"This ***** will catch fish with his bare hands!" quote the Mooch

I've got a new job that seems to be cutting into my web time 

In the next chapter that Art puts up I'll review a fishfinder that is currently in the prototype stage and has been affectionately code named "Mexi-(s)can Zero".

That was great.

The exciting conclusion.......

Saturday we planned on trying a new secret spot further down the coast.  Armed with our trusty Franko Dive Map of Monterrey we start reading descriptions of what we're likely to encounter, according to the map we'll see plenty of white and black seabass, lings, cabs, goats and verms, not to mention otters and harbor seals.  The hippie and I were pretty stoked and talking about what fish we'll spear first. We glanced over at Angel and he had the look of a madman possesed by the dark force, he opens his mouth and softly mumbles the words......"RAINBOW PERCH."  We knew he was on a mission so we gave him his space for the rest of the trip.  Since the map is not an actual map we stumbled our way to the site making wrong turns and missing streets...it was cool though, in the land of beemers and benz's no way did 3 beaners in 3/4 ton chevy not loaded with lawnmowers and weed whackers stick out like a sore thumb. We arrive at the launch and see a couple other spearo's unloading gear (turned out to be JohnGuineaPig).  As we approach, Angel says whats up to one of the guys and he utters a few words that makes me rethink what I post on the net...."are you the guys that post on the kayak board."  Holy crap, people are actually reading the posts and these jackasses (us) are now recognizable   I know we're not hog riding rockstar playboys like this guy
But our anonimity is out the window.  Ohhh well, this stuff is too good not to post.   

So we carry the gear down to the beach and suit up.  Mikey gets the flamed out old school paddles like a rock dive board that I painted at night, ran out of paint on and was really only able to see one side of and never repainted but he was happy.  There was a few waist to chest high waves breaking on a sandbar 50 feet off the beach and some residual ankle slappers closer in.  I give newbie surf launcher mike a quick heads up on timing the sets and making the mad dash for the otherside of the breakers and I head out.  I took a bunch of white water over the bow on one and had another barrel out and crash on me but I punched through with no problem.  Angel did pretty much the same then we turn around to check on the newb and he's paddling out completely dry.......whatever, I was too hot in my suit anyway 
we make our way around a point pass John and settle for nice spot near some boilers with random kelp patches around.  Angel tosses the anchor over the side and realizes the 35 foot line he brought wasn't long enough to tap bottom so we splice up another 10' section and paddle inward till he can lock up and we leash our yaks off to him. 

We took a dive club vote and designated Angel our Official Bringer of all the crap we don't want to carry guy...a pretty important position, I hope his first official action was to stop at home depot to pick up another 50' of anchor line.  So we're anchored up and put on our gear.  I noticed that I'm always the first guy in and start rethinking a story once told by an Operations Management Professor about "going in first"

There's breed of penguins that wait by the hundreds on the edge of the water waiting for one brave....or stupid, soul to be the first one in and give the all clear, no predators are waiting devour them.  If one does not volunteer they push him in.  If the penguin does not surface or they see a leopard seal attacking the penguin they abandon the spot and find another one.....

It offers a good explanation why these guys are always waiting topside and rushing me to gear up....while jabbing me with a paddle

So I make the first drop and head down about 30', vis is okay and I seen a small fish so things are looking good.  Grab my gun and start snorkling around.  I found a huge rock that sprung to about 15' of the surface and see a large fin faning around, looks like the mother of all cabbies so I string up my speargun and make the descent only to find out that what looked like the monster pec fins of a cab turned out to be the damn tail of a harbor seal. we swam around for another little while and didn't find anything but some serious current and an invasion of the jellies.
 
 



They were cruising around by the hundreds in the top 15' and becoming a nuissance, I head butted a few while making the ascent.  It was cool to be floating around with these guys but I was not there to spectate jelly fields like the MB Aquarium geeks, I was looking for dinner so we moved.  We searched for another spot but were unable to escape the jellyfish and went in on a big pinnacle.  From the surface a school of small blues was around making lunch out of the dieing jellies so I thought this spot might yield better results.....and it didn't.  I did manage to make a couple reasonable dives to depths past the 40' mark but still saw nothing worth taking.  I consider the hundred or so fish I seen and passed on all Catch and Release.  It was passed lunch time so we start paddling back toward the launch and thinking up a new game plan.  Mike and Angel both claim to have seen breaching whales but hippie mike is a bit crazy and Angel was in Nam....I think they were just seeing things.  Anyway we're kickin back enjoying the view


and I look in Angel's tankwell to see that he successfully let the spear fy on a monster rainbow....Mission Accomplished!


