August 5, 2017 Newport RI Spearfishing Report - Tristate Skindivers 7th Annual Species Meet 2017

Date: 8/5/17
Location: Southern Narragansett Bay
Conditions: Heavy Chop, Fog, Rain
Visibility: 4-10 feet
Water Temp: 68F
Notable Gear - Rob Allen Tuna 80cm Roller Speargun

The Tri State Skindiver’s Species meet was held this past Saturday, and had an incredible turnout. With 87 divers registered, it was the largest spearfishing tournament on the east coast as far as anyone can tell. Thanks to TriState for organizing the meet, particularly Mike Myer and Mike Landau.

A quick edit of Saturday's species meet. Thanks to @singlebreathmike and @roosterman9 for organizing the LARGEST tournament on the east coast to date, it was awesome! Couldn't have broken into the top 10 without @fogger66 watching my back and @newenglandfreedive providing some of the best gear in the industry. . @hecsaquatic @spearfishing_reviews @spearchannel @newenglandfreedive @tristateskindivers @roballenusa

A post shared by Dave Gleeson (@dgleeson80) on Aug 7, 2017 at 4:58am PDT

Variety was the name of the game, and I set out with Brian Fogg to see what we could find. We opted to sleep in and stick to one location rather than moving around too much, and were in the water at 8:30am. Visibility was poor, but huntable, varying from 4-10 feet in some spots. 

I quickly located a school of bass, but found nothing large enough to shoot for over an hour. I saw small bass on probably 80% of my dives. 

Luckily, the scup were easier to find. I started the day with a quality scup, around 12.” It was swimming with a few tog, but I was able to pick it out of the school with my Rob Allen roller. Shortly thereafter, I found SCUPZILLA, and quickly put him on my stringer with another shot at the edge of my visibility. At 2.8 pounds and 17,” this was easily my largest scup on a spear, and ended up being a new TriState Club record.

A few dives later, I came across a shelf at 20’ that was loaded with small bass. I took a few drops and was lucky enough to find a keeper in the mix, adding a 31” bass to my stringer. Not a monster by any means, but the pressure was now off to find a tournament size striper. I moved on and quickly took my limit of tog in no more than 15’ of water, the third and largest being a 24” 8.3lb male. 

Unfortunately, this was as diverse as my haul would get. I dove for another couple of hours searching from 10 to over 40ft for black seabass, bluefish and fluke, but had no luck. I couldn’t find triggerfish in the shallows either, and we decided to call it quits in the early afternoon. It was a great day on the water, and the weigh in was an awesome way to end the day. Nearly everyone weighed fish, and quite a few divers had some really impressive stringers, showing the abundance of talent in our club.

With tog and seabass open, it’s going to be a great end to an already awesome summer.

Dive safe,

Dave

www.davegleeson.com

July 26, 2017 Spearfishing Report - Westport, MA

Date: 7/26/2017
Location: Westport, MA
Conditions: Flat
Visibility: 6 + ft

Short report. Had a new diver that needed a dive buddy to get him acquainted with his new gear and show him some in water instruction. Finally had some time yesterday to get out with him and headed to Westport for a shore dive.

After I could tell he had it down and was on the hunt I decided to look around myself as i trailed him. The water was 65 degreesand i was in my 3.5 mm Mares Instinct Wetsuit. .Visibility was around 6 foot vertically with a moderate amount of particulates in the water to cloud it up, but huntable. As we got out to 20-25 ft depth it cleared up pretty well underneath. Lots of borderline e to just over legal tautog were about, some schoolie bass, small bluefish, small scup and couple of small black sea bass. Nothing i didn't have to question myself harvesting so i held off.

After crossing a wide sandy patch I noticed a few large rocks on the bottom and dropped down to have a look see.Rounding the side i noticed there was was a nice overhang facing the ocean side and underside washed out, Immediately a fish darted and left a cloudy mess in its wake. I held out waiting for the cloud to clear and got lucky as one of the fish that had spooked circled and came back around for a look at me.  I immediately noticed it was the biggest seen so far on this dive. The HammerHead Raptor 95 cm held true as always and strung him through the eyes. I called over my dive buddy who was curious as to handle them after you shoot one. Showed him how to string them, pith them, reload and repeat lol.

