Russian Gulch/Van Damme 8/8-8/9

Last weekend I went up to Fort Bragg again. My dad and I got in late on Saturday, so there was no time for a dive.
At about 8am on Sunday I tried diving Russian Gulch from my yak. I dove the main cove for abs and fish. I saw a number of abs, but most were legal, but kind of small. I took a 7-3/4". I saw some smallish rockfish and greenlings too, but passed up the shots. I saw one black that looked like it was a decent size, but it went into a hole. Viz was around 15 feet.

After about an hour I moved to Van Damme. I found a lot of abs there, and completed my limits with decent 8's. I saw one HUGE striped perch there, easily around 15-20", but passed up the shot because they are too mushy. I think someone had tried to shoot it before, because it had some white scratches on its tail.
I ate one of the abs that night, and gifted the rest to my Aunt, so I could get some bigger ones the next day.

On Monday I woke up at 5am for one last dive. There was a minus tide, so there were some rock pickers out. I dove Van Damme again, only this time, I went out to one of the far reefs. Viz was awesome, probably around 20 feet. The area was really shallow, only about 15 feet, dropping to 20 in a few crevices. I picked some nice, fat abs, and I got my first 9". I also got some urchins. Saw some BIG greenlings and a few good sized rockfish out there, but unfortunately left my pole spear in the car   

Next time...

Sounds like some good divea and way to get R done ! any day in the water is a great day ! the catch is just a bonous.

Thanks for the report, sounds like you went out and parked near the keyhole, allot of that area is just between 15-20 ft deep.  Good clean water out there due to the flow between the reefs.

Nice job Rick!!

Glad you had a fun, productive time diving!

Thanks for sharing!!
 
Sincerely,

Jim

Sounds like great diving condition!  Thank you for the report Rick.