I'm located in the central area of California, about 3.5 hours from the ocean and in the middle of a valley
Much of my diving is in local lakes and rivers, and you can't really shoot anything worth eating out of fresh water. You can shoot carp, goldfish, hardhead, and certain types of suckers
They won't even let us shoot catfish or bluegill. The conditions in fresh water are generally nothing to write home about. The thermoclines can get pretty drastic, especially when you're in mountain lakes. The river gets to be a lot of fun, because the water temperature gets really low when the snowmelt starts to come down through the dams. There's a lot of current (of course, it's a river), so I learn good techniques for staying calm and making headway, as well as holding still and allowing the fish to get curious and come close. Of course, most of those are very tiny. They like to get up in my face, or sometimes they follow behind when I'm making my way upstream.
The ocean is pretty cold and the conditions can change in an instant. I've been on dives where the viz was zero, cleared up for a few seconds to perhaps five feet, then went back to zero. I've also been to Catalina, where the viz was at least 25 to 30 feet and stayed that way all day. You need a 5mm to dive comfortably. I saw wsb at Catalina, but did not have the chance to take one. Eventually, though...
