07.23 SAT - Capitola Spearfishing (video)

Rick, will follow up with his report

Yesterday, Josh, Chris, and I made a recon mission at Capitola. Arriving in Capitola, we immediately noticed an overcast, thick fog, and cold temperatures. Despite the air conditions, the water looked great, with virtually no swells/wind. Flat. We unloaded the kayaks, parked, and suited up. We launched by 7:45 or so.

Paddling out along the point, we stopped a couple times to tie off and look at what lie below. Visibility was 5-6 feet, good for the Santa Cruz area. The water was 60 degrees at the surface, which was noticeable, especially to  Josh/Chris in 7mm suits. Depths were 12-25.

The structure was unlike that of Monterey/Carmel, and the fish life was quite different, too. The substrate at the first stop composed of just flat sand stone reef, void of any holes/cracks, with some open sandy areas nearby. Life was sparse here.

We then kept paddling and the next spot was even worse structure-wise, just sand with a few scattered rocks/kelp stalks. Good for halibut, but with hazy 5 foot vis and limited time in the water, we didn't feel like hali hunting.

At the next spot we finally found some structure, albeit very unique and peculiar. It consisted of sand channels that cut and separated large underwater islands, composed of rocks 20 feet long and 10 feet wide. These rocks had tons of craters in them, from sea urchins, I believe. Tons of small fish, like Painted Greenlings, as well as invertebrates, resided in the tiny craters.

The water was warm, and life here was rich. Without holes and cracks to hide in, the fish congregated where the kelp stalks grew in clusters. Perch were the dominant life forms, with large schools of rainbow, pile, and rubber lip perch, and ton of individual black and striped perch. Kelp perch could be seen in the thick canopy. Rockfish were sparse though, presumably because of the structure. There were a few kelp rockfish swimming around, and I saw a small, free swimming cabezon, and Josh saw a short ling sitting out on one of the rocks.

We eventually found a really deep cave that undercut one of the rocks, but it was much too big to hold a ling. I shot a black and yellow in the cave. I also half-heartedly played around and chased some perch. Josh shot a couple black perch and a small copper rockfish, and Chris shot a pretty nice rubberlip, about 14.5", which gave live birth after he shot it. I stumbled upon a sheep crab and took it, gifting it to Chris later on.

Interestingly, I found a few key-hole limpets, the biggest being about 7 inches long. I gave one to Chris and one to Josh. I'm surprised the otters don't clear them out.

Not a bad scouting mission, but next time the vis is good enough to dive there, I would either dive further out in 40+ feet of water, or head north towards the Lighthouse for better structure.

Your getting there, on the gopro angle that is!

Lets start planning for next week... I need to work up the wife points.

Thanks for taking the video, Rick, and thanks for editing/posting, Chaeki. The footage captured the environment we experienced yesterday very well as Rick detailed above.

It was a beautiful day to be on the water and to explore a new hunting ground.  I've fished the area and often wondered about the structure underneath.

I ended up taking a rubber lip perch.  Good eating with a mild taste and firm texture (for perch).  Rick gave me the sheep crab he picked up.  I hadn't tried one before and was pleased to discover that the meat has good flavor and is firm.  Not as sweet as rock crab (my favorite)/dungeness but firmer meat.  Not much worthy of shooting in the way of rockfish and we were more focused on exploring than cruising sand for hali's.

Aside from the good eats, another highlight that day was watching pods of dolphin cruise by on our paddle in and out.  At one point we had a pod headed straight for our kayak.  They took a dive approximately 30 yards out and we fully expected that they'd surface again right in front of us providing a stellar photo opportunity.  We then heard splashing about 30 yards behind us as the pod suddenly appeared again.

Always great to get ITW.  Already thinking about next weekend's dive... 

Interesting report guys, love it. I may go poke around out there one day just for fun..

Right on!! Rick, thanks for the footage as well as your detailed view of Capitola's bottom structure. I've always been curious to know how the bottom looked like, and I'm quite surprised to see very little rock structure there with so much kelp bed!

Awesome recon there y'all!!