Spooky Shipwreck Diving

October 14, 2020 By Florida Sportsman

Recent dive reports from all around the state.

Spooky Shipwreck Diving

Florida Sportsman member: michael.barnette

Michael Barnette explores the freighter, Monrovia, out of state in Lake Huron.

Forum member Michael Barnette recently got back from a trip to the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron where he dove some of the many, many shipwrecks up that way. The bottom temperatures dipped all the way to 39-41°F- brrrrrr.... He and his diving partner made time to visit a few wrecks and filmed dives for the freighter, Monrovia, the steamer, Grecian, and the schooner, E.B. Allen. All the wrecks rest off Alpena, Michigan.

Michael has his own YouTube channel where he posts his diving adventures. He has quite the variety of content, from caves and springs to dream tropical destinations, all peppered with beautiful areial footage and underwater life and structures. There's a lot to choose from, he's been making videos for the last 12 years. His most recent creation is a beautifully 4K shot video of four wrecks that were teaming with life out of Hillsboro Inlet in Fort Lauderdale. In this one he gets up close and personal with beefy goliath grouper, various snapper species, hogfish, spadefish, jacks, and more. Check out his channel to see what's below your favorite fishing spots.'>

Love fishing videos? Check out our YouTube for more fishing, boating, and how-to content!

Click here to see the full forum report.

Wreck Diving Fort Lauderdale

Florida Sportsman member: michael.barnette

Here is some footage of my recent dives to the artificial reefs of the Lady Luck, Rodeo 25, Mariner II Tug, and Lowrance during the weekend of June 13-14, 2020. These artificial reefs rest off Hillsboro Inlet.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Late Season Lobster Catch and Cook

Florida Sportsman member: kayakerinkeywest

This was my first lobster trip this season. With only three days remaining in the season and the winds ramping back up, I figured it would be a good time to head out to see what condition the lobster stocks were in. I hit six islands and found large colonies in two of them. Most were all teenagers in the two and a half to two and three quarter inch carapace size, the jumbos for next year. Compared to last year's final day where I had to scrounge pretty hard to find a couple, the two colonies were fairly jam packed and I felt comfortable to harvest a few from each spot to make a limit. This also helped in fulfilling my protein needs for the next couple of days and prolong my two week stretch of staying out of the petri dish grocery stores. Get 'em while you can.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Lots of Lions

Florida Sportsman member: skyway

Excerpt taken from SportDiver.com:

"Divers from all over Florida, nine other U.S. states and the Caribbean descended upon the Emerald Coast of Florida last weekend (May 16-19, 2019) for the world's largest lionfish tournament and awareness event to date. In the two-day event, divers removed 14,119 lionfish from the Gulf of Mexico, in addition to 5,048 lionfish removed during the pre-tournament period, bringing the grand total to 19,167..."

Click here to see the forum post discussing the 2020 Emerald Coast Open.

Late Season Lobsters

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment

Lobsters may be sparse in some areas, but they can still be found in the Keys and are good sizes still. Latitudeadjustment has them dialed in.

Click here to see the 1/2 forum report.

Click here to see the 12/29 forum report.

Steinhatchee Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: fsu11

The weather ended up being perfect the whole day. Unlike a lot of reports I've seen, we limited out eight gallons by 11:30. The water visibility was great and we loaded up quick. It got tougher as the tide came in later in the day and more people surrounded us. Despite this, we got a pretty quick limit and the meat was good size too for early in the season. I think the key was hitting it on a Thursday when it hadn't been hit hard yet and going early in the morning before the spots were picked over.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Cedar Key Summer Vacation

Florida Sportsman member: Nobel

We enjoyed a beautiful vacation in Cedar Key this year, getting a lot of fishing in, as well as a day of successful scalloping. Check out the full report for all the details.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Diving Homosassa

Florida Sportsman member: butchbal

The weather was beautiful with good sea conditions. Our good friend, Lee Weber, offered to mind the boat while Barb and I dove. This was our first dive of the season and I hope we get as good conditions through the summer. The seas were less than two feet, water temperature was 79. There were tons of gag grouper. I ended up with ten mangrove snapper up to four pounds and two 16" hogfish. No sharks in sight.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Key West Lobster

Florida Sportsman member: kayakerinkeywest

They are still around, get out and get on them. Check out the video report for details. Don't forget the Seafood Festival is this weekend in Key West at Bayview Park.

Click here to see the full forum report.

West End Diving

Florida Sportsman member: Docked Wages

Forum member Docked Wages stayed in Old Bahama Bay in West End recently and reported excellent, quality lobstering and some yummy conch.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Lower Keys Lobster

Florida Sportsman member: kayakerinkeywest

I noticed that there was going to be a bit of a temperature drop with the north winds blowing some cool air our way. I figured this could possibly be a trigger to send the bugs scurrying out of the area so I wanted to do a quick trip to survey what the population was like. I generally try and do a Lobster trip once a week as i am trying to see how late in the season I can still catch them. I generally stop off at few different spots each time and cull one or two depending on how packed they are. This trip I was pretty shocked in how many Lobsters there were. Pretty much at pre-mini season levels with sizes from adults all the way down to juveniles. My main target areas are the little keys in or adjacent to the main channels that run from the Gulf to the Atlantic.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Keys Lobster & Crystal River Scallops

Florida Sportsman member: piner_wahoo, latitudeajustment & PreacherMan14

The keys have been a hot spot for some quality lobster lately. You will have to work for them but when you find the right spots, you'll know it. If you are trying to make quick work of it, piner_wahoo clearly has the right idea, as his photos clearly show.

