7/20/00
Capt. Moose
From, Joe- Key West, southernphoto71@hotmail.com
I was finally able to get out and spearfish, my body adjusted to
working the midnight shift.
Last Thursday I kayaked out from my house to a large sailboat wreck about
a mile off shore,
the wreck sits in about 35' of water where Boca Chica Channel meets Hawks
Channel off Key West.
When I arrived over the wreck it was about 10 a.m and the current was
rippin, the tide chart I was using was way off.
I slipped into the water anyway and found that it was to dangerous to
freedive in the current so after a few minutes I was
paddling back home.
The next day I went back about an hour earlier than the day
before and I hit the slack tide right on the money.
The visibility was bad, about 40 feet so I kept an eye out for the large
Bull sharks that frequent that area.
As soon as I reached the wreck I knew I was in the right spot. I saw alot
of tropicals, 2 small and 1 large Jewfish "50lbs"
and a load of mangrove and grey snappers. I didn't shoot anything at
first, I wanted to recon the whole wreck for grouper
or Hogfish.
After a few minutes I spotted my dinner, a large Black Grouper
about 30" or so. The only problem was that he was educated on
spearfisherman, he went up under some debris and he wouldn't come out and
I didn't want to shove my new mahogany speargun up in it.
I went up for some air and found a Florida Marine Patrol scarrab next to
my kayak, so after the interrogation I was able to get back down
and look for the Black Grouper. I tried just about everything to lure him
out of the rocks be he was to smart, so I decided to look around for
another meal. I spotted a decent sized Gag in some patch coral and tried
closing the distance on him but he darted to another hole and
kicked out an even larger gag. The bigger Gag swam away from me but he
stopped about 10' away and froze out in the open, that was my chance.
It was a far shot but I hit him solid near his tail, he wasn't mortally
wounded so he put up a fight. Luckily I was able to get him into my
kayak without
hurting myself.
I was whipped' so I paddled home and prepared him for the
broiler, "it was good"!!!!!
Good luck, Joe
P.S I will send a picture when I get the film back