Thanks Guys,
I am pleased with what I have been able to learn from the hotshots.
Per your request Eric, I will write about my trials last weekend:
The Central California spearfishing club held a benefit halibut round-up to support the local folks who are selling all of their spare gear so they can get to Florida this month. I took my son with me because he is facinated with the idea of skewering fish. In a borrowed kayak, Ivan and I set out of otter cove located near Monterey. I know nothing about poking fish, so I questioned many to find out how to land one of these halibut things. We anchored in the kelp about 200 yards offshore. If you have never seen a neophyte diver and his seven year old son getting ready to dive off of a one person kayak, you simply must someday. Ivan (my son) decided he would like to paddle in the middle of me finning up. We almost went diving earlier than intended. After that fiasco, I decided the water was a safer place to don mask, gloves and rig the speargun. I took me a couple of attempts to rig the gun while wearing gloves. And of course, once Ivan observed me during a test shot, I was cajoled into doing a couple of more test shots.
So, enough embarassing truths-on with the cool part.
Breathing up at the surface I noted the water had about 15' of vis at the surface. Going down for my first easy dive, I was surprised the bottom was so close (25-30'). After a few easy dives, I did a "no breath" dive to get the old dive reflex going. During the first dive, I came across a yellow nudibranch (yellow sea slug type thing that I have no idea how to spel) that was quite fascinating and beautiful. After looking at the yellow nudieprank, I speared a large rock fish for our dinner ( I already had the idea that mr. halibut and I were going to be strangers this day). Anyhow, Ivan thought I walked on water when I showed him the fish. After a few more test shots for Ivan's sake, I got seroius about getting us a real fish (I am going to stop hunting rockfish because the commercial fisherfolk are cleaning them out-rockfish take about 8 years to reach sexual maturity and all reef fish are slow in reproduction). Scouring the bottom, I saw nothing of halibut, but all sorts of cool stuff. Sea cucumbers are great to watch as they graze the surface of the rocks. Sea anenomes in this area get larger than dinner plates and come in colors and patterns I could not do justice with the limitations of my writing skills. Three short hours into diving, I had stretched the patience of the son (he was back in the kayak wearing a spring suit, a full suit and a lifejacket), so we decided to paddle back to the beach. Ivan was cold and stayed on the beach and I went out for another round. Diving to depths of about 45', I began to see new (to me) types of fish. One species is black and white, slow moving and similar in shape to a scorpion fish (ny ideas about species?).
As I was going in, I noticed a scuba class in the area and absolutely had to go down and mess with their heads. I asked (signed) one guy what time it was and he asked me (on his writing tablet) how long I could stay- I shrugged and swam off along the bottom until I was sure I was out of sight.
Ivan was having a great time stacking sand and showing off the fish to anone who was in his field of vision. We went back to where the other spearos (fishpoker poeples) were hanging out and saw some impressive halibut. I could see the "walking-on-water" adoration fade quickly from his eyes. Oh well, better he learns the truth now.
BBQ Halibut is great and we sent the guys off to Florida off a bit richer than they had been that morning. Ivan was asleep before we finished the 1 hr drive to the house and I was wishing I could join him.
Go deep for long...