Meanwhile, PreacherMan14 was exploring with family over to Crystal River area to do some scalloping. "This was our first experience doing it, and I thought it was well worth the time. Three days of snorkeling and we got about half our limit the first two days before getting it dialed in the last day and limiting out. All scallops were harvested in less than seven to eight feet of water. We had a blast cooking them up each night and an all-around awesome family activity."

Click here to see piner_wahoo's lobster report.

Click here to see latitudeajustment's lobster report.

Click here to see PreacherMan14's scalloping report.

Fun for the Fam

Florida Sportsman member: EBOutdoors

Looking for something to enjoy with the little ones? Snorkeling with the manatees in Crystal River is a great option for young adventurers to enjoy the water in a safe environment. It's also a great date idea!

"Shelby and I recently stayed at the Plantation on Crystal River and took a manatee tour with their Adventure Center. We honestly weren't terribly excited about the tour, but ended up having a GREAT time! We went in July, so there was only one manatee, but it was still so cool to swim with it and see/hear it eating. They took us to another spring afterwards to just snorkle around and the water was crystal clear."

Click here to see the full forum report.

Spearfishing Marathon

Florida Sportsman member: fla cracker

We have been visiting the Keys every year for the past 23 years, visiting several times a year. I can't remember ever experiencing a solid week of great weather. Not once did we get weathered out, often taking two trips a day. It was a trip of firsts! In addition to the great weather, it was my three grandson's first trips, with the older two catching there first ever keepers and the youngest logging nearly 40 hours of boat time at six weeks old. My youngest son got his largest hog to date and we had our best single day harvest of black grouper.

Click here to see the full forum report.

West Central Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: grey2112 & HFF

grey2112: I went out of New Port Richey to 50 feet and the water temperature was around 81. There was visibility top to bottom, but it got a little cloudy on the bottom horizontally. There were not a lot of hogfish, but I managed to find some nice sized gag grouper and mangrove snapper. There were no red snapper or lionfish. It was very sharky. I had one sandbar bug me on dive one and had three of them bug me on dive two. Our other divers met our infamous bull shark and he was a real pain. I ended the day with one 28.5" gag, two nice sized mangrove snapper, and a decent hog. The visibility was very bad in anything under 45 feet and 25 feet was horrendous. I saw a nasty orange/yellow bloom on top of the water in 25 feet and it was very "gumbo-ey" in a lot of spots.

HFF: The state of florida abounds with great diving opportunities no matter where you are. East or West Coast there are great dives to be done. West Central and South West Florida have some incredible natural reef habitat that is home to many different types of sea creatures. From grouper, snapper, amberjack, hogfish, and triggerfish, to sea turtles, manta rays, whale sharks, lobsters, and more! It's a diver's paradise down there as you cruise along the natural rocky outcrops and coral reefs. Offshore Tampa Bay is home to numerous wrecks and reefs that provide excellent diving opportunity, hosting a large dive and spearfishing community.

In this episode I also give you a few tips on what you should be looking for when searching for fishing spots offshore.

Click here to see grey2112's report.

Click here to see HFF's report.

Hernando Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: grey2112

We headed out to 52' to some spots I haven't dove in three years and some other spots I had numbers for, but never dove. JACKPOT! Me and Tim dove one spot that was loaded with fish. Huge gags (saw one that had to be at least 36 inches), monster red snapper (some that to my eyes looked north of 30 inches), lots of mangrove snapper, and some nice hogs. I shot my limit of hogs in ten minutes on this spot and there were at least a dozen more that I saw.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Andros Bahamas Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: Swiftor

Yesterday we got four bugs. Two were decent, but not that big. After hitting our spots, we got to deeper water and looked for fish to shoot. All I saw was two hogfish, one being small and the other was pretty good, about three to four pounds. It was glass out today. Deep sea fishing was okay. We caught five small dolphin, not even 20 inches. We saw four more dolphin around the same size. After that it died, so we went inside and shot fish. We got a six pound Nassau grouper and a decent hog. I missed a massive hogfish, but I guess you can't get em all.

Click here to see the 3/18 forum report.

Click here to see the 3/17 forum report.

Lauderdale Lobster

Florida Sportsman member: flknifemaker

I went lobstering today south of Fort Lauderdale. There was decent visibility with a cool 75 degree water temperature and a slight south current. Tails were to be had all around. I probably caught over 20, however many were just short of legal. West winds had the seas flat with a light wind chop. I'm hoping the quantity witnessed today is a solid indication of mini season bounty.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Canaveral Diving and Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: srokag44

We went out and got a couple dives in at Pelican Flats. Visibility was cloudy the whole way down and was about ten feet on the bottom. Despite conditions we still managed to get a few lobster, including this beast!

Click here to see the full forum report.

Bahamas Bones and Lobster

Florida Sportsman member: RG Air

While the Keys may not be ripe for the picking with legal lobsters, the Bahamas sure are. Forum member RG Air got out to the tropics with some friends that he described as a "trip for the books." They got ahold of some nice lobster during an afternoon of diving. They also got tight with some Bohemian bonefish on fly. Check out his RG Air's awesome video in his report.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Unsuccessful Key West Diving

Florida Sportsman member: kayakerinkeywest

I have a half dozen inshore spots, which I call my grocery store spots. I go whenever I need a lobster and pick up one or two and leave the rest for a later date. Up until two days before Irma, the spots were still full and I actually picked up a couple for a last meal. Well, after all those silty days and then the first cold front pushing through and dropping temperatures about 25 degrees, things were not looking good, but I was hopeful. I ended up only getting to dive three of the spots, as a couple were churned up from 15 knot winds on the Gulf and one was overrun with mullet mud. But the spots I did dive were barren. Not a single antennae.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Backcountry Lobstering