The wind started to kick up and visibility decrease so after a few we called it a day and headed in.
Westport always seems to hold some decent fish and a wide variety of species. I hope to catch it on another day this week to catch up with the bluefish i was actually looking to harvest.

Back home I had a new scale to test out so this tautog at 25 + inches was a good one to try it out. Well 8.8 lbs, a decent tautog for a shore dive in July.

Live Well, Get Wet, Dive Safe
Mike

July 12, 2017 Lobster Diving Report, Plymouth, MA - Mike Chace

Location: Plymouth, MA
Water temp: 58 degrees
Conditions: flat calm, low tide

I finally slipped in a morning of badly needed water time this past week. The Plymouth area has been one of my favorite dive locations the past few years due to the great conditions and different marine life we experience there as compared to diving the south coast area. Dive buddy Eric and I arrived to meet our friend Ted to try a new location in the area. As we carried our gear down to the waters edge we were stoked to see the conditions we had hoped for, I have come to call this place the "Cold Caribbean". Gorgeous panoramic views with the sand bottom next to reef and rocks producing that turquoise color, it's easy to imaging you are looking at a tropical location in front of you. After diving warm cloudy inshore visibility in the Rhode Island area in the summer it is always a great change to slip into some cooler water with 25-30 ft visibility.

As we began to put fins on I noticed an odd wake coming up the shore from our right side about 100 yards offshore. The ocean was like glass with not a ripple anywhere so I pointed it out to my friends and we decided to watch it for a few minutes. A large V shaped wake moving slow and straight, it never deviated from the path it was swimming. There was no dorsal fin extending any height above the water but what ever was swimming just below the surface was very large and produced a significant wake. We decided to hold off and watch it some more time, fearing it possibly be "The GW" we all hoped we would never see there someday. I was hoping it was a big bluefin in shallow for some reason but it swam too straight line and did not act at all like tuna on the surface, it was not a whale as it was only in 25 feet of water and we never saw a back or fluke, or see it dive, or anything else that would lead us to believe it was a small whale. We have all known this area has GW visiting since the seal population has expanded in recent years, but we personally have never had any encounters or sightings.

(what is this dive float / cooler you might ask? stay tuned for new product release) 

After we watched it swim off heading north about a 1/4 mile out of site we decided we would just stay in near the reef in shallow and poke around for some lobsters among the rocks then evaluate it some more. After a few minutes in the water I surfaced to find myself amid a school of jumping menhaden being pushed in to me by a group of seals balling them up and pushing them into the shallows. We swam in to standing depth and watched the show of 6-7 large grey seals pushing and aggressively feeding on the fish they had balled up in shallow. Once they had pushed the fish further down the beach about 200 yards we resumed diving.

I managed to pull 4 really nice lobsters very quickly within 1/2 hour. I did see a couple of large females held up deep in their holes i did not bother with assuming they were eggers. Twenty minutes later we surfaced again to find the seals pushing fish into us again. This happened one more time as well and the seals were now swimming in to 20 feet away to check us out and wonder why we were amid their dinner. Finally we decided that the amount of feeding seals, dead oily fish in the water from them, and the rather large critter that swam by earlier was just not the smartest combination of conditions to be in the water with. so we called it and headed in. Diving this area seems to get sketchier every time i try lately. Unfortunate, as it such a pretty area.

 Eric and I stopped at one of my little neck spots on the ride home to complete an interesting day. With som lobsters and littlenecks now secured I could now cook a dish my wife and kids have become very fond of... a Pad Thai with New England Shellfish (pic above) , I will post recipe in coming days.

