Made myself a goal yesterday to eat some scallops on the beach. Today I made it happen. Went out with Dustan Baker looking for fish and scallops. Scallops weren't as plentiful as last time I was out, but I found some nice ones. Vis was 15-20ft which was really good for the area we were diving.
Around the middle of the dive I dropped down on one spot, not expecting much, but once I reached the bottom I was just covered by the most nice sized sand bass, calicos, and other reef fish I'd ever seen in one spot. Sitting at the bottom aspetto style the fish just circled around me like I was a plain old rock. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me there were 25 game fish and 20 reef fish within shooting distance of me. Each bass was at least 2lbs and I thought to myself if I decided to shoot one I'm going to have to aim twice as careful, because the fish kept moving in front of each other as they crowded around me.
And in the distance I saw the hazy shadowed outline of one massive sized calico. It felt like 8lbs while I was staring as it slowly circled in the distance. Unfortunately I had a hole gun on me and no way to land that sucker. I just watched it through the wall of fish in front of me as that wise old fish kept his distance from me. Soon my lungs started to ache and I decided on heading back to the surface without taking a shot.
We ended the dive by eating some scallops on the beach with a little lime squeezed on top. I'd pulled the trigger once on the dive at a nice 2-3lb calico that felt content to just stare at me as I sat on a rock wall. But unfortunately my aim was too high and the spear went right over it's head. Dustan nabbed a nice 2.9lb sandy, but told me he saw some even bigger fish that eluded his spear.
That's it from the dive. But here's a pic of a scallop I brought back to pan fry for lunch.
