My first grouper
My first grouper ! Yip, I finally managed to increase my list of species caught. Though one thing is for sure, these fish are not easy prey. My first encounter with one was an interesting one.
I had never seen a grouper before whilst spearfishing. I had heard that it was possible to capture them here in Madeira, but never imagined doing so. A couple of weeks back a colleague from work had told me that her husband had captured a nice barracuda, along with an amber jack, and grouper. I was surprised to hear that a grouper was amongst the fish caught. Luckily for me she had taken some photos.
Photo Below : José with nice barracuda and Pedro sitting close by
Friday the thirteenth, funny day for spearfishing. The weather has for the past days been fairly good with the occasional lightly clouded day, but today proved to be the worst. Cloudy days can make visibility poor if the water is not too clean, and today was no exception.
As usual I entered the water from the Camara de Lobos port and went straight to the wave breakers trying to search for sea bream. Through past experiences, this has been one of the best places to capture these fish but to day would prove me wrong. 10 minutes of searching and it was time to head into deeper waters.
As some of you may have noticed through my earlier posts, my spearfishing season started off quite good, landing some nice amber jacks. Though for the past couple of weeks there has been no sighting. pity, since a really enjoy seeing these fish and even more so putting a spear through them. Nasty ! as a friend of mine would say :)
Past the point and off into the deep, to search for jacks. Surprisingly it was not amber jacks that were on the run, but lots of sea bream. Last week I had lost a spear because of one. These fish like to duck into holes and wait there till danger is gone.
Then Grouper ! Grouper ! what a surprise ! All the while this grouper had been swimming with the sea bream and I had mistaken it for some other species. I did not really know how to approach this fish, so I tried the "easy slide in", meaning I took a deep breath and slowly descended, trying to be as still as possible. Upon reaching the bottom I aimed my gun at the grouper who was still some distance away. Slowly it started towards me, and in my mind I was thinking, wait he will come to you, he is almost there.
Right ! no way buddy ! better luck next time. The grouper pulled a 180 on me and even more disturbing he kept coming back but never close enough. Up we went, quick breath check and back to grouper stalking. It was then that I started to understand this fish, curious but careful. After a game of cat and mouse, I decided that no grouper was worth blacking out for, so I left Mr. G to his business.
With so much sea bream around I turned my attention to them. I picked up this technique from watching spearfishing videos. Small sea bream will lead to big sea bream. Besides the fact that they like holes, they seem to believe in bumming with one another, meaning they like grouping together. So the small ones will lead to the big ones. True to my theory I managed to pop three sea bream, Mr Big, Mr medium and Mr small.
Upon searching for Mr. Tiny guess who decided to join the party. Waiting in a whole, with a big fish smile was Mr. G. This time he was cornered, no way out but still in the defensive position. I am one of those spearos who prefers to take a side shot instead of a head on one so I waited for him to turn but being a stubborn creature he did not.. A man can only stay down so long, and so I decided to risk the shot, bang the grouper was down but not dead. My biggest fear now was loosing the fish, so I quickly grabbed him by the tail and headed up. This was a slippery bugger, never remaining still, so I took the safe option and subdued the grouper.
Smiles and shouts of joy, my First Grouper !!!
I had never seen a grouper before whilst spearfishing. I had heard that it was possible to capture them here in Madeira, but never imagined doing so. A couple of weeks back a colleague from work had told me that her husband had captured a nice barracuda, along with an amber jack, and grouper. I was surprised to hear that a grouper was amongst the fish caught. Luckily for me she had taken some photos.
Photo Below : José with nice barracuda and Pedro sitting close by
Friday the thirteenth, funny day for spearfishing. The weather has for the past days been fairly good with the occasional lightly clouded day, but today proved to be the worst. Cloudy days can make visibility poor if the water is not too clean, and today was no exception.
As usual I entered the water from the Camara de Lobos port and went straight to the wave breakers trying to search for sea bream. Through past experiences, this has been one of the best places to capture these fish but to day would prove me wrong. 10 minutes of searching and it was time to head into deeper waters.
As some of you may have noticed through my earlier posts, my spearfishing season started off quite good, landing some nice amber jacks. Though for the past couple of weeks there has been no sighting. pity, since a really enjoy seeing these fish and even more so putting a spear through them. Nasty ! as a friend of mine would say :)
Past the point and off into the deep, to search for jacks. Surprisingly it was not amber jacks that were on the run, but lots of sea bream. Last week I had lost a spear because of one. These fish like to duck into holes and wait there till danger is gone.
Then Grouper ! Grouper ! what a surprise ! All the while this grouper had been swimming with the sea bream and I had mistaken it for some other species. I did not really know how to approach this fish, so I tried the "easy slide in", meaning I took a deep breath and slowly descended, trying to be as still as possible. Upon reaching the bottom I aimed my gun at the grouper who was still some distance away. Slowly it started towards me, and in my mind I was thinking, wait he will come to you, he is almost there.
Right ! no way buddy ! better luck next time. The grouper pulled a 180 on me and even more disturbing he kept coming back but never close enough. Up we went, quick breath check and back to grouper stalking. It was then that I started to understand this fish, curious but careful. After a game of cat and mouse, I decided that no grouper was worth blacking out for, so I left Mr. G to his business.
With so much sea bream around I turned my attention to them. I picked up this technique from watching spearfishing videos. Small sea bream will lead to big sea bream. Besides the fact that they like holes, they seem to believe in bumming with one another, meaning they like grouping together. So the small ones will lead to the big ones. True to my theory I managed to pop three sea bream, Mr Big, Mr medium and Mr small.
Upon searching for Mr. Tiny guess who decided to join the party. Waiting in a whole, with a big fish smile was Mr. G. This time he was cornered, no way out but still in the defensive position. I am one of those spearos who prefers to take a side shot instead of a head on one so I waited for him to turn but being a stubborn creature he did not.. A man can only stay down so long, and so I decided to risk the shot, bang the grouper was down but not dead. My biggest fear now was loosing the fish, so I quickly grabbed him by the tail and headed up. This was a slippery bugger, never remaining still, so I took the safe option and subdued the grouper.
Smiles and shouts of joy, my First Grouper !!!
posted by Beto Serrao at 9:51 PM
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