unior Angler Team

By Christopher Sprague

Hello anglers, I hope everyone has been able to get out on the water and experience the beautiful weather and amazing fishing Florida offers this time of year. Lately I have been doing a bunch of spearfishing. I went once right off the beach after school to practice my aim and breath-holds since I had not been in the water in a long time. There were so many fish at the beginning of the day I couldn’t believe it. I only took what I needed and got a sheepshead and some yellow jacks. The mangrove snappers that I saw unfortunately weren’t big enough. As the end of the day approached, a bunch of blacktip reef sharks started to move in, and we decided to call it a day. Now that I had got my practice in, I was ready to go again to a deeper reef. A couple of friends and I took a flats boat out of Boca on the weekend to target mackerel and snapper. Sadly, the spot we went to was loaded with grouper, but since it wasn’t season yet, we had to leave them alone. The first thing I saw when I hopped in the water were 2 nice 20-pound kingfish. I sadly couldn’t get a shot off on them, so I moved on and explored the area. This spot was a perfect depth for me, around 40 feet. I was able to get to the bottom and stay down for 15-20 seconds, which isn’t too bad. It was such a beautiful day and there was a school of ballyhoo all around which attracted fish. This was the first trip that I was truly in the “zone” and felt completely connected to the water. My dives were longer, and I only missed one shot the whole day. Not to mention, all the shots I hit were almost all shots through the head, so no meat was ruined. We loaded up on mangrove snapper and cooked ‘em up that night! We had an absolutely amazing time out on the water, and I was so grateful to be able to go out and experience this with my friends.