Thanks guys! Always appreciate the generosity on this forum. A reply for each of you:

Essrigr, I'll keep your offer in mind! I could use a few new dive buddies as well and I will start finding some time on fridays and weekends beginning in April or so.

Bolicks, I hadn't looked at the cobia but I'm appreciating the low cost and simplicity. Have you ever found yourself wanting the bigger stronger gun? If so, when do you wish you had more gun? I had in mind the 70 cm Tuna, which is only a little longer but probably considerably more power. As to float or reel, I've usually gone without either, but I see advantages to both.

Divenfish, Thanks for the offer! I'm up in Ft Bragg pretty often. I have family nearby and was raised over the hill in Laytonville. Got my first wetsuit from Kenny at Subsurface as a kid. If I haven't just gone ahead and bought the gun I'll take you up on the offer to try. And maybe reach out to dive in any case.

Ok. I've got six of those 25 lb. heavy duty ambush traps rigged on the back of the boat. We paddle out from Ocean Beach at first light on opening day. I'm not sure where we'll set, but I'd like her to have the experience of seeing the Farallones come up out of a thick autumn fog, so that's the goal. Ambitious, I know, but I've duct taped an EPIRB to the tiniest survival suit I could find and taught her to scream loudly into channel 16. So there's a plan.

Kidding.

Despite suggestion to the contrary, I am interested in these responses. I respect the concern and I hope those of you who have voiced it can hear that I take my daughter's safety very seriously.

I am also hearing from some others, and a few in my private messages, exactly the kind of recommendations I was hoping for, which have been extremely helpful to me. Thanks to those of you who offered these ideas.

If conditions are good, I'll take her out of school and we'll plan to paddle 1-200 ft out from Doran and set 2 light duty hoopers. We'll paddle around for 20-30 minutes, drink some hot chocolate, and go pull the traps. If conditions are not in our favor, or if she gets spooked, we'll eat crab sandwiches on the beach. I also have another semi-secret spot in mind that's even more protected so we've got a few good options.

A few things I did find frustrating in the responses here:

The assumption of reckless ignorance. It makes sense to ask about my level of experience and check that I'm thinking rationally about this, but it seems like some of you jumped quickly to the (I think) wrong conclusion that I have no idea what I'm getting into and have no ability to responsibly consider what my daughter needs, feels, or is capable of. That felt ungenerous to me.

More importantly: I think some of you have a low opinion of what a young child is capable of doing, communicating, and experiencing. All kids are different but I have found that if I take my daughter seriously, give her opportunities to try complicated things and (crucially) maintain her sense of safe, supportive, boundaries, she can do amazing things. She can also tell me what she needs and whether she likes something, or finds it scary.

My daughter was born in a Manhattan hospital in the first days of Covid. We fled NYC and lived the whole first year of her life in a cabin in the white mountains of northern new hampshire. I fly fished the river every day that summer, often with her in a sling on my chest. When I caught a trout, I'd hold it out for her to touch and we'd release it together, so she could feel it slip out of her pudgy little fingers back into the water. She got splashed by a lot of squaretails that summer.

In the winter, the river froze over and we dragged her behind our skis in a little sled. She was constantly shaking her mittens off and dragging those pudgy fingers in the snow.

Anyway (I could go on forever about this), the important thing is that in spring, when the river thaws there's an early hatch of red quill mayflies. They gather over the riffles and the females bob up and down in little translucent clouds waiting for a male to tackle and fertilize them midflight. If you don't know to look for this, it can be hard to see (until they fill the air above the water, which happens) but it's the first bit of magic in the new trout season.

In that first spring of 2021, when she was not quite a year old, she could see it. I held her in the chest sling and pointed, and she bobbed her little head up and down in time with the bugs' mating dance.

I don't think she has to understand that to be impacted by it. But I like that she can see it.

Jesus. I didn’t even know stripers got that big on our coast. I’ve seen them like that back east but… and you shot those?

I guess you’ve made your case for that rail gun.

Thanks for the input everyone. I really do appreciate the concern but, (and no criticism intended here) I'm a little surprised at the caution!

I have done a little kayak crabbing but also spent lots of my childhood on my dad and godfather's commercial fishing boats. In my 20's I even did a stint on a commercial crab boat out of Fort Bragg and the SF bay. So I'm not new to the conditions or the gear.

I'm also not talking about a big expedition here, and maybe that's the confusion. I'm thinking a couple hours on a mild November day in protected water, with a few hoop traps on the back of my very large and very stable 13ft trident, with a wetsuit and a lifejacket on both the little Bean and me.

She's already catching her own boogie board waves in the shorebreak and swimming through small surf with her lifejacket on. I think she can handle a low pressure day of kayak crabbing in good conditions.

Does that sound irresponsible or unrealistic? I'm open to feedback on this.

Welcome Pat! I think it's going to be hoops vs commercial style traps again and I believe they're required to announce 5 or maybe 10 days before the scheduled opening day for your region. I just ordered a few of those promar ambush traps from cabelas. $65 each, plus buoy, line, and bait jar.

Hey guys,

I'm a longtime freediver but relatively inexperienced spearo, looking to get more serious about spearing on the north coast, mostly sonoma and mendocino areas. I'm curious how people prefer to rig for rockfish, ling, cabezon... anything you might shoot after a short paddle or swim from shore.

I have an old 24" Biller style gun that I inherited. It's a sea hornet but I gather they are the same thing? Came with a double flopper that has a retaining ring. I'm finding it a little slow and have lost some fish when the shaft didn't fully penetrate. I think I need to change something.

Has anyone tried changing the point on a gun like this? I'm wondering if I should look for a single flopper that can match these threads. Or even a new shaft? Is that an option on an old gun like this?

I'm open to being told I should look for a new gun altogether, but would like to make this one work better if possible.

Thanks for any input.

Welcome anyway Cameron! If you want to drop back by sometime to tell us about sight-fishing for tailing redfish I, for one, would welcome it.