Florida Sportsman member: piner_wahoo

The water was all mocha with huge matts of nasty grass floating and on every beach. I went to my shallowest spots and hopped in. There was zero visibility. There was heavy scour and most of the kelp that was there was all broken off and gone. The lobster were very small and very spooky. They took off running if you were within four feet of them. I managed to successfully kill three keepers for a lobster dinner with much work. Meanwhile, Marcus tried for trout with no bites. The backcountry is no where to be right now, unless you are beaching and drinking. Take shoes, there is glass.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Last Hernando Scallop Run

Florida Sportsman member: clarosa

We decided to try and get some scallops one last time before the season ended. We were worried about water clarity from all the rain, winds and the hurricane. It ended up being a complete brownish, greenish pea soup. The new moon current was ripping as well. We worked in 7-9' area and the visibility was almost zero. You couldn't see the grass until a foot or two from your mask. It made for lots of blind breath holds and lots of working, but surprisingly the salinity must have been okay because the scallops were there.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Spearing the Middle Grounds

Florida Sportsman member: butchbal

We planned to dive the central section of the grounds which is a distance of 110 miles from our dive boat's home port in Tierra Verde. We traveled a total of 250 miles round trip, returning to port around 7:30 pm. We completed six drops total for three dives each for two groups of divers. Average depth was around 100'. This place is a spear fisherman's dream. The middle ground reefs are some of the most beautiful and largest I have had the opportunity to dive.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Keys Diving and Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment

Despite crazy hot temperatures, forum member latitudeajustment and his spouse have reported decent fishing, spearfishing and lobstering hauls. Be careful while diving though, on their most recent trip out he reported a nasty moon jelly sting upon surfacing on one of his dives. Make sure to always be prepared for an event like this and carry vinegar on board or something else to disarm the painful nematocysts from jellyfish.

Click here to see the 8/16 forum report.

Click here to see the 8/15 forum report.

Click here to see the 8/13-8/14 forum report.

Abaco Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: Fireman Bill

Fireman Bill has been reporting on his sons trip in the Bahamas. This fish picture comes with a story. "My son shot the black grouper with the now bent and ruined pole spear he is holding. The fish rocked up and his dive partner went down to put a second shaft in what he thought was Zack's fish. It was not Zack's fish it was a 20 pound grouper that was in the hole with Zack's grouper. The shaft went through both fish and they hauled both groupers up on the same pole spear. The entire neighborhood is eating well this week."

Click here to see the 8/10 forum report.

Click here to see the 8/8 forum report.

Click here to see the 8/5 forum report.

Spearfishing the Keys and Tropics

Florida Sportsman member: NativeOne

We started in 15-20 feet. We managed to shoot some hogs about three to four pounds, then we headed out to about 30-40 feet so me and my buddy could do some real diving. We shot several more hogs this time in the six to seven pounds range. One of the hogs I shot was so powerful that it ripped my polespear out of my hands and pulled it so far into a ledge that it cracked the fiberglass. Definitely not your typical Florida hog.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Steinhatchee Scalloping Adventures

Florida Sportsman member: kgfisher

We saw a few dolphins feeding about 100 yards in front of us. The two to three dolphins were no more than 50 yards from shore and we were in two to three feet of water. As we approached them, the bottom suddenly deepened to about six to seven feet and the sand was stacked in ridges. It was strange to see the bottom change so close to shore. As we snorkeled around the area, we found a forest of thin bladed manatee grass and scallops everywhere. This was way closer to shore than we had ever tried in previous years and we were rewarded for venturing away from the normal areas. Thanks dolphins!

Click here to see the full forum report.

Monster Ling

Florida Sportsman member: stpetebaitman

I took a deep breath and dove down to bottom, swimming towards where Ben was pointing. I saw both fish and had to make sure not to hit the 40 pound fish that was between me and the big one. I pulled the trigger and chaos commenced. The fish swam around the structure two times, tangling the line streaming off my gun in a hurry. It was a mad dash to untangle the line so that the shaft wouldn't rip out or the line part. Finally, the fish made its way to deep water and we got the gun, and me, in the boat. We fought the fish for another 20 minutes with the line before being able to get a gaff shot on the fish. The celebration commenced when the fish hit the deck.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Spearfishing the Northeast

Florida Sportsman member: Blue gills

The first dive was a little cold with about 15' of visibility in about 75'. The second dive was still a little cold, but visibility was way better. There were tons of fish, but not much to shoot except lionfish and amberjack. I'm not sure if it's just the spots we have been diving, but there have been hardly any flounder. Usually, it's pretty easy to find eight to ten nice flounder in a dive, but lately we have been struggling to get a few and they are mostly small.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Crystal River Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

At 8:00, the seas were flat and it was nice to be able to run at 30 knots. The plan was to find the scallops, get 'em cold, then run back to Cedar Key before the storms kicked up and then clean scallops off Atsena Otie Key. The scallop grounds weren't hard to find as the scallop fleet at 9:00 was pretty large already. With Casey in the water, we looked at three different spots before deciding that there were enough scallops in abundance to anchor up. Visibility was good, around 13 feet and the tide was incoming. The water temperature was 88°F. Right before we left I did a quick boat count within a small 40° quadrant and came up with 100 boats. Applying that quadrant to the boats surrounding us, there must have been between 400–500 boats scalloping!

Click here to see the full forum report.

