Fish Bay - 11/24

During the week the forecast for today went from 7-9' swells down to 2-3' swells then back to 5-6' swells...  This morning it was 5' @ 20 seconds at the Cape.  Picture a graphical cross section of a wave.  A short period wave has way way less volume of water than a long period wave.  5 @ 20 is potentially a huge shore break. 

Great friend of my dad's, and now mine, Moose, joined me for a Roleez trip down to Fish Bay to close out ab season.  We hit the beach around 2:15 and shared Roleez hauling duty for the 1.4 mile hike from the truck.  I'd never seen a dead pelican on the beach before today.  (and that seal carcass still has it's teeth, Paul...)  We arrived at Fish Bay and saw that the long period swell was smashing the good diving spot pretty hard, but the water was clear again.  4' vis - wow!  Unheard of around that spot - especially with the 10' tide change and the smashing swells.  We geared up, paddled out to the diving spot, and started the search.  As the tide dropped (due to hit -2' at sunset) we got a little better access to the better ab areas.  We found quite a few abs and saw several fish.  It felt so good to get a good dive in.  I found a nice ab in a little cave.  When I ducked under again and reached in the cave a second time it had already crawled several inches back into the crevice - sometimes abs will cruise quickly like that, but not often.  I worked the ab, having to reach down below it and bring my iron back up into the small opening I could feel where I could get a prying purchase.  It was hard to pry off, but I got it detached after about 10 minutes.  It fell down into the crevice, but I could reach it.  I tried to pull it out of the cave, but it was too big.  I worked and worked, and the waves were working me!  Finally I determined that I could not get it out of the little cave opening, so I started prying at some rocks at the cave opening.  I managed to move two rocks out of the way so I could get the ab out - for a while I thought I'd have to leave it in there.  Glad I got it out - 10 and an eighth.  Pulled one other fatty 9.25 and Moose grabbed a couple of nice ones too.  We didn't have time for hook and line action today.  We roleezed back up the beach in the dark with a couple of brews.  Great day.   

Check out how big the meat of the 10 was compared to a nice 9er.