Posts by Kirby

If the in-season reg changes or the 2011-2012 sportfishing regs say you can take 12 inch bass, you can take 12 in bass. Sounds like the sporties were wrong. Too bad...

Hey....I know that picnic table!

Thanks for posting the pictures! Keep it up!

Thanks for the compliment on the videos.

Keep and eye out for Matt and Mike. They are good guys and good divers.

When the bait is in on south beach, dive. I miss it up there and really look forward to pictures and reports when you make it out.

Cheers,
-Kirby

Do you have a brother named Matt? Have we met?

I dove up there for the last ~five years. No where else in the world can you shoot lingcod, rockfish, and California halibut, while grabbing a limit of Dungies, razor clams and abalone on the same dive. Then when you get out, throw your cast net for anchovies to make some 'fries with eyes.'

And it does get pretty good sometimes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhYyHBF81sE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq6oHTuR0Ew

While those clips are an absolute snag hazard, this type of thing can happen to all types of fins. Using bright line and being ready for entanglement is the best defense.

In this photo I also had a big white seabass and large kelp ball tied to the other end. I noticed I was tangled and immediately dropped what I was doing, reached down, and pulled the line off of me. Turns out the tendon had popped out of the notch.

Tanc is very lucky using that invisible mono and super-snag clips...

Yo Q-

This is what I do for low vis halibut hunting:

1. Hunt at the edge of the visibility (the sand that is just coming into view).
2. Swim very slowly.
3. Ride the current. As Lunker mentioned, I have also noted that halibut usually face into the current. On the contrary to what Lunker mentioned, I've found that halibut spook less frequently if I come face to face with them rather than face to tail.

When the halibut materializes in the edge of your visibility, try stopping and backing up a bit, load your polespear or aim your gun and shoot it from the front....this is another reason to hunt them with the current at your back: You want to shoot them from the front.

Hope this helps!
-Kirby

Conditions were worse today than yesterday in my backyard. Vis was ~8ft but halibut hunting distance was only 3-5. Regardless I managed to scrape up this little bugger...

Marco- Fish party at my place when you get back!

Quote from Dan

Looks interesting. Some kind of shark or ray? How's the yield?

Hey Dan- This is an angel shark. They live in the sand, buried like halibut and flounder. They are ambush predators with some pretty ferocious teeth. There are over a dozen species world wide. The yield was very good (see photo), and the meat is awesome. Next time I've got an empty fridge, I'm going to take another.

Quote from Sockeye

Knarly, I heard those are a pain to clean. I'm up north right now but if you plan on diving over the weekend let me know.
-marco

They are not a pain to clean at all. This was my first angel so I was ready for the worst but it was as easy as cleaning a rabbit. I stoned this one so I don't know however if their gear wrecking fight that they are known for is real or bs like the 'hard to clean' thing. But at this point I would say you should give one a 'shot!'

I'll be in touch.

North county sucked today but is improving from last week. I went out in three different spots with my new 8ft Crist spear to learn how to handle it and hopefully bring home a halibut. I could see 10-12ft but wouldn't have been able to make out a halibut from much further than 6ft. I saw only one halibut and it was sub-legal so I decided to take home another sand dweller.

See you guys in the water

Its really easy. Buy a cheap slick bottom bodyboard and make sure that it is closed cell foam throughout (not Styrofoam filled). Buy a mesh game bag that is just smaller than the board and punch holes through the board from the bottom and zip tie one side of the bag down to the holes. Flip the leash plug upside down and attach a tuna clip to the bottom.

It should last 3 years of serious abuse.

Then save up for a BanksBoard!

Quote from skygear

Nice! - What camera were you using?

The first three photos are frame grabs from GoPro video. The fourth photo was taken with a Canon G10

Sockeye- I'll be down on Tuesday the 14th and will be needing a dive! Talk to you soon.

Quote from Hookinfish

Maybe you could also elaborate on where to take a shot on a halibut I was hoping for center mass near the head .

It sounds like you were aiming in the correct area. The base of the pectoral fin is where I and everyone I know aims. It is a trade off between center of mass shot and a paralyzing shot and minimizes the loss of meat.

Also, if you can shoot the fish from the front with your shaft at a ~45 degree angle, it will often swim up your shaft. This helps the flopper deploy.

A good shot on a halibut-

Skip to 1:00 in this video and you'll see how often when aiming for that pectoral fin you'll hit the spine. Skip to 1:40 and you'll see what I mean by shooting from a 45 degree angle so the fish swims up your shaft. Sorry about the three foot vis!

Spearfishing Halibut in Northern California - YouTube

BTW, nice fish!

Approaching the end of my schooling here in northern California got me wanting that infamous limit of ten inch abalone. I've passed up a handful of limits in the past as a respect to the resource, but due to a rapidly approaching move out date, I decided to give it a go. I did the drive south to Mendocino and was greeted by conditions that were much worse than expected (but certainly better than here in Humboldt).

Visibility was 3-10. The abs were almost all located in the 3-5ft vis but the fish were easy to find out in deeper clearer, 10ft vis water.