Ledge and Wreck Diving

Florida Sportsman member: butchbal

We stoppped in 30' and dove a ledge, while we waited for things to calm down. By the end of the dive, things were much calmer and we ran the 11 more miles to the crane wreck. It was a beautiful dive, very fishy wreck. I managed three nice hogfish and Barb shot a few hundred photos. Doc had been telling me for the last couple of years that he wanted to dive and see the crane first hand and Sunday he finally made it.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Diving Homosassa

Florida Sportsman member: butchbal

Barb and I dropped on a reef in 55 feet and Lee and Barb visited a wreck also in 55 feet. Perfect day of diving, plus I shot some hogfish for dinner! NOAA was pretty much spot on for for Saturday, seas two feet in the morning dying down to flat in the afternoon. Water temperature was 82 degrees in 55 feet. Visibility was 20 to 30 feet, with some particulate. The current was one and a half to two knots. We made three dives, but only saw one keeper size gag. There were lots of short gag and red grouper, plenty of nice sized hogfish and a stray sheepshead.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Lionfish Blast Results

Florida Sportsman member: troutdiggler

A month long tournament to remove lionfish from Jacksonville's local waters ended on Saturday May 20th. Over the course of the month, we removed 4,618 lionfish from popular reefs in our offshore system. A majority of these fish were sold to fish markets for human consumption. Five years ago people had barely heard of a lionfish, much less knew they were down there in Jacksonville offshore waters. In five years, we have removed over 10,000 fish. This guy was a beast this year. He, alone, shot 2,400+ and won the tourney, recieving $4.00 a pound.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Snorkling the Keys

Florida Sportsman member: Viking

Bahia Honda State Park has a lot to offer for the whole family. This is a great place to bring your skiff with good boat ramps and six free docking sites for campers' boats. It also features some great beaches, nice snorkeling areas and good flats fishing.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Grand Bahama Conch

Florida Sportsman member: dzank

We ran north and we got into a nice bunch of mangos and muttons. We dove up some conch on the way back to Bootle Bay.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Jupiter Hogfish, Bugs and Lions

Florida Sportsman member: tenacious

We dove Jupiter in 65-95 feet. We ended up with six bugs, a nice hogfish and some lions.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Port Canaveral Spearing and Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: srokag44

Vision was marginal, but enough to shoot some snapper and lionfish. Had to fend off a big sandbar shark that circled us on the descent and showed back up on the ascent.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Hollywood Freediving and Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: deepshot86

I have been seeing a few more sheepshead around inshore docks. Reefs have been active, good numbers of yellowtail around. Cero mackerel have been thin, but present. I get a nice mutton at the end. I missed two kingfish and man do I wish I had those shots over.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Grand Bahama Bugs

Florida Sportsman member: dzank

We then ran down east of Memory to dive some conch for dinner and rounded up some conch as well as a few lobster for dinner.

Click here to see the full forum report.

Lobster in the Keys

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment

I made a late run yesterday and thankfully scored two for my wife's birthday. We got out today and found a few more. Great times and great eats!

Click here to see the full forum report.

Big Pine Key Lobster Diving and Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment

Forum member latitudeajustment has been having great success off Big Pine Key with some help from his wife. They have caught a variety of fish including mackerel, snapper, sea trout, and grouper. They got the best of both worlds by taking a dip in the water and snagging some nice lobster to add to their bounty.

Click here to read the second forum report.

Click here to read the first forum report.

Anna Maria Island Grouper

Florida Sportsman: Maddy Valadie

As the grouper season is coming to a close, Maddy had to get her last gag of the year. Here she is with nice gag shot off Anna Maria Island, three days before the end of the season.

Click here to check out our Facebook.

Boca Raton Fishing and Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: SS Canoe

I look at the boat and look down the line and see a very big bull with three cows about 20 yards away, also uninterested in the live bait. I try to make my way calmly and remember tangle predicament I start yanking on it trying to clear it while keeping an eye on the big bull. Somehow it comes free and I got as close as I could and let one fly.

Click here to read the full forum report.

New Port Richey Fishing and Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: grey2112

About 15 miles northwest of New Port Richey, temps around 68 so a bit chilly in a 3 mil and crappy hood. Water vizibility about 15 feet vertical and 20+ horizontal, and little cloudy. It was very fishy - the gags are all in now, and on both drops we saw tons of jewfish.

Click here to read the full forum report.

St. John's River Lobster

Florida Sportsman member: benchmark

Took the family diving this week. They did well on the bugs, with the boys both getting their personal best this trip. Big bugs all days.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Anclote Key Spearfishing Grouper and Hogfish

Florida Sportsman member: Bottomfinder#1

We headed out to incredible water visibility and water temperature. Nice easy day under 30 feet. We reached our limit of nice gag grouper and hogfish.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Miami Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: boneheadhunting

Long story short it took almost 30 minutes to get that black out of that cave. Once we got it out I went back down to see it again and was amazed with how far back it went. After that we made some short work out of some muttons and decided to head in.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Mini Season Success

Florida Sportsman member: greenie-slayer

We didn't get a chance to go out on day one so had to settle for day two. My brother and I found a decent number of lobster. 16 total keepers while having to pass up many shorts and one with eggs.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Scout Trip

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Five Venture scouts and 4 adults from Venture Crew 288 of Ponte Vedra Beach left early Thursday morning for Steinhatchee (2.75 hours away) to try their hand at scalloping. Seven of the nine Venturers had not scalloped before and a couple had never snorkeled before either.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Homosassa Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: Catfish_Hunter

We made the run up north of homosassa to find some scallops. We ended up finding them in pretty shallow water and got our limit in a few hours. I don't usually get in the water much so it was fun doing something different.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Key West Trip

Florida Sportsman member: ReelObsession

Forum member ReelObsession and friends recently took a trip down to Key West to indulge in some great spearfishing. As you can see from the pictures, it was a good time had by all.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Cold Water Lobstering

Florida Sportsman member: latitudeajustment

We had fun on a beauty of a day in the lower Florida Keys. I'm glad to get a few bugs once more, not sure if we'll get back before the end of the season.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Diving the Ledges

Florida Sportsman member: Veikx

Nailed a nice 21 inch mangrove right when I made it to the bottom as he was quite curious to see me. Shortly after this beautiful hog presented himself and landed a good stone shot. Picked up a few more hogs and mangroves through out first and second dives.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Southwest Nearshore Dives

Florida Sportsman member: Veikx

Made it out offshore to 50 feet of water to some of our ledges, got a crew together to do a couple dives in the morning and early afternoon. Visibility near the surface was a total murk to 30 feet down and then it cleared up for about a 15 feet of vis. Plenty of quality hogs and bigger mangroves and managed to stick one gag that was 23 inches.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Crystal River Trip

Florida Sportsman member: Beck

Forum member Beck and friends recently took their annual trip to Crystal River. From the looks of it, a lot laughs and fun was had!

