Norcal divers visit Socal 10/29

Short version:

Dove PV during the day and North SD county at night. Went for bugs as primary target. Came back bugless but came back with nice fish and whole lot in experience! Photo at the end.

Long long version:

Rick, Nick, and I piled into my wife’s Nissan Pathfinder and made the long drive down to Torrance for the night with plans to dive Palos Verdes in the morning. We wandered into some interesting areas and joked about wandering into the ‘hood a few times but eventually settled down in Torrance for the evening - after a cop car did a drive by pointing a million candle spotlight at us... After recovering from momentary blindness, we unloaded our gear and buckled down for the night.

Up early, we packed the car and hit the road excited to explore some new diving territory. Isaac met up with us for the dive. This was my first experience diving socal waters and, after watching many videos online, I was stoked to finally experience the new species and marine life down south.

The day could not have been better - crystal blue skies, perfect air temp, lake conditions (1-2’ swell! I’ve never seen the ocean so flat!), and, to top it off, we were greeted to top-to-bottom vis out to 30’! Vis varied throughout the morning, structure, etc but avg was easily 15-20’.

After navigating the steep trail down the 100’+ cliff to the water (like a slip ‘n slide on loose dirt instead of water!), we kicked out the rocky entry and immediately saw a plethora of marine life. Species I can’t even name. Right off the bat in the shallow eel grass we saw lobsters tucked under ledges. We were able to get our hands on a few but all came up short. We worked our way out to the kelp beds to deeper water. The structure was a pleasant surprise. Lots of rocks, ledges, and cracks with patches of gravely sand every so often. We skimmed the sand pockets for a chance at hali’s but kept a keen eye out for bugs, sheephead, and skittish calico - our main targets.

The game was plentiful. After passing on many small but legal sheep and calico, I spotted a very promising boulder structure. I descended and peeked under the ledge of the boulder while still suspended upside down. A passageway about 2’ in diameter formed a complete tunnel through the boulder and I could make out the sleek profile of two big calicos. My legs drifted counterclockwise toward the sea floor while my stare remained transfixed on the larger calico. I slowly pointed my rob allen 70cm toward the fish. His tail was toward me, but he slowly started to turn his body to give me a broadside angle - I sensed he was getting ready to bolt. As he was turning I saw the shot opportunity and let the steel fly. Stone shot! Secured my first calico! (21")

Several dives later, I descended behind a reef structure and laid aspetto gazing as sheephead, calico, opaleye, and other critters swam on by. Just as I was about to surface, I see the silhouette of a large sheephead begin to appear. She came from the left and lazily swam just a few feet in front of me. I lined up the shot and secured my first sheephead!

Rick claimed a couple of nice calicos and a monster cabezon - taping out at 24”. I watched as Rick descended under the boulder into a deep hole. Half his body disappeared under the rock. I heard the expectant “crack” of his of RA90 and watched as he lugged the massive toad head out of the hole. So stoked to watch him take his PB cabbie! Nick took a couple of sheephead as well but was also treated with a large leopard sighting! Isaac focused on bugs exclusively and managed to pull up a good number of shorts. Other highlights were seeing lots of horn sharks, spotting some barracuda, and playing around with harbor seals.

Lady luck wasn’t on our side harvesting bugs this time but we saw lots of them...all tucked way back securely in their holes. We worked on one monster bug for a good 15 mins but just couldn’t persuade him out of his hole. I swear I saw a smile on his beady-eyed bug face...

After about 4 hrs in the water, we made the steep trek back up to the car and loaded up to meet Leo down in N. SD county. We got in the water about 5pm or so to get in a little bit of fish hunting before the sun went down. Saw lots of fish but I kept my gun secured on my board as I was in bug mode! The sun set and darkness descended on us with just the flicker of the city lights visible in the distance and the occasional flash of a buddies dive light. We worked the reef structure hard grabbing lots of shorts! It was a kick learning how to spot them in the eel grass and reef structure at night - and learning how to hunt in the surge at this particular location. Sometimes we’d swing a good 10-15’ horizontal. Sometimes I’d be able to clasp onto a ledge and hang for the ride while keeping focus on a bug. Other times I’d just have to go with flow! That’s some powerful stuff! The conditions were amazing when we entered with an easy surf entry. But some large sets started kicking in as the night wore on.

Rick (with an eye for spotting critters no one even sees!), grabbed a free swimming octopus! Both he and Nick grabbed a couple of large kelp crabs. And Rick took a large male sheephead that was holed up. I was exclusively in bug mode. I must have cycled through a dozen or so.

