But I did get a limit of abalone on my first try. Sorry about the pic. Had to set the camera on my truck and run around to get a pic.
Drove to SF on Sat to meet Sarah's ship for Fleet Week. Picked her up and went down to Half Moon Bay for a nice dinner and a relaxing evening on the bay. Went back up to SF in the morning and watched the Blue Angels, went across the Golden Gate and took in the sights. We had lunch in China Town and kicked it around SF all afternoon. Took a ride on a cable car and generally had a blast.
I went out Monday looking for a dive spot and got my punch card from Hi's Tackle Box on Clement St near Ocean Beach. Cool shop with every reel you could imagine. The clerk was kind of condescending and weird but, oh well, they had the Ab report card I needed. Went to the Aquarium of the Bay to get a good look at my quarry and went back to the hotel to have nightmares of white sharks before getting up a little late this morning.
Crossed the bridge about 9 and was pulling up to the spot by 1130. A little north of Bodega Bay. I clamored down the cliffs and on to the beach to find off color water with a little surge and 1-2' vis. I've never dove for abs but I have years of freediving experience with a few years of hull cleaning in the St. Johns River(read blackwater diving). I got some sage advice from Sage last week at Lucy's over a pitcher or three of beer and I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night so I figured I was good to go.
Didn't see any sealions or seals so I figured either they were smart enough not to hang around here because of the sharks or the sharks were hanging out wherever the seals and sealions were. I shrugged my shoulders said "fuck-it' and waded in.
After 30 mins poking around the rocks in the bull kelp without so much as seeing a fish I was getting really discouraged. I started to think maybe my secluded hot spot wasn't secluded enough and had been picked clean already. It is the end of the ab season you know.
Finally I spotted a rockfish and that alone got my spirits up a bit. At least there was some life here. After a few more dives poking my head into very "ab" looking holes I spotted a fat China rockfish which is way cool for me coming all the way from San Diego.
Ten more minutes and another 50 yards down current from my launch site I found a boulder covered in mussels. I'm thinking "hey, if this rock is good enough for these mollusks?..." Sure enough, not ten feet away in about twelve feet of water PAY DIRT!! My first ever abalone!! I jammed my iron under him and popped him loose just as my lungs were about to burst! I was at the end of my breath when I spotted it but wasn't about to surface and lose my place because of the surge.
I pulled out my guage to measure it just to make sure and had to laugh at myself. It was considerably wider than the outside radius of the guage!!! I popped it in my bag and yelped for joy. Even if I didn't find another, this trip was a sucess!!
Not two dives later and I score again!!! This one is even bigger!!!! I'm so stoked at this point that I can hardly breathe!!
With both of these fatties in my bag my bouyancy was completely thrown off. I'm usually set so that I'll just float on the surface but I'm neutral at about 8-12' depending on if I had Santana's that day. Now I was having to kick to stay up! A few more dives and I was gonna have to call it, no matter what. I was looking at about a 400yd up current swim, negatively bouyant.
A few more apneas and I found a smaller but still very legal snail. Popped him loose and I was off and swimming. Nothing short of jaws could have ruined my mood. Or so I thought, until I hit Oakland in rush hour, right before a Championship game. I don't think I'll complain too bad about SD traffic for a while.
Anyway, 14 hours after getting out of the water and I'm back here in San Diego with three very live red abalone. Now I just gotta figure out how to clean them!!!
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