Click here to read the full forum report.

Fun in the Bahamas

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

In no time we got settled into our house and one of Mark's Bahamian friends, Grady and his son Kermit, came aboard to show us around and off we went to spear hogfish, “silver snapper” and lobster and catch some conch too.

Click here to read the full forum report.

One Last Trip

Florida Sportsman member: dpdash

Greg is off to college in Tallahassee this week so we wanted to squeeze one more island trip in before the real work starts. Made the 9am bridge on Friday and crossed without incident, into a pretty strong current. Got to Bluewater and JR and Leroy were waiting to greet us.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Lobster and Hogs

Florida Sportsman member: greenie-slayer

We went back down to our lobster hole again this weekend. Limited out the first day and were 3 short of a limit today. Throw in a couple hogfish and a mangrove snapper and it was a pretty good time.

Click here to read the full forum report.

A Great Start to the Season

Florida Sportsman member: 23T

Forum member 23T and friends got out right at the opening of season, 12am, for some night time bug hunting. focusing on spots outside of Port Everglades in 10 to 20 feet of water, success was had, with 22 keepers. Nice work!

Click here to read the full forum report.

Steinhatchee Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: DeHeaven

We caught one short redfish and missed a few others. Came back in for lunch and a recharge and picked up a few more people and headed to the scallop spot and were on them almost immediately. I wasn't keeping track of time but we quickly had our 10 gallon limit and headed home.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Homosassa Diving

Florida Sportsman member: butchbal

We moved out to 45 feet on another patch reef and Barb and I dropped over. It was covered with nice sized hogs, mangos, and a ton of gags. I got a limit of hogs, two mangos and a fat red grouper that came to watch me put a hog on the stringer.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Bahamas Fun

Florida Sportsman member: e-money

Ryan stoned a few big hogfish, and a yellow jack! We also caught some yellow eyes and had a great "cook your catch feast".

Click here to read the full forum report.

Spearfishing Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: nutsmagoo

We had an epic day of spear fishing for cobia off of Jupiter yesterday! The seas were calm, the visibility was great and the cobia were plentiful. We ended up with 8 cobia and bluewaterspearo scored a solid blackfin tuna, which was the icing on the cake.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Islamorada Diving

Florida Sportsman member: Jciulla

I was also told that several large black grouper were spotted on the dives. I can't wait til May first for grouper season to start. Muttons were all shot in 50 feet on a bigger patch reef, hogs were an ledges from 55 to 80 feet.

Click here to read the full forum report.

Bahamas Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: CaneDiver65

Forum member CaneDiver65 put together a sweet video of him spearfishing in the Bahamas. Nice work!

Click here to read the full forum report.

Palm Beach Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: nutsmagoo

Headed out of LWI sunday morning for some spearfishing with our crew. Rough and nasty on the surface but the visibility was great and we had lots of action! We did several drifts between 100' and 180' Ended up with 3 nice cobias and a mahi.

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Port Everglades Dive

Florida Sportsman member: 23T

Forum member 23T got himself some nice lobster on a recent dive out of Port Everglades. Although the jellyfish were thick, they were able to get around them and score these bugs in 20 to 30 feet of water.

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Spearing out of Johns Pass

Florida Sportsman member: Bottomfinder#1

The visibility was perfect water temperature was a comfortable 74 degrees. First two stops in 60 feet yielded only a few hog fish. We came into 30 feet and we limited on hogfish and I shot a nice gag on the way down.

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Scalloping Fun

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

there was a scallop flotilla of 15 boats tight together but they were in solid turtle grass and the viz dropped compared to Keaton so we headed back up north to clearer water. Finally found a spot with turtle and manatee grass and enough scallops to work. We didn't tear them up but it was a fun family outing!

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Port Canaveral Dive

Florida Sportsman member: Bluewaterfever

Went diving on Pelican Flats today with Randy and Matt. We had 20-30 feet of visibility and nice warm water. We managed a few grouper, hog snapper, mangos triggers and sheepshead. Came home with box full of good eats

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A Keys Adventure

Florida Sportsman member: Klinger

With the exception of a couple of weather days and a couple of days with engine problems, a very enjoyable 4 weeks. Made it back home in about 14 hours and currently making plans for 2015!

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East Central Diving

Florida Sportsman member: Kapt.Hook

When we jumped in to do some free diving the ocean came alive! We were using Pogy and Bonita chunks to chum with and two 4 inch disco balls suspended at 60 feet. The big kings were coming in and taking chunks really quick, we weren't able to get in close enough to make any shots unfortunately.

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Keaton Beach Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Pretty clear water and light winds allowed looking at the bottom for scallops as we idled in 4 feet of water. Right away we found the turtle and manatee grass that scallops love and started the hunt. We had to move around a number of times but we managed our 6 gallons.