After about 6 hours I finished my haul. I had found five ten inch abalone, taken three (a limit), along with a couple 'eater' lings, a nice grass rockfish, and my personal best black rockfish at 7lbs.

Ten incher on rock-

Black rockfish in the haze-

My 10 5/8 incher (my largest of the day)-

My overall catch-

Wonderful Carter! Thanks for taking the time to photodocument and post. Bryan really is a red addict!

Dan and Dusky-

That pond is the water hazard on the 11th hole of a local disc golf course, The Redwood Curtain. You have to throw your disc across the pond from about a 40ft elevation into a garage sized hole in the trees on the other side. It isn't a far shot but is difficult for beginners. If you miss the hole in the trees, the redwoods will slap your disc back into the drink. It used to be loaded with discs but unfortunately my buddies and I fished out!

Quote from Apnea addict

Awesome, man! Congratulations, that's a huge achievement. I had a roommate that did a thesis his senior year and preparing it was about like raising a child for 9 months.

Very interesting topic too. How does it read? Would it fly way over my head? If you think I would understand at least 1/3rd of the words, I would be interested to read it.

Oh, and I forgot to say- I've got a couple ideas for new UW photo/video projects. Not sure when they'll pan out, because recently the water has been too god damned rough to dive! I'll definitely make a vid of my summer adventures, though, so if you can find some music for me by then that would be much appreciated ;).

Thanks Carter. It was a royal PIA. It still is. I'll send you a finished draft when it gets published. You'll understand all of it.

I'm interested to see your new projects. Will it all be matrix style vermilion shooting?! Hope to see your videos and dive with you soon!

Thanks again everybody, for the positive remarks. I love making videos for myself and my friends, but I'm always stoked when the community enjoys them too.

Marco- See you soon. Leucadia! And I'll be working the beach between Orange County and the Mexico border.

Quote from Apnea addict

In conditions like that, there ain't no where you can go where things will clear up.

Exactly. And the most turbulent spots have the biggest snails.

Quote from Apnea addict

Nutty diving, Kirby. If I was really dying for a dive when it was that rough out, I'd be searching googlemaps for a lake to hop in...

As I'm sure you know, we do that too...

When the Ocean is Brown: Freshwater Freediving for Frisbee Golf Discs - YouTube

Quote from Tailsurfer

Nice videos Kirby!

I got into HSU and will be up there in August... Hopfully you will still be around to show me the ropes of humboldt diving!

Sorry Josh, but I'm out like a trout! See below flier... Congrats on getting in to Humboldt. Unfortunately we have the worst diving conditions in the state. You should probably focus on Fern Lake (the above pictures and video) for the majority of your diving... Let me know if you need any tips when you get up here. Oh, and careful with the locals that have houses on the beach. They grow weed, have large mean dogs and larger meaner guns...

Thanks guys!

Quote from Dan

Thanks, for a long time I wanted to know how to eat sea urchin. Do they always have gonads or does it depend on male/female? If so how do you know?

Watching the ab video you've got to be a tough and/or very hungry man

Dan- I am unsure how to sex urchins, but know that all of the red and purple urchins that live out here in Cali have nearly identical (between sexes, not species) gonads. We did however notice two color variations in the gonads which we thought may have to do with sex, but I'm skeptical.

I would also be careful about eating urchins out where you are. I know nothing about them, but assume that California's reds and purples are shipped world wide for a reason (yours might not be edible).

As far as being tough or hungry, I'd say I'm neither. I had just gotten only two dives in in the last six months, and my buddy Carl had gotten one...we were simply too dry.

Quote from Apnea addict

Nice, glad you're still out there making videos, Kirby. Awesome vids as usual!

Gracias Carter. I was going to send you the soundtrack from the abalone video just the other day but thankfully decided to hang onto it...and I'm glad I did. I'm going to keep searching for songs though, and send some your way to hopefully squish some more footage out of your computer.

Here are three videos from recent ocean excursions. Northeastern Pacific conditions are often really poor (as you can see), but we make do with what we got. FYI, my posting in the California forum may or may not be indicative of all locations included in the following clips.

Uni-
Red Urchin Diving, Cleaning and Preparation - Uni - YouTube

Kayaking for Dungeness crabs-
Kayak Crabbing in Humboldt County - YouTube

First ab dive of the new year-
Diving Rough Water for Ten Inch Abalone - YouTube

Some Recent Videos

I got a call early this morning from my bud Carl. He said the water looked clear and that the surf was down. I jumped in the truck and mashed down to the water to be greeted by the best conditions that the area ever sees.

The water was 8-10ft vis in an area that is usually 0ft, and there was not a hint of surge. We were in and out within 1 hour and I headed back to town to clean my catch.

I shot a black rockfish that went 7lbs which was my personal best rockfish with a pole, along with three other blacks, a black and yellow, and two lingcod. Carl nabbed a larger blue ling, and five nice, ~5lb blacks. On the way in we scraped up 20 commercial legal and larger dungies.

My Catch-