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