From Government Cut south and also off Miami Beach, there’s some good coral reef diving, and then to the north along the beaches there are some good ledges and natural rocks. The best reefs to dive on are the patch reefs, in 20 to 25 feet of water anywhere from Key Biscayne south. There’s a lot of good natural reef in deeper water, but you need to have tanks or be very good at holding your breath for long periods of time.
A large portion of our sport divers are targeting lobster. Catching lobster is the easy part, finding them is where all the work lies. We’ve got a lot of lobsters on the reef in Hawk’s Channel and also in Biscayne Bay if you know where you’re going. You want to make sure you’re in the legal harvesting area for lobsters outside the boundaries of Biscayne National Park.
We’ll typically put someone in the water with a tow rope and pull them along slowly, allowing them to scan the bottom for good lobster habitat. If they see something that looks good, they’ll let go of the rope and dive down to inspect it. If it holds lobsters, we’ll jump in the water and try to tickle them out.
I don’t grab lobster with my hands because it tends to beat them up a lot and pull off their legs and antennas. Instead, I use a tickle stick and hoop net to lead the lobsters into the net and then grab them while they’re in the net.
Keep in mind that it’s illegal to dive on man-made structure and that you always have to have a measuring device on you when you’re in the water harvesting lobsters. There’s also a specific etiquette that goes with lobster diving-the first person on the spot gets the spot, so if you arrive at a location where you’ve caught lobsters before and someone else is there, don’t join them. Instead, move on to your next spot.
For spearfishermen, we have a fair amount of hogfish and grouper, which are going to be the two main targeted species. I use a Hawaiian sling, but a lot of guys use pole spears. There are also a number of guys who dive bluewater with big spear guns looking for wahoo and mahi. They’ll get in the water over the wrecks around Elliott Key or dive the bluewater weed lines or where there’s a lot larger fish over the natural reef in 120 feet of water.
I prefer to free dive because I think the bubbles of scuba tanks spook the fish. When you dive down, move slowly and naturally, don’t be in a rush. Be as fluid as possible and get as close as you can to a fish before you take your shot, but ultimately if you get the spear in the fish it’s better than trying to get the perfect shot and not getting a shot at all.
Fish always look a lot bigger when they’re in the water, so it can be difficult to gauge whether or not a fish is of legal size. If you think it’s close, don’t shoot it, because you’re usually wrong. I always like to think, “if they don’t look big, it’s because they’re not,” which will remind me that the fish usually look larger than they are. If they look big, you know they’re legal.
Any time we have a diver in the water we also have someone in the boat. That person’s job is to keep track of everyone, watch for approaching boats and to quickly pick up any fish that have been speared and get them out of the water. They’re also ready to come to a diver’s aid if there are any problems.
When I dive with my friends I insist that we all dive together and not get spread out. If you put a bunch of divers in the water and they all go in different directions, that’s just asking for trouble. It’s easy to lose someone on the water. I tell everybody that we’ll dive together and if someone sees something then alert all the others and we’ll go look at it together. That makes it easy for the guy running the boat and everyone else in the water. You always want to err on the side of safety when you’re out in open water.
Pretty much every inlet in my region has at least one commercial dive boat taking people out to snorkel and scuba dive the reefs. The local dive shops can suggest which are the best ones to go with based on what you want to do and your experience level.
Lastly, make sure you always have your dive flag up when someone is in the water and down when there’s no one in the water. It’s illegal to run along with the dive flag up if no one is actively in the water, and you’ll get a ticket for that most of the time. Have fun, but try to make sure everyone is following safe diving procedures, and it’ll be a great experience on the water.