Spear Fishing In The Berry Islands

Currently Sunday night in the North Atlantic.  We haven’t seen a ship out here on radar in over 16 hours.  I guess the Coast Guard came out last night and circled us a few times.  Ryan was on watch and I knew nothing of it till the morning.  Back to last week in Nassau.

Sometimes a plan comes together.  In Nassau, I dialed up our old friend Ricco, the one who brought a case of Guinness to Julianne back in November.  We used Rico for transportation the next few days.  We dropped Mark and Jim off at the airport, and 20 minutes later we picked up Ryan and Sam, fresh from spearfishing in the Abacos.

9 lb Male Hog Fish

I brought the Alternator to a shop to have it repaired on the way to the airport, and picked it up on the way back.  They told me that the alternator was fine and to check to exciter wire upon re-installation.  I had already repaired the wire before bringing the alternator, as I thought I had broken it when I removed the unit.  As it turns out, the wire had broken, and was the route of the problem.

6 lb Female Hog Fish

With the alternator repaired we were ready to go, but the weather for Sunday was bad.  We made the decision to get out of Nassau and cruise to the Berry Islands in the bad weather to get an extra afternoon of spearfishing behind Soldier Cay.  It was a very rough ride, but well worth it when we caught 10 lobsters on the last day of lobster season in the Bahamas.  Sam cooked up one of her great dinners with a few of the lobsters and we retired with the crashing seas just on the other side of Soldier’s Cay.

Spear Fish "Trolling"

The next morning it was flat calm.  One of those rare epic days of no wind and clear skies.  Ryan had already made his plan.  Using Google Earth, he finds formations in the coral that are holding areas for the species we are targeting.  Today is Hogfish.  These fish, native to warm water reefs, cannot be caught by hook or net, so most folks have never eaten them.  For me, they are the best eating fish in the ocean.  Hog fish typically live next to or on top of reefs where there are fan corals or grass.  They do a great job of camouflaging themselves among these plants.

Same 9 lb Hogfish

The day before, I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with my spear.  I had missed one of the lobsters 3 times, before he walked out in the open for a final shot.  Today, however, was my day.  The large Hog in the picture was hiding behind a fan coral.  I dove to the 30 foot bottom, about 15 feet from the Hogfish on the opposite side of the fan coral.  I approached slowly and was within range, but I hesitated because I had never shot through fan coral before.  In that split second, he started to swim away.  It was a long shot, but I lead him by about a foot and he swam right into the spear.  A nine pound Hogfish currently vacuum-bagged and on its way to Boston.

Big Catch: Hogs & Grouper

Last Day of Lobster Season

Once again, Sam and I traded places diving and running the tender, while Ryan stayed in the water.  Sam had the same problem with the spear yesterday, but today we were both on.  Ryan filleted fish for over two hours and we spend over an hour vacuum-bagging the catch.

Yellow Fin Grouper

Hog & Black Grouper

The next day another front was coming in, so we decided to cruise to Great Harbor Marina to hide from the NW and NE winds forecast to be close to 30 knots.  Before we left, we did one more set of dives, this one targeting queen trigger fish.  If you like tuna fish sandwiches, Trigger fish prepared like tuna fish will blow you mind.  (I just ate one after writing this…delicious).

Sam, Ryan, Mike, Ricky

We docked at Great Harbor around 5 pm.  Ryan had captained a boat that was stationed here a few years back, so he had friends on the island.  After we got tied up, Ryan and Sam took off to catch up with the locals.

Vacuum Bag Operation

Ryan has 80 thousand followers on Instagram who follow his diving adventures.  My daughter Jackie is one of his followers.  He posted that he was in Great Harbor, and Mike from Miami was there with his wife on vacation.  Ryan and Sam met up with him and they went spearfishing the next day.  I was invited, but I had hurt my ear the day before, so decided to pass.

Deep Freezer on Top Shelf

They came back with stories of aggressive Bull sharks that forced both Ryan and Sam out of the water, but they were still able to round up dinner.  We were invited to Mike and Isa’s vacation home on the beach for dinner.  Conch Salad, Sushi, and fried Hog fish was on the menu.  It was a great meal surrounded by great spearfishing stories.

Sam On Watch Running Top Shelf

The next morning were up early for a 9 hour passage to West End Bahamas.  Our jumping off point for our longest passage yet back to the real world and Beaufort NC, USA.