Nothing quite like the feeling of that first run from a big Wahoo

Just got back from a last minute trip, sorry for not posting in a while but…. it was all worth it.

More to come

Cameron Kirkconnell

robert.mahood@safmc.net

gregg.waugh@safmc.net

roger.pugliese@safmc.net

brian.cheuvront@safmc.net

Kari.Maclauchlin@safmc.net

anna.martin@safmc.net

john.carmichael@safmc.net

myra.brouwer@safmc.net

Mike.Errigo@safmc.net

Sadly, as Spearfisherman we talk a lot about how horrible all these closures are and bitch about it after the fact but when it comes down to it we don’t step up and help prevent the management from passing this stuff in the first place.

Please take the time to write a short email, offer your help first. As divers, we spend more time underwater actually viewing this habitat without spooking everything off or relying on a few hooks baited with frozen cigar minnows soaked 1.7nm from the actual spot that is holding fish.

All of that GoPro footage you have of Red Snapper, Gag Grouper, Red Grouper, Warsaws, Rock Hind and really any other bottom fish on our coast is gold. Get a YouSendit Account and shoot them over videos with a time and place where it was. This is irrefutable proof that there are fish still out here and a challenge to them to utilize one of their greatest fact finding resources which is us.

Do us all a favor though and deal in fact, be courteous, professional and lets work with them to make sure there is something, anything left to hunt in the coming years by showing them what is still out there.

The below  is the press release from the SAFMC. Get involved.  Join the FRA who have been fighting for our fishing and fighting rights as well.

Your kids will thank you.

Cameron Kirkconnell

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is holding a series of six public hearings and scoping meetings regarding fisheries management measures proposed for several federally managed species. Public hearings will be held on proposed limits to the commercial golden tilefish fishery, area closures and gear markings for the commercial spiny lobster fishery, and a catch share program for the harvest of golden crab. The Council will also conduct scoping meetings for input on measures impacting the shrimp fishery in both state and federal waters, plus a series of measures proposed in the Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 3.  The measures will impact both commercial and recreational fishermen who fish in federal waters between 3 and 200 miles offshore ranging from the North Carolina/Virginia state line southward to the east coast of Florida and the Florida Keys.

Public Hearings will be held on three separate amendments:

Amendment 18B to the Snapper Grouper Fishery Management Plan proposes limits to participation in the commercial golden tilefish fishery through the establishment of endorsements for the longline and hook and line sector, changes to the fishing year, allocations between gear sectors, modifications/establishment of trip limits, and modification to the Annual Catch Limit (ACL).

Spiny Lobster Amendment 11 for the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico includes measures to create new area closures for the commercial lobster trap fishery in federal waters off the coast of Florida to help protect staghorn and elkhorn corals from gear impacts and alternatives for commercial trap line marking requirements.

Golden Crab Amendment 6 includes alternatives for establishing a catch share program for the commercial golden crab fishery in the South Atlantic.

Informal Public Scoping comments will be taken on two amendments currently being considered by the Council:

Shrimp Amendment 9 would modify the current protocol used by individual states to request concurrent closures of federal waters during severe cold weather in order to expedite the closure process and help protect over-wintering shrimp populations. The amendment would also revise the Minimum Stock Threshold proxy for pink shrimp.

Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 3 explores options for restricting the use of powerhead gear by divers off the coast of North Carolina and throughout federal waters in the South Atlantic, expansion of deepwater coral Habitat Areas of Concern (HAPCs), establishment of mid-shelf marine protected areas (MPAs) to help protect speckled hind and warsaw grouper, the designation of a new MPA in the Florida Keys, establishing a recreational tag program for deepwater species, minimum size limits for hogfish, changes to bag/size limits for gray triggerfish, and modifications to commercial and for-hire permits and reporting requirements to ensure Annual Catch Limits are not exceeded.

The hearings/meetings will be open from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM.  Council staff will provide periodic presentations and be on hand to answer questions.  Local Council representatives will take formal comments on the proposed measures any time between those hours.  The Council is also accepting written and email comments from January 13, 2012 until 5:00 p.m. on February 15, 2012.  Copies of the public hearing and scoping documents with details on how to submit written comments will be posted on the Council’s web site and available by contacting the Council office at 843/571-4366 or Toll Free 866/SAFMC-10.