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Lobster Fun in the Keys

Florida Sportsman member: followotherboats

It was unfortunate that mini season was so close to the regular season and it really showed. In total for the 7 days, we ended up with 52 lobster and about 60 snapper. Most if not all the snapper were eaten while we were down there and I didn't really take pics of the fish. This was a lobster trip and man it was fun.

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Sebastian Diving

Florida Sportsman member: Kapt.Hook

Two of my buddies dropped down and I jumped in with a float line to try and get lucky with a king. I wasn't able to make any shots on them; the kings were very skittish and the bulls were very interested in what I was doing. We had 4 bulls that were hanging around and one big bull that had some cobia following him. It was a failed attempted to stick one unfortunately.

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Loading on Lobster

Florida Sportsman member: Trollaltdelete

Forum member Trollaltdelete shared his mini season catches with us. Diving off of Cudjoe Key, he explains "We were able to limit out with 6 hunters each day." After unsuccessful trips a few years prior, he put in the time to find spots and was able fill the cooler. Nice!

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BPK Bugs

Florida Sportsman member: AMPED

Our first 2 spots had been wiped clean, not even a short left, makes you wonder. We got our 4 person limit of 24 in about 40 minutes at stop number 3. Then we just hung out, went swimming, and had lunch before heading back home. All in all it was good couple of days.

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Cedar Key Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

After that we continued offshore starting in 72 feet and working easterly inshore to shallower water as we hit numerous spots, almost all of them small so we did bounce dives. Every drop would end up in a couple of fish, some of which the red groupers were really nice sized fire trucks.

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Fort Pierce Cobia

Florida Sportsman member: dukhuntr1991

After a very unproductive day trolling yesterday we decided to dive today instead. The storms were making it difficult right from the start but we did get a couple quick dives in and were able to hit a couple nice cobia.

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What's Under the Waves

Florida Sportsman member: TikoLiko

Forum member TikoLiko Shared an awesome video he put together. Freediving with pole spears and hawaiian slings, he shows the fish who is boss! Nice work.

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Crystal River Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips

Second half of opening weekend was just as good as the first. We went to the scallop grounds and got a limit by 11:30 and we decided to go fish for a bit.

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Diving for Dentures

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

In years past my wife & I always did well diving for shark teeth off the beach in 18 feet of water so my buddy and I did a beach dive off the Venice Service Park beach. We geared up & finned out 300 yards on the surface then dropped down to 18 feet of water.

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Mutton on the Spear

Florida Sportsman member: snookyj

We started in about 30ft and worked our way in shallower…we shot a few nice hogs and i missed a stud black. I noticed my buddy take a shot at a fish outta of the corner of my eye, I knew it was a good fish but had no idea the size or species because he was a good ways away from me. Finally I got a good look at the fish and almost crapped myself,one of the biggest muttons I have seen on the spear!

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Fort Pierce Freediving

Florida Sportsman member: flamencoguru

Forum member flamencoguru got into some great fish out of Fort Pierce. Diving rubble piles in 63 feet of water, he limited out on grouper and speared a bonus 40 pound cubera snapper.

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Dry Tortugas Trip

Florida Sportsman member: fla cracker

For several years I had talked about making the trip, back then mainly for rod and reel fishing. But in the past few years my family has been doing a lot more freediving and spearfishing, mostly out of Marathon. Last june I pulled the trigger on setting up the trip and within a few minutes our crew was established.

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Cobia Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: Robert D.

Forum member Robert D. shared a video he put together of him spearing some cobia, not only did he get into the fish, you can also see how these fish interact with rays and each other under water. Good stuff Robert.

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Tampa Freediving

Florida Sportsman member: Lilcthefishslayer

Then went and found out the water was not too bad in clarity in certain spots. So we gave it a shot, it paid off! Didn't miss a shot and got 2 fatties. Been awhile since I did any diving so I was really happy with my performance.

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Awesome Keys Dive Trip with the Troop

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

I'm the Scoutmaster of Troop 277 in Ponte Vedra Beach and this past Spring Break my 15 year old son & I, along with 4 other Boy Scouts and 2 scouting fathers, spent Spring Break at the BSA High Adventure Sea Base near Islamorada in the FL Keys doing their SCUBA Adventure program. Over 7 days we did a total of 10 day dives and one awesome night dive.

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Last Bug Run of the Season

Florida Sportsman member: Gaffit

I came to the end of the ledge and it was a ghost town. Little pissed off, I swam back to find Cullen neck deep under a ledge with a loaded lobster bag. One of his bugs went 10 pounds! Managed to get close to my limit in the 1500 pounds of air I had left.

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Spearing Cobia off Bull Sharks

Florida Sportsman member: nutmagoo

Tough conditions with the wind building from 15 to 20 plus mph, along with building seas up to 6 feet. But we made it happen with Bluewaterspearo scoring a nice 60 pound cobia. I shot a big cobia too but unfortunately it tore off. I also shot a nice AJ on a wreck in 90 feet and this poor fish had a very tough last couple minutes of his life getting chased around by many predators and ultimately getting demolished before we could get him in the boat. At least I was able to get some very exciting footage!

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Spearing Key West Video

Florida Sportsman member: Fasteddie72

Us college kids from UCF finally got a break from school and headed down to Key West for some fishing and diving this spring break. As far as a report goes the weather couldn't of worked out better for us, thankfully. We got in 3 and a half solid days full of fishing and diving then the weather turned on us and gave us a great excuse to go get wild on Duval Street.

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Florida Sportsman member: Apnatic

We got anchored up and immediately started chumming with cut kingfish and Spanish mackerel so I stayed on the boat while keeping the slick going while my buddy jumped in. On his second dive he shot a nice 12 pound mutton that was off the bottom eating the chum. We found a big kingfish head in his stomach so I guess its safe to say muttons like to eat kingfish! We stayed out till about sunset and went 2 for 4 on the muttons!