At one point in the dive, I lost sight of Leo in the darkness. In an attempt to locate him, I figured I’d turn my light off to better see in the darkness. I scanned above the water for a while, then below the water looking for beams of light. Instead of beams of light, I noticed little specks of light in front of my face, especially when I turned my head quickly. Was I seeing stars? Was I hyperventilating? No, I felt fine - I was experiencing bioluminescence for the first time! I swished my hands through the water and glitter emanated from the disturbed water as if I were playing with sparklers on the fourth of July! I got such a kick out of this that I hurriedly kicked over to Rick and Nick to show them my newfound discovery. “Oh, yeah, that’s just bioluminescence” was the monotone response. Unfazed. Apparently, this wasn’t their first night dive I resumed my hunt for the elusive legal bug. I worked my way toward shallower grounds where Leo was working.

Now, I’ve not mentioned yet, but during this whole dive, I was trailing a float line clipped to my dive light with the other end clipped to my banks board. Clipped to my banks board was Leo’s lobster bag (that held four bugs!), Rick’s modified boogie board, and Nick’s modified boogie board - complete with gear, guns, and whatever else they decided to store on them. That’s a lot of stuff to be lugging around...

Well, after working the shallows for a while, turns out the sets were getting larger with higher frequency. I found this out after feeling a sharp tug on my floatline. I tugged back to no avail. Turns out the boards got all caught up in the rolling breakers, tumbling into a large mess. No amount of pullling was going to get those things back through the breakers... I knew at that point that that was the end of our dive... I asked Leo to go help Rick and Nick navigate back in while I wrestled the boards, tangled floatline mess, and sharp pointy metal sticks back to shore. After a few spin cylces in the washing machine I lugged the jumble of gear onto the sand to assess what we lost...amazingly, we didn’t lose a single piece of gear!

The rest of the crew joined me on the beach shortly thereafter and we stared at the whitewater for a few minutes then untangled the mess and headed for the showers. An exciting end to an amazing day and night of diving socal!

Unfortunately we didn’t score our primary target on this trip, but gained an incredible amount of experience and made some new friends in the process.

I want to thank Leo for being such a generous guide on our night dive and the multiple folks that PM’d with offers and excellent tips. This trip is one for the memory bank! I’ll never forget these experiences!

Now...I’m off to go scrub out my wife’s car...apparently one is supposed to close that little stopper gap thingy at the bottom of the cooler before dumping a bunch of smelly fish into it...

Bummer you didn't get any bugs, but a great report nonetheless.  Captures the essence of the first Socal lobster night dive.  I always felt more at one with the ocean on night dives.  While some might consider your trip less than successful, I read the genuine stoke for the experience in your report. 

I hope Leo thanked you guys from bringing him some good juju because usually he can't catch shite. 

Ha! Yes, Leo was a fantastic host and offered us some of his bugs but I turned him down. I'll put in my dues...

Night diving was incredible. I would have thought the marine life would have settled down with the sun...but quite the opposite. Everything seemed to be out and about. Octopus, crab, seahairs, calicos, bait fish, sharks, etc

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what a cool report & story, thanks! Reminds me of back in the day when I used to dive off UCSB, but it sounds like you nailed the ocean conditions perfectly. Congrats on the 21" calico, that's a nice fish!

Very cool guys! Thats whats up! Great report you guys are some great divers! I wanna try the so cal thing soon! Thanks for the report!!!!

For those that don't know.  Leo is Captain Leo Duarte out of Oceanside.  He is the owner and captain of a six pack boat at the Oceanside Marina.

Here's is website:  http://www.ariessportfishing.com/

A good friend with a good sense of humor. 

Nate

what a cool report & story, thanks! Reminds me of back in the day when I used to dive off UCSB, but it sounds like you nailed the ocean conditions perfectly. Congrats on the 21" calico, that's a nice fish!

Yes! We were very fortunate that the weather was in our favor. Would have been bummed to make that long drive only to have the conditions turn to crap. One of these days I'd like to dive the SB area too.

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Very cool guys! Thats whats up! Great report you guys are some great divers! I wanna try the so cal thing soon! Thanks for the report!!!!

For sure! Roadtrip! Next time I'm thinking PV at night... and get that monster bug that was just smiling back at us just out of reach!

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For those that don't know.  Leo is Captain Leo Duarte out of Oceanside.  He is the owner and captain of a six pack boat at the Oceanside Marina.

Here's is website:  http://www.ariessportfishing.com/

A good friend with a good sense of humor. 

Nate

Thanks Nate. Leo is definitely a standup guy! I'll have to jump on his boat sometime when I'm geared up for wsb!

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I would love to head down that way with you next time. Not gonna lie I had a great time up at Albion though. If I have a free weekend I'm there!

Awesome dive trip with lotsa varieties, so stoked for you guys!!  Thanks for taking the time to write the detailed report Chris, you'll definitely get your bug on

Thanks for the SoCal report and picture Chris.