SAFMC Public Hearing/Scoping Meeting Schedule
4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Tuesday, January 24
Crowne Plaza
4831 Tanger Outlet Boulevard
North Charleston, SC 29418
Phone: 843/744-4422

Thursday, January 26
BridgePointe Hotel & Marina
101 Howell Road
New Bern, NC 28526
Phone: 252/636-3637

Monday, January 30
Hilton Key Largo Resort
97000 Overseas Highway
Key Largo, Florida 33037
Phone: 305/852-5553

Tuesday, January 31
Hilton Cocoa Beach
1550 North Atlantic Avenue
Cocoa Beach, FL 32931
Phone: 321/799-0003

Wednesday, February 1
Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Riverfront
1201 Riverplace Boulevard
Jacksonville, FL 32207
Phone: 904/398-8800

Thursday, February 2
Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum
175 Bourne Avenue
Pooler, Georgia 31322
Phone: 912/748-8888

Stacey and Ali and I think there is a speargun in there somewhere

Yesterdays meeting went well and Tony Grogan from Spearboard was there to document and offer some words of encouragement to the attendees as well for the Treasure Coast Skin Divers.  Check out all the pics and write up on Spearboard.com  click Cameron Kirkconnell Pics for the story and pics

Went well, met some great guys and some beautiful girls. I think the Treasure Coast has been hiding some of their best until now (married). Diving is great there when you can get the conditions.

I showed a bunch of pictures from there from over the years and was good to talk shop with everyone.

Can’t wait to see you all again and do some diving together. Special thanks to Christian for taking me out on the water!

CK

Erin Magee taught me how to Freedive Safely and expand my limits at a PFI class

I had the pleasure of meeting Erin at my PFI class last month and after some encouragement she has started her own blog to share her experience and knowledge on Freediving with the rest of us. I have been following it and look forward to getting better at Freediving while watching her personal quest to push her own limits and help train more divers like you and I reach their full potential.

Here is a little bit about Erin from her Blog.  Check her out at FreediveBlog.com

Cameron Kirkconnell

From her blog:

Who is Erin? And why on earth should I listen to her? Here’s the basic rundown of who I am, my freedive background, etc. Enjoy!  Erin grew up in Alexandria, Virginia and spent much of her life on the water before becoming very interested in seeing what was beneath the surface. In high school she rowed competitively for her school’s crew team, but really developed an interest in diving when she was in college at the University of Virginia. “I planned a trip to Europe for a couple of months during a summer break from school. It took about a year or so of planning before I left,” she said. “I looked forward to it the whole year. I finally got to go on the trip, but when it was over I needed something else to look forward to so I signed up for scuba lessons.” She learned to scuba dive in Lake Rawlings quarry in Virginia, where the water was dark and very cold. She said that even though she couldn’t see much and was freezing her butt off, she fell in love with diving right then and there. After she graduated from college she spent a week at home before packing up her car and moving to the Florida Keys, where she worked as a scuba instructor for several years. The clarity and warmth of the water solidified her love for the underwater environment. While working at the dive shop she developed her interest in freediving. “It started when I was working on the boat. If someone dropped a mask or a weight on the bottom, I’d hop in and get it for them,” she said. “But then it was never enough. I always wanted to go back down, stay there and see what I could do.” But after a couple of years of freediving on her own, Erin decided to get more training to increase both her safety and overall ability in the sport, so she took Performance Freediving’s intermediate course. “I couldn’t believe that I could hold my breath for over four minutes and that I could go so deep. Now I get to help other students reach those goals. It’s really rewarding,” she said. After taking the course she continued training recreationally while continuing to work at the dive shop and while working for a Florida Keys newspaper called The Reporter, a paper for which she freelances as a dive columnist writing Beneath the Surface. In January 2009, she decided to ditch the scuba tanks and become a freediving instructor for Performance Freediving. In May 2009, she took part in her first competition in PFI’s “Breathless” event in Grand Cayman, placing third in the women’s division and reaching depths of 55 meters/180 feet. In May 2010 she competed in “Deja Blue,” PFI’s annual competition in Grand Cayman and broke Tanya Steeter’s longstanding US National Record in Constant Ballast with a dive to 71m/233 feet. In May 2011 she competed again in “Deja Blue Deux,” breaking her own record four more times, reaching 80m/262 feet in the discipline Constant Ballast. Following her competition performance Erin competed in the 2011 Formula3Freediving Grand Prix and won alongside her two teammates in this first-ever underwater competitive freediving scooter race! She now works as one of the head instructors for PFI and teaches intermediate courses around the country and beyond and writes her own blog on www.freediveblog.com. “My overall goal with this job is to help build up the freediving community and to bring an awareness of freediving to more people,” she said. “It really is a sport for people of all ages and physical abilities and because it comes in many different forms and disciplines, there’s something in it for everyone.”

