11-13-2011, 06:39 PM
Hi folks,
I love to fish but my major fishing focus if spear fishing.
I am 58 years old and have been diving for 40 years since Iwent to the Navy Seals Dive School in the Phillipines in 1971. I was a Marine Recon Special Forces guy andone of the only non-Navy guys to ever get "Honorman" from a sealsdiving school.
I live in northern California and I dive many times a yearon the north coast and made it to Hawaii this year for some of that sweet warmwater high visability diving that we don't have here in North California. I have made hundreds of open water dives inmy day, but I truly enjoy free diving for spear fishing which is mostly what Ido these days. Once in a while I do somespear fishing with buddies with tanks when they have a boat, which I don't. I usually dive off the shore in the rocks andit is no less fun or productive than with a boat. I can stay out a lot longer and hunt till myheart is content.
Buddy diving on the north coast is almost impossibleanyway. The water is so murky usuallythat when you go down and look away from your partner for a split second, youlose him or her. You spend all your timegoing up and down so me and my diving friends usually just dive alone, even ifwe are with others. Much of the time, Ijust overweight and once I am on the bottom, I set chum out, find myself alittle nook to sit in , let the air out of my BC and sit down and wait! Lazy, isn't it? Sometimes I hunt under the rocks but when thefis is 8 or ten feet, you have to do what you have to do.
I usually bring a zip lock of abalone guts from a campgroundcleaning station for chum and dump it there as the ling cod and cabazon reallylike it and it lasts and it makes the hunting good even the next day. Breaking sea urchins (uni) open is good forgreenling and perch, but it is eaten up in a very short time.
When I am free diving and spearfishing after ab diving, I put the guts on a ledge I can seefrom the surface at whatever depth that ends up being, and then another spot aways away and yet another. Then I swimback and forth between them hunting and picking up rock crab. It takes at least 10 feet of vis or the onlydiving is abalone diving which is tough for the new guys. I like to dive at least 18 plus feet for abas there isn't much surge and they aren't picked over because most divers likeshallow water, especially in the heavy kelp beds. I have taken no less than 200 abalone diverson their first dive and I don't mind teaching them. It got kind of old so finally I wrote two in deptharticles on everything I could think of with my 40 years experience on thegear, how to weight and what to expect and now I force everyone to read thembefore I take them! I print ten copiesout every time before I leave for the coast. If you guys want to read them, they are in the blog section. One is on spearfishing and one on ab diving and they are as in depth as anything I have everread, if I must say so myself.
My biggest fish so far is a 29 pound ling cod and I have speared a lot of them over 15pounds. The stupidest thing I ever diddiving is spearing a 12 foot octopus while freediving alone. I have come to learn that if they even haveone leg on the ground or around kelp, and they get one or two on you, you arescrewed. I now only take smaller ones orlarger ones if I have tanks with plenty of air and a partner is nice. I also love to dig clams, get mussels, surffish with a dip net, stream fish, perch fish, striper fish, sturgeon fish, anddid I mention fish! I love to hunt duckstoo.
I have a wife of 32 years (Stacy) and 2 grown daughters, onejust out and one in college. Going duck hunting with my nephew, who is a guidein Oregon, this weekend - again! Thiswork thing sure interferes with my recreation! Nice to join you folks. Coop
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I love to fish but my major fishing focus if spear fishing.
I am 58 years old and have been diving for 40 years since Iwent to the Navy Seals Dive School in the Phillipines in 1971. I was a Marine Recon Special Forces guy andone of the only non-Navy guys to ever get "Honorman" from a sealsdiving school.
I live in northern California and I dive many times a yearon the north coast and made it to Hawaii this year for some of that sweet warmwater high visability diving that we don't have here in North California. I have made hundreds of open water dives inmy day, but I truly enjoy free diving for spear fishing which is mostly what Ido these days. Once in a while I do somespear fishing with buddies with tanks when they have a boat, which I don't. I usually dive off the shore in the rocks andit is no less fun or productive than with a boat. I can stay out a lot longer and hunt till myheart is content.
Buddy diving on the north coast is almost impossibleanyway. The water is so murky usuallythat when you go down and look away from your partner for a split second, youlose him or her. You spend all your timegoing up and down so me and my diving friends usually just dive alone, even ifwe are with others. Much of the time, Ijust overweight and once I am on the bottom, I set chum out, find myself alittle nook to sit in , let the air out of my BC and sit down and wait! Lazy, isn't it? Sometimes I hunt under the rocks but when thefis is 8 or ten feet, you have to do what you have to do.
I usually bring a zip lock of abalone guts from a campgroundcleaning station for chum and dump it there as the ling cod and cabazon reallylike it and it lasts and it makes the hunting good even the next day. Breaking sea urchins (uni) open is good forgreenling and perch, but it is eaten up in a very short time.
When I am free diving and spearfishing after ab diving, I put the guts on a ledge I can seefrom the surface at whatever depth that ends up being, and then another spot aways away and yet another. Then I swimback and forth between them hunting and picking up rock crab. It takes at least 10 feet of vis or the onlydiving is abalone diving which is tough for the new guys. I like to dive at least 18 plus feet for abas there isn't much surge and they aren't picked over because most divers likeshallow water, especially in the heavy kelp beds. I have taken no less than 200 abalone diverson their first dive and I don't mind teaching them. It got kind of old so finally I wrote two in deptharticles on everything I could think of with my 40 years experience on thegear, how to weight and what to expect and now I force everyone to read thembefore I take them! I print ten copiesout every time before I leave for the coast. If you guys want to read them, they are in the blog section. One is on spearfishing and one on ab diving and they are as in depth as anything I have everread, if I must say so myself.
My biggest fish so far is a 29 pound ling cod and I have speared a lot of them over 15pounds. The stupidest thing I ever diddiving is spearing a 12 foot octopus while freediving alone. I have come to learn that if they even haveone leg on the ground or around kelp, and they get one or two on you, you arescrewed. I now only take smaller ones orlarger ones if I have tanks with plenty of air and a partner is nice. I also love to dig clams, get mussels, surffish with a dip net, stream fish, perch fish, striper fish, sturgeon fish, anddid I mention fish! I love to hunt duckstoo.
I have a wife of 32 years (Stacy) and 2 grown daughters, onejust out and one in college. Going duck hunting with my nephew, who is a guidein Oregon, this weekend - again! Thiswork thing sure interferes with my recreation! Nice to join you folks. Coop
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