2014 Bahamas Spearfishing Expeditions was a huge success!
We found some amazing spots over the 3 weeks of diving!
For those of you that don't know what the Bahamas Spearfishing Expeditions are, here is a summary. We setup a live-aboard boat for a month in the Bahamas and we took it to some very remote places. Places so remote we had to use chartered airplanes to get people there. From April 22 to May 17 we covered about 500 miles of reef through the Southern Bahamas. Places like Andros, The Ragged Cays, Mira Por Vos, and Crooked Island. We dove some incredible places, shot 10 world records, and ate like kings. I am sad that it is all over, it was truly a trip of a lifetime. Can't wait to do it again next year!
One of the best parts of this trip was how much gear we had. We had tons of float lines and floats for everyone, slings with or without reels, polespears, gopros, etc. So guests could bring a minimal amount of gear and still be able to do whatever they wanted. For many of the guests, this was their first time using a polespear with a float and float line, so it was a great learning experience. And we had tons of cable, crimps, and all the other tools and parts to make sure everyone's gear was working. Every afternoon the guides would go through the guests polespears and slings and sharpen tips, freshen up cable, staighten shafts, etc. The fish of a lifetime could have been around any corner and everyone was prepared!
A deep bluewater coral head
Our days started by waking up to a killer breakfast and relaxing on the back deck of the mothership. After that we would walk 20 feet and get onto our dive boat for the day. Our gear was already loaded and ready to go, no wasted time. We had a 36' sportfisherman with a dive platform, a new 25' contender and a 25' mako at our disposal. There was also a 17' skiff we could use for shore excursions.
A nice Andros Black Grouper shot on the wall.
Most days we would start our diving with warm ups on the shallow patch reefs. Diving between 10 and 25 feet, these areas where loaded with mutton snapper and hogfish. After we had dinner in the boat and everyone was warmed up, we would head out the the drop to look for seamonsters.
We really put the Guerrilla slings to use over the last month!
We setup the Guerrilla Slings with removable reels so we could free-shaft in the shallows then switch to a reel in the deep. It was a very effective tool.
We spent at least half of every day on the drop. The reef edge varies so much throughout the Bahamas, and we put almost 500 miles of reef under our hull. We dove everything from gentle rolling drop offs to vertical walls. Some spots were deep and had huge boulders, other spots came up from 600 feet to 30 feet. We even found inshore blue holes that were 144 feet deep!
A particularly fishy section of wall in Mira Por Vos.
This was a blue hole in the middle of a 20 foot deep reef! The boat's depth sounder read 144 feet at the deepest part. You can even see it on google earth:
Our daily afternoon ritual. Cold beer, soft cusions, and shade!
I don't think we had a day with less than 80 foot visibility, and we had 200 foot vis in some areas! The cleanest water I have ever seen.
Headhunter guerrilla slings and predator pole spears in action!
After six days of diving a few guys needed to dry out, so they hit the bonefish flats.
This whale shark was swimming under a school of 10 lb yellowfin tunas
Just about everyone landed stud hogfish on their trip.
the sharks in Crooked are a little agressive!
Not only did we find some crazy reefs, we also stumbled upon this ship wreck. Hopefully it will still be their next year. For more information on how to join one of our 2015 trips, sign up for our newsletter or email us!