Spearfishing Vlog July 30th, 2012

I did a couple dives this morning in about 45 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico. I took my GoPro HD camera down for the first dive and here are the results. Enjoy!

Judah and Ellie love to show off the catch

The Mid-Day Hog Hunt

Dennis and Willy from Cracker Heritage Hunting Preserve

My brother Jacob booked a hog hunt at Cracker Heritage Hunting Preserve for July 9. The plan was to do a little spot and stalk archery hog hunting early in the morning. As the date neared I tried to back out due to a money shortage; but Jacob, being the generous big brother he is, offered to pay for me and convinced me to stick with the plan.

July 9th came and my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. It took me a minute to figure out why the heck I was supposed to get up. When I realized I was supposed to be at Jacob's house by 4 a.m. I quickly got dressed and prepared to bring my gear to my truck. As I grabbed my phone off the charger I noticed I had missed a text from Jacob. He had a cut on his finger that got infected and had been at the E.R. for most of the night. The hunt was canceled, or so I thought.

I went back to bed and enjoyed sleeping in. Late in the morning Jacob called saying that his finger was doing better and that he was going to do a mid-day hunt. My first thought, "Are you crazy? A mid-day hog hunt? In July? With bows? Let me see if it's alright with my wife."

Soon we were on the road heading to the ranch with his daughter Shea and his son Noah. We arrived about 11:30 a.m. and met the ranch owner, Dennis, at a piece of the property he calls the heifer pasture. The property is a 600 acre working cattle ranch owned by a real cowboy named Dennis who is a sixth generation Florida Cracker. On the side he runs hunts with the help of his two sons and their crew of friends.

Jacob and his kids started stalking through a swamp at the front of the heifer pasture while I worked a creek on the back side. Dennis and his sons are the go-to guys to remove hogs with dogs and traps from nearby properties; they release them on the ranch, so there always seems to be plenty of hogs, if you can find them.

Me and Big Red

I had hunted this particular part of the ranch a lot and I knew some spots where I had found hogs bedding before. My plan was to walk very slowly and look for bedded hogs under brush piles and downed logs. It took a while to find one but eventually I came upon a brush pile where I saw a big red hog lying underneath. It took a minute to figure out which end was the front and decide the best way to take a bow shot at a bedded hog. I don't think there is a best way personally as the only shot at the vitals is a high shot to the lungs which are protected by a boars thick shield. I moved a little to the left to get a better angle and as I began to draw my bow his ears shot up and he busted out of there.

After spooking a few more bedded hogs without a chance at a bow shot I went to the van and traded my Mathews Switchback for my 12 gauge pump with a slug barrel. I went back to the spot where I first saw the big red boar and sure enough he was back with a couple of buddies. As he ran away I took a quick shot and rolled him into a ditch. As he rolled around I fired my last two slugs, missing once and grazing his skull a second time. As I approached him I saw that my first shot had gone through his ear and into his upper neck. I whipped out my iPhone and began taking pictures of the downed hog as I waited for it to expire.

Big Red's cutters

After about 5 minutes it got up and began slowly walking off. I walked alongside expecting it to fall back down. Its walk turned into a trot and I began jogging. Finally it broke out in a full blown run and I starting yelling for my brother to bring something with ammo in it. I watched it run across a pasture and into another swamp. After giving it a bit I walked into the spot I saw it go and nearly stepped on it before it took off deep in the woods. It was time to call Dennis to bring the dogs.

Dennis arrived with his son Sid who brought along his friend Willy to help work the dogs. They were training three puppies who found the big red boar in no time. When we heard the barking and the grunting we ran through the spiderweb infested swamp to catch up to the fight. Those puppies were doing their masters proud with this big red boar who had revived from being shot through the neck with a 12 gauge slug. Sid grabbed it by the tail and started playing ring around the rosy with it until Willy jumped in and grabbed the back legs, flipping and pinning it. Once we got the dogs off I used Jacob's 9mm handgun to put the hog down for good. My first shot was just behind the brain and just above the spine, enough to knock it out for five minutes but that's about it. Thanks to the dogs, that hog was down for good.

Noah with his feisty sow 

After giving the dogs a good rest Sid and Willy released them to find another one for Noah who wanted to get his first bow kill. The dogs found a few more hogs but the puppy in them came out as they kept getting distracted from the chase. Finally they bayed a fierce skinny sow that had given them a run for their money. As Sid called the dogs off, Noah had time for a quick broadside shot and flung his arrow right over its back. The chase was back on! The dogs caught up to it again in a creek bottom and Sid and I were the first ones on the scene. Once again he grabbed its tail and this time I jumped in, grabbed the back legs, flipped and pinned it. When the rest of the crew arrived Jacob carefully handed the pistol to Noah. A close shot behind the ear sent mud splattering across Noah's face and instantly expired the feisty sow.

