but they wanted a guaranteed booking for up to 6 people. I can understand why, but it's not economically feasible. The rest of the places didn't even reply. Does anyone have any other shops I could follow up on? My fallback is Blue Grotto, but I'd rather go spearfishing.

Thanks

 

[Johnoly]

I'm going to be in Jacksonville......, but I'd rather go spearfishing.

It's a 3 part problem starting next week.

A) Almost every fish is closed season until May 1st. No grouper, no lobster, no red snapper, no hogfish, no AmberJack, No Porgy, etc, etc. It would be easier to tell you that grunts are open still.

B) We have alot of storms rolling off the mainland and you've seen the tornado paths. Those produce alot of swells and it just destroys any small amount of viz inshore off Jacksonville. Those storms also produced 5-7 waves and no one wants to get beat up pounding the waves for 2 hours to run 30 miles out where there might be some viz.

C) Like you said, it's tough to find 6 people to make the boat run on very short 1 day notice.

It's a 4 hour drive one way to either >>south to West Palm bch or West to Panama City Beach. Lastly alot of the Jax & PCB spearing boats usually let the wreck sites sit quiet in the lousy April weather and let them build up a healthy Lionfish gathering. Then collect them all when the tournaments and prizes start in the middle of May.

Sorry I don't have any better options for a fellow spearo.

 

[csp20108]

Well, that stinks to hear but thank you for all the info! I've been contacting dive shops for weeks and I wish one of them would have just told me all that so I could stop wasting my time. I suppose it's the grotto for me. Devil's looks cool too, but I'm not cave certified.