Outdoors

Daily fishing report

By BILL HARDMAN
Published September 24, 2005

Just when visibility started to improve from the stirred up seas generated by Hurricane Katrina we get big seas from Hurricane Rita. The visibility became clear enough to spearfish this past weekend in depths just under the 100-foot mark. The fish are there and most of our divers were getting off clean shots with visibility averaging 15 to 20 feet.

A few gag grouper over 20 pounds were reported and snapper are prevalent on most of the ledges. Amberjacks are still running small, but the good news is lobsters. Our divers are still having fairly good luck locating the spiny creatures. Most of the lobsters have been found just west of the areas that are still affected by the Red Tide. That means ledges in the 80 to 100 foot depths.

The middle grounds were just starting to get reasonable visibility. Many of our divers found a cloudy layer of water just below the surface that extended down from two to 15 feet. After they cleared this cloudy layer visibility improved. The fish are in the grounds but good concentrations are spotty. Hopefully, the east winds from Hurricane Rita will not stir up our offshore areas too much and spearing will continue to improve throughout the upcoming week.

Bill Hardman teaches scuba, freediving and spearfishing at Aquatic Obsessions, 6193 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, FL 33710. You can reach Hardman at 727 344-3483 or bill@tampabayspearfishingclub.org

[Last modified September 24, 2005, 01:00:22]