The water had been murky for a long time — the usual story after rough seas. Yesterday I went out to check what the storm left behind, and it surprised me: visibility bounced back in practically a day. I started right by the base, ran into a small sargo, and decided not to wait around for a monster fish — took it just to get my eye in for the rest of the dive. This was more of a check-up session, and it ran late — you can hear it in the noise on the footage once the light started to fade.

Familiar spots, nobody home

Cruised slowly through my usual spots. One of them — the sandy shoal that turns into rock piles covered in posidonia — is even on the video’s thumbnail, it’s one of my favorites. Nearby there’s something that might be an old capsized boat, grown over with weed; I’ve often found a grouper or a meagre sitting there. Not this time — empty. While I was at it, I tested whether the gun could even reach a small dorada at that distance — it couldn’t, no miracle this time. Though that’s one advantage of a speargun: you’re not afraid of a “blank” shot at a distant or uncertain target — give it a minute and you’re ready to dive again. Bottom time had dropped off badly by this point in the evening, topping out around 1:20 during active search — a long break between sessions does that, though the skill comes back fast.

A close call, and thinking about a new buoy

By this point I was maybe 150-200 meters from the beach — still inside the legal zone, but a fairly dangerous stretch of it, especially near the central beach. One of the dives came close to a real incident, and that’s what pushed me to start thinking about swapping my buoy. Right now I’m diving with the smallest, most compact Cressi buoy, flag about 30 cm tall. I think I need something sturdier — 60 cm minimum, maybe a full meter — just to be more visible from the surface.

Barracudas out of frame, and the final tally

I was getting ready for another dive when four decent barracudas, around 2 kg each, shot past — no time to shoot, and the camera happened to be off right then. Right after that, some fast pelagic fish with spots went by too — maybe a kabaya, maybe mackerel, I honestly don’t know that species well yet. I was hoping the evening would bring meagre out of the crevices — saw a few, but small ones, didn’t shoot. Saw a grouper too, left it alone. A couple of shots at passing sargo went wide, and I missed a lone fish on the move as well — deliberately testing whether I could hit something swimming past. A decent, plate-sized red mullet barely shows up on the footage — either the camera’s sensor isn’t great or the camera itself isn’t the best fit for this. On the way back to the beach I ran into a barracuda and took a clean headshot — no suffering. For the day: one sargo, one red mullet, one small barracuda. Also checked a couple of grottos closer to shore — only small meagre there too, about a palm and a half long.

What’s coming: the reserve

No real trophy fish this dive — no dorada, no meagre, no grouper worth mentioning. The small stuff I didn’t shoot never even made it into the edit. But there might be a video coming soon from a marine reserve — the species mix and the size of the fish there are on a different level, since it doesn’t get the regular pressure other spots do. In one dive there I saw more than in three years at my usual spots, and sizes I haven’t come close to seeing anywhere else. More on the zones on the map.