photos courtesy of Bloody Decks Outdoors click for BD Outdoors Story

I’ve been telling you to click on the Punta Mita Expeditions banner to the right…

If you listened then likely you have been keeping your mouth shut and enjoying trips filled with 200+lb Yellowfin, Wahoo, Sailfish and Marlin not to mention the best Pargo diving in Central America all on the same day.

If you haven’t been, then you are missing out on the chance for huuuuuuge Yellowfin Tuna, like this 430 lb (potential World Record) one taken just two days ago there.

You can go with another charter, fisherman, whatever but there is no substitution for the Punta Mita program which Sebastian Melani has put together.  Fisherman have the ability to cover a lot of ground and depths and this doesn’t necessarily transfer to being able to put divers on the right spot consistently and having dove this area for many years and trained his Captains to set you up for the drifts, chum, handle the gear, and take care of you from the time you land to the last taco and cerveza.

I can’t promise you are going to see a 400lb Yellowfin Tuna, but I can assure you there is no where in the world that compares for delivering monsters and no better place to find them.

Book your trip today and get on it while it is going off!

CK

Note:

To help convince your wife, girlfriend, or pretentious diva dive partner to go down there, here is how to do it right, in style but affordable while still crushing the fish.

Punta Mita is the northern point of land closest to the fishing/diving spots. You fly in to Puerta Vallarta and stay in Punta Mita which is a quiet fishing town turned high end resort, golf, sportfishing, surfing destination.

Through PM Expeditions we stayed last time here:  St. Regis Punta Mita which was phenomenal.  They booked everything for us and the price was nearly half the advertised I could find anywhere else on the internet and the accommodations were unreal. Check it out.

Checking out the surf from our balcony. I surfed every day in an empty line up all to myself just steps from the bedroom

Not your typical spearfishing crash pad but after fighting big Yellowfins all day it was nice to come back to this

Morning wave waiting for the boat to pick me up out front...

Morning Dolphin Mahi Mahi

Mark Healey on the Cover of Hawaii Skin Diver this month. Picture by Cameron Kirkconnell

Beautiful Women and big Fish in exotic places... I love my life.

While this isn’t my first cover, this is probably the one I am most proud of. I’ve learned a lot about photography from DJ Struntz and I guess everyone gets lucky sometimes and this day it worked out and we got some incredible shots.
Mark is a great subject and always has the biggest fish of the trip and understands how to make it work for photos.
This Fiji Trip was all time. I talked to www.freedivefiji.com again this week and am doing all that I can to make it on their liveaboard trips they are doing this coming year to explore some of the far reaches of Fiji.
If you haven’t already subscribed to Hawaii Skin Diver you are missing out on one of, if not the best, Spearfishing Magazine every produced. Each Magazine is a collectors item with incredible stories, pictures, and layouts.
Subscribe here: Hawaii Skin Diver Magazine Subscription

Get your paws on some lobsters this season but leave these alone, they are spoken for.

Here’s your chance to enlighten me and correct me if I’m wrong.
I’m heading to Southern California tomorrow and need to get “legal” so that I can go lobster diving with some friends. I’ve done some prep work and simplified the Lobster Regulations to help you and me but ask the advice of you local experts to make sure we get it straight and do it legally so I can come home with some of this:

A limit (7 per person) of California Spiny Lobsters

I’ve already gone on the California Department of Fish and Game purchased a Fishing License.

Then I read the Regulations for lobster in the 2011/12 Ocean SportFishing Regulations

and realized that I had to have a Lobster Report card too. So now it doesn’t look like I can get it online so I’ll have to stop in and get one when I arrive at one of the Tackle Stores or else I won’t be able to have this for dinner:

If you read the regulations it tells you that you will have to fill out the card before you even get in the water each time when you are targeting lobster even if you don’t bring any back in. Good to know.
Your License and Card need to be on the boat, kayak or if you are shore diving, within 500meters of your point of entry.