Dive Safe,
Mike

July 5, 2017 Newport Spearfishing Report - Dave Gleeson

Date: 7/5/17

Location: Newport RI

Water Temp: 68

Vis: 15-20ft

Light winds and calm seas had me hoping for clear water off Newport this week, and didn’t disappoint. Visibility ranged from 15 to over 20 ft in some areas, with plenty of life in the water. My 3mm suit is now perfect for a full day of diving, and I couldn’t be happier to hang up the 5mm in exchange for nearly half the restriction and bulk.

 

Schools of 25-30 inch fish were out in force, but I was after a big bass, and I let a few keeper fish swim by in hope of running into something bigger.  Distracted by a few schoolies during one dive, I missed what proved to be my only chance at a larger bass when I failed to notice it until it had swam past me. 

A little black seabass action from July 5th. Arguably the best tasting fish in New England, the pair I shot this day were hanging out in the rocks at 35ft. @newenglandfreedive . @tristateskindivers

A post shared by Dave Gleeson (@dgleeson80) on Jul 7, 2017 at 12:37pm PDT

Black seabass were around from 25-35 feet, and I took two nice fish that I could not pass up. Usually, I wouldn’t have chanced having an unloaded gun while hunting for striper, but the humphead seabass were too tempting.

Dive Safe,
Dave

www.davegleeson.com

Firday's dive produced a bass, report coming.

Diver Bio - Dave Gleeson

Growing up on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, the majority of my time was spent on the water from a very young age. I taught myself to freedive and spearfish at the age of 15, and fell in love with the sport immediately. I’ve done hundreds of dives in the 8 years since, hunting striped bass and tautog in the murky waters of Newport and New England.

I studied Marine Biology at the University of Rhode Island as a way to continue spending as much time on the water as possible. I graduated from URI in 2015, but not before I traveled to Chile, Antarctica and the Caribbean on research expeditions. It was on these expeditions that I realized my affinity for photography, which is a talent I’ve practiced in conjunction with my freediving in order to share unique perspectives of the ocean that I love. As a self taught photographer who specializes in seascapes and ocean photography, my work has been featured on the cover of Newport Life Magazine and various storefronts in downtown Newport. I am now enrolled in URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography, currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Oceanography, and diving whenever I possibly can!

June 11, 2017 Newport RI Spearfishing Report - Dave Gleeson

Date: 6/11/2017

Location: Newport RI- Out Front

Water Temp: 58

Vis: 10-12ft

A small pre-work dive window had presented itself to me on Sunday and I decided to take it. Despite a decent swell, with a weak breeze from the west I had high hopes for this dive and expected good visibility.

After a long paddle, I dropped the hook, happy to see my anchor line well below the surface through clear water.  I had underestimated the paddle time, and had less than 30 minutes of diving before I had to leave my spot, so I hopped in right away.

The first 10 minutes of my dive were spent searching a shallow shelf for bass that may have been looking for an easy meal in the fast moving water, but I found nothing but tautog that seem to know they’re out of season. Moving off the shelf to where the reef dropped to 30 feet, I quickly found bass.

Stone shot on a bluefish from yesterday's dive before work. The ending might seem cruel, but bleeding your catch is the first step in making sure the meat is the highest possible quality for consumption

A post shared by Dave Gleeson (@dgleeson80) on Jun 12, 2017 at 6:41am PDT

A MONSTER, solo bluefish cruised by mid-water column me on my first deeper dive, but was unfortunately out of range and didn’t stick around for me to get any closer. The next few dives consisted of big male tog, jumbo scup, more blues and plenty of bass in the 25-28” range.  With only a few minutes left, I decided to take a bluefish for the grill, and stoned one, only to see stripers swim into my area after taking the shot. Oh well.

The bass are here, I’m sure there were bigger fish in the area, and with more time would likely have seen some. It’s also worth mentioning that sand eels and juvenile bunker have been out in full force the last few times I’ve been out. The larger bass have showed up a few seconds later on every drop that I’ve seen scup on.

Dive safe,

Dave

www.davegleeson.com