[AB Diver]

Thanks Sven,

I didn't mean that to sound like I am always pickin abs that are too small but I have only had one trip so far that I didn't pick an ab that wasn't legal. I am aware that they are VERY delicate and I do treat them with EXTREAME care when pulling them off.

One of my pet peves is that they call it an "abalone pry bar" and that is very misleading to new comers thinking that the abalone are increadibly stong and have to be forcefully taken off the rocks. I like to think of it as a sucktion cup on a window. If you just pull on it it is increadibly hard to remove but if you get an air pocket under it it just falls off. Same as abalone. But I am very careful in how I treat them and like to think that I am as careful as I can be so that I have a very high recovery rate.

I did save the trimmings from the abalone I got last weekend and froze them so I am prepared to try that on saturday. I was hoping to shoot SOMETHING other than perch this weekend. I have recently been diving with newbies so I am going to the easily accesable areas and calm waters so this could be part of my problem. I was just hopeing that the chum idea would give me some sort of an edge on majority of people.

PS how deep do you have to be for blue and black rockfish? I have never seen any of em. Maybe I should swim out to a kelp pad this weekend or something and specifically look for those fish? I am beginning to think that fish don't live in less than 20 ft. of water! (but I wear glasses and don't have perscription lenses in my dive mask so maybe I just need to work harder on spotting them?)