Collier County has some of the best spearfishing in the world. Trouble is, you have to make a pretty long run offshore to get to the best spots. There are thousands of spots to find and dream about. We also have a bad reputation for “bad visibility”. I always hear people speculate that the gulf has bad visibility, this is just a false statement. Recently we dove a wreck 50 miles offshore and had almost 100’ of “viz”. Turtles, stingrays, friendly sharks and of course, plenty of fish swarm these offshore havens.
The best part of about hunting fish in Naples is that there is less pressure on the fish. The East Coast might boast better visibility and shorter boat rides, but we have a better, more spread out, fish stock. It is not an uncommon sight to see hundreds of African Pompano on deep wrecks. Find any tiny natural hole on the bottom, in 90 plus feet of water, and I can almost guarantee you a keeper grouper lives there.
Recently, on one of my adventures we boated a 66lb black grouper. This was a spot I had dove last year and randomly found by following one of the biggest gag grouper I have ever seen locally. I did not land the fish but followed it through flat sand to a beautiful oasis full of red, gag, and black grouper. I was limited on air at this point, so I shot a smaller black grouper, but had spotted some monsters running to a large hole. Six months later we tried to locate the spot to no avail. But just last month we were successful at finding this honey hole and ended up battling with my biggest fish of the year. It took 4 shots and 2 dives to finally land the beast.
I will be running SCUBA diving and spearfishing charters from here on out on a 30’ Contender. Offshore Naples LLC will put you on the fish! Check us out on the web at offshorenaples.com and lastly the Naples Spearfishing League will be hosting a spearfishing tournament and lionfish derby August 26th at Tavern on the Bay. Email me for details.