Posts by UWAddict

  • Intro- Norcal diver

    Quote from ladvr

    Welcome Bryan. Those King Boletes look exceptional. Nice fish pics as well.


    Mike


    If you're ever interested in doing some mushroom hunting, come on up and we'll show you around. There's particularly great king hunting in late November-late December.


    Quote from fuzz

    :laughing3:



    We should just dub that the "Bryan combo". :thumbsup2:


    No joke. Every dive its all "go go go go go" until he shoots a red and then its calm and relaxed. Haha.

  • Nat Geo, Wild Justice....

    I found it interested that the new episode that aired the other day involved the depredation of a mountain lion. Made me wonder if it was meant to be a show of solidarity from the Wardens for Dan Richards.


    Personally I find the show morbidly fascinating. Most of the wardens are themselves hunters/fishermen, but I agree that it's cut/edited in such a way as to make it look like every hunter/fisherman is just a poachers who hasn't been caught yet.

  • The waves need to die down

    So, this is pretty off-topic, but I remember you mentioning in a number of threads that you have terrible poison oak right now. I have heard from a number of sources that the salt water is liable to really help with your symptoms. Something about the salt drying out the rash somewhat? Even if you can't get out for a dive, it might be worth going body surfing or something.


    That plant is absolutely evil and (as you found) the bane of the California mushroom hunter (Cen and So Cal in particular, its not too prevalent north of the Golden Gate).


    Also, while I'm dolling out PO advice- I hope you know the trick about taking super hot showers. As hot as you can comfortably handle without burning your skin. It'll feel like ecstasy and it serves to deplete your skin cells of histamine, which is the transmitter that produces the feeling of itchiness. With my last bout of PO, a hot hot shower gave me ~4 hours of relief from itching. I was taking 2, sometimes 3 a day. It allowed me to get to sleep at night and make it through the first half of work distraction free.

  • Would you spear this fish?

    Sort of in the same vein, but definitely on many southern california spearos' dream fish list. The Opah:



    Somewhat rare, but not uncommonly caught under kelp paddy's during SoCal's offshore tuna season (it seems like maybe a dozen or so are caught per year, something like that). They're supposed to have some of the tastiest meat of any CA fish. Can you imagine hopping in offshore and seeing this massive red and silver circle sitting under the paddy? Haha.



    As for the wolf eel, a buddy of mine just shot one last weekend. Apparently they're delicious!?

  • Don't mess with a mango tree

    Contact dermatitis from urushoil (the substance in poison oak/ivy and apparently mango) is no joke. I absolutely feel your pain, man. Glad to hear that you're finally getting better. Best part of all? Your sensitivity to urishoil will increase the more you are exposed to it. :( :( :(


    Next time, as soon as you begin to have a reaction, go to the dermatologist and have him prescribe you a topical steroid. Once the reaction is going full force, topical stuff is worthless, but if you can get it on there as soon as the rash begins to rise and keep applying it twice a day after that, you can knock it back and reduce the severity and duration significantly. I just got over a case of poison oak all down the middle of my back (a PO branch must have slipped down my shirt while I was crawling through thick brush while mushroom hunting) and the topical steroid shortened the misery from a 3 week ordeal to less than 10 days (I only have a tiny bit of residual itchiness now).


    This is all assuming that the contact dermatitis from mango is similar to PO (they're both urushoil, so I would think so).

  • Spearfishing from Mendocino to Baja. Summer 2011 video.

    Brett, I've got lots of mushroom video. I'm planning to put it all together into a compilation of all of the main edibles that CA has to offer... then again, maybe I'll make a "foraging for your foods" video of mushroom hunting, diving and cooking... I haven't yet decided, but I've got some video of epic 30 pound chanterelle patches, 20 pound hedgehog patches, my parents crawling around picking black trumpets, etc etc...


    Quote from Sam

    No worries about the song. I've kept Kirby from using it for quite a while, I knew it would end up in a dive video sooner or later. Besides, I've already made two vids with songs from that album :laughing:


    I'll be around during the holiday; maybe we could get a clam dive in too?


    Well sorry again about swiping it! I suspect that Kirby didn't expect me to look the band up that very same night and put a video together around a song of theirs in <48 hours after months of no vids from me... I was listening to more of that album (I bought it) and there are a ton of great songs on it. I'll have to check your youtube page before I make another video to make sure I'm not repeating one of your songs :).


    I've pitch-forked for pismos before and the first time we did it we had easy limits, but then the 2nd and 3rd times we got skunked, so we lost interest. The vid Kirby posted a while back of you guys diving for them looked like a blast, though, so I'd definitely be down... lets figure it out as x-mas gets closer. :toast:

  • Spearfishing from Mendocino to Baja. Summer 2011 video.

    Thanks for the positive responses, guys. Glad you liked it!