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Spearfishing Key West

Florida Sportsman member: beeuclothing

Got a short break from school so ran down to Key West for a couple days of spearing. All footage shot freediving with Gopro hero 3, guns used were a Koah Euro 130 and Rob Allen 1300. Hope you like it and thanks for watching!

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Buggin' Fort Pierce

Florida Sportsman member: dukhuntr1991

Well, hunting season finished up this past weekend so it's back to the water! Heard the water was clear on the beach and getting nasty tomorrow so I talked my dad into being captain and we took the skiff out FPI at 4 pm after work. Water was chilly but clear. I grabbed 6 nice ones and we were back to the dock at 5:30. Nice to get wet again!

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Monster Cobia, In First Person

Florida Sportsman member: Robert D.

http://vimeo.com/80191806

Forum member Robert D. had the chance to take a shot on a cobia of a lifetime, and made it count! Watch as this takes place while filming with his Gopro camera mounted on his head.

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Night Dive Success

Florida Sportsman member: SOFLO Angler

Right after we got that guy I see a huge snout poking out under a ledge, landed a perfect shot through one cheek out the other, this being the biggest hog I've seen in person and the biggest I've ever bagged! I was screaming underwater. We surfaced for a minute right after and I guess the coast guard heard our screams of joy and came to check us out, after everything was cleared we went back down to finish up the dive.

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South Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: farinco

I know it's been a while since I've posted but I've been spending a lot of time under the water lately compared to my usual rod-n-reel fish hunting, its been fun.

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Bahamas Freedive Spear Fishing

Florida Sportsman member: TikoLiko

Many Floridians take advantage of the Bahamian waters and the excellent fishing and diving within boating range from Florida's east coast. Florida sportsman member TikoLiko shows the great free diving opportunities and the chances you have with some big fish all with just a Hawaiian sling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GGzxdD-fHQ

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Homosassa Gags, Amberjack & More

Florida Sportsman member: butchbal

Weather reports looked good for Saturday so my wife, son and I went out to troll and dive to get some fish for the freezer. Seas were beautiful, 1 foot or less in the morning and flat in the afternoon. We ran northwest from Homosassa to a wreck in 50 feet for our first drop. Vis was 20 to 30 feet with a weak current. Got a nice AJ, gags, a sheepie and a bunch of FAT mangos. Ran to our second drop in 60 feet to find top to bottom vis and again very little current. Shot two more gags, some even fatter mangos, and a few nice spanish. I took a long shot at a nice cobe but just nicked him, bummer! The second dive was on a wreck that is mostly just rusty rubble now but was probably a 60-foot or so boat before.

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Bugs N' Tails

Florida Sportsman member: Big Bend Brian

Just a fun post...the family managed to sneak in one more short Florida Keys trip before school, soccer, and Boy Scouts command all our attention. Over the Labor Day weekend we dragged our small 19 foot "Plan B" to Key Largo to play with some lobster and yellowtails.

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Lionfish - A Meal with a Painful Price

Florida Sportsman member: Naclh2oDave

We got a bit of a late start on Monday with the weather rolling thru and all. But we got out and dove with no complications. By the time that we fueled the boat and launched the rain was over and never once got rained on the whole day, despite water spouts in the bay. The radar showed the storms coming thru but they all showed them inshore, so we left the hill and had a good day offshore.

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A Week in Islamorada - Bugs and Snapper

Florida Sportsman member: Klinger

This was the Geriatric week, as with the exception of the 52 year old & the 34 year old, the ages ranged from 66-68. Saturday was a transition day, so it wasn't very well organized. We did get out a little late, and we did get a pretty good box of bugs, but I didn't get any pictures and don't remember how many Sunday 8/25 brought some excellent weather for the first time in a week or two, & the new crew took advantage.

Ended up with 25 decent Mangroves, a Cero Mackerel , & 1 good trout. Action was non-stop, so we almost didn't mind not getting to chase bugs.

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Horseshoe Beach Scallops

Florida Sportsman member: liveaction

We got a late start out of HSB Saturday morning about 10-1030. It was pretty choppy and the wind was on it, but we made our way north to pepperfish. There were tons of boats but the wind and chop laid down soon after we got there. Water clarity was poor, but we managed to find about 6-7 gallons which made for a tasty dinner and then some leftover.

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Crystal River Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: ripnlips

Wow what a busy season this has been. Lots and lots of folks out on the water enjoying quality time with family and friends and getting some of the best seafood that the gulf has to offer. The scalloping in Crystal River and Homosassa has been great with limit after limit coming in every day. We have been targeting water depth of 4 to 6 feet and we are having great success even with the cloudy overcast skies. I have started to go further south around the bird rack north of the Homosassa channel on the days that we have overcast since the water clarity is very good down there nearly all the time.

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Big Peck's Lake Bug

Florida Sportsman member: Bagger

Intended to look for some Spanish and jump in the water if it was clear. Got a late start and cleared inlet around 14:30. Did not see any bait while driving south (3 to 4 miles). Water was clear so we jumped in, temperature was 75.5 degress and 20 plus feet of vis. Saw only one bug but he was a good size one on a 45 minute dive in 20 to 25 feet [...]

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Naples Offshore Spearfishing

Florida Sportsman member: Naples Spearo

The spearfishing has been good to me and my crew this year, as this was the first year we have really got into spearfishing. Most of the dives are in the 65-75 feet range and some going to 125 feet and my most recent trip was in 45 feet. My goal for the boat this year was to limit out on hog fish on one of my trips. We accomplished that goal Dec. 15th in 45 feet of water. I also shot a lion fish on that trip. Scary that they are that close in. My buddys friends also caught a lion fish just off the beach in front of the Ritz in Naples, couple hundred yards offshore.

