SWS 5/13 Thursday spearfishing report *Calico Bass*

      3.5lb Calico

      Played hooky and went down to SWS with a bud to see if we could spear some more varieties of fish. When we arrived at around 8:00am the place was overcast and fogged in pretty good. We had gone down there the weekend before and done pretty good, vis was 30 feet plus then on a sunny day. But it stayed pretty windy, drizzly, and overcast the whole day Thursday. The vis was probably 12 feet at most, but very cloudy from a lot of macro debris. My bud and I are still very new at this and only used our boogie boards to get out and spear some fish from shore in about 15 to 20 feet of water. We've found that hunting around the Kelp trees underwater has been very productive for a variety of fish. I just started looking into holes for fish, and under boulders and have been able to spot a ling or two, but haven't figure out how to get them to come closer to the entrance for a good shot to the head yet. Anyways, we were diving around a good thick clump of kelp and noticed a lot of activity with schools of at least 60 or more perch weaving in and out of several kelp stalks. As I hovered close to the top of the outer edge of the canopy, and just floated silently, the place really came to life, and all kinds of fish were dodging about. I spotted a good size greenling chasing another fish around. Then as I was watching where the greenling retreated in the thick of the kelp, I noticed some odd spotted white colorations moving along the outer edge of the Kelp's stalks. This was about 10 feet down in 20 feet of water mind you, and the vis was so so because it was darker around that point. As I watched it, I noticed the pattern was attached to the silhouette of a fish, and sure enough, before I could point towards it with my gun, it slipped into the thick of the kelp. I was totally bummed, as one, I had no idea what kind of fish it was, but it looked huge and super cool, and two, with the time I took to figure out what it was, it got away, classic! Anyways, I knew it was there, so I waited a few more minutes and noticed that the smaller fish had stopped dodging about, and that was when I decided to make the executive decision and dive down to the bottom and check things out in the thick. I swam away from the clump of kelp about eight or nine feet and descended as best I could with split fins, not the best propulsion for descent, but it works none the less. As I got down to the bottom and peered into the mass, I noticed that it was pretty cathedral looking in the middle of the nine or so massive stalks, so I decided to get into the middle of it. As I went in, I saw some kelp cods hovering two or three feet from the bottom and they sunk away into the darkness, but still no sign of the spotted fish. Approaching the midsection of the Kelp, Perch were everywhere, big rainbows, rubberlip, and some larger silver barred, most exiting as I started to rise through the thick. Then out of the corner of my eye, as it usually happens, gun pointed in the wrong direction again, I notice literally about a foot away from my left shoulder, the spotted design of the fish just sitting lateral against the kelp. It sees me and  bolts through the thick, as soon as I can say wholly crap in my head, and as I turn with my gun in that direction, two more further to my left bolt as well. The damn things looked huge, and I was totally crushed for that second, as they all darted away into the thick. I reached the top poking my snorkel through the canopy with thick kelp laying across my back in every direction, cleared for air and relaxed a minute trying to digest everything that just happened. As I peered back down through the darkness, I hoped I would see them come into the circle clearing, but instead all of the perch with their babies just filled the void. I started to get that spooky claustrophobic feel with the kelp completely covering the canopy above and decided to part in through a tight gap in the kelp towards the outer edge of the canopy in the direction that the spotted fish had gone. As I was able to miraculously slip through the opening pretty effortlessly, low and behold, one of the spotted fish were beneath me hovering horizontal about six feet down from my position and looking back into the clump. This time I had my gun in front and quickly but stealthily pointed the gun in its direction and as I was doing so, it started to move towards the thick. I pulled the trigger and blammo, blasted the guy, whooo hooo! I was so excited that I forgot that half my body was still in the narrow window of kelp I was slithering through. I pulled up the fish on the cord, got it close and proceeded to check it out, then managed to get my legs free of the rest of the kelp and get that bad boy on the game clip asap. After I got it on the game clip, I tried looking around to see if the other fish of its kind were still around, but no deal. So I flagged my bud down and we both admired the specimen under water and were both amazed with its similar looks of a bass in the facial features. Later we were able to find out it was in fact a Calico, and I was pretty stoked. This made for a pretty excellent day, with your usual bag of perch, grass/kelp cod, greenlings, and the Calico. Sorry for the long write up, I was just pretty excited, and this is the first time Ive seen a Calico in person, let alone shoot one! On a side note, two weekends before, I knocked a, 18" cabezon, now this, all that's left is a Ling to get the blood soup really boiling! Thanks for reading and hope to meet more of you out there,

cheers,

Geoff

nice man! an don't worry about the long write up, details are good. Good luck on that ling!

congrats on the calico alameda, thanks for the great report, cameron

norcal calico, sweet

That is a great writeup, for anyone who has done any spearfishing it's sure to get the blood flowing and bring back memories of days in the water.

 WoooHooo!!!!!

Slow and steady = fish!!!  Nice one Geoff.  By the way long write ups bring on much anticipation of the results.

right on geoff!! im going with you next time bro!

Great report!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on the beautiful fish and productive day in the water!!

Looking forward to getting out there with you and the rest of the SWS dive crew soon now that I have gotten my speargun and rest of my dive gear!!

Hopefully you all won't mind a newbie coming along!!

Thanks for sharing!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

You bet Big Jim - shoot ask BaitnBeer and he'll tell you, we're all new! I dont think you can go wrong starting out at SWS spearfishing! Cant wait to meet you and congrats at the GS4 outing.

BaitnBeer, just let me know when and lets do it! I still have a few sick days left..

Cool!! 

Really enjoyed hanging out with baitnbeer, Dr. Fectavious, and the rest of the crew that was up at GS4 and looking forward to meeting you as well!!

Let's make it happen soon!!

Sincerely,

Jim

Congrats Geoff!!! Thx for the interesting report.

ernest

those are great fish, my best day there at sws with bass was 3 bass in under an hour and since then none!

i have not seen any myself there in a while but glad someone did!