Dam Nguyen holds white sea bass clinic

The score was Dam 3, Jeff and Bill 0.

Here are some pics, pretty much in order. The first couple show a rather unusual event. Jeff wasn't seeing the game fish, so he came back for his little gun to shoot a sargo for tacos. He only meant to shoot one, but the got three with one shot.

The rest is all dam, except for the one shot of Jeff welcoming Dam back to the boat with a single finger salute.

We arrived at the spot, and all of us started screaming about the blue color of the water. We jumped in and found that it was 66 degrees and vis was minimum 25 feet, and maybe up to 40 some times during the day. When there was haze, it was blue haze instead of green haze. I saw a black sea bass from the surface before my first dive, and we saw lots of them.

Jeff saw a big white sea bass that was out of range. Later, outside the kelp, he saw a yellowtail that he said must have gone 40 pounds, but it played with him, getting closer, then turning away, and he never got close enough for a good shot. When we all got back to the boat, Jeff was the only one who had seen game fish.

Our next jump, my gout toe really started burning, and I was doing a Captain Ron, trying to swim with one leg, except he has trained for it, and I haven't. Jeff got back to the boat with his three sargo, and I got back to nurse my toe. I remarked that it might not be a good day for Dam. Other times when he has taken fish from my boat, the vis was poor so that his 50" gun had enough range, but it was clear today. Jeff agreed. Then Dam swam up with his first fish, a 33 pounder. What a prick! He said that a fish twice as big was behind it, but maybe out of range, so he took the sure shot.

We went back a third time, and my toe was much better, thanks to three Ibuprofen, but I still didn't see any fish. Jeff didn't either, so we came back to eat and rest. We laid out on the deck to get some rest, but Dam was still out there. I've decided that one of his secrets is that he cheats- he stays in the water.

Dam interrupted our naps when he swam up with a 28 pounder. Jesus H. Christ!

Both of Dam's fish had come from the far edge of the kelp bed, so instead of swimming over there as he had done, we moved the boat. He was polite and watched Jeff and I jump in. After about 20 minutes, I looked back and saw him sitting on the bow. I shouted to him that he should jump in and complete his limit. Of course I didn't really mean it, but he took me seriously. Jeff and I were finally all worn out and back in the boat, and while I was showering, here came Dam with a 42 pounder.

Jeff and I agreed that we didn't really mind him getting a limit- we just wished that we had gotten a fish too.

Sure.

We're in a boat, but almost all of the fish in my threads for last summer are from the mainland coast. I think the exceptions are mentioned.

dodd,

Sorry, but I accidentally edited your earlier post when I tried to reply, and I don't know how to reverse it so I deleted. I have these powers as Regional Advisor, and I shouldn't be trusted. If I hit the edit button when I meant to hit the quote button, then I'm editing your post instead of replying.

Anyway, you asked about the Barn. There is no shore access through Camp Pendleton, so you need a boat.

Salt Creek has a huge kelp bed off the entire sweep of beach, and is a place where you might get a wsb diving from shore.

Are you going to give us your name? Some people like to know who it is they are talking too, and I've never been diving with a user name, but that's just me.

freediver7 said:

Bill are you in charge here?
Volker

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I'm Regional Advisor for this forum only. That amounts to a sort of junior moderator, with limited powers to edit or delete posts. However, this forum is so quiet and so well-mannered that I've never been required to exercise that power, and probably don't even know how to do it right.

The big danger is that under each post, there is an edit button next to the quote button. A couple of times I've hit that edit button when I meant to hit quote, and then I end up editing someone's post by accident.