San Clemente Island trip

[Bill McIntyre]

This is something I posted on Spearboard last nigght. I thought it might be of interest to someone here, soi I've cut and pasted.
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If you have been following the plot of the drama, you may recall that I managed to lose my 57.5" Wong Magnum Hybrid a couple of months ago. I tried my best to show restraint, but broke down and ordered another one, and it arrived Thursday. This was just in time, as I was going out Friday and Saturday with Mark Hultgren and Mark Wakefield on Mark W's 26' Skipjack. I had sent Daryl a reel to consider when ballasting the gun, and when he float tested the gun, he found that it sank until he removed some lead. The reel didn't arrive with the gun and I was afraid it might kick like a mule with the normal 5/16" shaft with no heavy reel to tame it down, so I rigged a 9/32" shaft to use with a float line.

Mark H. was one of the first dive buddies I found though Freedivelist about 10 years ago, but we have been out of contact for a while and it was great to dive with him again. Mark W. was also an early buddy, although I have been out with him more recently.

We got a late launch at Cabrillo and didn't reach Clemente until just after noon. We started at the kelp bed where Ken Muench got his first two wsb a week or two ago, and this was somehow fitting. Mark H. has finally tired of an unnamed gun model that doesn't hit quite where you aim, so he wanted to try one of my Wongs. I let him use the same gun that Ken used.

The vis was very disappointing, from about 6 feet inside the thick kelp to maybe 10 feet outside and in channels. I got fed up and headed back to the boat in time to see Mark H. ahead of me. However, he had a different motivation for returning, and threw a white sea bass on the swim step. He said the first shot with the gun seemed to have worked fine. Mark W came back soon, and both of them said they had seen several fish, but couldn't quite get shots because the fish would disappear into the murk as soon as they saw them. I hadn't seen a damn thing and was wondering if I remembered what a while sea bass looked like, but they said I was wasting time diving since all their sittings were from the surface. But I jumped back in and covered the entire kelp bed with no sittings while the Mark's took a break. When I was cold and tired and it was getting late, I got out and they got back in. Mark W didn't see any more, but Mark H seemed to find the magic spot and said that he had the wildest 30 mintes of diving ever, with numberous sittings of big fish. He didn't get any, but I'll let him fill in the details later.

We decided to spend the night anchored on the spot. We had a great meal, although I think they enjoyed it more than I did as I was wondering why the hell I couldn't see a fish.

It was not too bad a night at anchor, and we tried again this morning in the same place. The vis seemed much improved, around 20 feet or so, and I had only been in the water less than 10 minutes when a wsb came by and I took the first shot with the new gun. I hit the fish and did my best to short line it as I was doubtful about my ability to dig it out if it had reached the bottom and Mark W doesn't carry tanks on his boat. I managed to stop it and make it tie up at only 25 feet, the but the effort exhausted me. Mark H was just about to get in the water, so I called and asked him to come back me up. He did so, and after a lot of diving and kelp cutting, I got the fish out and headed for the boat while Mark went in search of his own fish.

By the time I has weighed the fish and put it in the cooler, I saw Mark waving his gun, so I went off to help out, leaving my gun in the boat so as to have two hands available and so as not to sink into temptation if a fish went under me while I swam out to him. His fish turned out to have given him a hell of a ride and had a lot of line out, so it was good to have two of us for safety and ease. When we got the fish up, it was obvious it was a hell of a lot bigger than mine, and I told him that while I was happy to let him shoot fish with my gun, it was rather rude to shoot a 45 pounder. Oh well, these young guys ain't got no couth.

We didn't see any more fish after a while and decided that we had plenty of fish and didn't need to try another spot, so we left the island at noon. However, on the way home we looked at a little paddy and saw some yellowtail, so Mark W jumped in in his vest and underwear and shot one. I think he is hoping to sell the photos to the UnderArmor underwear company as an example of what real men do wearing the product.

I've taken white sea bass with the first trigger pull of a couple of other guns, but never on the first trip using the gun and right after receiving it. I hope this bodes well for our relationship.

It was a really fun trip with great company, and I really appreciate the young guys putting up with someone older than their fathers.

I hope Mark H will chime in on Monday and tell his side of the story.

__________________
Bill McIntyre
wsbhtr@cox.net

[Bill McIntyre]

I tried to attach four more photos, but was told that I had exceeded my quota. Does that mean I have to go back and delete old photos from old threads in order to post more? If so, that seems like a bummer.

I post a lot of photos showing rigging and equipment, for instance, and now I'd have to delete them in order to post more.

[John M.]

Bill, go to http://imageshack.us/

click on 'choose file'

When you click that it will allow you to pick one picture at a time from your computer

then click 'host it'

when the picture pops up on the internet, copy the URL code and post the pictures here

Let me know if you need help.

(You may need to resize the pictures.)

[Bill McIntyre]

I don't want to refer people to another web site. I already have to put them on my own web space and refer to them when I post on Freedivelist, but the neat thing about this place and Spearboard is that you can post them right here. But it appears that I can no longer do so unless I delete previous ones, and then if someone asks a question and is referred to an old thread where I posted something, it won't be there.

[Adrian]

Amazing bass, I don't see them that large here in Spain. In your User CP, the last link in the left column is "Attachments" and you can see and manage/delete any attachments you want. Or you can sign up to be a DB supporter which gives you much more storage. John's suggestion seems practical a well.

[DeepThought]

You can you the IMG tag - press the small icon of a picture with a mountain and sun on your post window and paste the adress of the picture file hosted somewhere over the net (ImageShack in this case_ and it will be visible from the forum page, no referring needed.

[Bill McIntyre]

Originally Posted by Adrian

Amazing bass, I don't see them that large here in Spain. In your User CP, the last link in the left column is "Attachments" and you can see and manage/delete any attachments you want. Or you can sign up to be a DB supporter which gives you much more storage. John's suggestion seems practical a well.

"Bass" is a very loose term, but in any event you wouldn't see them that large in Spain because this species is on the west coast of North America only.

I gave up and deleted a lot of my old posts, so here are a few more fish photos from yesterday.