The mid-day heat and Florida humidity had worn us out and from the look on the dogs face, they were thinking the same thing, time to call it a day. We brought the hogs to the barn and being that Jacob's finger was infected, butchering responsibilities were on my shoulders. It was the least I could do for such a generous big brother. Willy was surprised that we did all of the butchering ourselves, but for me it's a vital part of the hunting experience. What started out sounding like a crazy notion actually worked out pretty good, thanks in a big part to the dogs.

While I doubt  I'll ever again go on a mid-day hog hunt, here's a little advice for anyone who finds themself in a similar situation:

1. Stalk bedding areas. It's amazing how a bedded hog will lie still under a bush just yards away from an unsuspecting hunter. Go slow and look carefully under downed trees, palmetto heads, brush piles and tall marsh grasses. I've come upon a lot of hogs in this way. Just be ready for action and bring some extra toilet paper because they will scare the crap out of you when they bust off!

2. Get a hog dog.

While success on a mid-day hog hunt is possible, I wouldn't recommend it.

Gag Grouper: Back in Season

After many months of throwing big Gag Grouper back in the water and watching them swim past my spear gun without being able to pull the trigger, they have finally come back in season! Danny, Jonny, Dustin and myself left the dock early this morning in hopes of filling the cooler with grouper slabs. I went to take the pinfish out of a bait hotel I had filled up and left at the Marina on Friday only to find that someone else got a lot of nice baits without much effort yesterday. So for about the next hour and a half we worked on trying to fill the bait well, you can never have too much bait.

Dustin showing off our catch

It was a flat calm morning and the water is finally starting to clean up after Tropical Storm Debbie made a mess of things in the Gulf. We tried a few ledges in 50 - 60 feet of water only to catch the typical 18" Red Grouper. But after going to a ledge in 85 feet of water we quickly dug seven big Gags off the bottom and into the cooler. It feels a lot better throwing a fat Gag into the cooler than it does throwing one back into the water! Just when we were about to leave, a school of small Mahi Mahi showed up and mixed the action up. We ended up catching eight of them on jigs and small pieces of sardines. We would leave one in the water until someone else hooked up, in this way we were able to keep the school at the boat. After the last few took off we moved on to a mitigation area near the pipeline for our last stop.

My Cobia and cool sunglasses

On the way I chunked up a bonita and a bunch of threadfins for chum. When we arrived we were happy to see that we had the spot to ourselves. That's the benefit of having Mondays off. We began chumming in hopes of rising the snapper. I don't know if it was the full moon or what, but we could not get the snapper bite going. Our chumming efforts weren't in vain though. Dustin yelled, "Look, two sharks!" and I quickly corrected him, "Cobia!" I scambled to put a threadfin on my free-line set-up. One of them was huge, at least 6 feet long and man was he thick! The smaller one grabbed my threadfin, spit it out and then swallowed it again, the fight was on. I was expecting the big one to stick with him but unfortunately it took off, not to be seen again. After a nice fight that broke in a new heavy spinning rod set-up I put together over the weekend we gaffed a beautiful 40" cobia and put it in the cooler to join the other fish.

Huge American Red Snapper

After a few more fish we decided it was time for the last effort of the day. I brought a dive tank along for insurance. I suited up and because I knew that the big Cobia was still lurking somewhere out there, I elected to use a line shaft with my spear gun; I'm glad I did. When I reached the bottom that was littered with rock piles at 95 feet, I was greeted by a big Gag Grouper. He watched me swim down above him and as I neared shooting range he began to retreat. I took a long shot and missed. As I was retrieving my spear a huge American Red Snapper came swimming up beside me to see what the action was about. In a panic I put the shaft back in the gun and tried to load my band. In my haste I didn't lock the shaft in right and it came back out. I tried to calm my nerves as I carefully locked the shaft, loaded the band and without rewinding my line, shot the snapper as he quartered away. The shot went through it's stomach and it took off, taking me for a ride. I thought for sure it was going to rip off as snapper do so often when shot through the soft belly. I managed the get to it and grabbing the end of the shaft, I pinned it to the sand as I wrestled to put my kill ring through it's eyes. When it was secured I let out a Turtle Man holler under the water. I think I was the most excited I have ever been spearfishing. I continued on to shoot a Gag, a red grouper and two mangrove snapper. It was amazing how many huge fish were down there but at 95 feet a tank burns up quick and soon it was time to make my ascent.

Jonny with some small Mahi Mahi

When I got to the boat I was congratulated and we snapped a couple pictures of the 30" Red Snapper that was the icing on the cake for our day. Red snapper go out of season next week and due to the unusually windy June we've had it will most likely be the only one we have the privilege of eating this year. Red Snapper are my favorite eating fish in the Gulf and I am going to savoir every bite of it. But Gag Grouper are going to remain in season for a couple months to give us something to look forward to. At the end of the day we had a limit of 8 Gags, 2 Red Grouper, a Flounder, a Cobia, 8 Mahi Mahi, and a giant American Red Snapper. Not too shabby; now the hardest decision for us is what's for dinner: blackened Mahi Mahi, grilled Cobia? Grouper sandwiches? There's a lot of possibilities.