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FS member quatin wanted to show some new GoPro video of his lobstering off Dania Beach. He calls it his "first successful lobster hunt," so good for him. From his avatar image, looks like he might be diving off his kayak. Pretty cool. Some good snares and some good video shots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QN5x-c_14eg

Check out the thread here for some additional commentary from the FS Diver's Corner crowd.

Diving off the Gingerbreads

Florida Sportsman member: Venturesome

Did our annual squadron trip to the breads to do some shooting. The weather was fantastic. It was so clear and calm on Friday we could see the fish from the boat! The crew was made up of some of my best friends from my squadron days at Homestead plus one who is an excellent builder here in our area [...]

Check out the detailed report here.

Big Bahamas Lobster

Whoa! Natalie Velger sent in this shot of the lobster her boyfriend Will Campbell caught earlier this month in The Bahamas. He shot it with a sling spear. She won't say where in The Bahamas, but did say that it weighed 13 pounds, with legs plenty big enough to eat.

What's the biggest lobster you've caught this year? Anyone have one bigger than 13? We've seen a number of 10-pounders, but not many bigger than that.

Check out other recent diving and spearing reports from the Diver's Corner on the Catch Reports thread.

Crystal River Scalloping

Florida Sportsman member: keypond

Lori's cousin Kris and his wife Becky came in from Kansas this weekend and wanted to try some scalloping while they were here. I made a couple of phone calls and realized the water at Pepperfish was still realy murky. Then I made another all to Marrio, aka ripnlips, and he pointed me in the right direction to find some out of Crystal River [..]

Check out the detailed report here.

Buggin' in Marathon

Florida Sportsman member: Klinger

The crew said they were tired of strong current and murky water so we went to an area that is always clear. The only problem with areas that are always clears is everybody else likes them too, so they are not always as productive. We still ended up with a good box of 23 bugs and 3 good grouper [...]

Check out the detailed report here.

Mini Season Recap

Florida Sportsman member: TeamTeke

TeamTeke flew back down to our home in KCB to enjoy what would be our first Mini-Season. Although we have owned our home since 2001, we have not been here for the big event. With the addition of a couple of hardy, younger diving friends all things came out well. We took limits on both days, easily on the first, but had to work somewhat on the second [...]

Check out the detailed report here.

BIG Hogfish

Florida Sportsman member: UMfootball

Went out last saturday 7/7 out of BFP with Deepcnut and hill to try and find some hogs. I never thought i would get another one bigger than the week before but this monster 24 inches came into site and I was lucky to get a shot on him. We also got 4 more all between 13 and 17 inches. I have been on a good luck streak lately to say the least.

Check out the detailed report here.

Bunch-o-Hogs

Florida Sportsman member: butchbal

Earlier this year I promised my 14 year old son Alec that if he kept his grades up I would sign him up for a scuba certification camp. Well, he held up his end of the bargain so off to a two week camp he went. It was a ten day camp from 8:30 to 4:30 everyday for kids from ages 10 to 17. Alec got the highest exam scores in his class and is now the proud holder of a C-card [...]

Check out the detailed report here.

Florida Sportsman member: Stingray2K

A super thorough Diver's Corner Forum post from FS member Stingray2K about a recent trip spearing and fishing–great report on the action. Gags, red grouper and hogs, hogs, hogs, among other fish, made up his trip's catch.

Check out the detailed report here.

Cinco de Mayo Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: SnookMagnet

Headed offshore from Marco with JoeSnook on Saturday looking for a limit of Red Groupers and we weren't disappointed. Great weather, calm(ish) seas, and a hot bite. Put four keepers in the box via rod and reel, threw back a bunch of shorts, then strapped on the tanks and speared up the rest of our limit (plus some big grovers).

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BPK Spearin'

Florida Sportsman member: Gamekilla

Left the house around 8 a.m. and put in a spread of 4 around 150 feet, trolled out to about 600 and didnt see anything, no good weedlines, no debris...nothing. So we head back to around 100 feet and anchored up and started chumming, nothing! It's my first day so maybe I'm still getting warmed up but it was slow [...]

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Free Diving for Brown Bombers

Florida Sportsman member: tobyhere

We limited out. Shark Tales may look familiar to a lot of you. I was almost as stoked to drive that boat around as I was to shoot big fish. The most noteworthy thing I'd like to say about that day of diving was that my SD card was full before I shot my fish and I took it off of a school of at least 100 plus cobes following 1 shark...all 30 plus pounders. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen diving. Kyle from FL Freedivers said it best, "looked like a gigantic school of mullet swimming up from the bottom." Mike wore the gopro for a long dive through some crevalle Jacks and it turned out rad [...]

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LWI Bluewater Spearing

Florida Sportsman member: Bluewaterspearo

The last couple weeks have been awesome with cobia action. The cobia are thick right now on the bulls..... Find the bulls and you will find the cobia! Morning started yesterday at 6am. We wanted to get some diving in before the front hit. Myself and 3 buddies headed out the inlet and it was very smooth ride to the cobia grounds. I was getting stoked as the water looked real blue and we jump in and its 100 ft viz! Also a raging north current at 3.5 knots [...]

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Monster Lobster Haul

Florida Sportsman member: vettepicking

Caught off Stuart 30 feet of water. Two 7 pounders and one 4 pounder. 17 bugs in total.

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Homestead Mutton's and More

Florida Sportsman Member: Rootbeer

Went out with our friends over to Matheson for a change... Usually we have been launching out of homestead but to save some money we decided to go to Matheson since its about 15 minute drive from our house. There was cops road blocking old cutler that held us for 1 hour before they let us [...]

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