Catalina 2/12-13

:nono:

Went out to Cat with Josh, Mike and little Evan Bouma.

We were greeted with stellar conditions for it being February! No wind on the ride out at all, very minimal swell with long periods made the ride smooth as can be. Dove 3 spots on the West end Saturday and put in a total of 10 hours water time. The three of us managed a day bug a piece, and little Evan tagged some perch. That kid was so stoked! Made a total of 4 dives since we went back for seconds that night in hopes of a decent crawl. Wind picked up around sundown and got unpleasant, but we still dove and I managed to find a legal bug out and about, but saw many many more still back in their holes. They didn't get that big by crawling around, that's for damn sure.

Dropped some hoops that night, but only produced one legal and one short.

All said and done I ended up with 2 maybe 3 pb's, 2 bugs, 10 fish. (3 Calicos, 3 misc rockfish, 3 sheep, 1 sculpin)

Had vis range from 15-25' up to 35-40', getting better the further West we went.
Water temp on the boat said 65, which was nice to see, but in reality it was 59 as measured by Mike's F10..

Story time in next post..

So we were farting around in the shallows looking for some day bugs. I had brought my little hole gun out in hopes for some more rockfish. I went in about 4' of water and saw a nice little shadow that looked to be a cave. I took a quick breath to take a peek in what I soon realized was a large cave. As soon as I had my head under that opening I saw a massive tail and then all hell broke loose. Sand went everywhere and I thought I had just seen the worlds biggest grass rockfish. I needed to get this thing.

I went back to where I had ditched my gun about 60yrds away, loaded it and got ready for a fun time. Got back to the cave where I saw it and breathed up heavy to go in after it if need be. Aimed my light, choked up on my gun, and went under. Nobody home except for a maybe legal bug chillin on the roof. "CRAP!" I thought. So once again I ditched my gun, breathed up, went down, and scoped out the bug and as I was going for my grab, about 4' back and 2' up in the cave I see this face staring at me. Completely stoked, I grabbed my gun, exhaled, inhaled and went down once again.

I crawled about 2' into the cave so I could aim my gun without it being pinned sideways from a rock just outside the entrance and pulled the trigger with the five prong pointed right at his face. Nothing. I started to pull my line back when I realized I had him right between the eyes. He was still kicking, which made for a fun time trying to wrap him up and pull him out of the cave simultaneously. Completely stoked on life I held him up out of the water and hooted and hollered. It was then that I realized it was a pb calico. Got him on the deck and it looked massive.

Weighed it went a hair over 6lbs.

Got home today and painted it up for some decoration on the walls of my room along with a grass rockfish.
(mine are the straight blue ones and my dad did the colorful one)

-Davis

Quote from sdeisen

sick brah! did you nhave the trident tip thinking youd see halibut or is that a reg thing

I like to use it whenever I can. I love it for caves since I can shoot a fish 2" away from a rock and not give a ....

I took all but two of my fish with it this weekend, which ironically were the smaller ones and I took them with my large white sea bass gun...:crazy:

Quote from Dan

Excellent pic with the 5 prong, looks oldschool. And look at the prongs all bent to shit

I'm thinking of making me a fish stamp. It's a more respectful way of keeping a trophy than having a mount made. We should have a thread here on how to do it. I like the solid blue one better than the colored.

The 5 prong was one of my dad's old competition guns, and that tip only gets better with age. I took a shot on a rockfish and the shaft didn't even leave the muzzle. Shot the rockfish and subsequently the rock behind it. I love that gun and hopefully can retire it one of these days when I find something as durable.

Quote from Stephan

Nice bass. Way to go. Nice colors too. Post up pics of the spearo with his perch. I love a stoked spear fisher pick regardless of the trophy. Thanks for the report.

Thanks. I'll try and see if there is a pic of him with it, but I doubt it. I was cracking up when he was saying that he was going to feed his family with a little 5" perch. I remember the good ole days when I would shoot opaleye and get stoked, even if my dad just tossed them to the birds when I wasn't looking..

Slept on can at the isthmus. It's a 32' Tiara and had a ton of room for all four of us to sleep inside comfortably.

Thanks guys! Neptune blood for sure. I was a little sore Sunday night and Monday, but not nearly as bad as I had imagined I would be.