Cedar Key spearfishing: 07-02 2014
Posted: July 4th, 2014, 10:42 am
My original Plan A was to offshore fish St Augy on Wednesday but TS Author messed up those plans with forecasted winds stronger than I wanted to run & fish in. Ironically on Tuesday my friend Evan from Gainesville called with an offer to spearfish Cedar Key and it appeared that TS Author was not expected to have much of an impact in the Gulf-forecasted winds were only 10 knots. Perfect…I love fishing & diving out of Cedar Key so Plan B it is!
Plan B: Wednesday morning I left Ponte Vedra early to meet Evan and his crew at the Cedar Key dock 3 hours away. We quickly stowed gear and launched the boat. On board Evan’s 28 foot AmeraCat catamaran was his 6 year old son Ethan (a TROOPER!!), his father Johnny and his friend Kennedy. Conditions were excellent at the ramp with light easterly winds and it looked like it would be a gorgeous day.
Evan’s 28’ AmeraCat
A great platform to dive off of!
Running out
On the way out Evan and his father Johnny did a quick dive in 56 feet to check out a spot and picked up a couple of red grouper and hogs. I gotta say it’s really, really cool for a son to be able to dive & spearfish with his father! Evan and Johnny have had many adventures together and it was cool to be part of another one with them.
3 generations of Stern’s!!
Six yr old Ethan was a TROOPER the entire day offshore!
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.
Kennedy with a nice pair of reds - one of which would go 17.5 lbs at the dock.
Me with a red
Ethan with his father and a couple of reds
Ethan the trooper!
Kennedy with the last gag of the day
Second count to double check numbers:
9 reds, 5 gag, 3 hogfish, 2 scamp, and 2 mangos
Conditions: From 72 - 45 feet the U/W temperature was 85 ˚F with a dark thermocline at 33 feet. Above the thermocline the water was dark & dirty. On the bottom horizontal vis was 40 feet with a fair amount of suspended particulate. A few nurse sharks were seen plus three large jewfish (Goliath) hanging out on a long 5 foot ledge.
Gotta love fresh phish samwitches over July 4th holiday weekend!
Hoo Yah!
Brian
Plan B: Wednesday morning I left Ponte Vedra early to meet Evan and his crew at the Cedar Key dock 3 hours away. We quickly stowed gear and launched the boat. On board Evan’s 28 foot AmeraCat catamaran was his 6 year old son Ethan (a TROOPER!!), his father Johnny and his friend Kennedy. Conditions were excellent at the ramp with light easterly winds and it looked like it would be a gorgeous day.
Evan’s 28’ AmeraCat
A great platform to dive off of!
Running out
On the way out Evan and his father Johnny did a quick dive in 56 feet to check out a spot and picked up a couple of red grouper and hogs. I gotta say it’s really, really cool for a son to be able to dive & spearfish with his father! Evan and Johnny have had many adventures together and it was cool to be part of another one with them.
3 generations of Stern’s!!
Six yr old Ethan was a TROOPER the entire day offshore!
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.
Kennedy with a nice pair of reds - one of which would go 17.5 lbs at the dock.
Me with a red
Ethan with his father and a couple of reds
Ethan the trooper!
Kennedy with the last gag of the day
Second count to double check numbers:
9 reds, 5 gag, 3 hogfish, 2 scamp, and 2 mangos
Conditions: From 72 - 45 feet the U/W temperature was 85 ˚F with a dark thermocline at 33 feet. Above the thermocline the water was dark & dirty. On the bottom horizontal vis was 40 feet with a fair amount of suspended particulate. A few nurse sharks were seen plus three large jewfish (Goliath) hanging out on a long 5 foot ledge.
Gotta love fresh phish samwitches over July 4th holiday weekend!
Hoo Yah!
Brian
