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newport beach, ca area
- Thread startermatesz H2O
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Crap, my car is in the shop and i am stuck way inland. Ill pm you my number. Maybe dam can still go. Im sure he probably can.
My spearpole arrived yesterday so I'm definitely heading out tomorrow to try it out. Just so if anyone else is interested, the location is Crystal Cove State Park and the time is 7:30AM. Let me know if you're coming so we can meet up since the park is quite large.
Saturday was awesome. Dam and I went out around 10 am. Vis was about 10 foot and the sea was pretty calm, except for the rare set of large waves that would roll through. The first dive was at the kelp beds out there where we were followed by a large harbor seal for about 2 hours. That dive ended in me laying on the surface and being boring so the seal would swim over and see what dam was doing, this allowed me a quick swim to the bottom to look for fish. One shot, one kill that was my motto for the first dive. It worked and i got me a bull sheep's head. I only saw 3 lobsters that whole 2 hour dive.
Our second dive i cut short because of my seasickness meds wore off. Go figure i can be in huge swells on a boat and i have never gotten sick, throw me in the water with 1-2 foot waves, and 10 foot of vis and I'm vomiting everywhere.
Later we went out on an incoming tide and i saw a 3 foot calico. I kid you not... it was in 8 foot of water under a ledge on incoming tide. It was the largest fish i have ever seen in Laguna (not including sharks), and very fast and skittish also. Anyways i ended up with a large rubberlips from this dive as well. We left around 4 pm. Dam made his first kill of a fish, usually he is catching all the lobsters, but today he got himself a nice rockfish. Congrats dam. The lobsters were definately very scarce today.
Has anyone also had the experience of large amounts of bass on incoming tides, and no bass on outgoing ones?
One last note- We found out in Laguna you can only take Bony fish and Lobsters. Absolutely nothing else! So don't even think of spearing those sharks, guitar fish or octopus. For that matter don't touch a crab either. My only question is can i polespear a Moray eel? I saw this beauty of a 6 footer last time.
I will always be thinking of that HUUUUUGE calico, alas if i would only let myself graduate to a gun i could a had it. 6 more months of training with the pole spear...
Our second dive i cut short because of my seasickness meds wore off. Go figure i can be in huge swells on a boat and i have never gotten sick, throw me in the water with 1-2 foot waves, and 10 foot of vis and I'm vomiting everywhere.
Later we went out on an incoming tide and i saw a 3 foot calico. I kid you not... it was in 8 foot of water under a ledge on incoming tide. It was the largest fish i have ever seen in Laguna (not including sharks), and very fast and skittish also. Anyways i ended up with a large rubberlips from this dive as well. We left around 4 pm. Dam made his first kill of a fish, usually he is catching all the lobsters, but today he got himself a nice rockfish. Congrats dam. The lobsters were definately very scarce today.
Has anyone also had the experience of large amounts of bass on incoming tides, and no bass on outgoing ones?
One last note- We found out in Laguna you can only take Bony fish and Lobsters. Absolutely nothing else! So don't even think of spearing those sharks, guitar fish or octopus. For that matter don't touch a crab either. My only question is can i polespear a Moray eel? I saw this beauty of a 6 footer last time.
I will always be thinking of that HUUUUUGE calico, alas if i would only let myself graduate to a gun i could a had it. 6 more months of training with the pole spear...
Attachments
Went out today at 8 am. It was overcast till 9 am then the sun was up for the rest of the morning. Dove at the cactus garden, we saw some bass and also found two keeper lobsters that we couldnt quite get, but they were definately large. We were able to handle about 8 lobsters each but all were undersize. No fish were cought on the first dive.
THe second dive we went out to the "caves" as we call it. Here there were fish everywhere. BIGBOY got the first kill with a nice sized sheephead (Largest fish of the day). I then got an opaleye, and a calico seabass (second prize). He then came back with a nice sargo and a rubberlips. I finally landed me a nice size mystery black fish. All in all we got 6 fish in about 5 minutes. It took more time to subdue/bag the fish than the hunt took. It was awesome.
Vis was green and murky. 6-10 foot. Waves were 2-3 with occasional sets of 5 footers.
BTW i went out and picked up a JBL polespear. Non collapsing just the spear itself. It took me a while to get used to. And it definately does not pack the same heat as my foldspear does. And i lost a 2 foot sheephead and a very large sandbass because of it. But in the end i finally dialed it in.
THe second dive we went out to the "caves" as we call it. Here there were fish everywhere. BIGBOY got the first kill with a nice sized sheephead (Largest fish of the day). I then got an opaleye, and a calico seabass (second prize). He then came back with a nice sargo and a rubberlips. I finally landed me a nice size mystery black fish. All in all we got 6 fish in about 5 minutes. It took more time to subdue/bag the fish than the hunt took. It was awesome.
Vis was green and murky. 6-10 foot. Waves were 2-3 with occasional sets of 5 footers.
