11/10--Eastern Pacific Snail Wranglers

I officially joined the club this past Saturday.  My buddy Mike and I met up with Angel (Pacifico) early in the am and treked our way up to Bodega Bay Prodive to pick up my new railgun and an iron/gauge.  Having heard many names of popular dive spots but never actually visiting them forced us to rely on pure instinct......and the basic guide in the "All Abalone are Deaf," book   .  On our way up highway 1 we spotted a white pickup pulling into XJ2001, also mentioned in the book, so we follow him in.  Angel gets the lowdown from this guy, easy dive, plenty of abs but nothing to write home about...plus he has a first timer with him.  Puts us at ease so we offload all our gear.  Ranger pulls up and tells another car they gotta keep their dogs on a leash and keep their llama in the car.  He proceeds over to us and lets us know we can pay the day use fee on the way out    and gives us a heads up on a better launch (one without a death climb hill march to navigate down and easy kayak access) and some info on the ab population in the cove.  This Ranger is all class, friendly and knew his stuff.  We begin the decent down the muddy cliff trail and comment on how its not that bad.....our opinion changed on the way back up.  As we're getting ready to launch the same guy who Angel talked to earlier was on his way in.  I was expecting to hear that he pulled limits and was done but he reports that they only spotted a couple undersized snails.  At this point I thought we weren't gettin crap.  We only took one boat down the trail so when we hit the water Angel towed us out to the spot....I gotta tell ya, its just so easy when you got someone doin all the work for ya  .  We go out passed the area the other guy dove and drop anchor in about 25'  I do a test drop down a kelp stalk to check things out and immediately see random ab clusters all over.  I return with my iron and gauge in hand and pop 3 in about 4 dives.  Mission accomplished! I return to the yak and fill out my card....while I'm wet and in the rain...whoever thought that one up is an ass.  So I hop back in the water and snorkel around checking stuff out and see my first fish...looked like a yellowtail or olive but I'm not sure how common those are that far north...whatever, I seen an edible fish so I return to grab my speargun.  I make a couple drops looking in holes and ledges but see nothin.  Went on for a while then I finally spotted a pair of what seemed to be the mother of all black rockfish....10 lbs at least.....black sea bass status.  So I glide in, undo the safety, line up the shot and nail it.  Return to the surface and feel the tug dragging me back down so I reach down the shooting line and fight that beast to the surface.....strongest 2 lb fish I ever fought   I swim it back to the yak where Angel and Mike are both hanging out.  We rap for a bit and I find out that Angel decided to forgo the 7"ers that littered the bottom cause he wants his first to be a 10"er...Manly.   

The snails


The 20 lb Black Rockfish


Angel with a Girly Snail


Good Crew




I haven't heard Angel's version of the story but word on the street is that there was an epic battle in the shallows between him, a starfish and a monster Ab......best told over a beer the next time you see him.

LOL, good story agarcia made me feel like I was reliving it. 

I think you forgot to mention the part about where in all of your excitement about your first ab you flipped my yak while I was getting suited up.    Lesson learned for this trip was that suiting up in the yak is a lot harder than it looks.

The truth is that at 25' I wasn't able to stay down long enough to be able to grab the abs so I swam around a bit until I found a shallower spot where I noticed a couple of abs.  By this time the tide was going out and there was quite a bit of surge down below.  I swam down to what looked like a huge ab and measured it as best I could considering the surge was swinging me around quite a bit.  The measurement and my eye sight were apparently not synced up because it seemed to measure just over legal.

I came back up for air and then swam down to pick the ab.  When I got down I looked for something to hang on to so the surge wouldn't push me around too much but wasn't able to find anything that I felt comfortable grabbing onto. Came back up for air again and thought about my game plan for a second.  Went back down and grabbed the ab shell itself and tried to stick the iron under it but it seemed to clamp down pretty hard. Came back up and repeated a few times.

After a few tries I was a bit frustrated that I couldn't get it and got into my "no way is this snail going to kick my ass" mentality.  So I went back down a couple more times.  Finally after quite some time I got him and came up with the best victory smile I could muster up.  Got over to the yak and remeasured for safety....just about 1/2 short. Back he had to go    Talk about defeat.

After the epic battle I was too tired to continue looking so I decided to give up and we packed it up.  I guess the best game plan would have been to move onto another ab.

I wonder though, are starfish capable of laughing?  Because the ab I picked had one on top of it and I could have sworn I heard a chuckle or two during the battle.

Good thing agarcia was good enough to share his bounty with me...he gave me an ab.  The picture of me holding the ab is obviously a poser pic...although I did technically pic an ab, just not that one.  I'm sure the one I picked is down there telling all his buddies his version of the story.

Anyway, good trip. Hope to do it again before it closes down for the year.

Glad you guys made it out!  I might make a run this weekend if the weather permits. Open seat for the ride up.

-Brian G

EPIC report guys!

Thanks for sharing,
PK

Great report and awesome story Angel. Did I mention you look dead sexy in that cammo suit?

I guess next year it's "look out Elk" cause Angel's got the bug!

CHEERS!

Thanks Mahi, when I had Armani design my wet suit I specifically told them I wanted to look "dead sexy".  I guess they hit it on the mark.

Yep, I got the bug alright.  Already ordered a gat-ku pole spear and a 75CM Hammerhead spear gun.

Can't wait to do some more exploring...and to finally pull my first legal ab 

Way to go, guys.  Great reporting.   

Easier launching up the street at Ft Ross (propper), Stillwater North and Salt Point
Great story!

Congrats Angel!!!