Norcal harvesting...

Inspired by ladvr's surf&turf thread...

The swell in Northern California has been a nightmare for weeks on end. Every week the swells flatten a bit mid-week, offering an inkling of hope for calm clear weekend waters.

Unfortunately, the swell has consistently spiked upwards for the weekend... repeatedly crushing those hopes.

Saturday was no exception as a 10ft long period swell rolled through & stirred everything up. Nevertheless, I needed to get back out on the water and figured it'd be manageable. We decided to launch kayaks at a protected cove & headed down to one of my favorite spots, right in the middle of world-reknown Pebble Beach Golf Course
http://www.pebblebeach.com/

(googled web pic)

Turned out to be a nice day with lots of sun & low winds. The water was an unseasonably warm & balmy 55degrees. :crazy:

The prevalent long period NW swells made diving a bit challenging, but workable. Fighting the surge, I worked a few familiar reefs & boulder clusters in 40-60fsw, trying to coax some rockfish to come home for dinner. The fish themselves aren't very wary; the main challenge is in locating them. Norcal's adverse diving conditions tend to preclude most sane people from hunting these waters, so the fish aren't as skittish as in places of high diving pressure like Hawaii. Found a few clusters of rockfish hovering in the lee of pinnacles/boulders & stealthily picked off choice specimens.

Nothing particularly impressive on the day, just a collection of tasty local fish. :thumbsup1:

Pic my dive buddy snapped:

Sunday... after fighting surge and diving all Saturday, I headed out with another buddy to catch the end of our chanterelle season. By the end of the day, my already tired legs were protesting from all the hiking/climbing. Beautiful conditions and when all was said & done, our packs were filled to the brim with the golden delicacies. Spent Sunday evening cleaning/trimming them... snapped this picture of my drying/curing table... then passed out cold. :boring1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanterelle

This week has been well spent recovering & sharing/eating all the locally harvested goodies.
:thumbsup2:

Quote from ladvr

How do you get your shrooms so clean? Do you freeze them?

I know most mycologists frown on using water to clean shrooms... but chantrelles are so dirty, that sometimes it's just easier to wash parts off. My mushroom mentor taught me (& supplied me) with wax paper sandwich bags to individually bag each one before packing. Keeps the root dirt off the caps of others & from spreading much.

Eaten before freezing comes into the equation.
My last project was to preserve them via Thomas Keller's recipe for "Mushroom Conserva". Basically sauteed/preserved in olive oil with a bit of chili pepper & vinegar for acidity.

Quote from Dan

Can you name the fish on your stringer, from left to right?

How thick is your suit?

Not much diversity on that stringer - most are olive rockfish and one vermillion rockfish. If I had used my camera more, I'd be happy to provide more info/images... but just no good images of that or my other stringer. Next time.

Suit is 7mm. I've gotten used to it... necessity if I'm gonna dive up here.

This newer Picasso suit isn't very warm. My old ones seemed to insulate a lot better. In warm waters, it's not as apparent... but in these cold waters, it's very obvious. I used this suit for US Nationals in summer and was still cold in waters that I'd typically use a 5mm in.
(top left pic is me... odd situation being part of team omer/sporasub and using a picasso suit)
http://www.hawaiiskindiver.com…s-from-malibu-california/

Quote from ladvr

Thanks for the tip. I'll track down some bags for next season.

Mike

These are the ones I was given to use. Hard to find - only certain stores seem to carry em. Guess shelf space is a premium and they're just not big sellers...

Quote from Dan

What's that Don?

Earbones from wsb. Otoliths. A lot of socal divers keep em as trophies.