BTW i went out and picked up a JBL polespear. Non collapsing just the spear itself. It took me a while to get used to. And it definately does not pack the same heat as my foldspear does. And i lost a 2 foot sheephead and a very large sandbass because of it. But in the end i finally dialed it in.
I would definately go on friday, assuming the vis is good and the surge is small. Ill also show you my new ride 
I would definately go on friday, assuming the vis is good and the surge is small. Ill also show you my new ride
Nice catch on the fish. I would love to head out with you guys some time. Most of my dives have been at night lately, but i'm open for day times dives on the weekends or before 9:00am on weekdays. How early do you normally go out?
Thanks, If you guys don't mind one more I'd be willing to do that dive! I would probably need to leave around 8:30am to make it to work by 9:00am, but I work in Newport Beach so it should be do able.
Anyone is always welcome. We are always looking for more people to join us. Im not sure if i will be freediving or scuba diving on friday. I need to make sure my scuba buddy has a buddy to dive with before i commit to freediving. What i can plan on is getting there at 6:30 am or so and doing the kelp bed or cactus garden till 8:15 ish. Then my scuba buddies can show up at 9 am and we can do the caves again and get loads of fish.
Dam my new stringer 1.89$ at SC works great! Its a sharp rod a string and a loop.
BTW Dam... Ill just say it looks alot like someone else's car.
Dam my new stringer 1.89$ at SC works great! Its a sharp rod a string and a loop.
BTW Dam... Ill just say it looks alot like someone else's car.
mmmm nice.. I saw it was 8-10 two days ago
10-12 yesterday
And thats awesome today its freggin awesome!!!
Maybe tomorrow itll be another 20+ day.
6:30 sounds ok to me. Lets see if LGHT can make it at that time or if he would rather do 7am. You know me i seem to always be 15 minutes late. But im really looking forward to it. Wow 54 degree water.. Chilly.
10-12 yesterday
And thats awesome today its freggin awesome!!!
Maybe tomorrow itll be another 20+ day.
6:30 sounds ok to me. Lets see if LGHT can make it at that time or if he would rather do 7am. You know me i seem to always be 15 minutes late. But im really looking forward to it. Wow 54 degree water.. Chilly.
Dam and LGHT, please report to me on how today was. I was soo pissed off when i awoke this morning at 8 am and found my alarm clock outside on the patio. Also did the scuba guys get there around 9ish am also? From what i heard there was gonna be about 5 of them including dive master instructor as well.
EDIT IN-Just saw the ls&s report.
Location: Shaw's Cove
Date: 11/16/2007
Time: 11:00 AM foggy
Surf: 1 -2 ft
Surge: 1 ft to 2 ft
Visibility: 15 ft to 20 ft
Temperature: Air 73 Water 56
EDIT IN-Just saw the ls&s report.
Location: Shaw's Cove
Date: 11/16/2007
Time: 11:00 AM foggy
Surf: 1 -2 ft
Surge: 1 ft to 2 ft
Visibility: 15 ft to 20 ft
Temperature: Air 73 Water 56
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Mike, I didn't see any other divers there. Were they supposed to meet at the same place?
Conditions were very similar to what you have. It was a pleasant dive. I caught an opeleye and a calico. I was sort of hopping from 1 mini kelp island to another and it led me to a very nice reef. Lots of bugs to be found. Because of the spear and the lack of lobster bag, I only grabbed one and headed to shore. On the way in, I saw a very nice halibut. I tried to follow it without success. Got out of the water around 9, right when the fog rolled in. I want to head back to that reef for bugs... Maybe it's time to invest in a lobster bag.
Conditions were very similar to what you have. It was a pleasant dive. I caught an opeleye and a calico. I was sort of hopping from 1 mini kelp island to another and it led me to a very nice reef. Lots of bugs to be found. Because of the spear and the lack of lobster bag, I only grabbed one and headed to shore. On the way in, I saw a very nice halibut. I tried to follow it without success. Got out of the water around 9, right when the fog rolled in. I want to head back to that reef for bugs... Maybe it's time to invest in a lobster bag
.
Maybe i can get away with you to that new reef tomorrow morning. Darn it sounds nice out there. Excellent job with those two fish, imho they are two really difficult fish to get in the laguna reef for us polespearers. But i really love the taste of the opaleye. It seems your skills with the polespear are really getting good, if they get as good as your lobstering skills i expect you to get some tuna with that thing.
Thinking of heading down to Laguna area tomorrow if anyone's interested. My buddy and I have hit Reef Point the last two weekends. Seen a few short calicos but nothing too impressive. Anyone ever have any luck out there?
Thinking of heading further south into Laguna...possibly Brooks St area. Never speared out there but I've heard through the grapevine that there are a few fish around. Any suggestions/tips? We're relative newbs just looking to accelerate the learning curve.
Thinking of heading further south into Laguna...possibly Brooks St area. Never speared out there but I've heard through the grapevine that there are a few fish around. Any suggestions/tips? We're relative newbs just looking to accelerate the learning curve.
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