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By CHAD CARNEY
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 10, 2001
Spearfishing on wrecks in 100-130 feet of water at the end of the week produced amberjack, gag grouper and mangrove snapper. Although the water temperature surprisingly dropped to 64 degrees, we were happy to find 25 feet of visibility where reports were of less than 10.
The Mexican Pride, a large barge 35 miles west of Pass-a-Grille, is intact at the bow and stern, rising 25-30 feet. It attracted lesser amberjack and a 35-pound greater AJ we linespeared. Collapsed bulkheads, deck plates and gunwales are becoming havens for juvenile gag grouper with occasional adults from 5-20 pounds. The spring, 5 miles northwest of the Pride, was flowing green water, like diving in split-pea soup!
Near Bradenton, on smaller wrecks with broken structure, we found gags up to 20 pounds and some 5-8 pound mangrove snappers. Long shots with free shafts worked well with little risk of losing spears. We shot our limit of amberjack among medium-sized schools with long-barbed linespears and Kevlar lines.
It's still too early on deep wrecks for cobia, one of spearfishing's major challenges in late spring.
- Chad Carney teaches scuba and spearfishing. Call (727) 423-7775 or e-mail info@mobilescuba.com.