Pursuit Weight Vest and Grunion Munchers….

I had a chance to dive with Dan’s weight vest for a few hours. It’s a nice product that accepts the standard 2lb weights. I’ve been diving with a vest for a little over a year and consider it an essential piece of gear. It makes it easier to drop down, level off and control movement underwater. I prefer the vest to the harness systems. IMO it does a better job putting the weight over the lungs.

Anyhow, for those who are not familiar with Southern California fishing we have a bait fish in the smelt family that spawns in the tidal zone through out the spring and summer months. The Grunion come in on the high tides and deposit and fertilize eggs that will hatch during the next high tide.

For more info on Grunion:
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/grunion.asp

Larger fish take advantage of the grunion spawns. Particularly the California Halibut. Larger halibut will follow the grunion in for the feast and linger around for a few days or longer. While we have good halibut fishing year round the numbers and size bump up during the grunion runs.

Here is some California halibut video from last year:

http://cdocs.org/sdc16.htm

This morning I got to the spot at first light. The ocean was at dead dog low tide. -.8ft on the tide charts. The tide pools were all drained out and many of the intertidal creatures were left high and dry. Star fish, limpets and anemones to name a few. Even a sea lion pup managed to get stranded by the out going tide.

After a few hours of diving and passing up dozens of smaller fish I score two nice fish. My partner also shot two. I passed on a smallish but legal wsb on the way back in. I have a two halibut limit at this spot due to the climb out is up a gnarly goat trail to the top of a 60ft bluff. Fun dive and a great morning to be in So Cal..

Cheers,
Mike aka ladvr

Quote from Dan

Nice pics Mike, love the sea lion pup one. Judging by the size of the vest those halibut are huge. What did they weigh?

I did not weigh them. They were 39 and 40 inches in length.

Quote from LunkerBuster

that was a great report...thank you mike..i enjoy your style of telling very much.

nice review too...I might want to look into the vest...What are you going to be charging for them Dan?

Thanks. I love using a vest. The guys I dive with get tired of hearing about it. I dove up in Malibu a few weeks ago and left the vest at home. I had to put extra weight around my waist to compensate. After diving with it for a year I really missed having it. Just felt awkward.

Mike

Quote from Gobig

Those are some big flat fish Mike, congrats. No wonder you have a 2 fish limit, that's an extra 50lbs of wieght right there!

OUt of curiosity, do you use soft wieghts inside the vest, and do they slide around inside the pocket when you move?

John,
I used the hard weights but the lead shot might be a good option. The 2lb hard weights are a tight fit to the pockets. You could also cast some lead plates in various weights. I did that for my spetton vest.

Quote from Don Paul

Mike sorry for the side track trying to find the video for the flaty that line wrapped your bands ?
Thanks in advance. Don

I'll see if I can find it. It was a situation where the shaft did not fully clear the muzzle and bands. Ironically, one of the halibut in this thread also tangled but I am so use to it happening I just instinctively release the gun and work the floatline. I have not had a wsb tangle yet this year.