    Quote from Sam

    Gahh! :D Guess I'll have to find another Little People song to use in my next vid ;)


    Excellent video, makes me miss the cold murky waters up north even more. I love the yellowtail scratching themselves on the turtle too. It's always amazing to see what behaviors fish display when we take a break from hunting and just watch.


    Sorry about swoopin' your song! When Kirby stopped by my place on his way south, we were chatting about spearfishing videos and I explained to him that I had a ton of good footage, but couldn't find the right song to go with it. He suggested I check out Little People. As soon as I listened to "Moon", my search for a song was over... Little did I know that you were the one that turned him on to the band in the first place! If I stumble across a really good dive vid song any time soon I'll send it your way.


    The funny thing about the yellowtail rubbing against the turtle was that it was actually pretty tough to get good footage of because whenever we'd approach the turtle, all the yellowtail would get curious about us and swim away from the turtle to check us out. It was rough. :laughing:


    I'll be driving through LA Dec21st on my way to San Diego for X-mas. I currently have plans to dive with a buddy in the Dana Point area if conditions allow it. Will you be down south around then? Maybe we could hook up for a dive.

  • Spearfishing from Mendocino to Baja. Summer 2011 video.

    The winter storms have begun pounding the Central CA coast the last few weeks, and around here that means the ocean is pretty much closed to business until you can find a break in the weather... and sometimes those breaks don't fall on a weekend for weeks and weeks at a span. So like a squirrel in Autumn, I spent some time this past weekend hoarding away a taste of the warmer months to help me survive the long winter.


    This video is a bit of a "season in review" with a bit of everything from the Mendocino coast to Isla Guadalupe in Baja, with Sonoma, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Cruz island, and San Clemente island hunted in between. Shown in the video are lingcod to 24 pounds, vermilion rockfish to 5.5 pounds, white seabass to 43, cabrilla, yellowtail, halibut, and some chunky scallops and lobster.


    I had a blast putting this one together and remembering all of the incredible things that the ocean has shared with me this past season. I hope you guys enjoy it.


    The music is "Moon" by Little People and "By the Sea I Will Stay Forever" by the Mermen. Thanks to Kirby on the suggestion of the band Little People. I was really struggling to find the right song and I dig this band's sound.



    Spearfishing the CA Coast from Mendocino to Guadalupe Island - YouTube



    P.S. Unfortunately, my video clip archive is getting to be so extensive that just sorting through it has become a daunting task. Apologies to Bryan for excluding the footage of him hunting yellowfin tuna (which is sick even though none were landed), Joel for not including a clip of him blasting some nice lings, Jon C for the same, Adam for being unable to fit in the clips of him with a great flatty and us all cruising around at San Clemente laughing our asses off in gale force winds, Harold for excluding the clips of the incredible stringers he always ends up filling by the end of a good day of diving; as well as Nelson, John B, Geoff, Dad, and everyone else I've been lucky enough to dive with. Its not really a season in review without the people who were a part of that season, but I just couldn't find a way to make it all fit this time around.

  • so california black ab "critical habitat"

    Quote from spearstuff

    For a critically endangered species that seems like a very slow response.


    I would be more worried about the species if I didn't see half a dozen ever time I climb out on the rocks in big sur. Granted, big sur is the heart of their range, but even so, it shows that at least the species isn't on the verge of disappearing...

  • Spearboard reject!

    What'd you do to earn you the boot?


    Seems like lots of senior members are getting banned or scared away recently.


    Edit: Oop, just saw the other thread. Welcome to Speardiver. I'm still on SB, but have found I like the atmosphere around here quite a lot.

  • so california black ab "critical habitat"

    I'm afraid I don't understand why everyone is so up in arms about this. Did you happen to read this part?:


    "Once areas are designated as critical habitat, federal projects or permits and projects with federal funding are required to ensure their actions do not adversely modify the animal's habitat. Designating critical habitat does not affect citizens engaged in activities on private land that do not involve a federal agency. "

  • Low tide buggin'

    Nicely done, Sam! Hell yes. Looks like you found yourself a real honey hole.


    Edit: Just watched the vid. Holy crap, man! That's an amazing sight. Can't say I've ever seen so many nice bugs piled up like that. Pretty unbelievable!

  • Worms in Cabezon ???

    Basically all of CA's fish sometimes have worms. I've found round worms in everything from halibut and lingcod to cabezon, rockfish, even the occasional yellowtail. So long as you cook it, its perfectly safe. If you intend to eat it raw, DFG recommends freezing below 0 degrees F for 48 hours (this is a lot colder than most home freezers get). Does that deter me from filleting a yellowtail and putting it straight into some soy sauce and into my mouth? Not at all. :)


    These larval roundworms are the most common and the only kind known to cause any problems: California Department of Fish & Game, Marine Region, Common Parasites of California Marine Fishes