Beautiful day on SoCal coast

[sciencemike]

From Avalon, you can walk the road South down towards the quarry where I've had good luck too.

This path is closed to pedestrian traffic with a fine of over 200$. You can take a taxi down to buffalo head restaurant and then walk down past the last boat mooring to start spearing. But be warned that GWS have been spotted there numerous times.

Also you can rent a Kayak and go north from descanso beach. There are numerous small kelp beds up there and some good halibut sand as well.

 

[msanderson]

Regarding Pebbly Beach Road being closed ...

Wow, thanks for the tip. It used to be open in the old days. I did a quick search and see that there are lots of comments about it being closed now. That's too bad, it was always a nice walk. I gather there are signs there now ... I just take the dinghy.

Regarding the GWS,
Do the reports indicate that they hang out near the Sea Lion colony? Or have they been seen as far up as Pebbly Beach? Does seeing them in one spot not associated with a known food source have any bearing at all on where they'll be seen again? (I've never seen a GWS in the wild ... closest I've been is the small one they had in the Montrey Aquarium for a while)

I've done a lot of diving in that area (Blue Car Wreck, the Mooring Buoys for the barges at the quarry, pinnacle rock) both on some "guided" dives as well as some "ad hoc" with a friend or even on occasion solo as well as some spearing from Pebbly Beach down to the quarry and never really even thought about it ... now you mention it and I've just had one of those involuntary "shiver" moments.

Right now I'm trying to rationalize the shiver away by thinking that staying away from the food source (the sea lion colony) helps, but seriously, what's the consensus (if any) on this? Should areas where GWS have been seen be avoided?

I spear in the Pt. Loma kelp beds on and off, and I surf occasionaly all up and down the coast from Tourmaline to Pipes and while I'd heard about the triathelete that got bit this spring, I didn't really change any of my activities ... am I being unrealistically cavalier?

I have to say, since I started spearing my wife (who is just a beginning diver and likes to snorkel around while I hunt) was concerned about the activity (I think that Discover Channel's Specials like "Air Jaws" gets her worried) and has taken a lot of convincing that I'll be okay.

As a noobie, this brings up a question about stringers in SoCal (or elsewhere). Do you attach them to yourself? Do you put them on the float at the end of the line? Do you always swim back to the dinghy / board / kayak with each fish? This is what I've been doing as so far I've only ever gone for one fish, since I've always been just looking for dinner ... but I can imagine a time where I might like to get more than one at a time.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[sciencemike]

As to the easy questions...

Yes i always stringer fish to myself in California. I even go further than that. I always gut and bleed my fish immediately upon stringering them. I will swim around for hours with stringered fish.

As for GWS...
Look, they are always out there. I believe that they know where you are long before the visibility range. My personal feelings are that they can sense your movements at over 150 feet. They are there, and they know you are there. Try not to worry about them. But if i know there is an area that GWS are continually at,,, i try and avoid those areas. Its a numbers game, and i dont want to pay the price for their mistake.

As for pebbly beach road. ..
I used to hunt at the boat last mooring (@pebbly beach road, just in front of the Indian Head Restaurant, and the helicopter pad) there a lot. You find some nice pipes down there and some low kelp at about 60 feet down. But the fast rising shore always felt to me like it was very very sharky. And every time i was there i always saw seal's or sealions. Sure enough when i was talking with my brother's wife's family (who live there) they told me that a number of their friends had been buzzed by GWS there. Including their son who was on scuba and hugged the bottom and quickly made it up that steep shore. Then over the years i keep hearing GWS stories most are from the last boat mooring to the rock quarry. The last one was last month a guy saw a GWS fin out there from shore and decided not to get in the water.

So in conclusion about that area... I dont dive from lover's cove through to the quarry. Ill dive the quarry from boat, but im always spooked when i do and ill always stay shallow aka 30 foot or less.

Do what you want but i wont dive there anymore. Ill just swim north from descanso if i want to hunt out of avalon without a boat. You will get more answers than people as to weather you should or shouldnt dive in waters where GWS are known to swim. But thats my 0.02$

 

[Bill McIntyre]

As a noobie, this brings up a question about stringers in SoCal (or elsewhere). Do you attach them to yourself? Do you put them on the float at the end of the line? Do you always swim back to the dinghy / board / kayak with each fish? This is what I've been doing as so far I've only ever gone for one fish, since I've always been just looking for dinner ... but I can imagine a time where I might like to get more than one at a time.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Cheers,
Mike

I'm in a bit of a different situation since I dive from a boat, but I always take each fish back to the boat. I have the privilege of being fairly selective, and fish like those in my avatar are a bit large to wear around.

Usually, I don't bother to string the fish. I just brain it, grab it, and swim back trailing the gun, kelp, and assorted mess. But lately I've started stringing them ore often simply to free up my hands and to make sure that if all else fails, I still have the fish and shaft. Yesterday was typical. My buddy shot a 45 pound white sea bass. In order to get the fish out of the kelp, we had to detach the shooting line from the reel line. If I had not been there to bring the gun back to the boat while he brought the fish, if he dropped the fish, it and the shaft could have sunk and been lost since it was no longer connected to the gun. And as far as that goes, even if it had been connected to the gun, it would have taken the gun down with it. So if the fish is strung, fewer bad things can happen.

But there is another thing to consider. A guy I know had a big bull sea lion grab a fish on his stringer and take him down to 70 feet. It didn't give him a chance to breath up either. So it might be good to have a stringer that you can cut (mono) and a knife that you can get to.

 

[msanderson]

Thanks for the thoughts Sciencemike and Bill.

I'm going to go out on the weekend for some more practice. If you see a Catalina 34 sailboat out in the Pt. Loma kelp beds named Southern Cross out there, that'll be me. Stop by for a cold drink, as my fridge is always full of goodies.

Cheers,
Mike