That's why you gotta come on our trip.  We get em all!

Have you thought about adding a spreader bar for the bands?  They make for a nice line of sight. 

How strong is the epoxy if you can cut it in ten minutes to open it up?  (I don't know much about epoxies, which is why I ask)  Do you worry about the shaft tearing the epoxy if you can cut it easily?

No need to dive deep for good hole hunting, there are lots of glory holes in shallow (Fuzz and can't remember his name right now, posted a big ling one of them got in shallow a while back).  Boundary layers are where everything compiles, and there is often more food in shallow than deep.

Nice report.  That second spot looks like a great place to get eaten.

If you want to eat the mantles, it's easy to clean them.  Gut the abalone first.  Then take a dish brush, and just scrub the black colored stuff off.  It takes a little work, but it isn't very hard.  One easy way to scrub them is to put a large 3" nail through a cutting board and just impale the ab on the nail, then you don't have to worry about it slidding around.

Jus cut of the mantles at an angle.  I use the mantles for soup or appetizers.  I chop them into 2" pieces and then place them in boiling water for 5 minutes.  Take them out and put them in any sort of sauce you want, and you have an easy appetizer while you are cooking the rest of your abalone.

I learned this from a crazy evangelical guy from Arkansas who was trying to preach to us.

get the 2-3" ones, if your gonna get the big ones, just bbq them, use the smaller ones for cioppino, and stews.  Your not allowed to use any hand tools either.  I like to use rubber masonry gloves.  I bring a bucket, a scale, gloves, scissors and a bbq brush.  I collect 8-9 lbs (limit is 10), then go find a nice tidepool spot to clean the outside with the heavy wire brush and scissors.  It takes me a bout 1.5 hours, from door to door at my favorite spot. 

I rty not to take them all from one spot so that I don't deplete my area, unless they are growing on top of each other.  Grab them and twist real hard. 

The red tide a month ago was really nasty thick, it was a cerertium, which has the potential to carry a very harmful toxin.  So I'm gonna wait a little longer. 

I also wanted to thank you guys for donating some fish during the MBK tournament.  I will be using it to make a homemade style ciopinno/fish stew for the feast. 

Come support the preservation of Wild Steelhead Trout with the Carmel RIver Steelhead Association at the Wild Game BBQ. This is our fundraiser for projects that support the restoration of the Carmel River and it's native steelhead trout.  THe BBQ is on sunday, October 25, from 1 to 4 pm at Los Laureles Lodge in Carmel Valley

If you want to make your own floatline buy the vinyl tubing from www.usplastic.com.

If you don't want to do it yourself, buy one from neptonics.com