pea soup diving - 7/4

Went down to Carmel and Monterey on 7/4. Friends and family were counting on me to bring back the dinner so had to produce. Carmel looked rough, probably won't be much fun to get pounded continuously by breaking waves. Decided to check out Del Monte for butts. Parked way away because of the no parking signs, then found out the beach was occupied by numerous festival people with tents and so on. The water looked rough and muddy, stiff wind on the beach, and there is not a single fishing boat in sight. Decided for plan C, Otter Cove. That worked. Quite a few kayaks and row boats out fishing. Calm water.... but the vis totally sucked. 3-5 ft, green and very dark once I dive down 15 ft or more. I had to go down slowly to make sure not bumping my head against the bottom.    Anyway, still managed to scratch up a limit of rockfish after 3 hours of diving, black&yellows, blues and kelpies. JohnGuineaPig, you are the man for getting a ling out of this area. I have seen every other fish (including a resident school of opaleyes), but just never a ling from there.