But then again if this guy was barreling down on me I'd probably just give up and jump in the tankwell.


We decide to anchor up and get some pics and practice in on a spot with good vis. Angel has a good pic of the latest mexi(s)can sonar equipment...its all the rage in the yachting world right now, I'm a pro staffer so we're lucky to have it on the yaks.

We figured this spot was shallow with insane clear water so there wouldn't be any fish around.  I take a breath and head down and immediately see about a 20" ling spring under a rock.  I got the camera up in his face but the surge was pushing me around and the pics were blurry.  The other guys drop in and Angel said that he seen a Black and Yellow and a greenling as well under the same rock so I grab the gun and head down but they kicked my ass at hide and seek. Random UW shots.




And then.....an event only replicated in the dance off scene in the movie Zoolander, Angel manages to completely remove his speedo from under the wetsuit without disrobing (thank God)....and completely forgoes Blue Steel and unleashes....MAGNUM


He then put it on over his wetsuit to entertain the fish and folks at the beach.



We called it a day and paddled in.  I had a smooth landing but Newb surf launcher pulled a Crash and Burn.  I tried to grab the camera and get a pic of Angel coming in but he showed why he's a pro.





Angel was non-stop

Killer read and documantation. You guys are friggin nuts! I want in...

it was nice to meet you guys, i was with my friend Alain and Tom, Toms from spearfishingisnotacrime.com . We used to dive a lot and this was like a mini reunion since we all dive like once a month or so only.

We had gone down to big sur and checked out most of carmel and found that south was pretty and water was clear but the getting in part would be challenging. we found some nice spots which would have been good if it was a bit calmer. we had not dived in a while so all of us were feeling pretty lazy.

Your photos are great and we wish we had a camera to take with us on our trips!

Out where we stopped the first time we found quite a few lings and sheeps as well as blues. Many schools of blues. That brown jellyfish you have a photo of, thats what i got stung in the face by. I was out of commission for about 10 minutes afterwards. That was painful!

Thanks for sharing!

john

I really thought this one was already MAX'd off the hilarious charts! then i open again this morning, bladder at full capacity with coffee, and planned to pace myself by reading in small quantities and not lookin at the pics, then right off the top you add:

it was cool though, in the land of beemers and benz's no way did 3 beaners in 3/4 ton chevy not loaded with lawnmowers and weed whackers stick out like a sore thumb.

...straight to the WHIZZERiDASHtoPEE!  

return to read, laugh and confirm that you guys are having WAY TOO MUCH FUN!  
without ME!    
then to see Angel comin in "stylin&profilin" and then "crash&burnin" was the CHERRYontheTOP!   thenIrealizedITwasFROManOLDERtrip

if you guys going out this weekend,can you please continue this theme!
It's got me in STITCHES!!

Sorry guys I made a fatal error in reporting that I must absolutely apologize for.....I left something out


At the end of the first trip Joel was amped up to go again and tried to convince us to go out on sunday instead of saturday so he could go too.  We had to take advantage of the weather though and sunday was not lookin good so he seemed kinda bummed.  As we're exiting the burrito joint parking lot on saturday Angel calls Joel to let him know about the EPIC trip we had.  Unreal visibility and cabbies and goats galore with alot of fat rockies in the bag to boot. Of course we didn't shoot a damned thing but he said Joel sounded like he wanted to shed a few.   



There is no theme bro...all I do is document the process.   

wow! those are very nice pics!!! & the water, it is so clear!  looks so much fun!

good thing none of these are here, huh Mooch!?

Ooh, I had one of those so close I was swimming backwards, keeping it at fin-distance and making sure I put enough turbulence (and fin!) in its face to keep it from closer investigation.  Luckily it left after about 60 seconds and I'm still alive.   

Yokwe!

-mox