Report - Tristate Skindivers 9th Annual Tog Blast Spearfishing Tournament - Dave Gleeson

Date: 10/13/18 TOG BLAST

Location: Newport, RI

Viz: 2-8’
Temp: 63

Report Contributor: Dave Gleeson

Conditions were tough for TriState’s annual Tog Blast tournament, but a handful of divers out of the 23-man field weighed in some respectable fish, including a beastly 12# Tog from Eric Faust!

Mike Meyer and myself headed out mid morning. Strong winds from the NW and the heavy rain from the day prior left me with low expectations in terms of visibility. Sure enough, our first stop out front was tough, with a strong ground swell churning up the bottom enough to reduce viz to less than 5 feet. Past a depth of 40 feet, it turned impossible to see anything. I ended up shooting my personal best black seabass, a 3.8lb specimen who holed up and took nearly 30 minutes of effort to extract from the rocks. Without Mike, I would have had to cut the line and call it a loss- just another reason a good buddy is important to have while diving.

Over an hour into our day, and we still hadn’t seen a tog big enough for a chance at the tournament podium, let alone had a shot at one. We pulled our anchor and shot up inside the bay, straight into the wind and chop in my small zodiac. We had better luck here, with about 8ft viz in some spots. I took one healthy male tog, weighing in at 7.8lbs, just enough to earn 3^rd place in the tog blast. Mike took a nice male as well.

The fish are certainly in, and in decent numbers. As long as the swell and wind continues, the  toughest part in the coming weeks is going to be finding clear enough water to hunt them.

Thanks again to Mike Meyer and Mike Landau for putting on another awesome tournament, and congratulations to Eric on an awesome fish to win it.

Results, top 3 fish.
Eric Faust - 12.0 lbs
Eric Cadorette - 9.7 lbs
Dave Gleeson - 7.8 lbs

 

Dive Safe

Dave

May 18, 2017 Scott Bianco Spearfishing Report - 19.26 lb Tautog !

Date: May 18, 2017

Report Contributor: Scott Bianco

Thank you to Scott for graciously taking the time to give us a report of him freedive spearfishing that 19.26 lb Tautog !  Can I call it TOGNASAURUS ?

It all started with a text "got time for a quick after work dive?". After a long day the last thing I felt like doing was trailering the boat down and taking a beating from the south gusting wind. After much debating I decide why not lets do it. At the ramp I almost called it while looking out at the gusting wind figuring there wouldn't be much vis. Brian convinces me to make the boat trip and we head out. Once there we anchor in some shelter from the wind and suit up. Conditions aren't the best, south wind with an outgoing tide, the top five feet had a brown haze making the vis about 2 feet but opening up to great 8' vis below. 

As we swim away from the boat and towards the rocks Brian says to me go left and he will go right. I head off to the left and start to make my first drop of the evening. I start my decent and about 3 feet down I notice a white chin through the haze passing me on my right shoulder. I level off and remain motionless, only moving my eyes to track the fish. The white spot barley visible passing in front of me towards the left, then circles back to dead center.

The words of a great dive friend going through my head ,don't move anything don't move your fins relax and be part of the ocean. I was able to see a little patch of white belly behind the white chin so I knew from the spacing that the fish was of good size.I kept my gun pulled in tight to my body making sure not to "track the fish" waiting patiently for the fish to turn and become centered in front of me. I shot between the two white patches and the spear landed center mass and the white spots stopped moving instantly. 

I swam up to it and got a solid grasp on the barb end of the spear and pulled the fish in tight to my body and started swimming it up to the rocks. Once  I had a grasp on the fish it came to life like they usually do, but this one was different I knew I had something bigger then I have ever shot before. With a good amount of struggle I manage to get me and the fish on the rocks and out of the water. Seeing the fish out of the water really hit home fast just how big this fish really was. I held on with both hands for a few minutes till I knew the fish was dead. The ocean offered up an amazing fish to us that evening. Fish prints will be made to honor the life of the fish.   

Scott Bianco

May 18, 2017 Narragansett Bay Spearfishing Report - Ricardo Cruelles

Date: 5/18/2017 

Location: Narraganssett Bay

Report Contributor: Ricardo Cruelles

A QUICK LUNCH BREAK DIVE!

When the mercury hit 99 today in RI’s Capital City, I knew it was time to get down bay and hop in for a quick lunchtime dive. I met up with @roosterman at the agreed upon spot, we suited up and jumped in, not wasting any time. 

The water temp was about 56 degrees, very comfortable with a 5mm suit, viz was very nice for the bay, although when the tide started ripping in it went dark quickly.

On the way to one of my faithful spots, I decided to dive under some structure and, much to my surprise, a legal bass came at me like a WWII Kamikaze….. BANG! That was definitely his last mission! A nice start with an early bass in the stringer. I continued on with my swim and made a few dives on decent piles of fish. We were being selective so we made a few more dives before taking our limits of tog. One of the fish went to 9lbs today.

The wind and the tide kicked up and we knew it was time to get back to work, but not before harvesting enough mussels for a nice meal. Mike was on a mission to win a bet he had going with boys, apparently the 1^st one to get a Sea Robin was to be the winner, well, he nailed a nice one within 5 minutes of being in the water!

Weather looks ok this weekend, with the exception of some wind moving in, I say find some lee and get in there! It is definitely fishy out there and the water is starting to warm up nicely. Lots of schoolie size bass with the occasional larger fish mixed in, I even saw a couple schools of scup today!

Thanks to @roosterman for couple of the pics and congrats on some tasty sea robin table fair.

Pura Vida!

Ricardo