Intro w/fish p0rn pics

This is my first post here on the new BS-free forum, but I never really introduced myself on the other place anyways. I'm Alex, and I'm a transplant from the East Coast (Virginia). I grew up relatively landlocked, doing apnea and freediving/snorkeling in swimming pools and rivers. I came here on vacation in 2006, and it was my first time swimming in halfway decent visibility, especially in the ocean. Diving and spearfishing were a major impetus for me moving here in 2007 when I got a new job (I'm a research technician at Children's Hospital, soon to be going back to school for my master's).

Diving-wise, I shore and boat dive once or twice a week if I am lucky. Work takes up a lot of my time. I also frequently drive out to freshwater locations to get something new and different. I've literally shot tons of carp, gotten some really nice stripers, and my dive buddy (Daniel) and I have gotten third and second place in the Colorado River tournaments.

My current gun collection:
-Riffe Euro 110X, heavily modified with custom shaft, rigging, and Herranen epoxy.
-Aimrite Venom Pro Competition 90cm, modified as well.
-Homemade 95cm hickory stick
-Mares Californian pneumatic 70cm
-Crist 6-foot polespear with custom band and 18" flopper shaft
-Crist 7 foot polespear with paralyzer
-35" black locust homemade gun (still in progress).

By null at 2010-07-03

By null at 2010-07-03

Shot at 2010-07-05

Shot at 2010-07-05

Shot at 2010-07-05

Quote from sdeisen

is that a rainbow rrunner????

California Yellowtail. Not a huge one (~10 pounds). Fun story though because I had already taken my wetsuit off for the day, when we came across a huge paddy out of nowhere. So I jumped in wearing speedos, shot the fish, stoned it, got the picture taken, and lept out of the water, all in about 45 seconds. The water was about 70 (HOT for SoCal), and there were some guys from Florida freezing their asses off in 3 mils, looking at me like I was crazy. Fun times.

I have a dive buddy who is Russian, and crazy (in that order). Anyways, he picked up these halloween masks for our friend's kids, and somehow they wound up on the boat. Seeing as how the masks are ridiculous, and shooting carp is a ridiculous activity (they're inedible, invasive pests, but tons of fun to shoot and turn into fertilizer), it only seemed logical to combine them. So whomever gets the biggest or most carp on a given trip wears the Bozo mask for the trip photo.

I think there were some other SoCal guys who were doing something similar with paddy hopping YT and Mexican lucha libre masks...

Crawdads have much less discriminating taste buds than I do.