Important Dates:
First Day of Season-Last Day of Season
Saturday October 1, 2011 – Wednesday March 21, 2012

The basics:
You are allowed 7 lobster per person.
carapace have to be 3.25 inches

A big difference from other places in the USA and world is that you can only use your hands, no nets, hooks, nooses?, or Tickle Sticks.

So I’m ready. Legally.
Now all I have to do is get my dive light, bag, gloves, 7mm suit and the rest of my gear which needs to include another important item, LOBSTER GAUGE.
Here’s how you gauge them to make sure they are legal. You need to measure them while you are still in the water and let any go that are too small, check it out:

I’ve dove lobsters all over the world and the ones in California have always been some of the best tasting and fun to hunt amongst the kelp, rocks, sea urchins, and moonlight and I’ll let you know how we do.
Wherever you dive, make sure you are safe and legal and feel free to offer any tips to guys like me who are new to your waters and want to respect the resource and the locals.

My goal for the dive is to have a good time and learn from Joel who is taking me and hope that we can both get some good lobsters for a late dinner with friends and family.
And I wouldn’t mind having one big daddy like this to show off to you all when we get back in:

Joel Olenik of Electric Visual with a stud Lobster

If you have any lobster tips for Diving in California, whether it be regulations interpretation, where to go, do’s and don’ts, or just want to share some experiences, post your comments below.
Here’s another except of the more detailed Regs.

More Regs:
29.90. SPINY LOBSTERS.
(a) Open season: From the Saturday preceding the first Wednesday in October through the first Wednesday after the 15th of March.
(b) Limit: Seven.
(c) Minimum size: Three and one-fourth inches measured in a straight line on the mid-line of the back from the rear edge of the eye socket to the rear edge of the body shell. Any lobster may be brought to the surface of the water for the purpose of measuring, but no undersize lobster may be brought aboard any boat, placed in any type of receiver, kept on the person or retained in any person’s possession or under his direct control; all lobsters shall be measured immediately upon being brought to the surface of the water, and any undersize lobster shall be released immediately into the water. (d) Report Card Required: Any person fishing for or taking spiny lobster shall have in their possession a non-transferable Spiny Lobster Report Card issued by the department and shall adhere to all reporting requirements for lobster defined in Sections 1.74 and 29.91, Title 14, CCR.
(e) Spiny lobsters shall be kept in a whole, measurable condition, until being prepared for immediate consumption. 29.91. SPINY LOBSTER REPORT CARD REQUIREMENTS FOR OCEAN WATERS. (a) Spiny Lobster Report Card Required. All individuals
must have a Spiny Lobster Report Card in their possession while fishing for or taking lobster. In the case of a person diving from a boat, the report card may be kept in the boat, or in the case of a person diving from the shore, the report card may be kept within 500 yards from the point of entry. Individuals must complete and return the card pursuant to regulations in this Section and in Section 1.74.
(b) Prior to beginning fishing activity, the cardholder must record the month, day, location, and gear code on the first available line on the report card. (c) When the cardholder moves to another location code, or finishes fishing for the day, he or she must immediately record on the card the number of lobster kept from that location.
(d) In the event an individual fills in all lines and returns a Spiny Lobster Report Card, an additional card may be purchased. See Section 1.74. (e) The annual fee for the Spiny Lobster Report Card is specified in Section 701, Title 14, CCR.

A bit of video from the Cameron Kirkconnell segment on the OneFish DVD.
For the amount of action that is in this clip I should have talked a hell of a lot more excitedly! This was a pretty awesome couple of days that are in this video and I’m working on doing another couple videos so time to get out there and do some more diving so it equals this one!
If you want to see the full DVD, click here: SPEARODVD.com

I’ll be speaking as a guest host and it will be a great chance to meet a lot of good divers from the East Coast.
Looking forward to seeing you all there and having a few beers and making some new friends. Check Johns Video out:

Pretty awesome video nonetheless. A Big Mako on the surface is an impressive sight and one this size would have no problem grinding that 300lb Marlin.
Gotta respect, and fear, something that has no issues chowing down on a stainless propellor, not once, but twice to prove his point.
He’s hungry.

Here’s another case of initial mistaken identity:

and another one of comparable size coming after another marlin…

Either way it is a big fish. Damn big shark and a great experience for the guys to see him in the water. These are the top predators and have my utmost respect.
Awesome videos.
CK