I started the day with a polespear but switched half
way through with Joe who was trying out a hawaiian
sling I'd made for him. The sling has a slide ring
with a trailing line so you don't end up losing your
spear. Neat.
I saw some good calicos in the 5 lb range, but they
outsmarted me this day. The range on the sling isn't
great, so I'll use that as my excuse. I finally got to
try the sling out on a medium-sized rockfish and damn
if I didn't stone him dead with the first shot. A
little while later I found a nice lingcod (14 lbs) and
shot him through the eye. I was a little worried
before I took the shot, but the power turned out to be
more than enough.
Seth, Matt and Joe all got Cabezon and assorted
sebastes. Joe's Cab was a fat 5 pounder which required
a land-based dislodging of the 3-prong in its head.
Seth would have had a lingcod but I forced him to try
out the sling. Matt saw a Leopard shark and Seth found
a really big monkey faced eel (but didn't shoot it).
Showing us all up was "The Walrus", Ed Stark I think
was his name. He's an older guy with white hair, and
red swim trunks. He jumped in the 50 degree water with
a small gun, old "Duck Feet" flippers, a mask and
snorkel, and no wetsuit. After an hour he comes out
with a nice stringer of fish and an eel. I walked with
him across the golf course and interrogated him. He
goes out almost every day, doesn't wear a wetsuit,
lives very close by, loves eel.
I'm into this "Retro" thing, and I tell myself that
using a sling or a polespear is going back to the
50's. Heck, this guy never left the 50s! He's like a
piece of history. Even his equipment was. (But he used
a modern euro gun, if that means anything.) I think I
need to get to know this guy. Anyway, after a small
chat and a mutual admiration of fish, he walked
silently up the hill.
I wore my 7mm two piece open cel, 5mm socks, 3mm
gloves, 2mm sleeved vest (a custom piece Roger had
Picasso make and its incredibly warm) and 15 pounds of
lead. The Walrus wore red shorts.
